Bio

"If experience makes a difference in the music world then this guy is on overload!" In 2004 Wayne Longtin celebrated 40 years in the music business. A bass guitarist for 30 of those 40 years, Wayne worked steady with groups all over the country. (Whatever it took!) In 1993 he attempted to quit music but found that the everyday work world didn't want him. (One personnel manager said, "So you played music all these years. How'd you make a living?") He even entered college and attended for three years with little difference amongst potential employers. At 50 years old it seemed too late to start a new career. In 1996 he set out on a cross-country hitch-hiking trip to see if God was real, the only other answer he could think of for his situation. For three months he traveled, experiencing the Love of God. At one point, in the mountains of Utah, he sat down and applied for a job with God. ("I definitely thought I'd been in the sun too long!") At the end of that summer he found a steady job in Fargo, N.D. Minimum wage, but a job at last. That job lasted for six months then the plant shut down. Frustrated, he ended up homeless, living under a bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Wayne gives all credit to God for saving him from that situation. He was waiting in line at a shelter on Sunday morning when a drunk began bad-mouthing a church. They had a bus waiting for anyone who wanted to go. Irritated by the drunk, he got on that bus. Things changed drastically from that point on. Within two weeks he had a job and a place to live. Drawn by music again he became active in the church's music ministry and eventually became co-director of a jobs and housing program for the homeless. In 1998 he married Wendy who he had known 25 years earlier when he was first starting out in music. Wendy worked at Hennepin County Social services In Minneapolis and between the two of them they were able to help a lot of people get off the street. It became apparent that the job he'd applied for with God was coming to pass. In 1998 Wayne and Wendy founded New Roads Ministries, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the homeless. They traveled for the next five years working at homeless shelters and doing street ministry. In 2003 they landed in Litchfield, Minnesota where their ministry has florished. ("We collected donations of furniture and gave it away to people coming off the street. For some of these people it was the first home of their own in years. What a blessing to be able to furnish these homes and share God's word! I've been there and I know how frustrating it is to have a new home but you can't afford a bed to sleep on.") Considering himself retired from music, Wayne was drawn into playing guitar with a church group at a nursing home in March of 2004. The activities director at the nursing home talked him into coming back to entertain the residents on his own. That one experience has grown into playing music full-time again. Wayne was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and grew up in Warba, a small town of 125 on a busy day. Although northern Minnesota was accordion country, Rock & Roll was taking the country by storm and Wayne & his friends were the first to form a band without an accordian. "I had a radio that would pick up all the big stations and the new music. Elvis was my hero even then. I didn't know it but I was being influenced by Blues and Jazz and Rock & Roll along with Frank Sinatra and big band music. We played our first gig at the village hall with our new band and I don't believe there's been that many people in Warba since. None of us had the money to invest in a lot of music equipment so we'd have 3 people playing out of one amp. But we got by. It was enough for me to know what I wanted to do in life. Music!" Wayne's first experience playing in a real nightclub was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Encouraged by the band he once again discovered a whole new world. He wanted to make music a career immediately. ("I had this problem though. I was too shy to perform in a fancy setting like a nightclub. It made me too nervous!") He set out to solve that problem and spent the next 7 years entering talent shows and performing where-ever they'd let him. Today Wayne is a polished performer, comfortable with an audience of 20 or 2000. In 2005 he decided to write a song. Mainly because he couldn't remember the words to the one he was trying to do. This experience started a songwriting career. He wrote and recorded enough songs for 2 CD's and released them on his own label "Never Too Late Records." "Take Away the Music" became a best seller as well as "Take the Gospel to the World," a Country Gospel CD. In 2008 two more CD's were released, "Music from my Heroes" & "Be all you can be" a 10 song CD of originals. At age 66 and 4 years after that first CD, Wayne is looking forward to the new year after an extremely successful summer of extensive travel in 2008. 2 more CD's of original songs are to be released in 2009 and a busy year is ahead. "I've been a musician most of my life and don't regret any of it. It's a hard business and you have to be willing to accept the ups with the downs. I've worked hard labor jobs, rode freight trains, picked fruit and slept in my car a lot. All for the love of a life style that is ungiving in the end. But I've found one thing that is constant. God. He has directed me where he wants me and where I want to be. When I applied for that job with him I had no idea life could be so great. There is no greater joy than ministering to hurting people. No greater joy than writing and performing the songs he gives me. With the love and encouragement of God and my wife Wendy, the future is greater than I could have even imagined. But then the Bible says that will happen so it shouldn't be a surprise." Whether singing a Country Classic song or one of his own, giving his testimony or preaching the Word of God, Wayne Longtin Sr. found what he was looking for. This is evident in his laid back style and comfort on stage. He's come home at last. Update: Wayne was recently nominated to The National Traditional Country Music Hall of Fame for 2009. The induction ceremony will be at the national festival in August of 2009.