Eric Hogan Remembers...

My Best friend during my high school years was shot and killed early monday morning. I can't begin to tell you what an amazing person this man was, but i will try to at least post a few stories and memories so that you can have some idea of what Carter meant to me.

Carter and I met in 8th grade in science class. He was unfortunate enough to be stuck with me as a lab partner. Carter was a genius. He was by far the smartest person in our high school class of 335 people. He would have been valedictorian, had he not opted out of taking some higher education classes in favor of music classes. I believe he ended up 4th in class, and I truly believe that deep down he didn't want to be valedictorian because he didn't like being under the spotlight.

Carter was the most gifted and talented person I have ever met. During his younger years he took piano lessons, which later became very fruitful. He was regarded as one of the best pianists in the state of Kansas his senior year in high school and was rewarded with a huge piano scholarship at SMU, who had one of the top 5 music schools in the country. Carter could have gone to Juliard but chose a lesser school in favor of having a social life. Again, he didn't seem to enjoy the limelight.

After graduation with a degree in piano performance Carter began giving piano lessons and forming bands. He recorded many songs over the years with many bands and groups including Edie Brickell, Paul Simon, Sparrows and several other local Dallas Bands. He was currently involved in an up & coming band from Dallas called Sorta, who won the 2006 Dallas Observer award for best overall act. Carter was also awarded best musician in Dallas. He was working on a solo album that many thought would be his best work to date.

More importantly for me personally was the time we spent growing up together. Countless memories come to mind and the more I reflect on what Carter and I did together the more I realize what a profound influence he had on my life. I will share with you the memories that come to mind first, I hope you enjoy.

Carter and I were very involved in music in high school, in both Choir for 4 years and Madrigals for 3 years. Carter began touring with Rich Mullins (a very well known Christian singer/songwriter who was tragically killed in a car accident) around our senior year in high school. One day while driving to youth group (Rich was one of our youth sponsors) we were rehearsing a duet that we were going to sing in a high school variety concert. I will never forget that little green 280Z Carter drove in high school. We were living in Derby at the time and we went to youth group in Wichita so it was a prettty long drive. Carter taught me my part of the two part harmony that he had dreamt up of the song "Mountains of Things" by Tracy Chapman as we drove to youth group and when we got there Rich and his best friend Beaker were rehearsing some of the songs they had been writing. We were about 30 minutes early and needed to get to a piano so that Carter could pound out the fine details of the finished song. When we told Rich what we were doing he happily gave up the piano and listened as we finished it. He then asked us to perform it for them. We happily did and he seemed really impressed, especially with Carter. He then asked us if we would like to learn one of his songs that he had just written and help him teach it to the youth group. We gladly accepted and he began to teach us "Step by Step" which became one of the most widely known praise and worship songs in the U.S. and is still heard in many worship services throughout the country. Carter and I, along with Beaker who had helped Rich write the song, were the first people to hear it.

Another fond memory is those legendary nights spent in the culvert in Derby, singing under the city in the echoing acoustics until the late hours of the night. I can't really explain how cool it was, only that you had to be a part of it to understand how much fun it was.

Carter was also a good athlete, playing tennis in high schoool, but his tru love was baseball. I remember taking his mom's tennis balls to the park and using them as baseballs. We would pitch to each other for hours trying to get those tennis balls to fly out of that short park. I know Judy probably cussed us under our breath every time she went to play and found a bunch of dusty tennis balls in her ball cart. He was a big Cardinals fan and we would spend long hours talking about baseball, music, girls, and everything else life had to offer us.

Carter you will be missed. Words cannot express what a deep impact you made on my life, but hopefully this little blog will give you some feeling of what Carter meant to me.