International singer, songwriter, and guitarist Douglas Gittings is interviewed by Dr. Debra Peppers on the Outreach Connection program.

Douglas tried to take a vacation to relax in historic Clarksville, Missouri, on the Mississippi. The next day he found – and bought – a 150 year old church and began restoration to create the “Missouri Music Hall”. Doug spent that winter working on the restoration of the Music Hall, until the spring rains of 2008 brought the flood to Clarksville. The events of the flood would dramatically affect the life of Doug Gittings.

Douglas offered shelter in the Music Hall to a young couple who were displaced by the flood. Somewhere along the line they decided to murder Doug, pawn his musical equipment and personal possessions, then start a new life in another state. Their attack was fierce, with knives and hammers, but unsuccessful. Doug fought back and held the young man on the ground in submission until the Pike County (Missouri) Sheriff's Department arrived – all the while bleeding from head wounds.

Due to a lifelong commitment of artistic self–expression, and a deep influenced by St. Louis’s Albert King, the first blues man Doug began writing the song “Missouri Bottom Road” from his hospital bed, returned to the Music Hall and threw himself into the recording, mixing, and mastering several songs for his latest CD.