Once again, my second favorite singer in all the world (her Mama is
still my #1 favorite) with a song for Sabbath. I tell people Meghan got her singing ability
from me because her Mom still has hers. Actually, she got her perfect
pitch and lovely voice from the gene pool on her Mom's side. On my side
we play guitar and kind of hum along in the background because we've
been told not to sing too loud. It throws the others off. We tend to wander off key a lot. I've
gotten better at it, but Miss Sheila still has to stop up her ears
whenever I get musical.
Not so with Miss Meghan. I have a few
brief clips of the two of them singing together. One day I'll post them
on Youtube and here. In the meantime here's Meghan singing a lovely song
call Do They See Jesus in Me? Knowing my daughter, I think they can.
I love this Petra song. It's been a standard for youth song services where I've played. It's not hard to play and the words are quite lovely. My Primary Sabbath School kids requested The Coloring Song almost every week. We even got a bunch of rhythm band instruments and they used to do this drumbeat/cymbals sort of thing in time with the song. It gave it a Celtic kind of sound. All we needed was for someone to learn the recorder line for the opening and chorus.
This cherubic Swedish-American gospel singer, Evie Tornquist, introduced me to this lovely little song. I've played guitar for other singers for church services over the years and it was a favorite we sang for youth song services. This is another one that makes me all weepy. Here's "Give Them All to Jesus".
My son, Micah introduced me to this Nickel Creek song. The lyrics are beautiful and this song always makes me mist up a little bit. I'm not sure even now, as many times as I've listened to it, that I could sing it all the way through without getting all choked up. The Hand Song is one of those poignant folk songs that is beyond the typical murder ballad, folk hero song or the "I love her so much I want to lock her up inside a box and not let her out" sort of twisted love songs you find in mountain music. This song is lyrical and beautiful.
The first time I heard this song, my daughter and her friend performed this for a Sabbath morning service in Tyler. It's a driving Southern Gospel Number that makes you want to stand up and shout, "Hallelujah!" I found out the original version of the song is done by The Martins, a family Southern Gospel group. I looked them up on Youtube and got an Mp3 of them for my phone. I only got half of the version my daughter sang on video, so I went with the Martins.
This old hymn was one of the first songs that Great Grandma Doney taught to my Grandpa King when he was just a little boy. It remained a favorite all his life. My Grandpa was a praying man and I have no doubt at all that there will be some stars in my grandpa's crown. He'll get at least part of one for me. I introduced my own son to the song when he was little.
Above is one of my favorite folk singers, Burl Ives singing "Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown?" Below is my first favorite folk singers, Thomas Adolph King....
This song has a heart-breaking history. Horatio Spafford, a well-to-do Christian man went through the very trials of Job. His wife and daughters traveled by ship to England ahead of Spafford. Their ship was struck by an iron vessel and sank in 12 minutes. Only his wife Anna survived. Spafford took a ship to England to be with her. As the ship passed over the spot where his 4 daughters had been lost, the ship's captain informed Spafford. He went down to his cabin and wrote this song. The rest of Spafford's story is one of heartbreak and triumph. The Spafford's are buried in Jerusalem where they finished their lives doing mission work.
The song is performed by Acapeldridge, a "group" consisting of just one guy singing all 4 parts, which accounts for the amazing blend of voices. A sad but as hopeful a song as you'll ever here.
I love "I Can Only Imagine". It's very powerful. We played it at Micah's memorial service. The song was one of his favorites. This version is incredible. Masafumi "Masa" Fukuda, a Japanese-American songwriter, composer and music arranger is the choir director and founder of One Voice Children's Choir. He gifted and does incredible things with the children he draws together from across American culture. His music includes religious and non-religious numbers, but there is always a kind of spiritual kind of reverence for the well-chosen pieces the choir performs. I sat through this song tonight and had tears running down my face and I'm not ashamed.
This piece is nothing short of awesome (and not the sort of awesome people throw out for something that is merely pretty good).
Once again, my second favorite singer in all the world (her Mama is
still my #1 favorite) with a song for Sabbath. I tell people Meghan got her singing ability
from me because her Mom still has hers. Actually, she got her perfect
pitch and lovely voice from the gene pool on her Mom's side. On my side
we play guitar and kind of hum along in the background because we've
been told not to sing too loud. It throws the others off. We tend to wander off key a lot. I've
gotten better at it, but Miss Sheila still has to stop up her ears
whenever I get musical.
Not so with Miss Meghan. I have a few
brief clips of the two of them singing together. One day I'll post them
on Youtube and here. In the meantime here's Meghan singing a lovely song
call Do They See Jesus in Me? Knowing my daughter, I think they can.
I love this Petra song. It's been a standard for youth song services where I've played. It's not hard to play and the words are quite lovely. My Primary Sabbath School kids requested The Coloring Song almost every week. We even got a bunch of rhythm band instruments and they used to do this drumbeat/cymbals sort of thing in time with the song. It gave it a Celtic kind of sound. All we needed was for someone to learn the recorder line for the opening and chorus.
This song expresses something lodged in my heart and more so as I'm looking toward the end of my life. Friends and family are going to their rest right and left as I get older. Many I look forward to seeing again when Jesus comes. At the same time I worry that the dust and wear and tear of life has left some old wounds in my family that stubbornly refuse to heal. I have a son and brother who have gone on ahead to their rest. Both I'm sure I will see again. Both of them were close and I knew their hearts. We'll all do a little happy dance when we find ourselves together again looking up to see Him coming in the clouds.
Like the song talks about, the difficulties we run into in life can distance us from those we love. With family, you hope these things can "wash out in the water." At the same time you fear that what will wash out is the bond of blood that once held you close together.
Things sadly can happen, hurts deliberate or inadvertent push us apart. We don't talk for years. We stop getting together at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Sometimes that's because of distance. Sometimes it's ruffled feathers or old offenses. It might be politics. It might that someone can't stand your religion.
It's heartbreaking that people who loved each other once can find themselves standing off to avoid stirring up old hurts. Myself, I can't think of anyone I share blood with that I could not throw my arms around and be thrilled to see. I fear that it's not shared. Perhaps I'm such an awful person I can't be forgiven. If so, God forgive me. I've tried to be kind and fair and decent to everyone I come into contact with. I certainly hope that love and forgiveness is "In the Blood".
Someone once said that family is the place you can go for refuge and they can never turn you away. I hope that's true. It's certainly true for Sheila and I. Each day I pray that God leads us all home. I have big plans for family get-togethers in The Earth Made New. I plan to build a schooner and take everybody sailing. Then we'll have a big potluck and a jam session. We'll drag out guitars, banjos, harmonicas, flutes, drums, mandolins and a washtub bass and sing wonderful old songs we remember and new ones we've made up.
Forgive me guys if I've offended. I never meant any harm.
This cherubic Swedish-American gospel singer, Evie Tornquist, introduced me to this lovely little song. I've played guitar for other singers for church services over the years and it was a favorite we sang for youth song services. This is another one that makes me all weepy. Here's "Give Them All to Jesus".
This lovely old song by Charlotte Elliott with music by William B. Bradburywas originally written in 1835 and published in 1836 in a hymnal she edited. Charlotte related later that she was troubled about her own salvation. She often comforted herself by writing verse. She took pen and paper from a nearby table and deliberately set down to write what she later called "the formulae of her faith." In this familiar altar call hymn, Charlotte restated the Gospel of pardon, peace, and heaven.
I remember this hymn fondly from the ministry of former Voice of Prophecy Quartet singer, John Thurber. Brother John taught his Adventist Youth in Action (AYA) teams and the kids who came to youth meetings how to sing this song. He always got amazing harmony out of us. This song in particular used to really reach me.
On May 1, 1971, Brother John baptized me in the swimming pool at Jefferson Academy - Just as I was. Here's Michael W. Smith's rendition of this lovely hymn at the funeral of Billy Graham. This song was the altar call at the 1934 revival meeting at which Billy Graham came forward and was converted. The song became Graham's traditional altar call song throughout his career as an evangelist.
This song makes me cry every time. I tried to sing it for church one time and it made me tear up. The woman who wrote it, Wendy Francisco is the wife of the Don Francisco who wrote "He's Alive". She has in this brief song, captured what all of us, who have dogs as family members, feel about our canine family members.
She even turned this song into a children's book which also makes me cry. We lost our little gift from God dog, Daisy, last year which makes it worse when I listen to this song. She was everything this song talks about. Even the way we found her was something of a miracle. It was more like she found us. She was well behaved. Instantly house-broken, she had no bad habits to speak of and she came at a time when we needed her, even though we didn't know we did.
I firmly believe dogs also serve God like furry little angels and I pray that God returns my Daisy to us in the New Earth. I can hardly imagine heaven without her tagging alongside us everywhere we go.
I figure if God can resurrect something as complicated as a human being, our kind Father in Heaven won't mind giving us back the dogs that loved us and stuck by us through good times and bad. Someone once told me dogs couldn't be saved because they don't have souls. I don't think that's an issue. Daisy was knit to our souls in her short time here. I suspect that God will allow us to bring her along on our eternal journey. Why wouldn't He?
Here's Wendy Francisco's version of her song, "God and Dog"
The first time I heard this song, my daughter and her friend performed this for a Sabbath morning service in Tyler. It's a driving Southern Gospel Number that makes you want to stand up and shout, "Hallelujah!" I found out the original version of the song is done by The Martins, a family Southern Gospel group. I looked them up on Youtube and got an Mp3 of them for my phone. I only got half of the version my daughter sang on video, so I went with the Martins.
This song is one of those that makes me tear up when I sing it. It's one of those that was on Micah's playlist and we played it at his memorial services. The song is by one of Sheila's favorite groups - Casting Crowns. The song made it's way into my songleader's songbook that is a collection of song-service music from camp and youth programs and stuff that I collected over the years. I eventually made a smaller print version that we printed up and bound with my old comb binder and made up our own songbooks for worship at the Tyler church.
Here's Casting Crowns' version of "Who Am I?"
It's an extraordinary song about God's extraordinary grace in doing what He did to save us.
This beautiful old hymn was a hit back in the 70s for Cat Stevens. Cat
later left the music business and joined Islam for a strange and
troubling journey for those who enjoyed his music. It always seemed odd
that the gentle singer we knew would embrace a religion not known for
it's peaceful ways. Cat changed his name to Yusuf Islam. He was born
Steven Demetre Georgiou. Now he goes by just plain Yusuf. Over the years
reporters used to seek him out to comment on some new official Muslim
outrage like the fatwah against author Salman Rushdie. He made some
comments that got him in trouble over the years. Eventually he returned
to the music business and made some new music and engaged in peace
activism. He has been given several humanitarian awards over the years.
Given
that as an outspoken Muslim pacifist, Yusuf is a fairly rare bird, it's
little wonder he gets a lot of attention from progressives in the
entertainment industry and the political sector. I don't care if the man
is a Muslim. At least he's a peaceful man and that is most important.
And his rendition of Morning Has Broken is one of my favorite versions
of this song. Enjoy:
This song went into my songleader's handbook years ago. Cat Stevens/Yusuf is the reason I found it. I am grateful.
My old friend Steve Borth has restarted his singing career with a new
album or two and some new songs. His latest album is called "Home as Soon as I Can." Steve was a year ahead of me at Valley Grande
Academy and we bumped into each other in our summer youth work for a
couple of years. We used to get mistaken for each other back when I was
thinner than I am now. We both play guitar, but that's pretty much where the musical similarity ends. He has talent. I hide in the back of the song service band and try not to mess up.
Steve left a trail of songs behind him during his days in Texas,
including two, "Faith", "Peace" and "Nothing Soothes the Soul Like Jesus". His early songs went on to became standards for
youth rallies all over the state. He also wrote a folk cantata called "The Great Controversy" that was quite good. A couple or three Adventist singing teams produced some really excellent versions of it. Another notable production was done by the Paul Johnson Singers. I always like the ones Steve did best, but then I liked his folksy sound better than the slicker versions with orchestration.
With his
new music Steve returns to his country-folk roots - his "country side"
as he calls it. This particular song piqued my interest. It's not your
typical gospel song, but Steve doesn't do safe - he says what he has to
say and doesn't worry too much about pleasing the folks down at Hal
Leonard or at Review & Herald even.
Steve's music is very personal and he has that unique deep bass voice of his that makes it special. All I know is that I like it. And Steve's a friend, which makes it even more fun. Some day, if not in this world, maybe the next, I'd like to get together and jam with Steve - just play some mellow old songs around a campfire. "I think I still know most of the words to "Toilet Man" even for the secular portion of the evening. I expect the new Earth will be a great place for making music. I can think of a bunch of old friends I'd like to have around that campfire.
Good luck with the album, Steve and may God bless you in all you do.
This one comes from Sheila's favorites playlist. She's a big Matt Maher fan along with groups like Casting Crowns and Third Day. Here's the studio version of "Lord I Need You" with Matt Maher.
I learned this song at Lone Star Camp when Elder Burns was Youth Director at the Texas Conference of Seventh day Adventists. It's the perfect song to sing by a campfire with a guitar and a bunch of friends. The place where I worship truly is the wide open spaces - whenever I can get to them. You are welcome there alone or with the one you love.
And who better to sing it than Roy Rogers and Dale Evans with the Sons of the Pioneers. This version is a medley with another favorite end of campfire song, Happy Trails. It's the kind of song that you need in your repertoire if you play guitar and camp. You just need this song.
You have click on the Youtube notice to link over to Youtube to watch this.
There are other versions you can look up on Youtube, but I'll stick with Roy and Dale.If this link doesn't work for you try clicking on this one.
