SEPTEMBER 2004
Summer was great. In fact awesome. I've been recording the next CD like mad in the home, playing at a couple of festivals in between, visiting with family out east, waterskiing, swimming, laughing & watching the sun go down. My daughter Jessi turned seventeen and is in her last year of hight school. Yikes! Joel( 15yrs) had a great summer on a Mexico mission to Tijuana. Great time, and, as usual, an eye-opener. Jan, my wonderful wife of 19 years, found peace in not teaching and getting back to her art.The next CD release will be called DESIRE. This title eluded me for awhile, then I had it but I kept fighting it. In the meantime, people kept asking me the same question - 'what's the main theme'. 'GOD', I responded. Sounds so high falutent yet it's all about God. But God couldn't work as title - don't want to make trouble for myself!. In the end, I saw that in as much as I desire to know God better, it's actually more about His desire for us to know Him and experience Him. I read "Miracles" by C.S Lewis this summer. He talks about facts that require the use of our senses and that our senses are the materials which make the facts come alive. "Taste and See that the Lord is good", wrote the psalmist. And so, the lyrics will dovetail to that theme of wanting, longing, hoping, tasting and living the real life that is truly life.
As usual, my music covers the eclectic realm - bit of roots folk, blues, jazz and some strong celtic stuff. Amy Stephens ( who played all the whistles on Dulcimer Light Christmas) is back, Miles Hill ( who engineered Lord of the Mountain ) is back on stand up bass, Spencer Capier and Garth Bowen on strings, me concert mate Graham Ord on 2 tunes, Steve Dawson doing some delicious slide work, Wyndham Thiessen on cello, Russell Shumsky on bodhran and congas, Al Baird on Rhodes piano and fretless bass, Dave Olsen on fretted bass and an amazing singer Terry Symonds on bg's - who is about to release his won first album "God's Tears", recorded at Funky Mike's 24 track Basement Studioz. I just need to get it mixed by someone else, as, after 3 years on this project, I can't see the forest for the trees. Then it's off to be mastered, burnt then released - hopefully with an cool looking cover. I'll appreciate any prayers for these details to go well and that God will be honored. Hopefully, it will land by January 2005, maybe even December, but I'm not rushing it for Christmas - I did that one in 1997! Thanks to all of you who take an interest in my art and ministry - it means a great deal, not in terms of significance, but in terms of encouragement to me, that results in others getting encouraged in their faith. We all need the healing power of that encouragement.
God bless,
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