Carol Ann and I are officially engaged as of last Saturday and looking forward to the life God has for us ahead.   For a synopsis of our relationship you can look at Facebook.  I am attaching a little unfinished song I wrote for Carol Ann called "Near" which kinda looks into the future when we have begun our life together and have times we must be apart.  Press the Play arrow above to listen.  Here are the lyrics:

v1
You’re feelin’ lonely and
You can’t sleep
Have no lovin’ arms
Your soul to keep
Sad to know I’ll be
Gone for days
Wishin’... hopin’
I could’ve stayed...
Near

(Chorus)
Sometimes I'm dull
Between my ears
Forget about our
Better years
You smile and
Blow a kiss to me
Showin’ me the place
To be is...
Near

v2
You sound so sad and I
Want to say
I feel a hundred thousand
Miles away
Want you to know
You’re wanted still
And I can tell that
You’ll be thrilled
When I’m...
Near


There is a little musical interlude after the second chorus which is where the yet unwritten bridge goes... then leads back into the chorus and out.

Enjoy!

I spent the evening finishing up a new version of "That's Where We Belong" as a followup to the eval I got from NSAI last week.  The evaluator recommended upping the tempo, which I did, as well as some lyric changes were focus was lost and particularly melodic changes.  Rather than take the song "heavier" or "darker" I took it down the Motown road ala Billy Currington.

I will be on the road again for most of the rest of the week, so I am glad I got to finish it up before the week gets much busier.

As you have probably gathered, this year has been a busy one.  Lots of travel and increases in responsibilities.  I am finally getting the time to work on skills (guitar, voice and writing) and was able to get a song -- tentative title "That's Where We Belong" -- submitted for eval last Friday.  Glad to get back into that routine.  What this is probably telling me is that it will become more important to co-write so that I can maximize my efforts and learn new things at the same time.  Up til now I have only done solo writes.

Galen Breen (Gator Hole Studios) emailed me today that the demo for "Rubbin' Off On Me" will be done this week.  Definitely looking forward to that!

It's been a busy week but I'm posting a new worship song tonight - "Kingdoms Will Fall" based on Isaiah 2:2-5.  Hope you enjoy and benefit.

Kingdoms will fall around us
Kingdoms will fall
Kingdoms will fall around us
Everywhere
Lift your eyes to God's mountain
Above them all
Kingdoms will fall around us
Everywhere

Going out with a message
Kingdoms will fall
Going out with his life
Everywhere
Going out from God's mountain
Into the night
Bringing the world around us
Into the light

Teaching the world around us
Kingdoms will fall
All the kings of the earth
Everywhere
Feeding the world around us
Feeding his sheep
Lead them up to God's mountain
From everywhere

I have posted a while back about one of my love songs which was a challenge to write -- being sung by a woman to her husband -- and I now have the finished "Forever My Man" demo up on the Tunes page.

I uploaded a picture of some buttercups (wild daffodils) to my profile on Facebook.  I'm reposting the picture below.  Well... here is the song that goes with the daffodils!

Gals, grab your man and slow-dance with him!

As promised, here is the second scripture chorus updated from 30 years ago especially for Steve and Cindy Baney, but all the old Bloomington folks and anyone else who is interested:  Psalm 9:10 - "Those Who Know Thy Name".  Love and prayers.

I had "Rubbin' Off On Me" eval'd as I mentioned in a previous post.  The evaluator suggested re-writing the last half of the chorus and the rest was good to go.  At the time I hadn't written the bridge.  I have been mulling over options for those lyrics and think I may have the final set... still not certain.  I posted home studio scratch version here.  Let me know what you think.