A Musical Thread Woven Throughout a Life...
A toddler runs to the console radio in their home and dances every time a bright snappy commercial fills the room. At two, a small voice joins a cluster of children singing Jingle Bells at a church Christmas program. The song ends, but the singing doesn’t as the voice continues ringing down the aisle all the way back to the waiting parents.
Always, there is a piano in the house. Always there is wonderment and fun as small hands explore the keys and learn a few chords the daddy knows. There are special childhood music memories leaving a wondrous impression: a church pianist that plays by ear and breathes new life into familiar hymns, a small town children’s choir that makes its way to perform in Seattle, catchy summer bible school songs that linger-—all music stitched into memories.
Sixth grade, brings fascination—singing and playing guitar just like a boy in the class. Begging and persistency pay off. A trip to Montgomery Wards ends with a ¾ size acoustic guitar, partly earned from a pony express paper route (yes, delivering to the neighborhood on a real horse). The guitar becomes an inseparable friend, carried to school, and to small town gatherings. A shy best friend down the street is coaxed into singing as together they offer songs at the Grange and local events —“I’d like to teach the world to sing”, “Oh Holy Night at Christmas”, old country favorites.
At 16, the music thread continues onto the radio. As 4-H County Hostess, there’s a monthly local radio station broadcast to the community. By then, exploring songwriting has begun, so naturally a jingle is written, performed on guitar and recorded. It opens and closes the radio program for years…until the tape finally gives out.
Love for music grows into study producing an associate degree in Music Performance. Keyboards and synths overshadow the guitar because there are already too many guitar players in a 7 piece cover band forming to tour the Northwest. Life intertwines with music more deeply through marriage to another musician.: Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Nashville — bands, duos, stage, long miles.
Then the Pattern Shifts...
Music remains, but survival takes the lead. As a single parent of two daughters, the thread weaves through whatever work will sustain a household. It appears in many places many at the same time—behind a microphone and keyboard for Kenny and the Krooners or High Expectation, in studio vocals, in Anchorage again. It shows up in administrative work for another musician, in church ministry and in temporary jobs that fill the gaps.
For a time, it becomes a self owned small production company—arranging and recording demos for other songwriters, helping bring their music to life.
In Nashville, the thread winds through church halls—both volunteer and paid work—where writing songs and creating children’s musicals becomes impossible to resist.
Then Another Turn...
The early 2000s bring a different pursuit. A degree in Electrical Engineering is earned, followed by a masters in Security Engineering. The children grow up and life leads to Fort Worth, Texas for work with a defense company.
Even there the thread does not break.
It continues in church pianist positions, or quiet moments at the keys. And even under the surface of engineering work, creation finds a way through. A project involving an aircraft becomes an unexpected opportunity—a song written for it, Destined to Dominate, later signed over to the company.
The Pattern Holds...
Now, for such a time as this, the threads begin to gather.
What lay dormant for years under responsibility and routine begins to rise again—shaped by time, strengthened by experience. Every piece collected along the way—composing, arranging, recording, understanding the business—comes together.
A first project emerges, fully self-produced, fully realized: Snapshots in Time
The Thread Continues...
–woven with patience, persistence and something deeper still. A quiet reminder that what is placed within a life by God’s goodness and grace does not disappear.
It waits
And when the time is right
IT SINGS!