It has been a long time since I have been able to post to my blog with all the final decisions I’ve had to make for my new CD Birds of Love.

I’ve been thinking of the holiday season upon us and was thinking about how many listen to certain kinds of music during this festive, almost magical time of year. It seems people’s attitudes change and they become almost more spiritual, compassionate, and generous in their nature. Pretty lights come out, and the landscape changes. But for many, it is also a reminder of destitution and loss experienced through the hardships of life.

The song I composed from Fire and Gold ‘This Earthly Plane’ came to mind when thinking about this because of it’s magical music style and ethereal lyrics. The words assure us of “days of blissful joy, of heavenly delight” in the realms beyond this earthly plane, despite whatever earthly disappointments we experience.
You can listen to it below while you read:

I wrote it originally on the piano, but we wanted to use the harp on some of our songs, and my producer Jarome felt this one would be perfect for harp. He suggested an internationally renown Baha’i harpist, Caroline Mackay, to take the piano melodies and embellish them using celtic harp to give the piece that other worldly feeling the words evoke. Despite the challenges of harp tuning when there is a key change in the song, Caroline did an amazing job. From there, Jarome added layers of voices and some synthesizer and flute parts to take the other worldly feeling even further (it does after all mention other ‘worlds’ in the lyrics…).
At one point there was so much going on, I told Jarome to remove the flute at the end as I felt it was getting too busy. But then, I missed it so much, we added it back again. If you have a good speaker system, you will even hear low celtic drum percussion in the song!

So that is a little insight as to how this song came about. I hope this is a wonderful time of year for you all and you enjoy some good food and heavenly music!

Very soon I will be posting about my family reunion in Africa, and the launch of my new CD and website.

or this one:

Thought Of The Day:

“Sorrow not if, in these days and on this earthly plane, things contrary to your wishes have been ordained and manifested by God, for days of blissful joy, of heavenly delight, are assuredly in store for you. Worlds, holy and spiritually glorious, will be unveiled to your eyes. You are destined by Him, in this world and hereafter, to partake of their benefits, to share in their joys, and to obtain a portion of their sustaining grace. To each and every one of them you will, no doubt, attain.”

- Bahá’u’lláh

Reading the news these days can be very depressing.  It seems that every corner of the globe is being battered by economic problems, environmental problems, social problems…  And even all the experts and leaders, who used to talk with such conviction, all throw up their hands and say they don’t know what to do!  But as a Baha’i I believe this is part of the process of the birth of a new kind of world, one global in scope and fundamentally spiritual in nature.  These tests and this suffering is necessary so that we begin to think less about ourselves and more about others, and less about the material and more about the spiritual.  Baha’u'llah says that the “world is in travail”, but also tells us that out of the process a new world will be born.  The process won’t be easy, but I believe this is the time that we must begin to look at the world with new eyes, with the eyes of faith, and work for this goal.  It is also a time when we can look within ourselves to see how we can create positive change.  For my part I wanted to share a gift of a song, Should Prosperity Befall Thee, which seems particularly appropriate for this time (the guitar is performed by Jason Cohen and produced by Jarome Matthew).  The words come from the Hidden Words of Baha’u'llah and say “Should prosperity befall thee, rejoice not, and should abasement come upon thee, grieve not, for both shall pass away and be no more.”

Click here for your free download.

Please feel free to share the link with your friends.  I hope you enjoy it.