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In November 1998, it had been about a month since my group, Rich Memories, finished our short tour honoring the life of Christian Contemporary artist, Rich Mullins.  The group with which I was playing performed many of his songs and included an original song I wrote for hammered dulcimer (HD) for the band.   The whole reason I had purchased an “HD” was to play this tour. Now that the tour was completed, I wondered what the next step would be, if any, with the HD.

So the “Song” of this Opus 03, Song & Psalms, is the song I wrote and performed on that tour: Goodbye Mariah.

Rich Mullins was a very Influential Christian figure in music. I was now searching for my own way to express my faith through music using the HD.  I developed an interest in creating music for selected Psalms.  It’s an interesting situation when the lyrics for which you are scoring music have been written four thousand years earlier! LOL

At the time, I composed for just three Psalms. I chose the 23rd Psalm because it was my father‘s favorite.  Psalm 40 was chosen because it is my sister, Suzanne’s, favorite psalm.

Finally, I chose Psalm 146 for its both truth and warning on misplacing our trust:

Praise the LORD, O my soul. I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.

In the most difficult live performances of my life, I performed the 23rd Psalm for my father’s funerals – both of them, in North Carolina and Florida – in May 2000.

On November 24th, 2002, I married Alice Ann O’Neil.  I performed Psalm 40 to open the service and Psalm 23 just after we were officially married.

Psalm 146 has yet to be performed live.