Who Sells Inspirational Music?

Inspirational music, at this time, is clearly an unclaimed category. That’s why it is such an exciting business venture. Its potential customers are listed in the millions at a time when the whole concept of the need for Inspiration around the world is mighty. There are a growing handful of players in the category.

The following websites are the top seeds on Google search engines for “Inspirational Music” and “Christian Music”.

Inspirationline.com This site is the #1 site on Google for Inspirational Music and gives away free digital downloads, but all the songs are basically rip-offs of known artists.

eztracks.com Gives away some rip-offs of known artists and also sells them as Digital Down Loads (DDLs) through i-Tunes. Both of these sites demand email info before doing anything.

Inspirationalldsmusic.com This is an LDS (Mormon) site. It is handled well, but only sells LDS music (37 Artists). Does not sell DDLs or Hard Goods on the site.

Christiantuner.com A Christian Music radio station. Not ecommerce.

Winamp.com One can download free Inspirational music with the purchase of the Winamp software. Music production is not particularly good.

Calabashmusic.com This is really a World Music site with a small Inspirational category. When you find something you like, and start the purchase, it takes you to eztracks.com which then takes you to i-Tunes for final purchase. Long and involved process.

Amazon/inspirational.com A very odd division of Amazon. Deeply unorganized. No separation of genres – everything lumped together in a hodge-podge. About 140 titles. An Amazon afterthought.

Mienet.com This also is an odd Christian site that promotes Christian product (books, movies, knick-knacks) but strangely enough sells secular music and as far as we can tell, doesn’t really have Christian music.

Christianmusic.com A reference site only. No ecommerce. If you want to buy, it takes you to musicchristian.com.

Musicoffaith.com Non-original artist ripoffs. Offers free music, but no hard goods sales.

Christianity.com Same as above.

Musicchristian.com Reference site only. Very confusing.

Integritymusic.com This is one of the big 3 of Christian Music Labels. They command 13.5 percent of the label market share. Site is excellent, between 20 & 30 Christian music stars, they sell hard goods CDs off site but no DDLs.

Sparrowrecords.com This is another one of the big 3 of Christian Music Labels. Site is excellent, they have 24 Christian music stars. They sell no hard good CDs off site or DDLs.

wordlabelgroup.com This is the number one of the big 3 of Christian Music Labels. Site is excellent, they have 22 Christian music stars, they sell hard goods CDs off site but no DDLs.

Singingnews.com This is an on-line Christian magazine that is reference only. They talk about Christian music but sell no music off the site.

Watchfiremusic.com With free music downloads without prior email address commitments, a roster of 56 Inspirational artists, video, and both hard good and DDL sales right from the site, WFM is already placed as one of the leaders of both the Inspirational and Christian music website categories.

Steinway Hall-Part 2

Last night’s posting (Steinway Hall - Part 1) about the gifted Laura Garritson got me to thinking. I suppose if you haven’t read that one yet, you might go there first. It got me to thinking about greatness in performance.

As a young man I came to New York to study acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater. There I spent two intense years under the tutelage of world-renowned teacher, Sanford Meisner.

There I learned to act, but interestingly enough, I’ve always liked to say that it was there that I learned more about composing music than anywhere else. At an acting school. Had I ended up being a sculptor, I really believe that this acting school would still have been my high point in study.

It was there that I learned what makes an artist tick – an understanding of the reality of doing. That acting is reacting. To act before you think. That there is no indicating in the reality of doing.

It was there that I found my inner sense of emotion and experimented with and finally figured out how to bring myself to my art – whatever the medium. It’s something I’ve thought about and taught all these years since my student days.

The other night with Ms Garritson, my student days simply continued. I doubt she’s ever been to acting school. After all, when you master both the violin and the piano in 25 years, who would have the time? It always brings a smile to my face when I see someone who has accomplished so naturally what I’ve spent all this time learning. I’m not jealous. Rather I’m excited and proud of our human and spiritual abilities to grasp so fast the fundamental.

Most people grow up with terrible misconceptions of what performance is. Moms and Dads push children into so many bad habits as they encourage them to find their greatness. It’s not Mom and Dad’s fault. They don’t know any better, but many artists spend much of their time trying to break bad habits developed when young. Occasionally, either because of good teaching or simply a natural understanding, young artists come through the learning process unscathed. But I digress.

When one achieves a certain level of technical performance, the ability to perform the tasks of one’s art mistake free, then greatness becomes possible. But we all know that a mistake free performance does not ensure greatness. The mastering of the technical is only half the problem. The mastering of the reality of doing is the other half. Hopefully, in the best of scenarios, it’s a balancing act – a balancing act between the technical and the emotional. If one half is developed far beyond the other, there are always problems.

To be a great technician, but not have the ability to pour your emotions through your work makes for art that comes off ‘intellectual’. To do the opposite is to simply lose the confidence of your audience no matter what the art form.

The other night I watched this young lady work with this proper balance. She stood out because of the balance; whereas the others lagged behind somewhat because of their relative imbalances concerning just this issue. I’m not saying that Laura played perfectly and with total emotional focus. I’m sure she would agree with me that she has some growing to do on both counts. There’s always a way to go on the growth scale no matter how great the artist. But she balanced the two on the level of her abilities at this time in her career.

And that balancing allowed me to trust her in the moments of her performance so that I ceased to be the audience, the observer, the watcher. Instead, I left my seat and joined her in her exploration of the music. She took me on the ride. She allowed me into her soul and filled the space with her artistry. Her craft was solid and so I did not have to worry about her making mistakes and her emotional commitment was balanced so that, again, I did not have to worry about her reality of doing.

Consequently I was able to become completely absorbed into the performance. No need to analyze, no need to pull back and protect myself from the abuse of mistakes, no need to doubt. Because of the totality of her commitment, I too could commit to my part of the performance — to be a totally absorbed listener.

And so I did. But it was really she who did. As I said, I just went along for the ride. It was only afterwards that I began to analyze what had happened there in Steinway Hall. It’s why, when Laura Garritson finished, I stood and applauded. I had already left my seat minutes ago.

~ Peter Link

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For more inspiring music you can download
and information about Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.

Steinway Hall-Part 1

Steinway Hall - Part 1

I went to a classical music concert at Steinway Hall here in NYC the other night. It was presented by my alma mater, Principia College. The whole evening was extremely well done and the talent fierce. Students, faculty and alumni performed a variety of music – all inspired. While the others were all excellent, one alumna totally blew me away.

Laura Garritson, pianist, is some performer. Probably in her mid to late 20s, she is not only a wonderful pianist, but also an accomplished violinist. She played both instruments in this concert and, for my money, dominated the evening.

Later on, reflecting back, I asked myself why. Besides her technical excellence, she played with a total deep commitment to the passions of the music. Her strength was evident in the way she stood, the way she sat, the way she walked on stage. At one point she turned pages for another pianist. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Her focus at turning the pages was that complete. Her commitment to even that job was total.

In the power of her playing, she ‘showed’ nothing – no emotional shenanigans, no facial grimacing, no indicated emotion. She was real. I’m not saying she had no emotion. Oh she had plenty, but instead of showing it in her body and face, she simply poured it into the music and let the music carry it. Consequently, the music she played moved me deeply. I experienced both the composer’s intentions and Laura’s interpretation of those intentions through the viewpoint of her own life and feelings for the music.

She’s on to something very special, this girl. She’s a centered performer who has found the delicate mix of the reality of emotion through her commitment to the music. Whether instinctual or learned, she understands the balance of pure performance. I remember thinking of my favorite tribute line: “She’s got a lot of music in her”. And it made me think more deeply about what that means. She has the ability to get herself out of the way and let the music pass through her unscathed by pretense, but shaded by the force of her emotional understanding and commitment to the moment, to the music. End result? She’s a powerful performer with a great future.

I walked away from the evening inspired – inspired to go home and get to work, write some music, think more deeply about my work – practice. It’ll be fun to watch this woman grow. I will not forget her.

~ Peter Link

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For more inspiring music you can download
and information about Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.

What Is Inspirational Music?

What is Inspirational Music?

To inspire is “…to breathe life into”. To lift thought higher. To fill with hope. Inspirational music is just that. The genre of the music doesn’t matter – it can be pop, country, jazz, R&B, gospel, heavy mental – whatever. The lyrics must be in some way uplifting.

A love song is an Inspirational song. “I woke up this morning and I feel good.” is an Inspirational lyric. It is inclusive; it is spiritually trans-denominational. All are included. Along the way it promises to brighten your life and enliven your soul. How? Simple, really. With great music.

We claim a new category. At a time in our world when fear is rampant and hope is down, the ability to inspire mankind seems to be of utmost necessity. And so we set out on this musical adventure with the goal to preach to none, but to include all in our endeavors.

What are the endeavors?

Inspirational music embraces all spiritual ideas but promotes no religious theology.

Inspirational music spans all cultures, religions and people. It believes that all people have inside of themselves truth, life, love, spirit, soul.And so it serves all mankind.

Inspirational music has no doctrine to preach, no mission to fulfill except to offer positive value in the music and lyrics.

It is its mission only to be a gathering of light.

Inspirational books are a clearly defined category. We all know what Inspirational books are. Books that inspire. Well, Inspirational music is the same. It is music that inspires us – to reach greater heights, to be a better person, to love mankind, to carry on.

Where is God in all this? Where He or She or It always was and is — right smack in the middle, at the circumference… and everywhere in between. If you don’t believe in God, or if you don’t believe in your old definition of God, Inspirational music is there to help you find your peace when you are at war, help you be a better individual on the planet, or help you find a new and better definition. If you do believe in God, Inspirational music is there to do the same as above.

We say that Inspirational music is a new category and yet it’s really as old as music itself. It is the cave man beating on the stretched skin of an animal. It is the synthesist programming Spectrasonics Omnisphere. It is an old man on a curb, whiskey voice and gutbucket guitar, howling at the moon. It is the Beatles changing the world. It is Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. It is Frank Zappa. It is A Chorus Line. It is Puccini’s Madam Butterfly.

Inspirational music, if done right, should speak to all of us – or one of us. Ultimately it reconnects with its derivation. That is, it breathes life into people no mater what their religion, their culture, their tradition. It wakes you up, it calms you down, it lightens your life, it deepens your thought.

Inspirational music inspires.

Random Thoughts-On The City Of Inspiration

New York, New York: A place so big you have to say it twice.

New York New York is a wonderful town
The Bronx is up and the Battery’s down
The people ride in a hole in the ground
New York New York is a wonderful town

I live two blocks from Times Square, one block from the Broadway theater district and in an apartment on the 38th floor with a spectacular southern view of Manhattan – the Empire State Building to the left, Wall Street, NY Harbor and the Statue Of Liberty head on, and the Hudson River landing strip to the right. In between are buildings, buildings, buildings. On Saturday mornings the QE2 and the S.S. United States sail up the Hudson and park in our side yard. Last month I watched people stand on the wing of a jet plane landed in the river and get saved from my dining room window. Standing on my terrace you could have watched the World Trade Center go down in my front yard and on New Year’s Eve if you lean out far enough, you can watch the ball drop and hear the roar of the people.

It’s a historic and inspirational view. We love it, live in it, look out at it and appreciate it every day. I open my living room door and walk out on my terrace and stand on the edge of the universe, its bright lights blazing before me, its millions of people scurrying below. It is a city of wonder.

Sometimes I miss Mother Nature. When my son was seven I took him to his first Yankee game. After the game as we were moving through the crowds to the subway we passed through a parking lot where there was a small divider plot of grass. “Look Daddy, grass! Can I go run in it?” And so he did. Two little laps. “Now can I roll in it?” I checked it for broken glass. And so he did. It’s what he remembered about the game.

From my studio window I watch the fog roll in, roll out. This morning the sun rises and the city is pink as a baby’s bottom with light.

Sometimes I’d leave and live in the mountains or on the sea, but I can’t. It’s the talent that keeps me here. A few calls and I’ve got the best in the world standing in my living room, singing and playing in my studio. The talent is addictive.

I watched a new disaster movie the other night. The end of the world. Once again it’s NYC in the final moment that gets blown to smithereens. Why is it that it’s always NYC? Any thoughts on this one?

You bet it’s expensive to live here; but then again you make more money. It evens out.

I live on 9th Avenue. Within a 6 block radius you can eat (reasonably for NY) any kind of food you can imagine: Turkish, Afghan, Italian, Chinese, Mexican, French, Peruvian, German, Russian, Jamaican, etc. A true melting pot. My son grew up with eclectic taste buds. No McDonalds for him.

Walking the sidewalks in my neighborhood is a trip. The tourists clog the concrete, all, necks craned, looking up in wonder, running into each other. The New Yorkers take to walking in the streets – impatient to get to work.

“One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.” – Paul Simon Oh so true. Sometimes I think about the 37 apartments below me – layouts all the same. Some day I’ll organize a D line open house where we can all visit one another and check out how we’ve each decorated the same space. Most of the time I’m totally oblivious to living on top of all these folks. Weird!

I don’t know the last names of any of the people who live on my hall. We live so close, we maintain our privacy.

I wake up each morning in a city that doesn’t sleep
I’m not king of the hill, but I’m definitely on top of the heap

Last night I went to Steinway Hall and saw a classical music concert. On the way home passed by Carnegie Hall, Birdland, The Schubert Theater on Broadway. It’s the hood. It’s a city of inspiration.

Hallelujah!-The Power of the Word

A minister I knew once questioned the depth or “the soul” of a song I wrote because it was “ a song of largely just Hallelujahs”. Today I’d like to take a moment on this issue and look at the word “Hallelujah” in some depth.

Its etymology is from the Hebrew and means “Praise Jah” or “Praise God”. Interestingly enough, it is a word that circumnavigates the globe and spans most languages. When translated, the word “Hallelujah” (or sometimes “Alleluia”) remains the same: In Spanish it’s “Aleluya”, in Finnish and German it’s “Haleluja”, in French it’s “Alleluia”, in Estonian it’s “Haleluuja”, in Icelandic it’s Halleluja, in Slovak it’s “Aleluia” and on and on like that. So it’s a word whose four syllables mean the same thing to most of mankind. Say the word almost anywhere in Africa and they know how you feel. Very few words translate that way. Consider even the word “God”. Even this word changes dramatically in its pronunciation and spelling in translation. “Hallelujah” is truly universal.

I know of no other word in language or song that carries such joy, such celebration, such depth of spirit and soul. With its four open vowels, it is a gorgeous utterance to sing and when sung alone or surrounded by itself and repeated over and over it is the epitome word of celebration in human language. I find that when I’m writing a sacred song and I am most filled with the spirit of God, these are the words that spill out of me over and over as the melodies pour through me from God. Over and over again, “Hallelujah”. It happens so often that I have to rewrite the lyrics into other words, otherwise most of my songs would sing nothing but “Hallelujahs”.

A man named George Fredric Handel used it to musically summarize his penultimate tribute to the birth of Christ in the finale of his “Messiah”. Who has not sat in wonder at the singing of this great gift to mankind as the same word cascaded from the choir?

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

In no way comparing myself to Frederic Handel, I too used these words to great effect in a song that opened the performance of The Jenny Burton Experience which ran to sold out audiences for over seven years here in New York City.

Let’s start with a Hallelujah
Let’s begin with a Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

There is music in our lives
There is music in the air all around us
There’s a spirit in our lives
And the music and the spirit are one

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

A simple statement, but with the weight and power of this amazing word you can be sure the audiences knew exactly where we were going with the inspirational intention of the performance. It set the spirit of the evening in stone and launched us cleanly and clearly into the realm of spiritual thought.

What is a word but a symbol for an idea. These sounds that come out of our mouths represent concepts large or small. Say the word “streetcar” and we know exactly what you mean. Say the word “God” and you will have as many definitions of that word as you have listeners. But say the word “Hallelujah” and the world is suddenly all on the same page and in some way feeling and knowing the light that you are experiencing. It is a word that bears repetition, no, in fact, clamors for repetition, for to say it once is not enough. It must be repeated and repeated in the wonder of God’s grace and power, love, soul, and spirit. It is the penultimate word in the human language in praise of God.

When life is at its best, in the moment when no other words suffice, for most of us here on this planet, out pops the word “Hallelujah”. This elegant and universal utterance captures the essence of celebration and is immediately understood deeply in the soul of all.

An Inspirational Man

Pete’s pick for most Inspirational person this month is a friend.

I’ve known Jon McLaughlin for several decades now. We played high school football together, right next to each other – he, left tackle and I, left end. I’m glad I didn’t have to play against him. I’m glad I was on his team. In practice, whenever coach would say to anybody, “You line up against Mac.” you knew you were in for it. It usually wasn’t a pretty sight. The boy/man was a bulldog. He still is.

He re-emerged in my life several years ago with an unlikely project. It turns out that he had been teaching Sunday School for many years and had evolved his teaching of the Ten Commandments into something more palpable for teenagers. It is written in the form of accessible poetry and presents each commandment through the eyes of God’s love for man. Though he wrote it for his teenage classes, I found it to be a modern approach to these ten ancient laws for the whole family.

How this ferocious tackle came to be a Love poet is a fascinating tale. I certainly can’t tell it all here, but suffice it to say he did not move from one to the other, he really amalgamated the two qualities into a most interesting man.

I have long admired this quiet, gentle butt-kicker from afar. But lately I’ve had a chance to get to know him more personally. His idea was to combine music with his Ten Commandments project in a new and original way, record it and release it as a CD. He came to me because I’m the ‘music guy’ and I’m into this whole Inspirational thing and besides, I’ve got a record company. So on top of all those previously mentioned attributes, he’s smart.

Working with him over these past couple of years has sometimes been like going into my stance across from him in football practice. One could fear for one’s safety. But I learned from our beloved coach back then that the harder you hit, the less chance you have of getting hurt, so we sometimes duke it out a bit in this adult game.

The sparks we’ve created have made the project better. We’ve pushed each other to greater heights of artistry and manhood. Along the way I’ve not lost, but gained new respect for his inner man, his sense of himself, his quiet strength and his ability to work till he gets it right. The bulldog still lives in Mac, but he keeps it on a chain. I’m grateful.

The project is in development. It’s a doosey. If all goes according to Hoyle it’ll be out sometime late spring, 2009.

Though the project is Inspirational and right up the alley for Watchfire Music, the man is the most fascinating part of the puzzle. This project will be successful because this man will make it so. He has all the ammunition, and at the center of things, the bulldog perspicacity to get the job done.

Again, I’m glad I’m on his team.

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For more inspiring music you can download
and information about Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.

The Palms

The Lyrics

I like story songs. And I love a parade. There is great drama in a parade. You stand on the curb and wait excitedly for it to come. Whatever ‘it’ is – it could be your daughter playing the piccolo or your high school marching band or the queen of the day waving in the back seat of a convertible. It’s proceeded by bands and clowns and majorettes and often followed by the same. You stand on the curb and await the big moment as the excitement ratchets up. You crane your neck in anticipation of the big moment.

And then it’s there! And the tears come to your eyes, and hope is restored and somehow the wait always pays off in a laugh or a ‘wow’ or a splash of pride.

And then it passes by and continues on its journey. And you wish you could prolong the moment, but you can’t. It’s the very nature of the parade. It gives you a taste, but for a moment. Sometimes you can run along with it for a moment or two trying to prolong it, but usually, by then, it’s over. The crowds are too much and ‘it’ moves on down the road to another place in time. The Music

Cut to another story: I was in Santa Monica at my partner’s office. He had to go to a meeting and left me in the office finishing up some work. I was to wait for him to return. I finished my work and with nothing to do, pulled his old guitar down off the wall, dusted it off, tuned its woefully out of tune strings and began to fiddle. Suddenly out popped a fully formed song – verse and chorus. It was born so fast, I knew it to be a gift from God emailed in His inimitable fashion. He was saying, “Here’s one for ya’, Pete”.

How to remember it? I had no music paper, no tape recorder, 3000 miles from my studio and there was so much of it and it was so complete that already I began to feel it fading away in memory. I played it through again and thought, “I’ll just keep playing it over and over until I memorize it. But then my brain started to get in the way and I started considering other chord substitutions and alternate melodies and I thought, “Oh no, now I’m really going to lose it!”

Suddenly He gave me another great idea! I walked over to the phone, dialed home in NYC and calmly sang the song into my answer machine leaving explicit directions to my wife not to erase this message.

When I got back to NYC I relearned the song off the answer machine. There was a melody and the chord progression, but no lyrics. Since the song was so obviously a gift, I knew it would have to be a sacred song.

The Palms

On the way to Jerusalem
Thousands gathered to watch him go by
On the way to Jerusalem
There on the road
He carried the load of this world
As the colt carried him on his back
Colt and rider
Colt and rider
Colt and rider
On the dusty road

These are the palms of peace
Given in these times of strife
These are the palms we gathered
Thanking you for your life

These are the palms of joy
Given in these times of trial
These are the palms of homage
Bearing you mile to mile

So lay down the palms
Make the earth clean and pure
Lay down the palms
Comes now the Christ
Comes now the cure

These are the palms of dreams
Given in these times of doubt
These are the gifts we bring you
For casting the shadows out

Colt and rider
Hosanna in the highest
Colt and rider
Hosanna in the highest
Colt and rider
Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna
On the dusty road

Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna
Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna

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For more inspiring music you can download
and information about Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.

Eternality

In my religion we’re taught not to mourn the dead – primarily because we understand that life is eternal. This was not always the easiest concept for me to grasp, especially when someone close to me passed away.

When my dad died, that was probably the first whopper that I had to face. I was in my 30s at the time and remember taking the adjustment that he did not die, but instead moved to California and gave up his telephone. This helped. Often, over the years we have had little visits in my dreams and I’m always grateful for those times together no matter how intangible they are.

Lately, dear friends seem to have been dropping right and left. So many, in fact, that I find myself feeling slightly accustomed to the experience. The Aids epidemic in New York where I live was a rough stretch also. Working in the theater where there has always been a large gay population, I lost over a hundred friends and cohorts over time. That disease decimated several generations of hugely talented artists and changed the course of the American theater.

In the experience with Aids I found that the real mourning took place not when they finally passed away, but when they were first diagnosed. At that time the disease was so fatal that once a person was diagnosed, it was over. That’s when the mourning took place. Then, what they went through in the ensuing months was so rough that by the time they left us, we were grateful that it was over for them. Now, gratefully, people, at least here in the U.S. seem to live through it more often than not.

So death is not a concept unknown to me. I’ve learned to cope with it. Unfortunately, I’ve had a lot of practice. I’ve learned to celebrate the life and not mourn the death. I’ve made a choice to attend memorials and avoid funerals when possible. I’ve learned to think the phrase, “God needed them elsewhere” over and over until I accept the logic of it. I’ve learned to focus on the soul and spirit of the person and not the body. I’ve considered the eternality of life and simply decided to totally buy into the concept and live it as hard as I can, moment to moment.

And still, that first moment of information, “Did you hear…?” is shocking, stops me in my tracks, and changes the world. Because they moved to California…

So I’m able to get on top of it pretty quickly. I’m able to consider life and not death. And I’ve finally gotten over the guilt I often would feel for not mourning when so many others around me were. I simply mourn in a different way. I try to appreciate the greatness of their life and leave it at that. I visualize them moving forward, leaving the body behind, probably leaving their hard drive, their earth experience memory, behind also. This, I figure, will happen to me too. Wherever I go next, I probably won’t remember this experience. After all, I don’t remember the last experience in this life. Maybe I will remember. I don’t know. No point in speculating.

I figure I don’t want to be mourned; I want to be remembered. Please skip over my so called death and focus on my life, my songs, my good deeds, my family, my funny moments, my past, my present and my future. Please focus on my immortality, my eternal person.

I’ll do the same for you.

No Emotion

A woman called several weeks ago to thank me for a sacred song I’d written that she sang as a solo in church. We had a most friendly talk and near the end of the conversation she said proudly, “I just want to assure you that I sing your songs with absolutely no emotion.”

This took me back a beat and so I asked her what she meant by that and she explained, “Well, I think there should be no personality in church singing whatsoever, that the solo should be performed emotionless.”

As we talked I discovered a real confusion in this poor soul about the art of sacred solo performance. She was essentially confusing bad acting with emotion; and since she basically did not understand the craft of acting through song and did not like it when other singers “hammed it up” in a church solo, she had made the wrong decision that all acting/emotion in a performance was bad. I tried to help her make sense of all this, but she would have none of it. To her, ‘emotionalism’, as she called it, did not belong in the church service.

As a composer who has been thinking about this fascinating world of music for about 40 years now, I’ve come to think of music as essentially aural symbols of emotion. The drama of a song is hugely important to me as I write and governs its flow. Without emotion, what do you have? A passel of notes arranged by some intellectual method which most often results in a boring song – boring, because it does not go anywhere. Devoid of emotion, you have a song devoid of interest. It’s why people are not that attracted to computer written music. The computer is smart and can arrange music in lightening speed, creating millions of compositional patterns, but no computer has ever written a song that captures the public consciousness and probably never will unless somehow man is able to teach computers how to process with human emotion.

So I say to my friend, the soloist who sings with no emotion, please don’t sing my songs that way. Let the reality of your emotions be expressed through the lyrics and the melodies of the song. Touch people’s hearts with your feelings. Tickle their imaginations with your deep understanding of the full range of emotion that plays through a song. Share your emotional insights of these sacred songs with your audience, your congregation, so that all may take advantage of your spiritual insight.

When you hide your emotion or lid it down, you simply cut off the real experiential possibilities of the song. Bring your own particular corner of life to the song through your true feelings so that I may see the truth through your eyes. And if your personality, or better, your individuality, shines through the song, I say we’re all better off for it. If you can bring a tear to my eye or a laugh to my heart in the course of the solo, that really means that you have touched me so deeply with the truth of the song that I am moved – moved from one point of understanding to another higher one. And that, my friend, is why I go to church.

Close Encounter With A Mat Knife

OK, so I had one. I had just changed the blade to a new one. Extremely sharp. Not paying attention and talking away while doing some paper cuts, before I knew it, I had slashed my thumb to the bone. It was so fast I didn’t even feel it until after it happened. Then, oddly enough, there was only the recollection of pain – there was never a pain in the moment of slashing. Later on I realized that in the recollection I was just making the pain up, because in the moment of the cut the blade was so sharp and the act was so fast that there was no time for the pain.

My brain remembered the pain where it should have been, but wasn’t. So what was pain but something my mind made up.

Meanwhile blood everywhere, rush to the bathroom, clean the cut, (pretty scary looking, but straight and simple) apply the bandages. Wonder: Should I get stitches? Very deep. Decide to just bind it with a bandage. A half inch slash on the meaty tip of my left thumb. War hero.

I handled fear. After all… Just a thumb. Then I began to learn for the next 2 weeks just all the amazing things a left thumb does in life. Can’t tie shoes, can’t button my right shirt sleeve, can’t shower with any normalcy, can’t play the guitar, and on and on.

Every three days I change the bandages. Looks about the same each time, but I can just feel all those little guys in there just knitting and mending away. It’s kind of exciting, really, how the body heals.

So I decide to experiment and stimulate the process. Each morning as I wake I lie there and envision the knitting. I’m into quantum physics and so I take it to the atomic level in my imagination – right down to the shifting and organization of the molecules and atoms. I stop looking at it to determine the extent of the injury and instead hold the vision of the perfect thumb in my imagination. The atom/molecule reorganization game is just a mind game that I play with myself for a few moments every morning.

But it works. After 2 weeks I discard the bandages for good. Let the air in. Oh, I’m careful with it. I baby the left hand. But I hold to the thought of the perfect thumb and mentally rearrange the atoms into their rightful place.

It’s now 2 weeks since I removed the bandages. 4 weeks since I encountered the mat knife. I still feel those little guys workin’ away in there hauling and shifting those atoms, but from the outward appearance there’s no cut, no scar – just normal thumb.

What happened here? I mentally reconstructed my body. In the normal order of things I always had a perfect thumb, but fear resulting in a confused mind created a gap in that concept – a cut. When I got my mind back in order, my body followed suit. I know that if I were stronger mentally, I could have done it faster. It just takes practice. Must have something to do with the way Jesus worked. “Whatsoever things you see that I do, you can do also.”

Pretty amazing.

Sacred Song Writing

I come from the theater. Oh I grew up on rock n’ roll and folk, but my real training in lyric writing was in the theater. It wasn’t until then that I really began to grow as a lyricist, as a storyteller.

The lyrics of a theatrical song have to have movement, they have to go from point A to point B dramatically. Otherwise they just tend to sit there on the stage, no matter how beautiful, and often end up getting cut from the show because they don’t move the plot forward and are too much of a stage wait.

So when I began to write sacred songs it was only natural that I wrote in theatrical traditions: Start with a problem, the more difficult, the better, and then, in the course of the song, work out the solution, or at least come to some point of change, some realization, so that a solution is in sight. Then you have drama and I know, in all of art, without drama, things tend to get a little thin or shallow. Drama is what holds people to the moments, keeps their interest. “What’s going to happen next?”

But (turning point) I found that sacred songs tended to not follow this tradition. They were often either all positive (mostly the case) or occasionally all negative. They often lacked the dramatic movement that I so naturally looked for in a good song lyric. I also found that they were not necessarily shallow and were quite often rich with content and inspiration, but, for me, just somehow did not go all the way in giving the listener what I felt they deserved.

So it is still my belief, still my natural style to write in the more theatrical tradition. I have to force myself to adapt the other and occasionally do. In the case of hymn writing, the older tradition is what is expected and so I’m probably not much of a natural hymn writer. But solos or choral pieces are a different story.

I like to think of these as musical testimonies. Start with the problem. End with the healing. And along the way illuminate how the healing was realized. Then, dramatically, you shed light on the subject and pull the listener through the dramatic story. The following song presents just such a dramatic surprise.

Where Were You
Music and Lyrics: Peter Link

Once I walked with you
How I burned
You were always there for me
And then I turned
So I walked alone
Through the cold
Wearied by regrets
A thousand fold

Where were you?
I tried turning the time back
Searching the ashes
Looking through stones unturned
But where were you?
I kept trying to find you
Tracing my footsteps
Searching through all I’d known

Where were you?
And where was I?
I kept passing through shadows
Searching the moonlight
Lost in the dark of night

Once I walked with you
Then I turned
I dared to go it on my own
But then I learned

You were there
All along in the sunrise
There in the moonlight
There in the rain with me

Where were you?
Always there in the forests
There in the waters
There in the children
There in the skylark
There in the lamp light
There in the dark

Always here in my life with me

On Fame

“I always thought I should be treated like a star.” - Madonna

“Fame is fickle and I know it. It has its compensations, but it also has its drawbacks and I’ve experienced them both.” - Marilyn Monroe

“Now there is fame! Of all — hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public — fame is by far the worst. It is the castigation of God by the artist. It is sad. It is true.” - Pablo Picasso

If you fail to succeed in any case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of Christ, Truth, more in your own life…” - Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health

I find it interesting to note that Mrs. Eddy says nothing here about money, glory, good reviews, or fame. I personally have experienced all four of the latter, and I can’t say as I have gotten much of anything out of the four. The money, I spent — the glory, only served to confuse my ego — the good reviews, no matter how good, were never good enough, — and the fame — well, let’s just say, “it was all a bit on the hollow side.” in fact, let me tell you my favorite story about fame.

In the early part of my career I was working in New York as an actor– performing the lead role in “Hair” on Broadway at night and doing a leading role on CBS’s “As The World Turns”, better known as “As The Stomach Turns” during the day. I received several hundred fan letters a week, was on the Johnny Carson show and the Ed Sullivan show, was recognized constantly in the streets and generally badgered and harangued whenever I went out of my apartment for autographs and interviews with the media.

“Hair”, at the time, was the hottest production on the planet and just across 47th street Dustin Hoffman was starring in “Jimmy Shine” having just leaped to stardom in the hit movie, “The Graduate”. They cordoned off 47th street every night to cars because the street would fill with fans of both “Hair” and Dustin.

So every night after the show I would take a deep breath at the backstage door, then as the doorman opened the door to let me out, I would run pell mell through the hysterical screaming mob of teenage girls while they, for some reason, would try to grab me and tear the clothes off my back. Because I was also known from television, the decibels would rise higher as I scrambled through the crowd. Then I would out-run those frenzied females a half a block down 47th Street towards 8th Avenue as they chased me down the street.

8th Avenue was an entirely different story. It was just another New York street. The mob would not turn the corner; they would not leave the lights of Broadway. And so I would run around the corner, stop, and stand and wait for the bus…

To me, that ’s fame. I believe it was Andy Warhol who said, “in the age of television, everybody would get to be famous for 15 minutes.” For me, it was a half a block.

“Fame is proof that the people are gullible.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.” - Fred Allen

The Sneeze

March 16th, 2009

Perhaps you’ve heard or read this story as it was passed around. It’s worth repeating.

They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-two students filing into the already crowded auditorium. With their rich maroon gowns flowing and the traditional caps, they looked almost as grown up as they felt.

Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and Moms freely brushed away tears.

This class would NOT pray during the commencements — not by choice, but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting it.

The principal and several students were careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine guidance and no one asked for blessings on the graduates or their families.

The speeches were nice, but they were routine… until the final speech received a standing ovation.

A solitary student walked proudly to the microphone. He stood still and silent for just a moment, and then, it happened. All 92 students, every single one of them, suddenly SNEEZED!

The student on stage simply looked at the audience and said, “God bless you, each and every one of you!” And he walked off stage.

The audience exploded into applause. This graduating class had found a unique way to invoke God’s blessing on their future with or without the court’s approval.

This is a true story; it happened at the University of Maryland.

I Am Free

I was given an assignment (and paid well, I might add) to write a song about being free. When I heard the title assigned to the task by the client, I secretly groaned in disappointment. “This song has already been written a thousand times”, I said to myself. But I took the money and ran with it.

I put off starting the song for days. The clichés coursing through my brain were deadly to the creative process. Finally, with little time left, I reluctantly began the process.

I thought, “Well, what’s the biggest cliché in song?” The answer: “I love you.” And yet those three little words make up one of the world’s most cherished utterances. So what makes a cliché a cliché? No real content, no true meaning, no real stuff behind the words, in short, no truth.

I turned to the fertile ground of imagination. I pulled from the memory of a powerful healing I had as a child. I literally lay on the floor of my studio in the dark and reconstructed this childhood miracle perpetuated by my mother’s healing thought and God’s infinite grace. I re-lived the emotions and grandeur of the experience in my imagination. Moments later I was no longer afraid of the creative experience. I got up and wrote this song.

By the way, Jenny Burton adds to the mix and brings total magic and originality to the vocal on the CD.

I wept last week as the song was sung at a dear friend’s memorial. She requested it before she passed away. Her passing gave a newly layered meaning of depth to the song.

Feelin’ like a river
Rollin’ through this valley of life
Free like a river
A river that’s rollin’ on
On and on
I’m free

Now I wake up in the morning
The suffering is gone from my life
And I am free from the burden
The burden that I had carried
All of those years gone by

Now where there once was pain
There the peace will reign
Now where there once was fear
Hope is not in vain

Because of You
I’m free
Because of the work you’ve done
Because of the battles won
I’m free
Free now to live in my life
The way I choose in my life
Like the west wind blows
As the river flows
The way it was meant to be

For I have been released
And I have been regained
And I am now at peace
I am free

Now where there once was rain
The sun shines down on me

Yes I have been released
And I have been regained
And I am now at peace
I am free
I am free
I am free!!!

You can find a recording of this song on two different CDs: Peter Link’s “Mindfire” and “The Jenny Burton Experience” both on watchfiremusic.com.

Leaving You

3/8/09

We had been married for just four months when she got the job. We were thrilled. Julia was going to sing at the world famous Palermo Opera. A dream come true for her. On top of it, Italy is the paradise of her imagination and dreams. And she would be there for three whole months!

Groan… What was I to do for three whole months? Just married and so soon separated.

And so she flew away. And I waited. Two months went by. Not fun. But then a dear friend who recognized my loneliness actually gave me the money for a plane ticket.

And so I flew away. And for ten wonderful days we lived the way we were meant to live.

But then I had to go home. I couldn’t face another month. The parting at the airport in Palermo was rough. Tears. Two broken hearts. By the time I got on to the plane I was just numb.

And so I flew away. And left her behind…

When I got back to New York I wrote and recorded this song.

LEAVING YOU

I left the hills of Sicily behind me
I flew away from you
Across the Mediterranean moon
I closed my eyes and there you were
Deep inside me

But you’re still down there
A speck upon the ocean
And I sit up here
A speck up in the sky
Here in mid air
Lost in the emotion of goodbye

Leaving you
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ll ever do
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ve ever done
And oh God the leaving’s just begun

[Interlude]

Minutes ago
I held you in my arms
Just minutes ago
Under the Mediterranean moon
I’ll never know
How I could walk away and leave you

But you’re down there
A speck upon the ocean
And I’m up here
A speck up in the sky
And oh what a pair we are
Lost in the emotion of goodbye

Leaving you
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ll ever do
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ve ever done
And oh God the leaving’s just begun

You’re moving on down there
Smiling through your tears
I fly so far away
And wrestle with my fears

[Interlude]

Leaving you
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ll ever do
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ve ever done
And oh God the leaving’s just begun
Oh God the leaving’s just begun
Oh God the leaving…

Click through to Thru Me page to listen to song – it’s a free download.

Long Live New Music!

March 6th, 2009

In the old record business model it used to be that the life span of an artist’s new CD was about 3 months. After 3 months, if a song or CD did not “break out”, the record company would usually give up on the CD and stop the promotion. Then the CD would die. Often, because of the high costs of storage, the excess CDs would simply be destroyed.

It usually takes 6 months to a year to create a CD. Why then so short a life span?

Because the money it took to promote it nationally, even locally, through radio was so exorbitant. In those short 3 months a company could literally spend millions of dollars basically promoting one single off the CD. If it tanked, bye bye to all the work. And most of them did just that – they tanked. For a great variety of reasons – many of which had nothing to do with the worth of the music.

Today, it’s an entirely different story. Radio is fast slipping away as the communication medium for music. The internet is the new radio. No longer do artists have to manufacture tens of thousands of CDs in preparation for launch. Digital downloads took care of that. The high cost of storing all those jewel cased CDs does not exist anymore. Promotion on the internet relies more on smart creativity than the almighty buck.

So now good and even great music does not have to die and disappear. It can simply sit there in virtual space and wait to be discovered. And so in a very intriguing way, music always remains new – new to the listener who discovers it.

This is one of the high concepts behind Watchfire Music. It’s a trusted destination for people of all faiths and cultures to explore, experience and ultimately purchase new Inspirational music – no matter how old it is. It is always new. Fifty years from now it can still be sitting there on our site at virtually no cost to us waiting to be discovered.

A good reason to explore the site. It’s all new.

Insight-Nancy Morris

March 5th, 2009

Nancy Morris with Bobby Stanton

I’m sitting here in my easy chair, Mac in my lap, hot chocolate in my cup, drifting along to the Inspirational sounds of Nancy Morris’ new CD, My Favorite Hymns. This was one rough day. Lately it just seems like an inordinate number of close friends have been called to move on.

Perhaps she was needed elsewhere

Perhaps wherever elsewhere is

They’ve got their troubles too

Perhaps that mighty spirit

Just joined Mindy and John

Yeah that’s why they’re gone

They were needed elsewhere*

Perplexing, this life. Jill, Suzanne, Chucky, Don, — all great friends, gone, but not forgotten.

So I sit here and simply remember. But the phone rings, the sirens wail, the pressures of tomorrow loom and I just can’t wrap my mind around it all. So I put on some music — Nancy Morris’ new CD, My Favorite Hymns – to be specific. And the world goes away. The images of meaningful lives pass through my consciousness and the music takes me to the heart.

Hymns. Amazing, simple, evocative hymnsongs. What could be sweeter? At this moment, nothing. I don’t get a chance to slow down very often, but this moment, right here and now, I’m in my right place – because of the music.

Ahhhh, there’s my friend Bobby Stanton on guitar adding his magic – no words, just pure music and simple straightforward classic hymns. And Jill, Suzanne, Chucky and Don are here with me smiling and laughing and singin’ along.

Thank you, Nancy.

*From: Needed Elsewhere, Lyric by Peter Link

On: Faith

Faith…
I sat in my favorite chair. I knew it was time to figure the problem out. I had been struggling with it for over a year and needed to get my arms around it because I knew it was a great idea and great ideas just don’t come along that often.

Flash back one year. Jenny Burton and I have just finished a show in Boca Raton and are driving up the coast of Florida. We get into a long discussion about her career and where it’s going. We have this great idea! We shall put together a group of 9 of our favorite NY studio singers behind her and do a show of Inspirational music.

We’ve been doing very successful industrial shows exploring this Gospel/R&B based genre using 3 singers in the studio and triple tracking them for a particular sound that has really been captivating audiences. We’ve developed this music to a very specific sound behind Jenny and know from years’ experience that we’ve found something that really works. Now we should commercialize it and move it into the mainstream.

And so, determined to see this through, I begin to explore ways of financing and developing this idea. I find it’s not easy. It’s expensive! Ten singers… and we don’t even have a band yet.

In the course of the year, however, four different situations do come up which will provide the means for getting this idea on. Sadly, they all fall through. Bummer.

So here I am sitting in my favorite chair. I do not have the money for this big idea. I know it’s a right idea, but something seems to stop it at every turn. Frustrated…

I have no ideas, I have no money, I have nothing.

I have faith, but what is faith? Yeah, come to think of it, what is faith? I sit and contemplate this word. I realize that in order to have faith one must start with nothing. If you have something, a glimmer, a dollar, a possibility, etc., then you don’t need faith, you just start with a glimmer, a dollar, a possibility, etc. Faith is for when you have nothing.

Then you have to have faith in faith. And since you have nothing, it only makes sense to have a total reliance on faith because what other choice do you have? You have nothing, but faith. So do that. Have nothing but faith.

This means that you can’t have doubt, Pete, I say to myself. You can only have faith. If you have a choice between having nothing or having nothing and faith, what do you choose? Duh.

I saw and understood this simple logic. It made total sense to me. All I had to do was to have faith, but I had to have total faith. That was easy because I had nothing. So I decided then and there to have total faith.

“Faith in what?” you might ask. Faith in a right idea. I believe that God gives a right idea and sees it through? So I must have total faith in this right idea.

I even thought if you have total faith and then it still doesn’t work out, then you don’t have to deal with this word “faith” any more. You can dismiss it as a sham and move on to other things. So let’s find out, Pete. HAVE TOTAL FAITH!

And so I did. At that point I got up from my favorite chair and went to bed, clear that now the idea was going to happen.

The next morning I got up, called the nine singers, explained my great idea, told them I had no money, but was going to do this on faith, invited them to join me and they all said ‘yes’ immediately and we went into rehearsal the next week.

The group, The Jenny Burton Experience, broke all box office records and played to packed houses in their more than seven year run at New York City’s “Don’t Tell Mama” and swept all the major music awards in New York City for best vocal group.

They then performed for tens of thousands of people at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Carnegie Hall, opened for Al Green at Trump Marina, opened for Stevie Wonder at Lincoln Center, and headlined at Resorts International in Atlantic City.

It started on faith and nothing but. The following lyric is to one of the groups closing songs:

FAITH
Music and Lyrics by Peter Link

AS I SIT WITH MY HEAD IN MY HAND
AND FIGHT FOR THE WAY TO BREAK FREE
KNOWING NOTHING AROUND ME
HAS GONE AS PLANNED
AND NOW IT IS ALL UP TO ME

WHEN NOTHING IS LEFT TO HOLD ON TO
AND NOWHERE IS THERE TO TURN
THE FIRE CONSUMING THE SPIRIT WITHIN ME
TILL NOTHING IS LEFT TO BURN

WHEN OUT OF THE DARKENING SHADOWS
A VOICE A WHISPER A SIGN
THE SIMPLEST OF ANSWERS
AT THE HARDEST OF TIMES
A LIGHT CALLING OUT TO THE BLIND

WHEN ALL IS LOST
HAVE FAITH
HAVE FAITH

FAITH CAN MOVE THE MOUNTAIN
FAITH CAN WALK THE SEA
FAITH CAN HEAL THE HEARTACHE
FAITH ALONE CAN COMFORT ME
AND IN YOUR TRIALS OF FIRE
FAITH CAN SEE YOU THROUGH
FAITH REQUIRES
NO MAGIC NO MONEY
NO MIRRORS NO MAYBES
NO MATCHES NO MAKE-UP
NO MANUAL NO MEDICINE
JUST FAITH

SO WHEN NOTHING IS LEFT TO HOLD ON TO
AND NOWHERE IS THERE TO TURN
WHEN THE FIRE’S CONSUMING THE SPIRIT WITHIN YOU
TILL NOTHING IS LEFT TO BURN
WHEN ALL SEEMS LOST
HAVE FAITH
HAVE FAITH

FAITH CAN MOVE THE MOUNTAIN
FAITH CAN WALK THE SEA
FAITH CAN HEAL THE HEARTACHE
FAITH ALONE CAN COMFORT ME
AND IN YOUR TRIALS OF FIRE
FAITH CAN SEE YOU THROUGH
FAITH REQUIRES
NO MAGIC NO MONEY
NO MIRRORS NO MAYBES
NO MATCHES NO MAKE-UP
NO MANUAL NO MEDICINE
JUST FAITH
FAITH

FAITH CAN HEAL YOU
AND FAITH CAN COMFORT YOU
FAITH WILL WALK WITH YOU
THERE’S NO MEDICINE JUST FAITH

FAITH CAN MOVE THE MOUNTAIN
OH YEAH!

So, have faith…

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For more information about Watchfire Music and their artists,
please visit us at Watchfire Music.com, or click on the blog entry's title and be automatically redirected to our site.

Insight-Mindy Jostyn

Mindy Jostyn

I worked with Toots Thielman, some say the greatest harmonica player of our time, and as a child my dad would take the whole family to see The Harmonicats whenever they were in town.

Also we’d always catch Johnny Puleo (a virtuoso midget harmonica player) when he would appear on TV. In my teenage years, working as a cowboy summers in Colorado I learned to play sitting around campfires at night.

It was after that I began to discover the wonders of Slim Harpo, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Larry Adler, Paul Butterfield and yes, the wonder of Stevie Wonder. I never got that good on the thing, never practiced enough. But I’ve always deeply appreciated the music that pours from these little “child toys” when handled by a virtuoso.

Word had it that Mindy Jostyn could also play that thang. I produced the last album of her too short life and towards the end one day she said, “Let’s put a little blues harp on this song”. I set up the mic, sat back in my producer’s chair and listened to her go to work.

This was a month before she left us and already she was so weak from coughing that she couldn’t sing, but could she ever blow. What came out of her that day was pure genius – a command of the instrument that shocked me, a gut wrenching bluesy funk that made me laugh and cry at the same time and a celebration of life that I will never forget.

She couldn’t sing anymore, so she sang through this “toy”. She joined the ranks that day in my book. I thought then, “Oh my God, I’m gonna study with her and learn what she knows”.

Too late.

Mindy mastered many instruments – guitar, piano, fiddle, her voice. Harmonica was her best. I know. I was there that day.

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For more information about Peter Link and his company, Watchfire Music,
please visit us at Watchfire Music.com, or click on the blog entry's title and be automatically redirected to our website.