It's Been a Long Time!
Hello friends,
I hope that this message finds all of you safe and well. 2020 was definitely a year unlike any other I’ve ever experienced. We endured a tornado, a pandemic, a bombing and a harsher winter than usual here in Nashville! How about you?
It has been years, I think, since I’ve sent one of these messages. It was, most likely, in 2013 when I released my last album. In the year following that album, my life took quite a turn. I married and returned to college and finished my undergraduate degree. I published a collection of poetry and essays in 2015, The Road Home To You, while working towards graduation. I was accepted into a doctoral program upon graduation in 2018 and spent some time in Massachusetts pursuing that degree. I quickly realized I did not want to spend the bulk of my forties in a bitterly cold state and school! We made our way home to Nashville in 2019 and have been slowly determining our creative paths here.
Last year, I began hosting a web series about the music that I love. The first season of Have You Ever Heard…? consists of twelve conversations about albums from the worlds of Gospel, Contemporary Christian and Women’s Music, including Emerald City by Teena Marie, Unguarded by Amy Grant and Bring It To Jesus by Bobby Jones & New Life. Guests include Women’s Music pioneer Rhiannon (of Alive!), 2018 The Voice finalist Kyla Jade, author/artist Jamie Anderson and more. I’d love it if you subscribe to my YouTube channel and check out the series!
God’s Music Is My Life, my hub on Substack, was created as an extension of the series, a place where additional content can be shared and discussions can occur. I hope you’ll join me there and we can reconnect after what feels like an incredibly long time.
I compile the Sunday Morning Music playlist each week. I started curating the list shortly after our return to Nashville in 2019, thinking about how much I missed turning on the radio, like I did as a teenager in Florida, and listening to Pat Houser on WMNF every Sunday, and hearing the sounds of traditional gospel. This week’s selections are all songs about or inspired by Mother, in celebration of Mother’s Day. I hope they lift your spirits!
Some of you on this list have supported my work since my first album in 2004. Thank you for your connection through all of these years and for keeping those songs from the early days alive as music has evolved from living on compact discs to now, almost exclusively, in streaming formats. To see them continuing to receive monthly plays and downloads is an amazing thing. Through your word of mouth, they continue to find new ears. And, for those who have asked, new music, is on the way.
Until we talk next, continue to stay safe.
Tim