Now that the podcast season has gone on summer vacation and The Mystic Cave falls into a restful silence, I wonder if I might share with you another project that is flourishing in its absence, a musical project.
Several years ago, I wrote a novel. Its main character, who was telling the story, was a white, straight, middle-aged man, a priest in the church, who was undergoing a midlife crisis while trying to solve a murder mystery. I wonder who I might have been writing about ... aside from the murder part!
One of the secondary characters represented what I saw as hope for the church. She was young, quirky, intelligent, wise in the ways of the world, and deeply spiritual, though in unconventional ways. My main character, William, was enthralled by her and by the hope she represented, so he encouraged her exploration of the priesthood as a vocation. In her gratitude for his support--because she wasn't getting much of that from the nervous church authorities--she wrote a song for him, And Then There's You.
I don't know how that's supposed to work, a novel with a song embedded within it, in fact, several songs. But if the thing never gets published, as I suspect it won't (I mean, a straight, white, midlife male in the church?), I could record an audio book version as summer listening for the podcast and then include the songs as a matter of course. I'd get a woman to sing them (I have just the woman in mind, a local singer / songwriter who has a beautiful, clear, strong voice) and record the song in the simplest way, as I imagine my character singing it to William.
In the meantime, the song has developed a life of its own. I've played it solo at Open Mics around town, to a good reaction, so I know the song lands well live, with just me and a guitar. But I'm beginning to work with a music producer, Carey Parder at Butterfly Studios, to record and collect some of my recent songs into an album. This was the first song I shared with him. I thought of it as a back porch country song with a guitar or two, a mandolin, maybe a bass, and that's the way I prepared the demo. But what came back was a full-bodied studio recording, with ... well, I'll let you hear it for yourself.
I'll just say that it makes me smile every time I listen to it. This bodes well for the songs that will follow as we try to lay down one song a month over the next year. So, there's the podcast, there's the writing, there's the music, always something new, and then ... there's you. Thanks for your support.
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