1. Something Beautiful / In His TimeSTORY BEHIND THE ALBUM
This
album did not begin as a planned project. In fact the
songs were recorded over a span of about two years from mid 1988
to early 1990. The recordings were made in the private home of my
dear friend, the late, Jim Pelton in Medford, Oregon.
It was the spring of 1988, my life was in disarray. My marriage was in trouble, the church was struggling, and I was floundering. In April, after several turbulent months, I finally submitted my resignation to the church I had pastored for nearly 18 years, and my wife and I separated.
During those dark and confusing days, I
discovered the friendship of Jim Pelton. At first, our friendship
revolved around our common interest in the same style of Gospel Music.
Jim was an accomplished guitarist. He loved to play, but nearly
all his music was played in private for his own enjoyment. He had
converted their spare bedroom into a music room where he had his
guitars, a couple keyboards, a mixer, and a reel-to-reel and cassette
recorder.
In the fall of 1988 I found myself spending nearly all my spare time at the Pelton's home, sharing my personal struggles, and singing and playing music with Jim. It was a kind of spiritual therapy. These were some of the darkest days of my spiritual journey. It seemed like my life was over. Many times the songs we sang and played were laced with emotions, as I struggled to understand what had happened to my life, and where it was going from here. I would sit at the keyboard, and begin to sing whatever came to mind. Jim had a marvelous ear for harmony and was able to blend right in, even when he didn't know the song. From time to time, he would turn on he recorder, and just let it run.
One Saturday night in the spring or summer of 1989, Jim and I were sitting in the music room talking. Jim suggested that we listen to some of the many recordings he had made. After listening to four or five songs, one of us commented, "There's some pretty good stuff there." From that time we began to try to polish up some of the good songs, and to give special attention to getting good recordings of ones that we would sing in the future. We had a 4 track recorder so were able to add a couple additional accompaniment tracks, or a second vocal.
In the
summer of 1990 a situation arose that resulted in my moving back
home to Sedro-Woolley, Washington to live with my Father for a year.
That winter Jim began working on his vision of making an album
from our recordings. He compiled, a play list of 18 or our
recorded songs. He fine tuned, edited and mastered them into an album
which he first called, "His Sweet Spirit". He made a number of
individual Cassette copies which we gave to friends and family.
Then, in the spring of 1991 we renamed the album, "In His Time", and
Jim designed a cassette album cover and sent off our master tape and
had 500 Cassette albums professionally produced.
As we began to give out the albums, one by one, Jim and I were totally amazed at the responses and reports that began coming back. So many people spoke of being encouraged and blessed by the music. Some talked of playing their tape over and over.
Over the next few years, we sold and gave away all but a handful of those tapes. In the late 90's I got my first computer with CD burning capability. I took one of the remaining cassette albums and recorded it into my computer to preserve it in digital format. Since that time we
have burned and distributed another 500+ albums on CD.
It was the spring of 1988, my life was in disarray. My marriage was in trouble, the church was struggling, and I was floundering. In April, after several turbulent months, I finally submitted my resignation to the church I had pastored for nearly 18 years, and my wife and I separated.
During those dark and confusing days, I
discovered the friendship of Jim Pelton. At first, our friendship
revolved around our common interest in the same style of Gospel Music.
Jim was an accomplished guitarist. He loved to play, but nearly
all his music was played in private for his own enjoyment. He had
converted their spare bedroom into a music room where he had his
guitars, a couple keyboards, a mixer, and a reel-to-reel and cassette
recorder. In the fall of 1988 I found myself spending nearly all my spare time at the Pelton's home, sharing my personal struggles, and singing and playing music with Jim. It was a kind of spiritual therapy. These were some of the darkest days of my spiritual journey. It seemed like my life was over. Many times the songs we sang and played were laced with emotions, as I struggled to understand what had happened to my life, and where it was going from here. I would sit at the keyboard, and begin to sing whatever came to mind. Jim had a marvelous ear for harmony and was able to blend right in, even when he didn't know the song. From time to time, he would turn on he recorder, and just let it run.
One Saturday night in the spring or summer of 1989, Jim and I were sitting in the music room talking. Jim suggested that we listen to some of the many recordings he had made. After listening to four or five songs, one of us commented, "There's some pretty good stuff there." From that time we began to try to polish up some of the good songs, and to give special attention to getting good recordings of ones that we would sing in the future. We had a 4 track recorder so were able to add a couple additional accompaniment tracks, or a second vocal.
In the
summer of 1990 a situation arose that resulted in my moving back
home to Sedro-Woolley, Washington to live with my Father for a year.
That winter Jim began working on his vision of making an album
from our recordings. He compiled, a play list of 18 or our
recorded songs. He fine tuned, edited and mastered them into an album
which he first called, "His Sweet Spirit". He made a number of
individual Cassette copies which we gave to friends and family.
Then, in the spring of 1991 we renamed the album, "In His Time", and
Jim designed a cassette album cover and sent off our master tape and
had 500 Cassette albums professionally produced.As we began to give out the albums, one by one, Jim and I were totally amazed at the responses and reports that began coming back. So many people spoke of being encouraged and blessed by the music. Some talked of playing their tape over and over.
Over the next few years, we sold and gave away all but a handful of those tapes. In the late 90's I got my first computer with CD burning capability. I took one of the remaining cassette albums and recorded it into my computer to preserve it in digital format. Since that time we
have burned and distributed another 500+ albums on CD.