ABOUT LISTENING

Please note that you should adjust the volume on your computer or phone once the song starts as I think Bandcamp starts every tune at a pretty loud volume which can affect the quality of sound.

Speaking of which, listening to these recordings here (in WAV file format) is the closest you may get to an original recording. Many songs that you hear in an MP3 format are degraded in that the compression of the file size causes a loss in the quality of the sound. I am glad that Bandcamp utilizes this system so you can hear the highest quality online.

My songs are copyrighted (and please note that not all of the songs on this album are written by me) however I offer them free for your listening and downloading pleasure.

I encourage you to click individually on each song as that will provide you with the both the story and context behind the song plus the lyrics.

If a song is meaningful for you or you have a question or comment, I would enjoy hearing from you and your response to them. Please feel free to email me at bmilford@thomasu.edu .

ABOUT "OPEN MY EYES"

This is the second recording that Barb and I did intentionally in preparation for an Episcopal Youth Event (EYE). Our first recording "Roots and Wings" was done in collaboration with Fran McKendree, the founder of the 70's band McKendree Spring. Fran was a great fan and mentor for us in helping us move up to the next step of larger crowds and recording. And between the three of us, we brought a collection of music that the Episcopal Church Youth Program leadership team thought was worth spreading - as they were hoping to change the content of the music from "cupcakes and kumbaya" as our friend Bobbie Bevill would say, to something more social justice oriented. "Roots and Wings" was only made in limited cassette copies and I believe the copyright for the recording is held by the church. I haven't run across a personal copy of my own in quite a while though I still have boxes to unearth. There were also songbooks created that included the songs on the tape plus dozens of other songs we would all lead (individually or as a group) at various conferences.

The Episcopal Youth Events happen in 3 year cycles and we were asked to partner with our new friend Lindy Hearne in collecting and recording music for the 1987 EYE. It was the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship with Lindy - and Barb and I get together with he and his wife, Lynn Adler (who is an amazing vocalist and songwriter) whenever we can. Shortly into the "Open My Eyes" project it was suggest that we bring on a younger generation who could represent the young people at the conference on stage. My talent search included going to the Cambridge Ridge and Latin High School and telling the music director about my quest - and he said without hesitating "Tarah Hilsman!". Tarah had a big voice and bubbly and warm personality. I met with her for a couple of weeks privately to get her up to speed on the songs and she became part of the quartet for the album. She did great in leading music and performing at the 1987 EYE in San Antonio and went on to college the next year.

Lindy, Barb and I own the copyrights to the "Open My Eyes" recording but not to the songbooks that we create for the event - as the Episcopal Church bought the licenses for all of the songs to be printed. I believe we still own about 500 copyright licenses for the recording so if you wish to purchase the recordings and download them - then I need to be notified to keep track of our total. My recordings from it you are free to download .

We recorded "Open My Eyes" at the same studio where Barb and I had just finished "Count On Me" and again Coleman Rogers was our engineer and guiding star in seeing it through. I believe I started a number of the tracks, Barb came in and made major headway, we brought Tarah in for a few, and then in a chaotic weekend when Lindy was here - we spent a bunch of time getting his songs completed and adding him to what had already started. It was a fun and happy chaos though. I particularly remember playing lick after lick on the electric guitar for "Praying for the Camel" - not knowing what was going to stick and what was going to be trashed. Lindy had a tremendous amount of studio experience so he knew his way around getting the sound he wanted. Here's a little trivia for you, he recorded the "Rock On Which I Stand" totally in the dark - just sat down at the piano and asked for the lights out and nailed it in one take.