Music on CDs     

Well, music and then some. The DVD of the show Steven Kapp Perry and I wrote that's currently featured internationally on BYU TV.

What happens when a wayward young woman needs to hear the sweet story of the Prodigal Son, and the only folks who love her enough to tell it are the players in a bluegrass band she once deserted? On an autumn afternoon in Appalachia, the Potluck Social String Band takes a break from their concert in the park and weaves the timeless tale of redemption and forgiveness around their former bandmate with the strings of guitars, banjos, fiddles, bass, and mandolin.

This DVD costs $19.95 (plus various annoying shipping and handling charges)

Below is the Christmas album, re-made and re-released 27 November 2009. Click here for a list of the songs and a few words about each. It's kind of a warm album, intimate--I think you'll like it. Listen to a little bit. 

After ten years, a new full CD (17 songs--one new one added since the initial release--plus who knows how many surprise bonus tracks). Click here for a run-down of the concept, content, and birthing process. Click here for a sample of what it sounds like.

       I was invited to join with the BYU folk dancers in a performance for a national political convention. I was kind of the host and, scattered through the evening, I sang these four songs. You'll like the cool stuff the BYU bluegrass group plays on one of them. (Heads up: "Alpine Home" and "Holy Ground" are also on the new CD "Front Porch Hymns & Humns.)

Click here and hear a sample.

      Steven Kapp Perry and I have had a great time exploring the document called, "The Family: A Proclamation To The World." This is a declaration of belief by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints introduced at a conference of women on 23 September 1995. It's a statement of doctrines held and taught by the church since its inception, but includes ideas that sound more and more radical as the days roll on. Steve and I find said ideas pretty thrilling, and have created a musical extravaganza called

      It's abstracted from the official published proclamation, point by point, but focuses on the feelings that each element stirs in us. Greg Hansen is on board as orchestrator, and drew some great ideas from his creative reservoir. This project has been in the works for several years.

      It'd be nice to scatter CDs into a lot of homes, but the real hope is that people will perform it. Lots. Choirs of adults, youth, children, soloists, actors and choral readers. And we want every performance to constitute a major celebration in the hearts of everybody there. That's the image that drives us.

     The musicians gave it everything they had, because they believed in it. We hope you will, too.

[UPDATE, MARCH 2008: THE REGULAR RUN OF THIS CD IS SOLD OUT. WATCH HERE FOR UPDATES.]

     "The Planemaker" is about a small boy, Lucas Lightbrow, who dreams that he can fly, maybe even out to the stars. Two joys consume his young life--courting lovely Amy Fletcher and building wild flying machines out of other people's junk--but his planes won't fly, and he loses Amy at the birth of their only child. Lucas sends his son to be raised by city relatives, tends his farm alone, and gets old and empty in an uncaring world. Then his mysterious grandson comes to visit, finds the forgotten planes, and brings the old man's dream to life again, sending him finally on a breathtaking celestial flight back to his beloved Amy. It's been called "the most unbelievable story you'll ever believe in."

A NOTE ABOUT "THE PLANEMAKER": This is not the original recording, released in 1978, but a 20th anniversary re-make, simpler, more intimate, more like "an evening with the storyteller"--like the live performance.

YET ANOTHER NOTE ABOUT "THE PLANEMAKER": THIS CD HAS [TEMPORARILY, I HOPE] GONE OUT OF PRINT [OUT OF PRESS? OUT OF BURN?], BUT I CAN MAKE YOU YOUR OWN FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER. NO GRAPHICS FOR NOW, THOUGH, I'M AFRAID. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

ALSO, I JUST UNEARTHED SOME SAFETY COPIES OF THE MASTER TAPES FOR THE ORIGINAL 1978 VERSION OF "THE PLANEMAKER" (THE ACTUAL MASTER TAPES ARE UNPLAYABLE), SO I CAN BURN YOU ONE OF THOSE, IF YOU'D LIKE. SO SPECIFY

Twenty-three selected songs. Twelve from the later albums, three from concerts, three rebirths, and five (previously unreleased) made just for love. (1996)

Here's the pitch: "A brand new pioneer musical! James Arrington, Marvin Payne, and Steven Kapp Perry have taken a fistful of true stories, a powerful cast of twenty souls, the passion of pioneer dreams, and woven the years of the Mormon exodus into a magical tapestry of laughter, tears, and joy. Come away down the Trail of Dreams!" Sounds pretty advertizey, I know, but the fact is I'm quite proud of this piece. Audiences, critics, and scholars love it. I'd like you to be acquainted with it. (1997)

Alert: This CD has sold out. I'll announce here when more are available.

ARCHEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT:

        A couple of Christmases ago, my wife asked for all my old albums on CD for a present. A year later, I finally got around to doing the work that request entailed (lots of rescue work on old master tapes and technical prep for the trip to CD). But now I have the ability to burn CD copies, one at a time, for anyone like you who may ask.
        I was able to locate master tapes for eight of the extinct albums. There were none to be found for the albums "Ships of Dust" and "Utah," but I've taken the music from LPs that had never been played before, so they're pretty clean and clear.

       The titles are as follows:

and I set up for CD the original cast recording of the musical play I wrote with Guy Randle, John Garbett, and Corey Sprague called "Sweet Redemption Music Company" (1978)