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Use the Contact link above if you are interested in any of the following pre-order specials:

$20: two CD pre-order special.

$100: two CDs and a House Concert.

$300: two CDS, a House Concert, and Album Special Thanks.

$Thousands:  Patron of the Arts.

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.

My son Sam and long-time friend Tricia Storey, plus three phenomenal new musical friends (Lacey Williams, Robby Sorensen, and Kendra Lowe) had way more fun with this project than we deserved!

It’s rare for an aging rocker to have the pleasure of being approached by four passionate pros who want to bring his old songs to life.  It’s rarer when those pros are his sons. In a recent spring, such a rare thing happened.  This recording, taken at a concert in May of 2010 in the Babcock Theatre at The University of Utah, is a joyful taste of what happened next. 

Recorded live in concert at The University of Utah Babcock Theatre  on May 2, 2010. Keyboard overdubs added by Sam. Mixed and mastered  by the band at Dave’s home in SLC.   All songs copyright & protected  by Marvin Payne 1970-2010.

Marvin Payne - Guitar, Vocals www.marvinpayne.com
Sam Payne - Keys www.sampayne.com
Joe Payne - Bass www.paynesound.com
Dave Payne - Drums www.rest30.com
Joshua Payne - Guitar www.joshuapayneorchestra.com

Below is the Christmas album, re-made and re-released 27 November 2009.   It's kind of a warm album, intimate--I think you'll like it.

This is more of a guitar album than the last few. I've been putting the kids to bed with a half-hour of playing every night, then another half-hour just for fun. My lovely Martin M-36 has been joined by a sweet mahogany little sister, the Martin 000-15S. And just recently a gorgeous, voluptuous, and curvaceous new Epiphone Zephyr Regent electric archtop came to stay. My warm sunburst Fender Jazz Bass couldn't be left out, so it's here, too--albeit modestly and sparingly. (Almost forgot: Leonard Coulson-made Whyte Laydie 5-string banjo, old-time frailing, of course.) In keeping with the concept wrapped up in the title, this is a pretty acoustic, one-man sort of expression. Sometimes an artist will stretch their head around some new musical vocabulary or lyrical idiom. No stretching here--this is what my neighbors hear wafting off the front porch. Stuff I like to play just because it feels good.

This project was conceived in the friendship and kind hopes of some folks who've been asking, ever since I became cyber-available, for something like this. John and Amy Johnson were instrumental (although John could have been vocal, as well--he does a terrific Elvis) in arranging for hospital and delivery bills to be covered. Final midwifery by David Coppins.

This is one of three songs here that have been released previously (but each remixed). I wouldn't play that trick except the songs really fit, and have probably been waiting for this CD to be their real home. This one I wrote for the sesquicentennial celebration of the establishment of my little town that I love. The C. F. Martin Guitar Company was established earlier, but not by much.

I've always loved this folk song, even borrowed the tune for a wedding song for my son, Joe. But the first verse always sounded to me like the beautiful ending to a happy love story, instead of a misleading beginning to a sad break-up story. So hey, being a folk, myself, I wrote two new verses to make it be what I always wanted it to be.

I wrote this for the wedding of my daughter, Eliza Wren, to the excellent Irishman Gavin McDermott.

This old hymn is here because it has an astounding lyric by W.W. Phelps, but mostly because the tune is "Kingsfold," which I love.

This ought to be a folk song, because it sounds more like one than most real folk songs do. (It was written in 1963 by John D. Loudermilk, Lester L. Brown, Bob Gibson, and Albert Stanton.) It's just really fun to play, and as I was considering adding it to my set for a New Year's Eve gig in St. George, Utah, in 2002, the lyric to the chorus and first verse, which were all the words I knew, started resonating for me on a doctrinal level (this resonance would have been, I think, a great surprise to Brothers Loudermilk, et al.), because they're about wanting to get to a city where nobody treats you mean and stuff is free. I wrote a couple more verses to fill in the blanks and played it that night.

When this Swedish hymn (by Caroline V. Sandell-Berg, 1832-1903) showed up in the Mormon Hymnbook in 1985, I found it and loved it and immediately started singing it. Like the other hymns here, it's pretty much just one acoustic guitar and me singing.

On the subject of children, here's a song about where they come from. If I have the genealogy straight, this song is a folk rhyme set to music by Rocky Mountain folk singer Rosalie Sorrells.

I wrote this for a big choral project that Steven Kapp Perry and I produced about the Family Proclamation. Kind of central to the idea of families is the process of getting children into them.

Okay, then a song about an actual baby, my daughter Adwen, who, on the day this CD is released, will be celebrating the beginning of her eighth week of earth life.

Another baby, this one eight and accountable. One of those "Hey, weren't you just born a little bit ago?" songs. This one, for sure, gets played nightly alongside the bunkbed.

A guitar dance with words. My five-year old John liked it, so it became his. He and I gather rock "treasures" down in the creek bed.

Just me and one of the guitars, like on the front porch.

A patriotic piece. I wrote this for the eagle court of honor of a good friend's son. The son and his kind are in the last verse. When I was a kid, I learned to pledge allegiance to the flag. This song, recently released, is about pledging allegiance to rocks, wind, rivers, heroes, and the Maker of the land.

A nineteenth-century hymn from Robert Lowry and Ira D. Sankey, this brought tears the first time I heard it sung by Martha Glissmeyer, an actress I'd known for a long time and worked with happily. This piece is the closest I come to having an actual "thesis song" for this album.

This song of mine was the "amen" expression on my previous album. Being a guitar and a voice and everything this album is about, I'm bringing it back. I play it a lot, always at the end of things.

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.)

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 this musical extravaganza.

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 32nd ANNIVERSARY VERSION IS IN THE FINAL THROES OF BIRTH. KIND OF A "HOW WE WANTED IT TO SOUND BACK THEN, BUT NOW WE CAN REALLY DO IT 'CAUSE WE'RE GROWN-UPS" VERSION.

(WHAT IT WAS BEFORE--AND MORE! NO FAKE OBOES!)

AMAZING VETERAN PLAYERS SAM CARDON, RICH DIXON, TODD SORENSON, AND ROB HONEY PACKED THE RHYTHM SECTION. STRINGS, WINDS, ORCHESTRAL SPARKLES.

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 YOU CAN PURCHASE THE MP3S BELOW.

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.

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

Alert: This Physical CD has sold out. I'll announce here when more are available.  Purchase MP3s below.

The rhythm tracks were all recorded on one 12-hour day at Independent Recorders in Studio City, California, the vocals on one evening, the mix on one afternoon. When I drove out of Gerald's driveway in Provo to head for the sessions, he yelled,

"Twenty hours!" We had a limited budget. I think it wound up taking twenty-six.

I played rhythm acoustic guitar.

Lex played the piano.

The amazing lead guitar was played by a wizard named Mike Deasy, who looked like he might as soon steal your motorcycle as look at you, but was really a born-again Christian who was astounded and instantly loyal from the moment I began the session with prayer. His stratocaster was hand carved with a depiction of Calvary. He played that strat, a telecaster, a Martin D-28 (as did I), a Guild (I think) 12-string, a Gibson J-50 strung with all high strings, and an all-metal dobro. Watching him play resulted in the only actual progress I've made as a guitar player since that day.

The bass was played by Dan Mark, except for the title song, which was played by a friend of the drummer, who we let go because he played well but couldn't read music. When Dan Mark arrived on a moment's notice and asked why he wasn't called first, Lex told him the first bass player was a friend of mine. When Dan asked me why he wasn't called first, I told him that the first bass player was a friend of Lex's.

The harpsichord and Hammond B-3 organ were played by John Poole.

The harmonica was played by Ben Benay.

The drummer was a skinny long-haired kid named Dave Kemper, who also served as second engineer. He played well, but I got the idea that he was hired mainly because he hung around the studio a lot. The next time I saw him was thirty-one years later, playing behind Bob Dylan, for whom he is the regular drummer.

Ron Malo engineered.

Ray Morales designed the cover. Mike Palmer took the pictures on the front and inside. I took the one on the back, in South Australia.

THE SONGS

Ships of Dust / Spirals - Hunger / Child / My Shepherd Will Supply My Need (the one I didn't write) / Build Your Brothers / Deserter's Hymn / Poor-hearted Man / I Never Was A Lover / Lost In The World / Clear-water Man / Love: Land and Sea / Saturday's Dream

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.

Everybody does a "white album." This was mine. Entirely acoustic. Not much "punching in." Few overdubs.

This was the second album, recorded in the winter of 1972, the winter after the world failed to beat a path to my door for copies of the first album. I'd been working in a print shop as a warehouseman and sometimes printer, and songs just kept coming. People were hearing them, too, at little concerts, and wanted them. So a tiny little refrigerator of a 4-track recording studio up a cold stair on Center Street in Provo said they'd sell me the time to make an album, to be paid when the album was sold. A pressing plant in Los Angeles said they'd press me the records and print the covers, to be paid when the album was sold. This was an astoundingly loose way to do business, even back then--but I guess Somebody wanted the album made. It was all generosity and good will and the football taking favorable bounces--except that when I went in to check out the studio and make the deal, they had a brand-new really nice-sounding piano. When I came back to record, the music store had replaced it with a brand-new really awful-sounding piano. The studio owners, not being musicians, didn't know the difference. (The raison d'etre for the studio was the recording of right-wing political propaganda.)

My first wife, Niki, sings the harmonies and plays the fiddle. Her brother, Michael Pappas, played second guitar. Tony Larson engineered. Anna Stone took the picture and designed the cover.

THE SONGS

White Stone / Sam Jangle Bingle Bangle Day / I Was A Galleon / We All Are Gathered By The River / Time And Again / Chains On The Lady / Can I Be A King? / I Want This Love To Last / Prayer For Me / I Never Was A Lover

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).

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.

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).

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).

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).

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).

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).

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).

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).

(1978)

The original cast recording of the musical play I wrote with Guy Randle, John Garbett, and Corey Sprague.

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.

CD #1 contains: In Whose Image Am I Made? / Our Brother Walked This Way / They Are Travellers Who Shelter Here / Were You There When The Angels Sang? / What If God Became A Man? / Half A Million Skies / This Is Our Work, This Is Our Glory / Children Of God / You Can't Run Away From God / Father, Mother, We Need Your Love

CD #2 contains: Come To The River (What Have You Done With My Children?) / Song Of Ages / No Other Love / Our Father's Dream / A Good Enough Dream / The Woman And The Moon / I Could Buy You Alaska / The Lord My Pasture Will Prepare / Turning The Hearts / The Passing Of The Keys

CD #3 contains: David Likes To Listen To The Stars / A Once Broken Love / Clearing Stones / Alpine Home / More Holy Now / Eliza / I Live In A Cabin / Think I'm Gonna Lose My Mind / Goodnight Coming Gently / Beautiful Savior

CD #4 contains: I Am Not Ashamed / Maybe We'll Say These Lines Again / The Trail Of Dreams / You Make Me Stronger / If Jesus Was A River / Jesus, The Very Thought Of Thee / When I'm With You / Praise To The Lord / Sweet Sunday Afternoon / A Song About The Way I Feel For You

CD #5 contains: Holy Ground / I Want To Go With You / Praise Him / Give, Said The Little Stream / My Shepherd Will Supply My Need / I Am A Child Of God / The Morning Comes So Slowly / I Won't Leave You / How Gentle God's Commands / How Pale The Wind / A Day Without Your Love / Love At Home / Simple Gifts