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July 16, 2021 Blog: The Story Behind the Song, "How Many Kinds of Love?" and its unusual recording:

As soon as we hear the word, "love" and put it into a song, we assume romantic love right away... or at least I do!  But I decided to write about all the other kinds of love that sustain us. In my song, "How Many Kinds of Love" (click on the title to hear it from its page), I started at the beginning, with a baby who has a mother's love,"the purest love" as the song says. Next, I asked myself, "What's the kindest love?" and came up with our household pets, our animals, who "know to love your hand"  because they associate love with our hands. Then, I added the deepest love, woman and man, then the biggest love, extended family. Next, I added a verse about showing love to strangers, or semi-strangers ("the postman") and co-workers ("Mother baked for the office"). I ended the song with "the great, important love" for the listener to fill in the blank. A tableful of listeners at a performance of the song asked me who I meant. I told them that it's about loving God. He's the great, important love because He will never leave us.

What's interesting about the recording of "How Many Kinds Of Love?" is that it starts with a living-room recording that I used because my guitar sounds so deep and full. However, halfway through the song, you'll hear the recording "morph" or "segway" blend into a LIVE recording. Next, you'll hear a harmony part sung by my lifelong friend, Wade Moroughan, who also added guitar parts. I couldn't choose between the two recordings of the song, so I started with one and finished with the other (and you can hear the audience applause at the end!)! Many thanks to my friend Stephen Curtin, who blended and compiled the two recordings into one.

I met Wade Moroughan in high school, where we were in an acoustic-guitar folk band. Wade showed me how to play "Marcie" by Joni Mitchell, using an open-G tuning on the guitar and I was a Joni Mitchell fan from then on! In 1988, we played together at The Lighthouse coffeehouse at the Church of the Apostles in Fairfax. That's where the LIVE recording was made. Once, during a conversation with Wade, he said that my songs were "profound" and that ONE word, that one comment put wind in my sails!

If you're wondering about the photos, I'm in all 4 of them. Mother and Daddy with baby Paige are at the bottom. The top left is my singles group from New Hope church many years ago. In the top right photo, I'm 28 years old, holding my cat, Grindle!

Your local Singer/Songwriter,

Paige Powell

P.S. After I wrote "How Many Kinds of Love" I thought of other kinds: a love for nature and the seasons, a love for the beach or mountains, or a love for snow or forests. I could go on and on, but this song already has 6 verses and that's too many!

Hear the

Song >

You can sing along and begin to think of the many kinds of love we have in this world. Paige’s voice has a wide range, heard in this song from soprano to alto (maybe a few tenor notes?).

You may notice a shift in the recording from studio to live (!) after the first 3 verses. In the first part, the guitar sounds nice and rich, with deep bass notes, and then the song merges into a 1987 live recording at a coffeehouse at Church of the Apostles in Fairfax, VA. The performance at the coffeehouse includes Wade Moroughan playing acoustic lead guitar and singing harmonies and echoes. The recording ends with a nice finish of applause.

With the guitar tuned in an open-G-drop-C tuning, there’s a fullness of bass for this song. It has a folk-song structure with a recurring 2-line refrain.

Paige’s mother really loves the first verse and takes it personally! It’s folk-song structure is created so that the audience can sing along, which you can hear in the video of the live performance to the right.

How Many Kinds of Love?

words and music by Paige Powell                      ©1989 Paige E. Powell

Chorus: How many kinds of love do you see?
 How many kinds of love can there be?

1. The purest love is from mother and child
And lasts after they've grown
The baby feels such happiness to know that he is home
(Chorus)

2. The kindest love is for animals, for they don't understand
They can't tell you how they feel
But they know to love your hand(Chorus)

3. The deepest love is from woman and man
They touch each other's souls
Freedom they will give and take, and love without controls
(Chorus)

4. The biggest love is for family, the newborn and the old
It stretches across whole continents,
Loving more than you can hold (Chorus)

5. Dad was kind to the stranger stranded in the snow
Mother baked for her office, the postman said, "Hello"
(Chorus)

6. I know you think I am leaving out the great, important love
But words could never fill the heart
Like the love you're thinking of
(Chorus many times)

Scroll down to see a video of Paige
performing this song in front of a live audience.