Blog for May 25, 2021:  The Story Behind the Song, "Love You In The Light"

The most risky part of a love relationship is at its very beginning, when a couple is learning about each other. Some discoveries can be "deal breakers" such as finding out the other person is still married (!). But in "Love You In The Light" there are still many unknowns. In this song, I declare that I want a promising-looking love relationship to be pure and “in the light”. In the chorus I sing, “I want to love you in the light” after coming from a past of darkness and fear, using "house" as a literary device in the first verse.

At a songwriting feedback session, one concerned songwriter asked about my dark past being "a thousand miles away" as the first verse states. I replied, "Yes, Oklahoma is about a thousand miles away, and when I left it, I was leaving a painful divorce" so yes, this is biographical, as many of my songs are about my real life and real feelings.

How we long for true love without lies messing it up: “Our trust is growing, standing firm and true” the lyrics say in the chorus. Idealistically, in the bridge, “The light is pouring through our skin, into our hearts, down to the bone” proclaiming a wish for love's purity to be permeating, soaking down deep into the core. In conversations I have said, "She loves you down to your bones" when I spoke with a friend about his wife, and when speaking about my mother's love for my stepfather. Seeing successful marriages gives me hope.

When I first performed "Love You In The Light" for my fellow songwriters, they said the chorus needed more “lift”. It took me another year to figure out how to lift the melody using the same chord progression (tip: use the upper harmony as the melody). Also, in a songwriting class I learned that lots of quarter notes in a melody will make a song sound like an anthem, and this song does exactly that: it's an anthem about the desire for purity in love.

Meanwhile, dear reader, I recently created a new Music Video of my yet-to-be-released song, "Holy Spirit, Come and Stay". (Click on this title to go to the song). In the video, it is sung by St. George's UMC Music Director Amy Baillargeon, and I accompany her with guitar and background harmonies. At the top of the page is a studio recording of me singing it. The video was part of the St. George's UMC Worship Service for Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2021.