Reading from inside the CD cover...

When I was in Junior High back in 1968, my parents bought a hi-fi record player. This along with a pair of headphones opened up a whole new musical world to me. I can remember many nights listening to James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel and the Beatles with my eyes shut, in the dark. The music would just wash over me. Many of these songs were filled with odd noises, some would even call them mistakes, but each sound was a joy to listen to. I can still hear the sound of a chair creaking at the end of "A Day in the Life" or the sound of the phonograph needle lifting off of the LP at the end of each side.

Throughout high school and college, I listened to a lot of records, mostly in the same way (with headphones in the dark). As the years passed and I got married, I found that I stopped listening to music in this way. With the advent of CD's, as music in general got more slick and polished, there were less odd sounds to listen to. People stopped making music with noises and mistakes.

Over the past twenty years, I've released four recordings, each of them from live performances at Calvin College. Each had their share of "odd noises." So when I started working on this, my first studio album, I was a bit daunted by the prospect of finally putting out a "mistake free" recording and in a very short order I gave up on the idea.

But as I started to listen to all of the rough tracks, I found myself sitting in my living room in the dark, with a pair of headphones on and in a funny way it felt like I was back in high school again.

As I started planning for this record, I felt that I wanted to record music that was important to me. Music I could pass on to my children. Music that spoke of my love for God and touched on a variety of emotions and styles. As I look back, I can see God's hand at work at every twist and turn in my life. He was there even before I was conscious of Him. I've been singing spiritual songs all of my life and the timing seemed right to put out an album that expressed some of the joy I've found through knowing God.

When I started planning for this record, I was struck by the current battle that is raging in a lot of churches over musical style ("traditional" versus "contemporary"). What I discovered was that what makes a song "contemporary" is not so much the song itself, but the approach to the song. It is far more complicated that just adding a drum and a bass. In a lot of ways it's an intangible thing that has more to do with the musical competence and sensitivity of the players than anything else.

In any event, I felt there was a need for a musical bridge, an album that had a variety of new and traditional songs on it, but perhaps approached in a different way. An album that expressed God's boundless love through the ages. An album that didn't unnecessarily alienate people of my parent's generation, but still had enough going for it to keep my kids interested.

So, here goes! I hope you will put on your headphones, turn out the lights and enjoy.

— Glenn Bulthuis