Sunday night/Monday a.m. gospel for 8/16!

That's me, from my beard(ed?) period of recent times.  I was able to sustain it for several months, but eventually my skin said no.  Always happens.  Sucks, because a beard is ideal for me, but no point getting hairy about it, I suppose.

The hand is mine, too, and I'll have to note that it's had far fewer dry-skin issues after we switched to Mrs. Meyers liquid hand soap.  This is not an ad, but give Mrs. Meyers a try.  Ditch the 409 and get her Multi-Purpose Everyday Cleaner.  Best stuff in the world.

This evening's gospel selections are, as ever, me on my Casio WK-3800, multi-tracked up to eight times via my Sonar X2 program--the one I gave up on at least four times in the course of learning it. I guess my favorite (after God Is Working His Purpose Out) is Hubert Parry's 1916 Jerusalem, which I first heard from Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery (my brother's LP, not mine) and then on a Monty Python episode.  The tune shows up in the Methodist hymnal with the hymn text O Day of Peace That Dimly Shines, but it will be forever associated with the following awesome William Blake poem:

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On England's pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire;
Bring me my Spear: O cloud unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand;
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England's green & pleasant Land

I piled up a ton of tones on Jerusalem, because I like the thick sonic texture that results from doing so, even if some of the sounds end up slightly lost in the mix.  I'm thinking the three pianos, for example, which provide wonderful support but don't exactly dominate.  The cello and flute are the stars of this arrangement.

Be Strong! and Holy Is the Lord are killer tunes I've been using over my past 20 years as a small-church organist and pianist.  (They're in my "Old Standbys" folder, along with Vom Himmel Hoch and The Glory Song.)  Plus, six more, including a Lee Hartsfeld original from around 1990--my Offertory in F Major, in F Major.

Don't B-flat.  B-sharp.  B-natural.

Click hear to hear: Sunday Evening Gospel for 8/16

Praylist

God Is Working His Purpose Out (Millicent Kingham, 1894)
Jerusalem (Hubert Parry, 1916)
And Can It Be That I Should Gain (Thomas Campbell, 1825)
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (John Hughes, 1907)
Infinite God, To Thee We Raise (Joseph Barnby, 1872)
Be Strong! (Carl Price, 1921)
Mighty God, While Angels Bless Thee (Francois Barthelemon, 1785)
Offertory in F Major (Lee Hartsfeld, 1990)
Holy Is the Lord (William Bradbury, 1869)

Lee Hartsfeld, on the Casio WK-3800.

Lee