Blue Skies

A rendition of "Happy birthday" that you can use to help celebrate that special birthday! (Or any birthday for that matter)

I received quite a favorable response from the song I used 2 weeks ago, from an album my son, Matt, and I did (Turn It Loose, if you forgot or missed it) that I thought I would offer another one from that same project. It’s actually the title song from the project - “Going Up”. I realized a few weeks ago, that some of you might want to listen to some of these songs again, but maybe not all my commentary, so I created a new playlist on Soundcloud, where my songs are hosted, that are just the songs. If you go to my website - linwoodcampbell.com or click on this link, it will take you right to that playlist - all the good stuff without all the babbling! And it’s only August, but my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, and I are 9 songs into our Christmas Project. Most are done, a few having some finals touches including sending one to my Matt, to add some bass. That will be a fun song! Ok, enough babble! Here’s “Going Up.”

Song Only

From Music Monday, song only, no narrative.

From Music Monday, song only, no narrative

I almost forgot to do today’s Music Monday. It entered my mind several times over the weekend but this morning I needed a little jogging, once again from my Flugel Horn friend, Lyn Nash. I was on the phone with him talking about a mix I had just completed of a Christmas song we were working on and he was saying, “don’t put that on Music Monday!” And I’m thinking to myself, good thing he said that . . . So as I begin to think about today’s MM, I ran across a medley of 2 songs I had put together for something - who knows what, but I was not please with how it turned out. Time to start over. The songs are “Still” and “Draw Me Close.” If you know these songs, then I think the words will come to mind as the melody goes by. These songs are very intimate in their approach to God, and I tried to communicate that with this arrangement. If you don’t know the words, then here they are: Still: Hide me now, under your wings. Cover me within Your mighty hand. When the oceans rise and thunder roars, I will soar with

From Music Monday, this is just the song, minus narrative.

From Music Monday, this is just the song, minus narrative.

From Music Monday, this is just the song, minus narrative.

From Music Monday, this is just the song, minus narrative.

From Music Monday, this is just the song, minus narrative.

Before July totally gets away from me, I wanted to let all of you know that my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash and I are recording a Christmas album. Now, I’m a fan of a little Christmas in July, but I was voted down on that so I will not be playing any of the songs we have recorded, although I would like to, I won’t. Shoot. I will tell you that so far it’s a pretty wide selection of songs - everything from “It’s The Holiday Season” to “O Holy Night”. The project is a pretty ambitious undertaking for us and I’ll say I’m really please with what we have done. Still some tweaks and a few more songs to record but we are having fun and making good progress! A few years back, Lynn was listening to a recording project that my son, Matt, and I had done with some of Matt’s friends in the Nashville area. I remember Lynn saying, you know I wish you guys had just turned it loose on one of those songs. Well, that thought stuck with me and on the next recording project Matt and I did, which was all original tunes, we did in

It’s been raining cats and dogs here! I took Joey, our 85 pound Golden Doodle, with me yesterday up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to record some “B” Roll for the church, and specifically, Music Monday. The video that have been using is not very long and I have to loop it a number of times to cover a MM segment. That’s always bugged me so I decided to do something about it. Well, it turns out from all this rain we have been experiencing, the small lake dam on the BRP that’s close to the James River / Big Island entrance to the Parkway was experiencing some serious water flow. I got some video of that as well as some other parts of the water near there and will be using some of this footage here on Music Mondays, until I tired of that haha! Today’s song, Friend Of God, was another one of those opportunities where I was able to bring in some of our singers to record. It was doing a time when we were closed due to Covid, so they came one at a time to record. The backdrop video I set it with was drone footage I sh

The 4th of July is tomorrow. Despite all of the not so good things that happen in our county - despite the unrest, despite the down-right unbelievable things people can do to each other, and think it’s ok to do, I still believe this is a great country. Starting on July 1, and continuing until the 7th I am participating in an amateur radio event called 13 Colonies. As a ham radio operator, I am representing Va in this ham radio celebration of the original 13 Colonies. My personal call sign is K2LLC, but as a Va operator I am K2B, or Kilo 2 Bravo. The idea is for radio operators around the world to contact all 13 Colonies, plus the additional stations located in Philadelphia, Great Britain, and France. If you’re really curious, this website offers more information - 13colonies.us I mention this because in the hundreds of contacts I have made so far, you would not believe how many operators have said God Bless America as they sign off with me. Sometimes it is so heart-felt it brings tears to my eyes. So, th

Well, it’s Tuesday again - good grief! We are in VBS this week and yesterday just got away from me - so, alas, it’s Tuesday and I’m just now getting around to Music Monday, even though it’s Tuesday, I still need to do Music Monday - on Tuesday - yeah. Last week I featured a hymn that we put a little pizzazz into - Come Thou Fount. I got some positive comments about it, so figured why not feature another one?? I did this arrangement with my Flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash some months ago. Ultimately I sent the arrangement to my son, Matt, and he sent back some pretty cool stuff. This arrangement, is the :before I sent it to Matt” arrangement - if that makes sense. After all it’s Tuesday and this is a Music Monday, on Tuesday, even though it’s a Music Monday . . . . .. on Tuesday . . . Here’s Jesus Saves! With a little pizzazz . . . . .. on Tuesday.

Every once in a while, I pick an older hymn and try to do some interesting with it. Such is the case with this hymn - Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing. I enlisted my flugelhorn friend, Lynn Nash, to help me with this arrangement. He played the melody on the first and third verses and I cover the melody on the 2nd verse. I struggled to figure out how to / what to do what that 2nd verse. I’m not a great soloist, as when it comes to improvising melodies on the piano. So I got frustrated trying to come up with something I liked until I decided to give the Hammond organ a shot. Well that changed everything! While I’m not the greatest Hammond player, I did come up with what I think is an interesting improv. We sang this song yesterday in our Horizons service, minus the flugelhorn and hammond solos, so I thought I would use the instrumental version for today’s Music Monday.

Some years ago I was playing at a New Year’s Eve party - you know - a gig. The late Bill Carroll was the band leader that evening and he called for the song Blue Skies. I did not know the tune but he had a fake book, which is basically the chord progressions and the melody. That melody really resonated with me that evening and it lead to the 2nd album project that my flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash and I recorded - the first being a Christmas project. Everyone once in a while I pull that recording out and listen to what we did. Yesterday, I did a remix of the recording - fixing a few things and changing some of the instrumentation I used. If you get any kind of correspondence from me, you will typically see me sign it “Blue Skies” and then my name. We’ve all had our ups and downs in life. And sometimes it’s hard to see Blue Skies when we feel the storms of life all around us. But just above those clouds, are indeed blue skies. So I try to close every correspondence with that little song title. As my friend M

At one point in my life, I was an organ major in college. I gave it up ‘cause Bach and I don’t see eye to eye 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. I do enjoy playing the organ, though, and I am the organist here at Peakland UMC. While our organ is not a pipe organ, it is a fine instrument. One of my favorite pieces to play is the Doxology we sing on Sunday mornings. If you watch our online Sunday service, you will recognize the Doxologies we use in our church services as part of our response to how we have been blessed by giving our offerings. The words are magnificent and the organ is the only single instrument I can think of that can adequately express the wonder and power of these two Doxologies. They are both titled “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow, but set to different melodies and with some different wordings. If you’re watching the words are on the screen with a drone shot of the church. Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow

A lot of times, I will create practice tracks for the choir and or PT to use to help them learn anthems or praise and worship songs for upcoming weeks. Most of the time I just play a piano accompaniment and them each of their parts, and them place the individual recordings, which means soprano and piano, alto and piano, into DropBox for them to access whenever they feel inclined to listen and practice. A few weeks ago I was making a practice version of this song, I Give You My Heart, for the PT to work on. It’s an older P&W song but I did some rearranging to my original chart I had written. As I was listening along to what I had recorded, I begin to wonder what this new arrangement might sound like if I added some more instrumentation. One thing led to another, and, well, here’s my new rendition of I Give You My Heart, with some help from Lynn Nash on Flugelhorn.

Well I did it again…. I was talking to my Flugelhorn friend Lynn Nash yesterday afternoon late and he said where’s Music Monday????? Ooopppsss. And then he suggested one we had recorded a few years back. After listening to it this morning, and making a few additions and subtractions, I am please to offer this arrangement to you. Some of our singers came in and recorded, and Lynn added some majesty to it. Here is Revelation Song.