For the last few months I have been putting together a 20th anniversary video for Donna.  The video contains wedding footage, extremely old slide pictures, videos of our boys, and more.  It was an adventure trying to figure out how to digitize old slides, VHS footage, and 8mm tape.  With the help of some wise friends, borrowed equipment, and close to a couple hundred hours of work, I completed the project.  I am trying to figure out a way to post a version here, but the file is pretty large (a little over 10 gig).

While I was looking for music to use in the project I came across some beautiful music from Aaron Copland.  The selection I used is from a collection called Appalachian Spring.  It was very fitting for a specific section of the anniversary project.  We have some video footage of our oldest son, Austin, with my great-grandfather and great-grandmother.  This is a picture of me with them (The parents of my mom’s dad):

In the video footage, Austin (as an infant) gets a prideful look, and a gentle kiss, from his great-great-grandfather - a very special moment.  The music fits beautifully, as my ancestors come from the area of our country known as Appalachia.

My search for fitting music led me to another beautiful CD...

...and to a beautiful version of a song written by the composer of, “My Old Kentucky Home,” Stephen C. Foster.  The song, titled “Hard Times Come Again No More,” has been redone by Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Nanci Griffith, Johnny Cash, and others.  My favorite, however, is on this CD.  It combines the talents of Yo-Yo Ma, and the voice of James Taylor.  The lyrics are appropriate for the end of 2008, as we anticipate a hopeful 2009.  Below is the song, along with the lyrics, as originally composed by Stephen C. Foster in 1854.

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,

While we all sup sorrow with the poor;

There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;

Oh Hard times come again no more.

Chorus:

Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,

Hard Times, hard times, come again no more

Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;

Oh hard times come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,

There are frail forms fainting at the door;

Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say

Oh hard times come again no more.

(Chorus)

There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,

With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:

Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,

Oh hard times come again no more.

(Chorus)

Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,

Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore

Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave

Oh hard times come again no more.

May 2009 bring to you God’s blessings and an insatiable thirst to know him in a deeper way.

Happy New Year.