I wrote and recorded these three songs around the time of Christmas 2022. The song titles reflect the major themes I encountered while after reading George MacDonald’s fantasy novels, Phantastes and Lilith. I first read them in my 30’s, and found myself rereading them every few years since. At 60, I still find these books evoke in me something very special, and I wanted to take the themes and characters and lessons and curate them into a song, with melodies and lyrics that carry me back into those special places and feelings.

I start the writing process by reading then writing a list of resonating ideas onto a page. I then attempt to order the ideas either chronologically or by importance. I then take those sentences and begin to put them into what I call a lyrical format, so the rhythm and rhyme of the words can be sung.

The final step is to “wait on the words” to tell me what they’re trying to say to me personally. After a process of several iterations and weeks I sit down with the guitar or octave mandolin to see what kind of emotion these words evoke. From there, I record the instrumental structure of the song, then I try the lyrics vocally. After much consternation, a multitracked song emerges, and a mix down and export of the audio file is the result. I hope you enjoy the song and consider the meaning of the lyrics. I’d love to hear your impressions!

Tim Hart
Oklahoma

NB: There are no images on these videos, just music, but if you scroll below the video you’ll find the lyrics to each song.

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