New Worship Songs Added!

Mr. Graham's Music Timeline

Pampa, Texas

This page will be a spot to share a little bit of my personal music, as well as introduce some of the musicians I have been associated with through the years. My earliest influences in music were my family, of course. In my hometown of Pampa, Texas, my mother was church pianist at Bethel Assembly of God Church. My aunt Juanita or my cousin Beverly would always lead the singing and my mother would play.

Sometimes my dad would play mandolin. My sister could play piano or accordion. They sang special songs in church, such as when the offering was taken. They begged me to sing with them, but I was always too shy. A traveling band came to our church one Sunday called the Lowell Lundstrom Team. Lowell played a sky blue Gibson electric guitar, and I was mesmerized. He had a weekly radio show that was a national broadcast. Lowell was called "The Christian Elvis Presley."

Haskell, Texas

When we would visit our grandparents in Haskell, Texas, my grandmother Conner would always lead the singing. It just ran in the family, I guess. On the other side of the family, my grandmother Graham had some cousins who were nationally famous Christian singers in the 1950's through 1970's. They sold millions of records and sang on national TV shows. They were called The Happy Goodmans (Goodman was my grandma's maiden name).

Midland, Texas

When I was 10, we moved to Midland, Texas. After a short time, my mother became the church pianist at Gardens Assembly of God. In the 1970's, oil was big in Midland. One of our millionaire parishioners helped pay for weekly TV and radio shows. So, believe it or not, I sang in the choir as an 11-year-old and was on TV every week. While in Midland, my sister, LaNell, was in a singing group that won a national championship in a competition called Teen Talent Search, perhaps a precursor to America's Got Talent.

Houston, Texas

After three years in Midland, we moved to Houston, Texas. As a new kid in town with no friends yet, I was bored. I started teaching myself how to play guitar. Once I knew how to play a little bit, I started leading praise and worship for Sunday School classes and Bible study groups. It didn't take my mother long to become church pianist again, even though we now attended the largest Assembly of God church in America, Braeswood Assembly. Every year, Braeswood would put on big shows at Christmas and Easter called Cantatas. I was invited by the director to play guitar and mandolin in those productions. Many Houston Symphony Orchestra musicians would play with us. It was a great experience.

I had kind of established myself as a reliable, competent musician and singer, so I got invited to participate in a lot of things around town. I also did some musical things OUT of town. My two cousins and I played in and around Haskell and Abilene in central Texas. They weren't terribly interested in Christian music at the time. My cousin Winston and I played Eagles and Steppenwolf cover tunes, like Born To Be Wild. My cousin Ray and I formed a band called Sapphire. We were a little more hard rock, playing songs like Shinin' On by Grand Funk Railroad. No musical recordings survived from that time period and I won't upload any Steppenwolf or GFR on this page. Fittingly though, Mark Farner, the lead singer and lead guitarist for GFR became a Christian and re-wrote some of their hits but with Christian lyrics.

Winston and me in my front yard.

Ray in Abilene

I must include this photo, clearly one of the most precious to me. My mom played the piano and sister sang while I played guitar. We were enjoying having the priceless opportunity to sing The Old Rugged Cross (her favorite song) with grandma Conner not long before her passing. Brings tears every time.

At this point in my "career," I had established a nice little network of friends in the biz. Many conversations and prayers with some of these fine musicians affected decisions I made and the paths I would take. I just want to mention them here: Stan McGlothlin and Jill Tharp of Jesus Generation; George Schwalm, Tom Lascoe and Mike Cropper.

Bart Enoch played drums for the Phoenix Band here in Houston. Sandy Driver was a good friend. We led a Bible study group called S.O.S. for high school and junior high age kids. We were missions oriented and had the privilege of leading many youngsters to the Lord. One of my first recordings was with her which I will share just below. Scott Gertner ended up being the most famous of the group of friends. He had a jazz band locally and was able to do some studio work. He now owns and operates Scott Gertner's Sky Bar, a jazz dive atop one of Houston's downtown buildings.

The recording with Sandy is not a studio effort...just us messing around one day, so don't expect much. Visually, it was a chance to put together some S.O.S. photos from some of our base group / charter members.

Psalm 42 - As the Deer

by Randy Graham and Sandy Driver

One day a friend of mine named George Schwalm said he was asked to lead P&W for a group at the church. He asked if I would help him...said he didn't want to do it by himself. So I did, and we ended up leading P&W for years for the youth and/or singles in the church. Out of that was born the first Christian band I was a part of, Advent. Our keyboardist, Nick Rotondo, had a 4-track recorder. I asked to borrow it because I had written many songs over the years and wanted to lay some of them down so I wouldn't forget them. I'll post a few further down. The guys in the band wanted to hear them and we ended up doing quite a few of my songs in our concerts. I didn't realize it at the time, but this was kind of the catalyst for the band going into the studio and recording some songs. And once we had a record, that opened doors for us to play around town. We were invited to play at bars and restaurants, believe it or not. We had concerts in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Lakewood Church in Houston.

We were also invited to play at the J.R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. The notoriety put us on the radar of an up-and-coming Christian musician named Jimmy Jines who had just recorded an album of his own and done a tour of concerts in California. We became his opening act for concerts for the next couple of years...great experience! We were invited to attend an event put on by Word Records designed to meet with up-and-coming Christian bands. There's much more, but the purpose of this page is just to share some of the music. The song I'm posting just below from Advent got radio air play on KSBJ Christian Radio. Since it was a record single, it had a Side B song. I will share that, too. Keep in mind this is from 1986. Christian Pop music sounds way different now, as you might expect.

Key to Happiness

by Advent

Everyone in the world wants to be happy. Everyone wants to experience love. The Bible says that God is love, and apart from Him, none can be found. That's not to say you can't find love in a relationship with a person. We all love our families, but our relationships need to have Christ as the center. True love and true happiness can only ultimately originate from God and Jesus. The realization of that gave the inspiration / impetus for me to write the song. As always, I had a missions-oriented mindset. I wrote the song for believers and non-believers alike. I wanted the non-Christian to see that if they want true happiness in this life, they need to start a relationship with Jesus. I think I penned the lyrics in 1985. Then I recorded it on Nick's 4-track. The guys heard the song and wanted to perform it. When we were trying to decide which of our songs to go into the studio and record, there was little doubt in anyone's mind. This was kind of our hit, the song that everyone came up to us after a concert and talked about. George's 12-string lead is striking!

We Praise You Lord

by Advent

Just like mine and Sandy's S.O.S. Bible study group, Advent's focus was on the lost. During concerts, this song was great to get the audience in the mood for making the most important decision of their lives, whether or not to start a relationship with Jesus the Savior. But I originally wrote the song just as a worship song to God. I never intended it to be played in a concert, much less be recorded by the band. Yet, they felt like it was the right song to put on the back of Key to Happiness. What struck me was that several people who had owned the record for a while and got familiar with both songs, said they gravitated towards We Praise You Lord as the song grew on them. George's mom couldn't get enough of "Side B." She was her church's organist, and said that every night before she went to bed, she would play her organ along with the song, and it would put her at such peace she could rest easy and get a great night's sleep. Glad we could help, Mrs. Schwalm! I finally got to make good use of my Epiphone mandolin. The song is lush with strings. We had layers of keyboards, multiple acoustic 6 and 12 string guitars plus my mandolin...strings everywhere!

Fly Me to the Moon

HBU Jazz Band cover

I decided to go back to school and get a music degree. At Houston Baptist University, I majored in classical guitar and I was a member of the Jazz Band. My mom took a few pics at my performances, but there is not a recording of us. I am uploading a typical Jazz standard that we performed that has all instrumentation, so it sounds similar to what we sounded like. My most memorable concert from the HBU Jazz Band days was one year we went down to Galveston and played a concert during "Dickens on the Strand." Loved it...was a lot of fun and we were well-received! We also played on the paddle boat docked there.

I finished off my schooling by getting my music degree from the University of Houston, majoring in composition.

The next major music phase of my life happened at Grace Community Church in Missouri City, Texas. In 1991 we started attending there. I wanted to take a break from some of my never-ending music duties, so I planned on just not saying anything to anyone at the new church for awhile about music. Within a week, I was the new worship leader / music director of the church. The pastor had been praying that God would send him someone to take over the music. He had been doing it all. He was well-capable. He had been a worship leader for a world-wide know TV ministry for years. On piano, he could play any song, any time, in any key at the drop of a hat. But he wanted to settle down and be a pastor. I learned a lot under Joey Hamby, but I ended up producing music with his two sons, Jonathan and Jeremie. Both boys had tremendous talent and could play multiple instruments. There were other talented youngsters in the church. We did many things together and I will share some recordings now. It was an odd mix of ages and talents so we never exactly formed a band, but we did produce music and we were loosely known as Grace Jamz...in other words, music produced at Grace Community Church. Our bass player, George, was the oldest. I was next and kind of the leader / catalyst, encouraging talents and recordings, working with everyone. By the way, in the pic to the left, Jonathan Hamby is dancing with Angela Smith. The other lady was on our worship team. We had been invited to play at an outdoor event at Christmas time. Anyway, here we go...

How Would You Take It?

by Jeremie Hamby

The first song I'm uploading from the Grace Jamz group is How Would You Take It by Jeremie Hamby. I can't remember. I think he was still in his teens when he won a song-writing contest. The prize for winning was recording sessions, so this song was done in the studio. He asked all of his music buddies to help him. He knew I had studio experience. I played rhythm guitar for him on the song, though you can't really hear it. Jeremie is now pastor of The People's Church in Dalhart, Texas.

Set It Free

by Stefani Matranga

The second song was written by Stefani Matranga. Stefani was one of those "other talented youngsters" that I mentioned. She ended up becoming the most famous of the group, commercially speaking. From tiny Grace Community Church in Missouri City, Texas, she went to Nashville, Tennessee and Belmont University school of music. She ended up with a stint as a background vocalist for The Charlie Daniels Band. If I'm not mistaken, she still writes and records music. I think I found some of her work online. Her voice still sounds similar even though 27 years have passed. The song here, though, is a recording with Jon Hamby back in MoCity when she was a young teen.

The next four songs from the Grace Jamz era are myself and Jonathan Hamby teaming up. He had a knack for producing good music, but without lyrics. He asked if I would pen some words, so I did. Time to Renew, our first song together, is upbeat and the message is to all Christians to "get on the right track," and get back closer to God. The next song, Rider on the Storm, is from Psalm 29. God is bigger than all our problems. Song three is based on Psalm 127. It talks about how children are from the Lord and "blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." It's called The Hunter's Quiver. The last one, Just a Gentile, talks about how we non-Jews are grafted into God's Kingdom, thanks be to God!

How did I come up with the lyrics for Jon's music? I don't know...prayer, thoughtfulness towards what I was listening to. When I heard the mood of each of his songs, these are the things that came to mind. I just had to trust that the Holy Spirit was leading me in the right direction. Hope you enjoy them. These are from the mid-1990's, so popular music has changed quite a bit. Also, since they were originally recorded on cassette tapes, the sound quality and mixing took a hit. Some of the bass is booming and muffled. But at least you can tell how it sounded, and you can hear Jon's creativity. This was before I became a music teacher, but I was already starting to feel out the role of helping younger people around me with their music. Things like this helped me to realize what I wanted to do. "God works all things together for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purposes" (Romans 8:28). He's working on you now, bringing things and people into your life to prepare you for the future!

I do have photos from that time period, but can't find them right now (other than the one of Jonathan and Angela above). I actually recorded a song with Angela, too. It was a cover of No Eye Had Seen by Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, but I won't upload it at this time.

Time to Renew

by Jonathan Hamby and Randy Graham

Rider on the Storm

by Jonathan Hamby and Randy Graham

The Hunter's Quiver

by Jonathan Hamby and Randy Graham

My guitar part is mixed too low, but otherwise a pretty solid song!

Just a Gentile

by Jon Hamby and Randy Graham

Throughout rock and roll history, occasionally someone will write a "fun song" and it will become a hit. There are many examples, but the ones that come to mind for me right now are Copa Cabana by Barry Manilow (beach song), You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet by Bachman Turner Overdrive (he stutters through half the song), and D'yer Maker by Led Zeppelin. Everyone pronounced it DIE-er-MAKER, even radio disc jockeys. But really it was meant to be a play on words from the Cockney pronunciation of Djermaker...which was their way of saying Jamaica! The song was done in a Reggae style, which was coming out of Jamaica in the early 1970's. I won't say Just a Gentile is necessarily in that genre, especially since the message is a serious one, but the method of delivery is unique, upbeat and fun. I use a mandolin instead of a guitar for the acoustic input. Another Christian example of a fun song would be Jesus My Lord by Jeff Fenholt, also with a serious message, but done in a decidedly 1950's style.

4 Track Recordings

I stated above that I would share some of my 4 track recordings from around when I was in the Advent Band. Out of them came several concert songs and, of course, our studio songs I already shared. Next for Advent would have been a full album. We had a supporter who had pledged to donate $12,000 dollars to us so we could go into the studio and begin recording (that was about how much it would cost in 1988 to produce an album). We already had it all planned out. I can't remember all the songs we were going to include, but I will post a few that we were going to record for sure. One I will NOT include is a song called The Victory. That was George's favorite of my songs. It was kind of harder rock than we usually played, had great riffs and a fabulous lead. It always pumped life into the audience and we got many standing ovations. Trouble is, I never put it on 4 track. Now I can't remember it all. That was the purpose of the 4 track recordings...so this wouldn't happen! The Victory was definitely going to be on the album. I think we had 10 or 12 altogether that we were going to produce, and then decide whether or not to include all on the album or eliminate 1 or 2. I also want to say here that not all our songs were written by me. We did a few that George wrote. He had one that all animal lovers would cherish called Loki. It was a loving song he wrote about his dog that had died, telling him that he hoped he would see him in Heaven.

I'll list the songs here, but describe each next to the upload. I will include That's My Prayer, All My Praise, I Need You Now, Rebekah, and Savior of the World. Many of these songs were done in one take, so don't expect much. I just wanted to get them down to not forget and to have them as a demo. I did not realize I would be sharing them years later with you. When someone says "rough draft," this is what they mean. Also, I'm no lead guitarist. When I played a lead, it was just to show George where he would play the lead and maybe give him a starting point, kind of like a writing prompt. If I made a mistake, I just kept going. The only way I did a re-take was if I totally got lost and had to start over.

That's My Prayer

by Randy Graham

Over the years, I borrowed a 4 track recorder several times from different individuals (finally bought a used one). This song is from my very first session. At one point, early on, I had a song-writing philosophy of "night and day." In other words, some people say you can't appreciate the daylight until you've experienced some darkness. It makes you really appreciate the good times even more once you've experienced some pain. I applied that, literally, to some of my songs. I mean, they weren't painful...at least I hope not. But this is one example. During the verses, everything is plain and drab musically...no extra bells and whistles. But when I hit the chorus, I add reverb and delay to vocals, use my pedals on guitars, add more layers of vocals or instruments for a fuller sound. Also, chord-wise, I used basic chords in the verses, but might use exotics of some sort for the chorus, such as Major 7th or Jazz chords. I think you get it. Give a listen.

All My Praise

by Randy Graham

This song was also done early on, but I re-recorded it in Session 2 to make improvements. Unfortunately, one of the improvements, an acoustic guitar mic'd during verse 2, got muffled over the years. The rest of the mix is clean, comparatively speaking. The lyrics of the song follow a Biblical process of worship from the Old Testament Temple. First, you enter his gates with thanksgiving, then enter his courts with praise. Only after these first two acts could one enter the inner sanctuary for deep, true worship. Then, as a result of successfully worshipping God in Spirit and in truth, he fights your battles for you...and wins, of course. Yes, young Christian, God gives US praise and worship as an opportunity to help us win victory over the wiles of the devil, as the Bible calls it. It's not a selfish God manipulating us to bow to him, it's a loving God providing a venue for us to appropriately show our love and make us winners in the process. In other words, it's primarily for us, not him...just another example of God loving and giving to his children. So, we should praise God daily, but particularly if you find yourself in a troublesome spot, start praising him. The Bible says that he is an ever-present help in trouble.

I Need You Now

by Randy Graham

This song was going on the album for sure. It was one of our mainstays. We performed this one at every concert. I think we changed the long ending to something else. Again, these were concept songs. Once we decided to actually learn them as a band, we made adjustments based on instrumentation and skillsets of the group members.

It seems like half my songs or more are about God's mercy towards us humans. We would be doomed for sure without it, and I thank Him every day for His love, mercy and grace. I love Romans 5:20 because it describes God's grace as having an exponential quality. Just when we think we've gone too far, sinned too much, crossed some threshold to make Him angry, He showers us with an overwhelming amount of mercy we didn't see coming. I try to convey that in verse 1 of the song when I sing, "Feels like I've taken a step beyond your grace." There is no place like that, thank God!

Rebekah

by Randy Graham

I love all Bible stories. We can learn so much from them. We can read them again at a later date and get something else out of them, depending on what we're going through at the time, and what the Holy Spirit wants to tell us. I noticed that no songs were ever written about the brave women of the Bible, so I decided to give it a try. Not only did I write this one about Rebekah and Isaac, I have other songs about Biblical women: Ruth the Moabitess, Rachel Was His Love, and Queen of Persia.

Ruth, of course, is from the book of Ruth and is the story of how, after her husband's death, she goes with her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to their home land where she meets Boaz. The Rachel song is the story of how Jacob worked for 7 years for her, only to be tricked by his future father-in-law on the wedding night. Laban sent Leah (the sister) to Jacob instead of Rachel. You guessed it, he had to work 7 more long years to finally get Rachel. Queen of Persia is the story of Queen Esther, King Xerxes, Haman and Mordecai. In that story, we learn the lesson that God takes what the enemy intends for evil and uses it for good!

I've been told several times I sound like the band Kansas on this song. Interestingly, Kerry Livgren, the lead singer of Kansas, became a Christian and formed the band A.D. They put out some really good songs for the Lord!

Savior of the World

by Randy Graham

The world is too big for us. It's problems are too much for us. Our sinful nature is too much to overcome. Our worst enemy is too strong for us. As dynamic and strong as the best of us may be, death will surely get us all. All (every man, woman and child) who have walked on this earth have to have one thing...a Savior. As Jesus himself said, "In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) He is the one who rescues us from it all. Thank God for Jesus. As one minister used to say it so well, "You don't have any trouble. You just need Jesus!"

So, to bring us up to the present on my music timeline...after Grace Jamz, the HBU Jazz Band and a short stint at another church (they asked me to be worship leader but I was trying to finish up my degree), I took a break from any music heavy lifting for quite a few years. I was newly married and had three small children. I wanted to do the things parents love to do with their children, to be involved in their lives and activities. I continued to write songs. That never stops. Some people have writer's block, where they can't think of anything new for a long time. I've never had that issue. God gives me songs in my sleep. I don't even try to write songs. They just keep coming. Anyway, it literally was not until 2011, when I became the Music Director at St. Francis de Sales School, that I started being involved in music again on a large scale. I was ready for it. I produced two full-blown musicals in the 2011-2012 school year! We've done a lot of musical stuff since then. A lot of students have graduated St. Francis and gone on to do marvelous musical things, such as sing in the Triple Trio at St. Agnes Academy, make it into HSPVA, or to be involved in musical theater at their school. I won't mention any more here.

But I will mention that my sons have grown up to be strong young men in the Lord, and all have shown at least some degree of musical prowess. My youngest son, Thomas, has a keyboard and can play. All my boys are self-starters and have taught themselves how to play. My middle son, William, can play guitar and led worship for the Christian organization at his university in New Jersey. He has also played some around town (Houston) with his older brother at open mic nights at secular locales. My oldest, Joshua, has taken music very seriously. First of all, he's a lights-out guitarist. I've been playing all my life. He's only 26 and can easily outplay me. He has the skill set right now to be a lead guitarist for any band in America, Christian or secular. He also taught himself how to play keyboards. He writes songs and uses computer programs to record. He has some experience in a band called Back 2 You that he formed with a friend. Right now, he's working on a Master's Degree in Music from the University of St. Thomas, where he also minored in music. He has participated in all the musical extracurricular activities one might expect to be involved with in college life, like singing in choirs, ensembles, instrumental and vocal lessons and performance, juries and so forth. He is also in an acting theater group that produces musicals and performances often. If I can get some of Josh's music, and if he'll allow me, I can post some of his stuff here so you can hear it. It's fabulous work, modern, and is cleaner and better than anything I've posted on this page of my songs. I couldn't be prouder of all my boys than I am. I can't wait to see what God is going to do in their lives!

So, God has used my family for decades to lead worship, produce music, even entertain his people. My grandmother, my aunts and cousins, The Happy Goodmans, my mother, sister, father. Finally me, and now my sons. The beat goes on.

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