What People Are Saying About The Songs On This CD Nancy G - "Hey, Hey Garko! Your light and love are shining through especially on the lyrics. Go for it!" Lisa Natoli (Teachers of God Foundation) - "Garko, you rock, and your songs are amazing." Bonnie Kimball - "Andy & I LOVE rocking with Garko and the Holy Spirit!" Britney Shawley - "Oh you are great Garko. Your video is well done, your music makes my heart sing and you can tell you are inspired to do this." Lorraine Shields - "I downloaded your album (Spirits In The Silence) and I Love love love it, My favourite song is ...God is in the silence... I play it and play it and play it and sing my head off to it ... Thank you so much, it's really put a sparkle to the many sparkles I have in my life .. You are one God created talented man .. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you .. Cant wait for the course in miracles CD .. God blessings to you brother xxx Judy Morton: Yes, Garko is so great, "A spiritual Bruce Springsteen" I can't wait for his new CD centered around ACIM!!! In setting out to create this CD I did not want it to sound like much of what you hear from new age artists.... lush arrangements, lyrics more like mantras and all pretty much of the same style, tempo, etc. My objective is to make a CD that rocks with different musical elements - rock, folk, folk rock, country elements, blues elements, gospel along with the new age style. So I am embodying the idea of "unity" in the musical elements of this CD all brought together to celebrate the beautiful messages of ACIM. Catchy melodies, uptempo songs and ballads, great hooks and, really just a lot of fun to listen to. New students and long time students alike will enjoy listening and being reminded of these truths and people who were unfamiliar with these teachings of Jesus in ACIM will find their faces smiling and their toes tapping as they get introduced. So it will be a great gift for everybody on your gift list come Chirstmas time and all year round. More info is available at www.course-miracles.com Below are brief descriptions of each of the songs This work is all about integrating quotes and spiritual teachings from A Course in Miracles into songs with strong hooks so as to make it not only easier to remember these lessons but hard to get them out of your head. Elaine’s Prayer – i had precious little to do with this one except for being in the right place at the right time. Elaine Falvey is a beloved attendee of the friday morning gathering organized by Lisa Natoli and Bill Free for the Teachers of God Foundation in Amesbury, MA. She is also one of the sweetest, nicest and happiest people I have ever met. Elaine was at an ACIM retreat in Biddeford, ME in September which I was also attending. Elaine felt the event helped her get closer to Jesus. A few days after the gathering was over, Elaine, a house cleaner by current profession, spontaneously started singing this prayer to and about Jesus and recorded it on her cell phone. It is so real, authentic, beautiful and such a unique expression that I got with Gene Sibley my studio guy and added the backing tracks. I really wanted this sound to open the CD and so it does. Alone Too Long Without You (Dear God) – This one doesn’t have much in terms of quotes and spiritual messages from ACIM exactly but it is a personal song of my own reconnecting with God, opening up my heart and embracing divinity. I borrowed a characteristic from the spiritual poems of Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet and Sufi mystic currently very popular with “New Age” people, referrenced by Wayne Dyer and others often, by referring to God as “my love”. Springsteen-esque rocker to infuse some energy from the get-go. Not an easy song to accomplish because of a lot of moving parts, a modulation and a major change in mood from start to end. Lord, Here I Am – This song is a prayer that anyone can use to start their day. Essentially I put to music the prayer from workbook lesson 275. “Your healing Voice protects all things today, and so I leave all things to You. I need be anxious over nothing. For Your Voice will tell me what to do and where to go; to whom to speak and what to say to him, what thoughts to think, what words to give the world”. The title is also what Jesus advised Bill Thetford to include in his prayer in response to Bill’s request to be able to hear Jesus as Helen did. Can You Feel The Spirit? – Accepting the atonment is largely dependent on our ability to connect to, hear, feel, experience the Holy Spirit. So this is the title of this song and of the CD. I split the song into three parts in an attempt to parallel to some slight degree the unique way that ACIM is written – holographic and not so much in linear sequence but more so enabling the essential ideas to tie in with other ideas throughout the work, juxtaposed with other ideas. Rise Above The Lies – The bridge of this song has an interesting metaphorical description of the ego and a very contemporary electronic sound. The idea here was to add a bit of darkness to the proceedings because being vigilant for God and against encroachments by the ego is not always a walk in the park so this keeps it real. Depeche Mode fans should love this one, so should whatever King Crimson fans are around. You’re Always Free – Actually this one is from 2011 and before my opening up to ACIM. It shares the same essential non-dualistic center of spiritual teachings “Life is just a dream/a magician’s spell/when you think it’s real you make your own hell/when you live your life in equanimity (a word Jesus uses several times in ACIM)/you’re always free” Alternated the third line with “still you can’t be fooled when you learn your lessons well”. A happy, lilting, reggae-ish tune to offset the darkness of the previous. Deeper The Well – a song, reminiscent of The Band (“The Weight”, “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down” and other classics) about meditation that becomes a meditation in which you can hear my tone getting more and more peaceful. This song includes several quotes from ACIM including “This is a day of stillness and of peace”, “The light has come” and “I am just as God created me” Step Back Now – 1950s full throttle rocker which integrates elements from “Twist and Shout”, “At The Hop” and many other songs from that era into a two and a half minute energy blast which basically says to step back and let God lead the way. I Want To See – Sounds more like jingle bell rock than anything else I can think of. Essentially based on the workbook lesson which states that “above all else I want to see” Don’t Need No Ticket – this was from about a year before I became a student of ACIM. It was my answer to Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” because, as it says, “you don’t need no ticket ’cause there ain’t no train/right where you are is heaven my friend”. it has a nice boogie feel to it and ends with a breathing meditation above the repeating title riff. “Breathe in God, Breathe out love” Love of God – sung by Irene Tomkinson and I sing background. A standard gospel music piece that goes into double time with overlapping “love of God” bass vocal line and Irene’s high energy gospel phrasing applied to “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists…” Teachers of God – Especially in the Teachers Manual, Jesus talks much about us as “teachers of God”. this is a folksy song with the chorus “we’re all students/we’re all teachers/the more we teach/the more we learn/we’re all students/we’re all teachers/love and forgiveness light our return” and sung with about 20 people gathered by the Teachers of God Foundation. Christ In You – Totally intended to be sung by Unity church choirs. God Is In The Silence – also from 2011 – a very strong Van Morrison kind of gospel song with some personal lyrics in the verses. God IS in the silence and in everything I see. Love and Grace Ascended – a poem that I wrote after the passing of Joanne Westlund who was one of our beloved from the Friday morning gatherings and passed on from cancer in July of this year. Her time in hospice was so inspirational and transformational to all around her because she was so peaceful, joyful and loving. Music beautifully written (as were a couple of other songs here, check the credits) and performed solo on electric piano by the immensely talented Barbara Whitney. Rebulding The Temple – taking us out on a highly spirited note this is a traditional folk or country gospel medley with New Orleans “Saints Go Marchin In” horns which integrates numerous quotes from the Course.