40 Years: Stories Behind the Songs I’ll Give You the Glory While ignoring my calling and literally watching EVERY possible West Coast and East Coast basketball game of the 2011- 12 NBA season, I was accosted by a certain Dirk Nowitzki commercial. He asked his watchers to close their eyes and envision themselves doing something great: for him it was ending up in the NBA playoffs. Since it was my 20th time seeing the commercial for the post-season, I decided to participate and close my eyes as well. I envisioned living my dream as a songwriter. At the end of the commercial, I turned off the TV in the middle of a contentious game, and decided to go to the basement and write a song that people wanted to hear. I decided on some popular CCM chords and for the next 18 minutes of my life, penned the words and music of this song. What if I had finished watching the game? SMH. Praises be to God! Oh, and I have to give props to my son, BJ (Buck Jr.). I asked my kids to produce me, because I was feeling very lazy and uninspired. The next morning my son came down to my room and said, “Alright Dad, I’m ready to product!” :-) Hence, this project. The beat during the “To God Be the Glory” section was totally BJ’s creation. Coming Home I arranged half of this hymn in 1990, inspired by the group that I was privileged to be a part of, Special Music. Yes, that was our name, LOL. A Take 6 influenced, a capella sextet, whose leader was Joey Kibble. I was writing it for Special Music, but the group disbanded when Joey was selected to be a member of Take 6. When The Lord told me to take a break from full-time employment at Oakwood University in the 2006-2007 school year, I made the time to finish the arrangement with hopes of submitting it to Take 6. An up-and-coming group named COMMITTED (the winners of Season 2 of the NBC Sing-Off) were formed at Oakwood in God’s timing and agreed to learn the arrangement. Be Peculiar Walking into prayer meeting at Madison Mission, I was taken by the Elder Abdele George reading this popular scripture found in Matt 5:43-48. The problem about loving my enemies was that I was currently dealing with someone that I thought had it out for me. What now God? You want me to love them? Immediately the groove and the melody started coming during the meeting. I turned the organ down low, and the phone recorder ON. Lord Make Me Your Servant In the beginning of the New Year of 2012, my wife and I got the opportunity to attend the wedding of Dr. Glenn Phillips and his wife Tina on the beautiful island of Antigua. We were forced to stay for a whole week because this particular airline only flew in and out on Saturdays! Anyway, when returning the rental car on our last day, I was in that mode of setting new year resolutions. I said a silent prayer while driving, “God, what is my purpose? What is it that you want me to do?” No sooner than I stopped praying, I looked at the cassette player in the car, and noticed a cassette that had been in the car for the entire 7-day trip. On this album was a song that I co-wrote with Joey Kibble. IN THE MIDDLE OF ANTIGUA IN A RENTAL CAR!! What I felt the Spirit saying to me was that I should do what He’s been telling me to do. “Write and produce the songs that I’ve given you. You can’t possibly reach the world by yourself, but your music can.” I often doubt my gift, hence the length of time that it has taken me to put out an album. This song’s sentiment is to ask the Lord to make me do his will and stop listening to the devil’s discouragement. There is only one YOU, and God wants to use YOU to touch the world. This song came directly from a dream I had the following day about the most talented guitarist that I’ve ever known, Eddie ‘Spanky’ Alford, who unfortunately passed away years ago. In the dream, I asked his wife if I could touch his guitar. The G and E theme heard in the intro, are the notes that I plucked, which woke me up and inspired the writing of the song over the next hour. Safety Of His Arms I wrote this song on a plane in 1996! Hence, the lyrics, “ I’m Riding High above the Clouds.” But, it has a dual meaning of being in good relationship with Jesus Christ. I love it when we are close. It’s the best feeling to have. The security and peace that His Spirit gives is unsurpassed. Thank You Medley I arranged this medley in 1993 as an encore for my Senior Recital for my BA in music degree from Oakwood College. The testimony is that I’ve been playing it for 20 yrs! What I mean specifically, is that this is the one of the few piano arrangements I’ve ever done. God is good and He gave it longevity. But I did do another one for this project!! Finally!! I Know It’s You Lord This is a praise song that welled up in my spirit one day as I was walking into the music building at Oakwood University. I honestly can’t remember what particular good thing the Lord had done that day. But as I look back over my life, I realize that all of the good happenings in my life, couldn’t have been of my own doing or coincidence. Why did you ask me, Pastor Doggette, at age 25, to be the minister of music for one of the premiere Adventist churches in the world? Why did you ask me, Dr. Lacy, to be the piano instructor at Oakwood University, without a long history of successful piano students? Why did you ask me, Take 6, to substitute for Cedric Dent on an 18-show tour of Japan when singing isn’t my specialty? Why did you ask me, Vice President Anderson, to conduct the world-renowned Aeolians in 2007-08 year with no other class obligations, without knowing that I actually needed that extra time because of my deadline to complete my dissertation? Why am I the chair of the music department that I resigned from in 2006-07? I know it’s You Lord. God Is Good While studying the Scriptures, I made the deduction that anytime there was a great worship service these words would be uttered: “For the Lord is good and His mercy endureth forever.” {2 Chr. 5:13-14; 2 Chr. 7:1-6, 2 Chr. 20:21; Ezra 3:11; Ps. 100:5; 106:1; Ps 107:1; Ps. 118 ; Ps 136; Jer. 33:11; Seems as if The Lord really likes for us to speak about His goodness and His mercy. I read Ezra 3:10-13 in the Message translation that read, “God is good, and He will never quit loving Israel.” That phrasing made it a little more real to me. Great Is Your Faithfulness I was leaving a powerful praise team rehearsal and the songs that were selected were based around the theme of the faithfulness of God. When I was driving home, I was listening to a piano album by George Shearing. On came a great instrumental and while it played all I could hear is Great Is Your Faithfulness. I later learned that the name of the song was What Kind of Fool Am I? But it’s a gospel song to me now! I’ll Confess It This song was inspired by talking to a family member about the reality of 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The words of the chorus flowed from my lips as encouragement to him and I knew a song was coming! Thank you Duawne for singing this. It was amazing to me that you recorded this in Bermuda a week before your terrible car accident with your family in which our loving Father protected you. God is not through with you yet! Special thanks to Mark and Roycelynn Marcel & the New Life SDA Church in Gaithersburg, MD for helping me to finish this song in a songwriter’s workshop I held there. We Three Kings/Chopin Sonata no.3 The fourth movement of the Chopin B minor sonata was one of my favorite pieces to perform in my matriculation at the University of Alabama for my DMA degree. I wanted to make a new piano arrangement so I thought of a song that was minor and it was Christmas so voila! Shout out to Dr. Noel Engebretson of the UA piano faculty. I know that I ruined this precious Chopin piece! My Tribute I didn’t write this one, just arranged it. If I did, I would be a rich man. Lol. Thank you Kevin & Shavonne for letting me steal you off of your Huntsville vacation to record this on a late Saturday night! And We Pray This song was inspired by a mass email that I received from Marti Schneider, wife of Don Schneider, the former North American Division President of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. He unfortunately suffered from a brain illness, and his wife kept us abreast of his successful progress through his many surgeries. The chorus was a line from one of her emails that was filled with gratitude to those who had been kind to them. She hoped to be able to show this kindness to someone else who is going through a rough time. Dr. Wayne F. A. Bucknor Biography facebook.com/wbucknor Twitter: @bucksnotes Wayne Bucknor is associate professor of piano and Chair of the Music Department at Oakwood University. He served as Minister of Music for the Madison Mission Seventh-day Adventist Church in Madison, Alabama from 1997-2012. Bucknor was born in Queens, New York, and grew up in Orlando, Florida. Raised in a musically talented family, he was the first to seriously pursue formal study in music, starting with piano lessons at age 6. He continued music study in Orlando with Drucilla Engel at the Iris Engel Daniel School of Music. Although initially planning to enroll as a computer science major at Oakwood College, Bucknor graduated with both a B.A in piano performance and a B.S. in computer science. During the summer following his fourth year of study, he had an internship to ITT Hartford on the campus of the University of Hartford, where he had opportunity to observe what work would be like in the computer field. At that point, Bucknor decided to pursue music as a career. Bucknor completed an M.Mus.Ed. at Alabama A & M University in 1998 and has completed a Doctorate in Musical Arts in piano performance at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He is also a songwriter, producer, and arranger for soloists and groups, including Virtue (I Must Tell Jesus, Angels Watching Over Me, Till You Believe (piano), the Madison Mission Mass Choir (Great and Marvelous, Open Praise, Lord We Have Come, etc.), Darwin Hobbs, Dynamic Praise (God Restores, O Come), Spring Into Praise Mass Choir (Awesome God), Committed, Charles Arrington, Ann McCrary, Duawne Starling, Joyce and Robert Pressley, Annointed Praise, T Marshall Kelly, and others who have included his work for them on their recordings. He admits that songwriting is his passion and has hundreds of finished and ‘unfinished’ songs. Bucknor toured in Japan with the nationally known Grammy award-winning group Take 6, where he substituted for the ensemble's baritone Cedric Dent. He found the reception given the group to be an exhilarating experience. For the 2007-2008 academic school year, Bucknor was asked to be the Interim Director for the world reknown Oakwood University Aeolians and the University Choir. The choir was blessed with a successful year and toured in the cities of Atlanta, Nashville, Birmingham, Tuskegee, and Montgomery, As of recent, Bucknor enjoys accompanying the Aeolians under the direction of Jason Ferdinand. He also tours with a troupe of talented pianists called the “Keys to the Kingdom.” This group of classically trained duo and solo pianists include: Nancy Dudley, Gail Murphy, Adrian Westney, Shelton Kilby, and Brian Jones, among others. In November 2008, Bucknor was honored as a Young Musical Legend by the NAD Vervent UCAA Conference. Bucknor believes that “one’s greatest act of worship is a life of obedience to the will of God.” Bucknor is married to the love of his life, Carmen Byars. They have three children, Nina, Wayne II, and Cameryn. Brief Discography: VIRTUE I Must Tell Jesus Angels Watching Over Me (co-written with Joey Kibble, and Hallerin Hill) Till You Believe (pianist, vocal arranger) MADISON MISSION MASS CHOIR (producer) Invade the Kingdom Great and Marvelous Lord We Have Come (co-written with Damian Chandler) Open Praise Mighty God This is the Confidence (co-written with Carmen Bucknor) Oh How He Cares Have Faith Just Believe (co-writer) DYNAMIC PRAISE God Restores O Come Let Us Worship The Prodigal DARWIN HOBBS God Restores SPRING INTO PRAISE (producer) Awesome God (co-written with Hallerin Hill) ANN MCCRARY Just Wanna Give You the Praise (co-written with Joey Kibble and Hallerin Hill) CHARLES ARRINGTON Gather Up the Fragments (co-written with Leroy Peters) Album production: Joyce and Robert Pressley T Marshall Kelly Annointed Praise Madison Mission Mass Choir Spring Into Praise Mass Choir Oakwood University USM projects