Happy Places is a music project that describes my mindset when I listen to the finished products that God has blessed me to create. It is what’s on the inside of Steve, that if I can’t explain it verbally then I can best express it musically. I listen to the slow songs and they paint the perfect picture of places I’ve been or would like to go and those places are so beautiful and peaceful. Blue skies, warm days, night’s with the moon really big and bright, with all kinds of bright shinny stars, those are things that make me remember some of the ‘Happy Places’ in my life. It doesn’t matter the time of day, it could be the sunrise, the middle of the day, the evening, or the middle of the night, these songs evoke feelings of happiness from special places in my life. The mid tempo songs make me want to sway from side to side as I enjoy what’s happening in the song. AMAZED is what I am as I am sitting here listening to each song. LOT’S of times, when creating these songs, I remember being in a ‘Happy Place’ mentally. Lot’s of times it would be after I got home from church, and I’d still be in the cool, excited, creative state. So I would sit down and begin to either play something that He gave me at church, or I’d just let the feeling flow, and depending on the music patch I was using, I would let the creative flow take over. I’m so grateful to what God has blessed me with, the gear He’s blessed me with to be able to compose the songs that I’ve done. The sounds that I hear when I play the keyboards or the sounds from the computer, or the lyrics that my wife will come up with, or the riffs that my friend Lewis will come up with, REALLY inspire me to just GO THERE musically and try and record what I hear in my head! ABOUT THE SONGS: 'HOLY' is a praise and worship song that He gave me several years ago. When I would have my own service in my mind, THIS song would be playing. This one has words to it, although the instrumental version is the one on this CD project. ‘Holy, Holy, Holy….Praise Him from whom all blessings flow, Holy’ basically is how that lyrically flows. 'Happy Places' is a song that describes my mindset as I was driving through Houston. No matter how often I drove through town, whether day or night, when I would hear this song, it put me in that state of mind that took me back to jazz music in the 70’s and early 80’s. Almost a carefree happy feeling is what I feel as I listen to this one. Island Paradise is almost self-explanatory. Sunny days, warm nights, with a soft breeze going on and you can hear the birds far off, THAT’S what I feel. Just a totally relaxed state of mind! 'May I' has a story all it’s own. In my mind there is a man and a woman at a fancy ballroom type of affair. He’s in a black tuxedo and she’s in a long flowing, fitting white gown with diamonds on it. He walks up to her and holds his hand out to her and simply asks, “May I?” And they then proceed to dance to the song in one of the coolest, classiest and smoothest dances that I’ve ever seen. 'Ol Skool Groove' takes me back in time. I was inspired by the drum track on this one. I heard a loop and decided to add a little bit of my drumming style to it, keeping it simple though. It took me back to the 70’s. So I wanted to use the Fender Rhodes sound on it to give it a reminiscent flavor of that era, with some modern flavor as well. 'On My Way' was a song that I had lot’s of fun with, because I decided to use a lot of the computer’s sequenced programs to move through the song. The software that I am using is just AWESOME!!! This was done several years ago, but when I hear it today, it STILL blows my mind!!! This was one of the times where I just couldn’t hold my head still while I was creating this one! And the solo patch it was different in a cool way, in that it helped me play differently than what I NORMALLY would do. While playing it, I could FEEL it as well. 'One Step At A Time' is one of my favorite mid tempo songs. I messing around on one of my keyboards and this funky clav sound came up that had some filters on it that changed the sound around depending on how you played it. I HAD TO DO SOMETHING after hearing this! The music track had to support what was going on with the solo track! And this, in a nutshell, is what I came up with. It’s one song that I have to make sure I don’t listen to while driving! ;) 'Peace' is what I literally feel when I listen to this one. Soft, smooth, easy on the ears, mind and spirit, are how I would describe this song. All I want to do is get lost in the moment, and think of some special place to be, maybe with a special someone. Enjoy a time when you just looked, or look, at each other and smile. In my mind I can see two people on a carousel, like what I use to play on when I was little, facing each other as it slowly spins around, and nothing else in the world matters except them and the moment. 'Prodigal Child' is kinda based on the story in the bible that we all can relate to at one point in our lives. Bottom line, Jesus is waiting for you to come home. He’s not waiting for you to GET READY and then come home, because it’s at THAT MOMENT that you ARE ready and He’s just waiting on you to make that move, AS YOU ARE, and come on home! 'Quiet Time', it’s been a long day. You’ve either been working and are driving home, or walking home and it’s quiet and you just have that time to unwind. Many times we just don't get to have ‘Quiet Time’. 'Secret Place' is a song from a previously recorded CD entitled ‘Secret Place’. Sometimes, through life’s struggles and challenges that seem to overwhelm us at times and get us to a place where we don’t know what we’re going to do, or we don’t know how things are going to work out, we need to get to that ‘Secret Place’ and call on God and ask him, earnestly and sincerely to help you, to lead you and guide you and deliver you from whatever situation that may be plaguing us in our lives. 'Transcending Love' is a song I was inspired to write after I had watched a movie one night, which had deep meaning to me. It’s what I felt musically about the movie. His love for us transcends time and place. No matter what the situation He loves us! 'Turn It Over In The Name Of Jesus' is a pure and simple message! Start praying, stop complaining, and ‘Turn It Over In The Name of Jesus’! Nuff said! 'Welcome Home' is the cool happy feeling I get when I hear this one. I can see someone coming back from a long trip, or a hard day at work, and when that door open s and you he him or her walk through it’s just a happy moment that makes for one of the ‘Happy Places’ on this project! 'A Night Out Together', hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. That title was the thought of my wife and when she explained it to me, I could feel where she was coming from. She said it made her think of sitting in a classy place listening to some nice grown up music. From there I got the idea for ‘A Night Out Together’ something that’s always nice to do or have with that special someone in your life. 'Herbish Hustle', lol, is a song that reminds me of one of my favorite jazz artist and some of his earlier works, Herbie Hancock. After I completed the song I listened to it, and thought to myself that this sounds somewhat like something that he might have done or had some influence on, ergo the name of the song ‘Herbish Hustle’. Song Order: 1. Happy Places 2. Island Paradise 3. Ol Skool Groove 4. May I 5. Turn It Over In The Name Of Jesus 6. Holy 7. Transcending Love 8. Quiet Time 9. Secret Place 10. A Night Out Together 11. Welcome Home 12. Prodigal Child 13. One Step At A Time 14. Herbish Hustle 15. On My Way 16. Peace This is a CD project that came about unexpectedly as I was working on my wife Kristine’s upcoming CD project. As I would be working on her songs, whether it would be doing the recording, or listening back and forth to the songs to see what needed to be done to them, God would give me songs in the midst of working on her project. I actually had no plans to do anything with them at the time(some of the songs were done as recently as January of 2014, and some where done back in 2000). They were just songs that I needed and wanted to get out of my head and into my studio. Not knowing what was going on, my wife informed me that an entertainment friend of hers wanted to hear some of my music as well. So while I was putting some songs together to give to her, the light came on and it was like, ‘Here’s a completed CD!’ Needless to say that got added to the plate of music work! The coolest thing in that whole process was how cool and supportive my wife was! She didn’t get mad or anything like that because some attention shifted to another project, which was so COOL to me! I think she pushed me to do it as if it were her own project, which is one of the things I love about her. So I have to say first Thank You Lord for ‘Happy Places’! And secondly thank you Kristine for your support and drive!