Yep. “Sweet Dreams,” a song that has ended being a piece for my son. Well, future son.

And now, you can download the .mp3 associated with said piece, like so:

Listen. Download. Share. Enjoy.

Yours in Music, as in Life.

“Edgewater” is another piece from “Whimsy,” highlighting recent and not-so-recent travels along the Gulf Coast. I have always loved the water. And I have always loved the South. Many of my previous songs have been about Louisiana, but none have been about the Gulf Coast in particular. In recent years, I have had the pleasure of traveling to many cities along the Gulf (some close to the coast, some not so much): Tampa, Corpus Christi, New Orleans, Biloxi, and all of the places and people you find in the south have a certain flavor to them. It’s something in the air, and something about the way of life down here that is inescapable. And so that is where “Edgewater” tells its story, in drives up and down the coast, in sunsets watching the waves crash along the shore, and in adventures to have every single day.

So tell me, for those of you who live in the part of the world.. What’s your favorite memory of the Gulf Coast?

Yours in Music, as in Life.

The latest orchestrated hymn I’ve released is “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” and it’s turned out to be one of my favorites. I did it up in the style of some of Aaron Copeland’s more lyrical orchestrations. I wanted it to have a somewhat regal, somewhat pastoral feel to it, hence the heavy use of alternating woodwind and brass sections. To be perfectly honest though, I think it ended up sounding more like a Leroy Anderson piece (he’s the guy responsible for those short character pieces like “Sleigh Ride” and the “Typewriter.”).

To give you a little background on the hymn itself, unless you are a Protestant that’s been sleeping under a rock since the time of Martin Luther, you ought to be just a little familiar with this piece, as it is one of the most well known, and according to sources, well-loved hymns in the Protestant musical repertory. Believed to have been written and composed by Martin Luther himself, and has been arranged by everyone from JS Bach all the way up to Claude Debussy.

The melody is a very powerful piece of work, and I can only hope I did it justice with this arrangement.

Yours in Music, as in Life.

With most of the focus of “Whimsy” being on more ’soft-hearted,’ music, I still found some room to include a piece that will turn your ear in a different direction. “Te Deseo,” also Spanish for ‘I desire you’ is a piece written for my wonderful wife. I wanted to capture the sound of what it feels like every time I look in her eyes, run my hands through her hair, or hold her in my arms. I wanted to capture in this piece all the sensuality that is loving a woman in the most romantic way possible. This song is written for kisses in the rain, candlelight, whispers, and dreams on the lips of two people who are deeply in love. And it is for something much deeper. This piece is written for a woman whose beauty goes so deep that mere words can fail to describe it.

It is a song for every tender moment that was, is, or has yet to be.

And I hope it makes you long for the one you love.

Yours in Music, as in Life.

Happy Friday, music lovers! For the entire month of June, you can download a copy of Heath’s first album, “Patch Work” entirely for free here from Heartspark Music.

What do you do with a guy who cites his beginnings with Yanni, Jim Brickman, and similar pianists, but plays like Bruce Hornsby, Marc Cohn, or Billy Joel at times? How do you sum up someone whose compositions soothe the soul and rock the house, all at the same time? How do so many pianistic influences come together in one bag?

In the tradition of the great pianist-singers, Heath has tried to capture the beauty of stories in instrumental compositions which reflect details from his life. From the quiet yet stirring Hymn to the Marc Cohn-influenced Into the Wind, Heath’s compositions are sure to present something for everyone who loves music to enjoy.

Just a little something from us to you! Happy summer!

Yours in Music, as in Life.

There’s always something exciting about announcing a new project of original music, and that’s the exact purpose of this entry today. For the last several years, I have been heavily involved in writing pieces that have been more heavily orchestrated and embellished in terms of instrumentation than in the past. However, I felt it was high time that I get back to what I call the ‘roots’ of my writing, which for me is lyrical solo piano music.

I have had the ideas in my head and heart for this release for a long time. One day, while I was driving to work, I got this picture in my head of an album cover. And on the album cover, you see a pianist, or rather, the pianist’s feet, while he or she is sitting at the piano. From the attire of the individual, you would think they are playing a formal event, and the tone of the evening would be one of hushed silence and little talking. From the vantage point of the photograph, one can make out both feet of the performer, and on one foot, a shiny black formal dress shoe, but on the other, a fuzzy rainbow-colored sock like the stockings you might find on a birthday clown.

And with that idea in my head, the idea for “Whimsy” was born. With the release of “Your Song” aside, it has been nearly four years since the release of my first solo piano album, and I wanted to get back to the roots of what I feel is the nature of my music. My first songs, while primitive in nature, were full of joy and in some ways, a sense of tomfoolery.

While it is not my desire to recreate the feeling of my first release, I do want to capture that spirit of imagination and sense of ‘fun’ that was present in some of my earlier work. And that, for me, is where “Whimsy” comes in. “Whimsy” is meant to be an album full of laughs, endless summer days, cups of coffee with old friends, smiles on faces, and lovebirds. It will be, I hope, everything magical about this everyday world we live in.

And so, it is with great honor that I announce that this new project will be released on October 5, 2010. It will consist of 12-13 new pieces, and perhaps a few live pieces thrown in for extra measure. And along the way, we will be doing a lot of fun things to get ready for this album, including collaborative YouTube projects, a fall concert tour, and many other surprises along the way.

To kick things off, I want to invite you, the listener, to partake of one of the early pieces I recorded with this project in mind. It is a waltz (and I have always felt like 3/4 was a more natural time signature for me) called “The Dreamers.” To quote my liner notes for this piece

“Children are a very big part of my life. From teaching piano to children, to spending time with my nieces, nephews and the children of my friends, there is something innocent, pure and magical about childhood. And for some reason, waltzes always remind me of lazy days as a kid, letting my imagination run wild and seeing what new adventure waited over the horizon.

This song is for children everywhere, and for the child within each one of us.”

We are only at the very beginning of this project, but I hope you will take some time to join me throughout its evolution. Please feel free to come by and listen to the music as often as you like, spread the word, and join me here at Heartspark for a little bit of our own “Whimsy.”

Yours in Music, as in Life.

Today’s arrangement is about power. The power one single name can have, if not literally then spiritually, to millions of people.

Today’s release is based on the hymn, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.” Often called the national hymn of Christendom, this hymn was written in 1779 by a missionary to India named Edward Perronet. Translated into almost, if not every, language in which Christianity is known, this hymn is sung the world over to several different tunes. When addressing this piece, I wanted to call to mind the importance of this name, this person, Jesus Christ, who sits at the center of the most radical change in the relationship humans have between God. There are striking contrasts between the sections of this piece. It begins like the rising of the sun, strings providing a subtle backing texture to the sound of a lone female voice, singing praise. As the piece progresses, the singing and strings are joined by winds, and gradually the message of this arrangement becomes clear as the thundering of drums and timpani come crashing down upon the listener against a swell of brass.

Yours in Music, as in Life.

This arrangement has been in the library for some time, but I wanted to post it next because of all the hymn arrangements I’ve done lately, this one stands out as being amongst the most unique. I called this arrangement “The Firmament,” but for those of you steeped in classic hymnology, this song is actually the melody “The Solid Rock.” The original hymn was written by a man named Edward Mote, a minister who lived in the 1800’s. In fact, it is probably his best, if not his only, known work. Many may know it by the title “My Hope is Built On Nothing Less.” In this arrangement, I’ve tried to preserve the original beauty of that chorus while giving it a more ’spiritual’ flavor with the use of ethnic instruments and chants.

As usual, feel free to listen, download, and share the music.

Yours in Music, as in Life.

“Amazing Grace” is a timeless melody, and is one of the first pieces of music that I actually learned how to sing. It is easily one of the most recognized pieces of music in the English-speaking world, and is estimated to be performed nearly 10 million times annually. So when I sat down to pen my own arrangement of this song, I begged myself the question, “What can I do to make this feel ‘new’?” In approaching this song, I wanted that timeless element to still be present, which warranted the inclusion of some folk instruments, but towards the middle of the song, the arrangement becomes more fleshed out and the full symphony enters the piece.

There are so many feelings covered in this piece for me. Hope, inspiration, God’s love, and most importantly…. grace.

Bless you, my friends.

Yours in Music, as in Life.

So today I wanted to unveil the first of roughly eleven tracks that will be on the Hymns project, which at this time still doesn’t have an official title. The first piece is a well known melody. “All Creatures of Our God and King” stands for me as a timeless hymn that is well known in both a standard and comtemporary format. I want to treat it light, yet reverently in this rendition.

A lot of inspiration for this project comes from my humble music beginnings in my sleepy little town of Pitkin, Louisiana. I grew up going to a small country church, and a lot of these hymns would be played regularly on Sundays. It was in church that I really gained a basic understanding and love of music.

I believe the same two women that always played our organ and piano are still at my little home church, and hearing them weave in and out of the arrangements of those hymns sparked some ideas in me that I believe I am only now beginning to realize now that I have more musical knowledge.

So I hope that you will enjoy this first offering from my Hymns collection.

Yours in Music, as in Life.