This observation gave me the courage to accept my own voice and sing my own songs. I didn't invest much time in doing other artists’ material. After all, who can do a song better than the one who conceived and created it? There are exceptions, of course.

     Another thing I struggled with was whether I was a composer or a songwriter. When I  hear the word “composer”, I instantly think Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and a host of others. I didn't grow up with it so I educated myself and came to have a great love for classical music, and I have a pretty extensive library.

     I haven’t listened a lot in the last few years, being busy with other things, but I know it

has always influenced my playing and writing. I finally decided though, I am not really a composer like those other history–makers.

                  This is not to minimize the great gift I believe God has given me.

I don’t have perfect pitch, but I do have absolute pitch, which means my ear can measure the distance between tones (intervals), and I can write them down. Once, after I accepted Christ, someone at a prayer meeting laid hands and spoke a word over me, calling me a psalmist. I have always thought of this as my identity ever since––thus,  Music Unto The Lord.

               I do have a lot of respect for those musicians with enough savvy to make a living from music. I never have. I think I get something like $0.0001 when someone streams one of my songs on Spotify. I may have recouped enough to cover what was spent to get the music out there. Still, I’m honored when anyone gives me their time and attention to hear what I have to say. Thank you!

      I have five homemade albums on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, CD Baby, and likely some other places (see Links). When my first album was distributed in 2008, I was told I had a small following in Latvia. Who knew?

     I have identified as a songwriter for a very long time. I would hear success-

ful artists like Bob Dylan and think, “He doesn’t have a good voice, but, like it or not, it is unique, memorable, identifiable.“

          Bach is quoted as saying, "The aim and final end of all music should

be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul." A more contemporary, but more obscure composor, George Crumb, in my college music theory textbook, said that "Music is a system of proportions in the service of a spiritual impulse." I concur, and I hope in my own way to be inconspicuously significant.

September 24, 2021

I have just posted all my albums on my site here. I really hope you'll use a

good set of headphones so you can hear everything. See the Discography

page for links.