Blog Posts

Inspiration for Writing Cosmos

3/9/2018

Have your cheeks ever hurt from grinning too much? Twice in my lifetime I have greeted the day with sore cheeks. The first was the morning after my wedding day. The second was the morning after I went snorkeling on a coral reef.

Every time I put my face in the water, I would see another amazing creature or plant life that I had not spotted before. I simply could not stop grinning! I even remember laughing out loud with my face still in the water.

I was laughing at God – yes – laughing at the sheer joy God must have had in creating all these amazing creatures with such incredible beauty and variety! It was almost too much to take in!

Then came the Hubble telescope! The first time I saw Hubble images from space, I didn’t grin at all. I could hardly speak, really. It was more like an awestruck whisper…
WOW… WOW…WOW!

When I saw this Hubble image containing at least 10,000 unknown galaxies, not stars, but GALAXIES,
I said to myself, “God is even bigger than we think!” That was the beginning of my inspiration for writing the song, Cosmos.

My mind was blown again recently when I heard the number of galaxies in the universe surpass the number of grains of sand on the earth. If King David were living today, perhaps he would pen the words of Psalm 139 a little differently?

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand [galaxies of the universe]

Just this week, the church choir I am privileged to accompany sang these words from Psalm 147 in Chris Tomlin’s song, Indescribable...

Now THAT is something to grin about!!!

Enjoy my video below of Cosmos set to Hubble images!

0 Comments

REFLECTIONS ON TURNING 60!

2/2/2018

11 Comments

Shock and Awe is one way to put it! I’m not gonna lie, it’s hard for me to process that I am actually 60 years old. Maybe because I'm the youngest in my entire extended family, or maybe because my parents both died young, I never really pictured what it might feel like to be 60!

I remember when I was in my thirties having a conversation with a friend of mine who was in her sixties at the time. (Of course I thought she was old ha!) She said to me, "Oh, being in your sixties is a wonderful stage of life! You can look forward to it!" She lived to be in her nineties and though that conversation seems like just a few years ago, I am counting on her words being true!

I can hear my dear mother in law, if she were alive, saying ...
"but you’re still soooo young!”
Now, I find myself saying those same words to anyone who bemoans turning 40 or 50!

No doubt, my rapidly approaching 60th motivated me to accomplish some musical goals that had been in my heart for a long time. I realized it was either now or never!!!

Why is it that for so much of our lives we want to be older than our age? Isn't it funny how many of the things we tried to rush didn’t turn out to be nearly as much fun as we thought they would be? I remember getting in trouble for shaving my legs before I was supposed to. Why did I think THAT would be fun?????

At some point, we do stop wishing to be older. I am sure that magic number is different for everyone. I don’t remember the exact age, but I remember the EXACT MOMENT when I stopped wanting to be older.

I was putting on my eyeshadow in the mirror and abruptly said, “What was THAT?!!!! Did my eyelid just MOVE??!!!!! I tried it again....YES the skin of my eyelid moved with the brush! Horror gripped my heart!
"I’m getting OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Well, you know the saying, “I wish I was as old as I was when I first thought I was old”! Never a truer saying, so that is why I am heeding my mother in law’s advice and reminding myself on this milestone birthday...
“BUT YOU'RE STILL SO YOUNG!”

11 Comments

YOU INSPIRE ME!

1/12/2018

1 Comment

Calories in, calories out - we've all heard it, right?

Every time I ask myself, "How in the world did I gain these extra pounds so quickly?", the answer is always the same..."Calories in, calories out". It's not really rocket science is it?

Many things in life are like that, we get out what we put in. I am finding that marketing is very similar. I can track direct results any time I do any type of promotion.

I can see how many times each song has been played, as well as the geographical location of those streams. These maps show the countries where my music has been streaming the last 90 days. Pretty Cool huh?

Apple Music Streams

Spotify Streams

Lest you think these listeners are making me rich...right now it's just a trickle. Hopefully, this trickle will continue to grow with time, but only if I keep learning, working, and promoting. I have learned that artists who make an income with their music have worked very hard over a long time to get there. Successful artists promote themselves.

Self promotion is really distasteful to me.
I hate it actually - it is WAY out of my comfort zone! So then, why do it?

It is because of YOU and your feedback!

Just the other day I was feeling kind of low and wondering if I should just stop all this “internet stuff” and go back to the way things were when it was just me and my piano. After all, playing and writing is the fun part for me! That very day, I received a text from a friend who said she had been feeling really sad. She started playing my Pandora station and was “so blessed….feeling a sense of purpose and peace…thank you from the bottom of my heart!” she said.

Can you imagine how that made me feel? It was just what I needed to keep going!!!

The description on my recordings is “Music to lift your spirit”. If my music can do that for even one person, then it’s worth the effort it takes to get it "out there".

So whenever you get an “ask” from me to listen, or like, or subscribe, or whatever the case may be…please know that it is because I hope to be a blessing to just one more person.

Thanks for listening!
Marlowe Carruth

1 Comment

The Story Behind Peacemaker

12/15/2017

2 Comments

Many people have told me that Peacemaker is their favorite song on my CD. For Christmas, I have re-released a new digital single that includes Eric Bikales on flute. This version is how we played it together at the Grand Ole Opry concert.

Now available for download at:
CD Baby, Itunes, and Spotify

Peacemaker has gone through an evolution of sorts. It first started as an idea for a love song, hence the two distinct themes written like a conversation. The story in mind was a husband and wife expressing their willingness to sacrifice in order to make peace. I abandoned the idea of lyrics and finished it as an instrumental piece. It went through many versions before I finally finished it.

In keeping with the original idea, I titled it “Peacemaker” because sacrifice normally IS involved in making peace. It takes open and honest communication on both sides and a willingness to give up something. I based it upon the scripture verse Romans 12:19, If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Easier said than done, I know!

Christmas is the perfect time to reflect upon Jesus coming to earth to be our ultimate "Peacemaker".

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Philippians 2:6-8

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Romans 5:1

This is the good news of Christmas, that God came to earth to reconcile man to Himself!

He started the conversation, He took the initiative, He made the sacrifice, He paid the price, He gave...

I pray you experience the peace of His love and forgiveness this year as never before!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Marlowe Carruth

2 Comments

An "ODD" Thanks This Thanksgiving

11/21/2017

5 Comments

Somewhere along the way, I read an idea that became our family tradition at Thanksgiving. Each person’s place setting had two popcorn kernels. After dinner, we took turns putting our kernels into a bowl while simultaneously saying the two things we were most thankful for that year. It was a great way to remember the first Thanksgiving.

The popcorn kernels were symbolic of the first winter when so many pilgrims died from starvation and disease. Of course, after the Native Americans taught them how to plant corn, the next year they celebrated a year of harvest and thanksgiving together!

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to jointly verbalize our thanks, but quite honestly, my answers are usually the same….good health and family. While those two are still at the top of my list, this year I have a very ODD THANKS at the top of my list, at least near the top – Technology!

Now THIS is the girl that fought tooth and nail to not give up my Xerox memory typewriter for a word processor! My husband kept saying, “It’s soooo much easier to type on the computer!! You can even move whole paragraphs around!” I would naively answer, “You cannot convince me that that thing is easier than my electric memory typewriter – no way!”

Or how about the Christmas when microwaves were new on the horizon and I said, “Whatever you do, DON’T get me a microwave!” The instant flush of color in my husband’s face told the whole story.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of days that I would love to throw something at my computer if it weren’t so expensive to replace! I’ve actually gotten pretty good at making sure I have a project to work on while I wait 30 minutes for customer service, only to find out they cannot answer my question and I have to wait on hold another 30 minutes for a “higher level”!! We've all been there, right???

With all the projects I have had going on this year though, I have gained an appreciation for the fact that we live in an AMAZING day and age!!! We can literally learn pretty much anything we want to learn on the internet! It just takes time and persistence.

We recently kept our grandsons and were reminiscing to them about watching man’s first steps on the moon on live television. It dawned on me…."YouTube!" As I was pulling up the video of Neil Armstrong, I told my grandsons, “You guys have no idea how amazing it is that you can just look up anything in history on the internet! We had to go to the library and look it up in the encyclopedia!”

I’m sure you can guess what came next…."What’s an encyclopedia?" LOL!!

With all of the disasters around the world this year, I am sure most of us will be expressing thanks for the gift of life and our basic needs...food, water, shelter. I have been on enough missions trips to never take clean drinking water and a hot shower for granted!

If you have any trouble finding something to be thankful for this year, take a look at this clever video that went viral....if you haven’t seen it already!

May each of you have a very blessed Thanksgiving! I’m thankful for YOU!

Love,
Marlowe