An old friend's gift

Almost 30 years ago, I shared many musical hours with a friend and fellow college student -- he on piano, me on guitar. Strange as it seems now, we actually performed together as a duo at a campus coffee house.

These days he's the musical director at a church in the western Pennsylvania borough of Zelienople, and I learned last night that he'd just released a solo-piano CD of Christmas music. Curious, I scooted over to iTunes and downloaded all ten tracks.

I hadn't heard Bruce's hand in nearly 30 years, but the first eight bars brought a wave of memory from my heart and a flood of tears from my aging eyes -- what a gift.

I urge you to go to iTunes or Amazon and download David Bruce Smith's "Arrival: Piano Meditations for Christmas & Advent" yourself. As this holiday season unfolds before us, please join me in reveling in my old friend's seasoned genius.