The Cricket and Seagull Fireside Chat

Parley P. Pratt. Even his name is interesting. Minister, missionary, poet, author, and Apostle; he lived only 50 years, but left a powerful legacy including an autobiography and some 50 hymn texts -- many of which are still favorites of the Saints. Now "Parley P. Pratt's Greatest Hymns" gives new arrangements to these favorites, and musical life to many others for the first time. The writers, arrangers, and producers for this project are Pete Peterson and Roger Hoffman. Pete is former Executive Vice President of WordPerfect Corporation, currently a volunteer with the Perpetual Education Fund, who says he would have been an excellent musician except for his problems with rhythm and intonation. Roger is is a Clio and Peabody Award-winning songwriter, singer, and arranger -- the writer of "Consider the Lilies," a Tabernacle Choir favorite. Today we talk to Roger and Pete about bringing the hymn texts of Parley P. Pratt to life. Thanks for listening! - SKP

For years the original manuscript of "The History of Joseph Smith, Jr. by His Mother, Lucy Mack Smith" was lost, but once it was recovered, Scot and Maurine Proctor, editors and publishers of Meridian Magazine, combed through the manuscript to restore Lucy's fascinating original narrative. With the addition of maps, nearly a hundred photographs, and painstaking endnotes, "The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith, Jr. by His Mother" has become the authoritative edition of this historical treasure. This week we bring you excerpts from a longer presentation Scot & Maurine Proctor gave in June of 2005 at "This Is The Place Heritage Park" at the mouth of Emigration Canyon in Salt Lake City, Utah. (See Dec 2005 Archives for Part 2.) Thanks for listening! - SKP

What if you were given a major project to get done in just one year, but you could only do it in the cracks -- those small stretches of 15 to 20 minutes between meetings, family events, and everything else you're doing already? That was the challenge for Hilary Weeks; singer, songwriter, Deseret Book recording artist, and mother of four--including a new baby. "Day of Praise" is her latest -- a collection of musical moments found in the cracks and corners of an already full life. - SKP

If you tried to write a resume for Cherie Call, you'd have to use small print and single space and you'd still be hard pressed to get it on a page. But, of course, all of that is really beside the point. You just watch her pick up guitar, fiddle with the tuning for a bit, and then sit back and melt into the stories -- because that's really what her songs are, and a storyteller is really who she is when she sings them. This edition features songs from "Beneath These Stars," the latest release from Cherie Call on Shadow Mountain.

She was raised in Orem, UT, but found her home in Manhattan via Texas and Louisiana. When she's not busy as a free-lance composer she conducts, arranges, plays jazz keyboards and works with everyone from the Grateful Dead to her ward choir and Ephraim's Harp. For this edition I reached Lisa DeSpain at her NYC apartment and talked about everything from the new Ephraim's Harp CD "Saints Bound for Heaven" to Shape Note singing to the new temple in Manhattan and being a New Yorker through 9/11.