My new album, “Dave Colvin-Songwriter, Then and Now”, has been released on all digital music platforms like Spotify, Amazon, Pandora, iTunes, Apple Music, etc. For those who do not use those platforms, I have placed the album on my music publishing website at: https://www.arnybarnmusicgroup.com/…/dave-colvin… where you can listen to the whole album or download it as well!
These are 10 special songs I’ve written over the past 50 years that have special meaning to me! Songs of life, love, happiness, encouragement and coping with loss! Hope you enjoy it! Please let me know if you have a favorite song or songs!! Also PLEASE SHARE!
My new Contemporary Christian song, WE FORGET WHY, officially released to all digital distribution sites on 12-24-2022! All links can be found at: https://www.arnybarnmusicgroup.com/we-forget-why-single I had a soft release of the song earlier to various social media, Facebook, Youtube, etc. on 12-01-2022.
I originally wrote the song December 27, 1975! Two days prior I got Paul Simon’s new album, Still Crazy After All These Years, for Christmas! One of my favorite albums of all time, it had a song called “Silent Eyes” which captured my attention! In the lyric it references the city, Jerusalem.
As a songwriter I had not yet written a song that was religious in nature and did not reference any city of historical importance. Also, being around Christmas time, I thought I’d write about the reason for the season! I did not have much experience writing in the Christian genre but having spent some time singing in the church choir I thought I’d use the structure most hymns have – very repetitious, simple with a memorable melody!
I recently found the original lyric sheet from the day I wrote the song in 1975! The original title was “Bethlehem”.In rewriting the lyric, I changed the title to “We Forget Why” which I felt made more sense. The song was about Jesus’ journey, not only about Bethlehem. The original lyric 3rd verse sought to basically rhyme the word “Earth” with “birth”. I felt that to complete the story from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, the 3rd verse needed to go to where his Earthly life ended hence Gethsemane! Full new lyric can be found down below! This past March I released an album of songs I had written originally in the decade of the 1970’s and considered putting this song on that album but felt the lyric and genre was too different from the other more “folky/pop” songs so I left it off.
Then in November, my wife Debbie and I were talking about Christmas type songs and I started singing “We Forget Why” to her acapella. She asked me to sing it again, and again! She said she had never heard me sing this before in the 44+ years we’ve been married and she loved it!
So the next day I started working on recording tracks for the song! I wanted to give it a spiritual sound with a kind of haunting feeling. Not haunting in a frightening way but rather because of the subject of how we have forgotten why Jesus died on the Cross for us! I tried to keep the tracks simple with a piano track, bass guitar track, and a harp track. With only 3 verses I decided to make the 1st verse very simple then add some more fill in with the 2nd verse. By the 3rd verse which discusses Jesus betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, I added a digital choir track that added “AHHHS” to my lead vocal.
Side note regarding how hemophilia has affected my music : I originally wrote the song using a guitar. The chords were difficult to play back when I was 20 years old but now at 67 I am no longer able to finger them properly so I had to transpose to the piano. Kind of sad because the guitar really adds to the sound in my opinion.
I hope you enjoy this song which reminds us of the life and sacrifice made by Jesus if Nazareth so that we may never forget why he bled!
WE FORGET WHY
VERSE 1 I’ve heard of a place called Bethlehem And the people there found a bed for Him This wondrous child who would free us all Who will free us all and take away our sins
CHORUS But we seem to forget Yes, we forget Why He bled
VERSE 2 And I’ve heard of a place called Jerusalem Where the Holy pray and they sing the hymns Of a wondrous man who could free us all Who will free us all and take away our sins
CHORUS But we seem to forget Yes, we forget Why He bled
VERSE 3 I’ve heard of a place called Gethsemane And the people there called Him the enemy This wondrous man who did free us all Who has freed us all and took away our sins
CHORUS But we seem to forget We still do forget Why He bled
VERSE 2
IT WAS COLD THAT EARLY FALL
WHEN I FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU
IT SEEMED AS THOUGH WE HAD IT ALL
TILL YOU LEFT WITHOUT LEAVING A CLUE
THOUGHT I FOUND SOMEONE WHO WOULD ALWAYS LOVE ME
NOW LONELINESS IS ALL I CAN FIND
I CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY MIND, NO
I CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY MIND
BRIDGE
ONE DAY SOON
I WILL BE HAPPY AGAIN
½ VERSE 3
BUT FOR NOW I’M LETTING THE THOUGHT OF YOU
TEAR ME TO SHREDS INSIDE CAUSE
I CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY
SOMETINES I THINK THAT I’M LOSING MY
GOT TO GET YOU OUT OF MY MIND
OUT OF MY MIND
2009 singing to tracks after getting over a broken elbow!
2010 – favorite year
From 2007-2011 I was blessed to have been invited to perform each year at the Decatur Celebration in Decatur, Illinois! As they get ready to head into the 30th year anniversary next weekend of the annual street festival, I think back fondly on the experience – even the first year I got rained out!
Regardless of the year, it literally takes a village (my family) to get me up on that stage! I sang on a relatively small stage set up for local performers that was called the Mini Place Stage, later changed to the Street Jam Stage. Between Debbie nervously making sure I didn’t fall and my son-in-law and brother-in-law helping me up and down the 4 stairs on the side of the stage, I could not have done it without my family! Each year friends I’ve known since childhood would take the time to come see and hear me sing – that has meant so much to me!
My song, “My Decatur My Hometown” had gotten some local press that initially brought about my invitation to perform. I had put together a CD of my original songs called “HOME” and our daughter, Meredith, ran the “Merch Table” selling that as well as t-shirts we had made up.
2007 Rained Out!
Each year was special! In 2007 I was 5 minutes from getting on stage when the clouds opened up and it rained, heavily, for two hours!! Never made it to stage that year!
2008 Sun in my Face
In 2008 the sun was in my face most of the time but I did get interviewed by the Herald & Review newspaper regarding the rained out year and my song about Decatur!
2009 singing to tracks after getting over a broken elbow!
2009 I had just healed from a broken left elbow so I sang most of the songs to the music tracks recorded here in Nashville! I did play two songs on the guitar but didn’t feel I could play the whole show! 2009 ended special as well with my wife Debbie, my sister Judy, her husband Rich, my cousin Bryan and his son Tony joining me on stage as the Colvinnaires to sing “My Decatur My Hometown”!
2009 Colvinnaires
2010 – favorite year
My favorite year was 2010. They had moved the stage from in front of The Arts Council building to over by The Avon Theater. It seemed more wide open – folks could sit on the grass or at the couple of picnic tables. The stage had a little shade roofing it had not had before. The temperature was warm but not hot as it was the other years.
HOT 2011 final performance at the Celebration
After barely getting through the extreme hot temps of 2011 and cutting my performance short by about 10 minutes, I felt it was probably time to call an end to performing. It was getting more difficult getting me up on stage and more difficult getting through a set that I use to be able to perform much longer and more easily! My elbows were swelling more frequently adding to my decision.
So after a final local performance in Brentwood, TN. (another outdoors- in the heat situation) in August of 2011, I’ve not performed since save for a talent show appearance at our church!
I had surgery on my right elbow in 2012 and just had surgery on the left! Now that both elbows are fixed – maybe we can find some indoor venues where I can more easily share my music?
I will always, however, be grateful and thankful for my years playing at The Decatur Celebration and thankful to my family and friends for helping me do what I love doing!
I have the whole half hour show from my fave year of 2010 here from Youtube for you to watch if you like!
Filmed by Lewis Marien with a little help from his family! 🙂
My Music – Track 1 Musical Reunion – Dave Colvin & Greg Pryor
In March of 1974 my longtime friend, Greg Pryor, and I were part of a group of kids from the MacArthur High School Choirs in Decatur, IL that appeared on the local morning TV show, Looking In, to promote the spring choir program, Musical Revolution 2!
Greg and I opened the show with the Loggins & Messina tune, My Music. An upbeat number that came off pretty well for a couple of 18 year olds! Fortunately my sister audio recorded the show on cassette tape that we have to this day!
Fast forward 40 years to October of 2014. Greg, who now lives in Michigan, came for a visit to Nashville. Prior to arriving, I had asked him if he would reprise our singing Mu Music on the CD I was working on, Musical Reunion. He said yes! We had not sung together in years. I had pre-recorded the guitar track so we could focus on the vocals. After maybe 3 rehearsals of the song, we made three or four full recordings that I could work with in mixing it all together. But from the first opening of our vocals, we were transported back to 1974! Both of us felt the magic! We even changed a couple of things around – at the phrase “God knows that I love…” we used to sing it together but I got distracted messing with the recording software and missed the cue to sing so only Greg came in on time! I decided it sounded pretty cool so we left the change in! Also at the end we used to just sing the “Do-do-do’s” and never sing the last word, “Tune” – I decided to add that back in and it really gave the song a good closer line!
As I said earlier, we have the original recording so on the CD, not on this clip, you can hear the first 30 seconds the 18 year old Dave & Greg!
Music has always been so important in my life and the lyrics reflect that so I decided that it needed to be the first track on the CD!
Hope you enjoy – “My Music”!!
Dave My Music Clip – Dave Colvin And Greg Pryor
A Songwriter's Journey 