An Amazing Opportunity
The first week of April 2026, Shaun Mills, a guitarist with the praise group at church, introduced himself to me and said he had heard that I was a songwriter. I explained that I am more of a poet than a songwriter, but that I had come up with melodies for a couple of my poems and that “Fill Me with Thy Fruit” had been used at Nancy’s and my wedding, and the choir had sung it one Sunday.
“Would you be interested in meeting a couple of times a week to work on praise songs?” He asked.
I liked the idea, and we started meeting weekly. We agreed that anything we published would be royalty-free to churches and non-profits. We both want to produce music that glorifies God. Besides, I have to work to keep my ego in check when people appreciate what we do. I get kicks out of making people smile.
In the meantime, Nancy went through five months of pain. First, in February, her knee replacement surgery somewhat curtailed her horseback riding and gardening. Then, the night after her surgeon cleared her to resume normal activities, she experienced extreme back pain that persisted until the first of July. Lots of prayer, two visits to Pain management, and a wondrous chiropractor brought her back to “giddy-up, go” status. As her caregiver, I was more inclined to stay home with her than play golf, and when I’m at home, I write.
The first song Shaun and I wrote together was inspired by notes Melanie Cuddy, my friend from Saddleback Church, shared with me. One phrase caught our attention, and the song “Lord, Lead Me On” was the result. “ Joyfully” and “I Know Where I am Going” followed in quick order. Then Shaun left for a three-week visit with his son in Florida.
When he returned, he was barely able to contain his enthusiasm. His son introduced him to Suno, an A.I. website. With Suno, we feed a song with our original lyrics and melody into the app. Then the app will add the harmonies, instrumentation, and filter our voices or substitute voices we specify. The result is radio-quality songs.
The first time I played one of the songs for our Joy Group, one lady expressed concern that A.I. has potential for evil. Her concern is reasonable. Recent data indicates that as many as 120,000 new songs are introduced on the World Wide Web each day. A very small percentage of them are wholesome Christian pieces. Shaun and I want to offer to small churches, life groups, and missionaries as many royalty-free praise and worship songs as we can.
Caveat: I am an imperfect Christian, so some of the songs I write are just for fun. Want to hear some Bible-based songs that land somewhere between traditional hymns and the feel-good nonsense that you hear on some Christian radio? Shaun’s link is: https://suno.com/@mysticlakemusic. My link is https://suno.com/@don_sennott
If you click on the “follow” tab, you will be notified when new songs are released. We have been publishing two or three a week. Between us, we have published over 70 songs.
To God be the glory.
Blessings,
Don
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