This is re-write of something I posted in 2009.

       The first time I saw and heard my music lyrics in a fully-produced song was in 1991, working with a friend and artist from Finland named Kurt Westerlund, or Kurre. www.kurre.eu

        Kurre, from Helsinki, was an exchange student at Butte High School for a good portion of a school year while I attended. He sang in the chorus and the talent show, and clearly had talent.

        While attending the University of Montana where I majored in journalism, one day out of the blue Kurre called to ask if I knew anyone who wrote English lyrics because he wanted to write original songs to produce and sing with his band. Hmm... Funny he should ask. I had a stack of them (and ideas to go with them) going back as early as 1974 when I was eight or nine years old.  I was a little shy about it, but Kurre was on the other side of the world, so what the hell? I sent him a thick envelope and we started working on songs.

        I wrote the lyrics for After the Rain (Jait Sateen Taa) with Kurre, who has a voice like butter, while he was visiting Butte in the summer of 1988. Eventually a Finnish lyricist translated the lyrics to fit with the music. Kurre sang the song in the Syksyn Savel national music competition in Helsinki in 1991 - and won. Following that, under a contract with Warner Music Helsinki Chappell, Jait Sateen Taa went to number one on Finland's national music charts and remained at that spot for 11 weeks. Several other songs created with my lyrics were also on that first album, which went to number seven on the album charts. 

Kurre's 20 Greatest Hits Album Cover

        It felt so good. If this had happened in America I would probably be better dressed as I write this post, but it was cool and today I have 10 or so published songs registered with ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers.) More than one Finnish artist has covered Jait Sateen Taa, and it has been played on the radio in many countries. A jazz artist and vocalist currently living in Texas is working on a pop song we wrote together in New York. Connections, connections. The world really is not so big.

        Recently, I discovered on a Russian website a song (the last news I had was that it was just a demo) that Kurre wrote and produced in Finnish, for which I then wrote original English lyrics in 2003. It is much tougher to write lyrics to "fit" an already-produced track, I assure you. A friend in Switzerland helped me with a verse -- and no, I don’t speak Finnish. WHEN is the language-learning company Rosetta Stone finally going to offer a Finnish language program I wonder? When can I be plugged in like in The Matrix so I can be fluent in 30 languages? Will there eventually be a pill to make my brain work as well as it did when I was a precocious kid? Anyway....

        If you are interested, the song  Here with Me on the Russian website can be heard at www.moskva.fm/artist/kurre/song_010569 in English.

        Press the play/arrow button after giving it a few seconds to load. The lyrics are posted so you can sing along…

        Near the end of 2009 Kurre told me by phone he is working on an album in English. I always look forward to project updates. 

       In any language, once a song is "out there" it remains in the ether. In some small way song can touch people, one at a time, all over the world, forever.