John Prine Transplant

Where Music Inspires Artists
Recorded by Beth Miller, Christen Knight, Tim Bowne, Pam Thomas and Tania Michaels
Interviews/Recording by Shaki Anderson and Jaymee Shawver
Press kit/Catalog
Recording by Andy Wildermuth
Solutions Box
"Paradise"

In an impulsive moment, 12-year-old Joe, a young Christian newcomer in New Jersey's poorest neighborhood, decided to make music. As a new parent, he made some noises in his bedroom and on his radio. Some three hundred miles away, singer-songwriter Dennis Pitts, whose religious background had helped make him one of the most powerful voices in Christian music and whose rock and pop melodies had recently been named "the best songwriter of the year," decided that his first act was to work out of a van and deliver CD's of music to the community center of his church.

Both men intended to find a meaning for what they were learning to play. Joe had come home from his teacher and teacher had not been able to answer him when he had asked for some lessons in music. Dennis had discovered songs on CD's in his favorite record store, and, with a boy he loved and no one to teach him to play, he decided to ask him to sing one. Joe walked through the neighborhood, stood in front of the church, and started singin'. As Dennis played on the piano, Joe walked up and started singin', too, telling the audience of thousands that his music was for them.

The inspiration "Paradise" was written as music to help Joe remember the love of Christ. It has a simple but satisfying melody that could be played on a digital cassette recorder. It is about time, and the beat of his hand picking as he sings, "Love and beauty," also combines a guitar riff with the emotion of the melody.

Joe went on to write his own song, "Walk With God," later in the evening after he sang his new music to many of the same musicians he had gathered with in the service to worship at the church he thought of as home. After Joe sang his version of "Walk with God," it happened again, this time spontaneously and offstage, a few weeks later when Joe and Dennis Pitts met at a hotel.