Messiah Comes to Earth Today
Background
I was very new to song writing in early December in 1997, and as I recall, our kids were just home from college on Christmas break. The family was going out to find and cut down our tree at the tree farm. As I was getting my warm winter clothes on, preparing to trek through the snow for who knows how long, these words kept running through my head paired with an unlikely “island” tune: “Join the heavenly choir, sing praises to the newborn King”. That’s interesting, I thought. It must be something I had heard on the radio that had stuck in my sub-conscience. But, where, or when had I heard it? It was catchy, but I couldn’t remember actually hearing it before. And, as the day progressed, in my mind, I had added another line: “Join the host of angels, say Messiah comes to earth today”. I was quite sure I had not heard that part before.
The day was full of tree hunting and other family activities. It wasn’t until late in the evening before I could finally grab my guitar to work on this “gift song” that had been playing over and over in my brain all through the day. When I did, the rest of it came quickly. But, if you’ve heard this somewhere before, please, don’t tell me.
Credits
Words and music by John Miner
Copyright © 1997 John C. Miner, TreasureField Music
Recorded in 1998, Dryden, NY and in 2017, Minneapolis
Produced and engineered by Keith Kopatz
Keyboards (marimba) – David Hamilton
Acoustic and electric guitars – John Miner
Bass – Keith Kopatz
Drum machine programming – John Miner
Vocals – John Miner
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John Miner