State of Prayer is all about the Bahá’à writings .
These writings - in them there is no darkness. These writings - they will transform the world.
In January 2006, having just wrapped the Maui Ruhi Songs CD, I fully intended to stop composing and recording songs based on the Bahá’à writings. It is incredibly difficult, there is no market for them and I lack the financial and musical resources to do them properly. I boarded a plane bound for pilgrimage in Haifa, found a seat, leaned my head back and closed my eyes. Then to my great dismay, the first sixteen bars of a melody for the Tablet of Ahmad popped into my head. Over the next nine days of the pilgrimage, more and more elements of the melody came to me. When I made it back home, I resigned myself to finishing the piece. It took four months and 41 distinct chords to finish the whole thing. Sadly, the 12 minute piece is too big to post here.
In December 2005, my dear friend, Janet Alexander, after listening to rough takes of the Maui Ruhi Songs CD, remarked that the passage she would most like set to music was the "state of prayer" passage found in Ruhi Book 1. So once I had finished Ahmad, I worked on it a bit. To my amazement, the quote fell quite naturally into a chord pattern and melody inspired by Georgia on my Mind . Maybe the DVD release of the movie, Ray , had some impact on that.
To be brief, over the next ten months, a dozen songs forced their way into my consciousness, each one seemingly better than the last, and I realized I had to make some attempt to record and distribute them for others to enjoy.
Another couple of songs also showed up unexpectedly. Whither came from Anna McDonald who had been in our pilgrim group in Haifa. She is an Aussie, then living in London, who happened to pass through Kihei in the Spring of 2007. She shared her enchanting version of the 4th Persian Hidden Word, and kindly allowed me to arrange it into something I could perform.
Suckling Babe is the creation of Harry Smau, another resident of Maui and a contributer to Maui Ruhi Songs .
So I’m grinding slowly through final production right now. State of Prayer and Whither still need a few tracks, and Harry’s version of Suckling Babe wants a better mix. Still twelve tracks are complete, and I wanted to start getting them out for others to start listening to. I plan to title the CD State of Prayer .
So enjoy these songs and please provide me with feedback. It will cost me thousands of dollars to make production CD’s, and I am not sure whether I will be able to follow through with it. Your support and encouragement will be my compass.
Rich Will Cook
March 2008