The lyrics to today’s release were written in 1833 by John Henry Newman, a 33-year-old priest, while on a ship bound homeward to England after a prolonged visit to Italy. A dangerous fever delayed him for several weeks.

“I was aching to get home, yet for want of a vessel I was kept at Palermo for three weeks. I began to visit the churches, and they calmed my impatience, though I did not attend any services. At last I got off in an orange boat, bound for Marseilles.”

It was on this boat, finally headed back home, that he penned the lyrics to this beautiful hymn.

https://www.pandora.com/artist/elise/lead-kindly-light-feat-jd-cox-single/ALwq7ctgc6V6cgP?part=ug&corr=52923018

Good morning everyone! Today's release is "Jehovah, Lord of Heaven and Earth." The original tune was written by Oliver Holden. Among other achievements, he was honored, in 1789, to write the score and lyrics for, and train a choir to sing, an ode performed to welcome President George Washington at the Old State House in Boston.

​Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday everyone! Today's release, "If You Could Hie to Kolob," is another hymn that was originally sung to a different tune than that to which we are now familiar. If you've ever heard the original, let me know; but the tune that we all know and love is definitely one of my favorites!

Read more about it here: https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/articles/if-you-could-hie-to-kolob-mormon-tabernacle-choir.html

The author for “I Need Thee Every Hour,” Annie Sherwood Hawks, wrote over 400 hymns in her lifetime. Born in Hoosick, New York on May 28, 1835, Hawks had a love for writing poetry, and her poems were published in local newspapers while she was still in her youth. 

Annie Hawks was the mother of three children when the hymn for which she is best known was written. Annie later wrote, “I remember well the morning when in the midst of the daily cares of my home, I was so filled with the sense of the nearness of the Master, that wondering how one could live without him either in joy or pain, these words ‘I Need Thee Every Hour’ were ushered into my mind. The hymn was wafted out to the world on the wings of love and joy, rather than under the stress of great personal sorrow. It was not until long years after when the shadow of a great loss fell over my way that I understood something of the comforting in the words I have been permitted to write.”

Read more here.

This week's release, A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, is famous for having been sung by John Taylor in Carthage jail just before Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered on June 27, 1844.

But did you know that the tune Taylor sang in Carthage is not the same as the one in our hymnbook with which we're all now familiar? Check out the two articles below for more info. And I'd love to hear if any of you know where we could listen to or see the sheet music for the original tune as sung by John Taylor.

https://www.deseret.com/…/original-poor-wayfaring-man-had-d…
https://rsc.byu.edu/…/john-taylor-beyond-poor-wayfaring-man…


​On a related note, I'm excited to see that the Church has announced today that it too will be releasing new content each Friday through the end of the year. Who else will be releasing new content each Friday?

This week's release is a classic, Sweet Hour of Prayer.

"The lyric of “Sweet Hour of Prayer” came from William W. Walford (1772-1850), an obscure, blind lay preacher who served in the hamlet of Coleshill, Warwickshire, England. He owned a small trinket shop in the village where he sold shoehorns and other intricate items he had whittled, fashioned and polished from bones. Walford memorized many chapters of the Bible, quoting them verbatim in his sermons; some folks thought he had memorized the entire Bible. William also composed poetic lines of verse … and he prayed.

​"The story goes that a Congregational minister and friend, Thomas Salmon, stopped by Walford’s shop one day in 1842. Walford asked if Salmon would write down his new poem, “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” Three years later, Salmon was in the U.S. and showed the poem to the editor of the New York Observer, who printed it in the Sept. 13, 1845 issue. About 15 years later, William B. Bradbury (1816-1868), a composer from New York, wrote the tune that is usually associated with this song.” (http://www.homecomingmagazine.com/art…/sweet-hour-of-prayer/)

This week's new release is "Come, Come, Ye Saints," one of the best-known Latter-day Saint hymns.The lyrics were written in 1846 by Mormon poet William Clayton.The hymn has been called the anthem of the nineteenth-century Mormon pioneers.

Clayton wrote the hymn "All is Well" on April 15, 1846, as his Mormon pioneer caravan rested at Locust Creek, Iowa, over 100 miles west of its origin city of Nauvoo, Illinois. Just prior to writing the lyrics, Clayton learned that he had just become the father to a brand-new healthy boy in Nauvoo. It was set to the music of a popular English folk tune, "All is Well."

Please enjoy this week's new release, Abide With Me.

Hey Everyone!

I've just released a new single! It's the first of several hymns/spiritual songs that will be released in the coming weeks.

Please use the links below to give it a listen and check back each Friday for the latest release!

Hey everyone!  Stay tuned tomorrow for an exciting announcement!

Hey SoundCloud users!  Full tracks of my music are now available to stream here:

soundcloud.com/musicbyelise/sets

A friend of mine made this video of a fun Christmas light show and added my music.  Check it out!

This is from a Christmas party last weekend.  It was a lot of fun!  Thanks for the great recording Bry!

It was soo fun!  Can't wait for Thursday's gig!

I just got access to my Pandora stats of the last 90 days.  Thanks so very much to the 90,000 listeners who played tracks from Joy 200,000 times this Christmas season!  I hope you all had a merry Christmas and wonderful holiday season!

Come share some Christmas Spirit with us!

Shows at 2:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.

Address is 5539 W. 4200 South, Hooper, UT

Check it out!  Go to www.uwosh.edu/wrst and click on the Listen Now button at upper left.

The Dr. Christmas Radio Show has been acclaimed as the most musically diverse Christmas music radio program heard anywhere.  Every year since 1989, in the week or so before Christmas, UW Oshkosh sociology professor Dr. Gerry Grzyb has become "Dr. Christmas", bringing his astonishing array of holiday music to the airwaves of WRST-FM.

The show plays from 12-5 p.m. today, 12-6 p.m. on Saturday, and 12-7 p.m. on Sunday.  My music is a scheduled part of program today and on Sunday and may also be included in Saturday's show.

Check out Photographer Sonja Yearsley's new promo video, featuring my original composition, Circles.