Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Rituals and Realities -- John and JoAnn Braheny: A Creative Couple's Brain Trust -- A Billion People: The Audience Is Listening -- Creative Currents -- Meet the Inner Critic -- Déjà Vu -- Ritual Revealed -- Zoning Out -- Chapter 2 Finding the Path -- Bill Miller: Sacred Trust -- Drums along the Waters -- 12 Steps Forward -- On the Trail of the Truth -- Honoring the King -- Mission of the Maker -- Craig Wiseman: Angels over Hattiesburg -- Forever Young -- Fountains of Faith -- Precious Moments in a Life -- Scribes Behind the Curtain -- Faith and Fortitude -- Wherever Two or More Are Gathered -- David Nichtern: Ballads for the Buddha -- The Buddha at Berklee -- Auspicious Coincidence -- Final Thoughts -- Mark T. Jordan: A Compass for Many Roads -- Demons and Eggshells -- Musical Maternity -- Illuminating Co-writers -- Pathways and Pitfalls -- Sacred Sounds -- Chapter 3 The Promise and the Process -- Beth Nielsen Chapman: The Angels Lend Us Shoes -- Chorus in the Classroom -- Songs That Sense -- Deeper Still -- Rigors of the Row -- Fresh Towels and Liquid Dreams -- Steve Seskin: Someday We'll All Have Perfect Wings -- The Song God -- Collaborative Chemistry -- Relevant Religion -- Miracles And Messages -- Marcus Hummon: Travels on the Broken Road -- Mosquitoes, MacArthur, and the Muse -- To the Row He Will Go -- Monks and the Muse -- Nails for the Carpenter -- Here Is the Church, Here Is the Steeple -- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus -- Healing Harmonics -- Sterling Songs -- Chapter 4 Moments of Change -- Christine Kane: Learning from the Song -- Raising Kane -- Rituals and Rhymes -- Sam Baker: Divining the Details -- Compression and Color -- The Gift of Life -- Lazarus Man -- Stages of Strength -- Picture This -- Chapter 5 Music for Healing -- Melissa Etheridge: Songwriting Alchemy -- Hormonal Honesty.

Waiting for the Ship to Come In -- Sleepwalking -- Chemotherapy Chorus -- Foretelling the Future -- The Deep End -- Waking Up -- Paul Williams: Connected to the Creative Rainbow -- Jamaica Farewell -- Self-Medicating the Muse -- The Subconscious Center -- Random Patters -- For Whom the Song Tolls -- Gratitude Dude -- Gary Malkin: Composing to the Light -- The Sound Takes Flight -- Transformation and Transition -- The God of Media -- Commercial Concerns -- Grace in the Cathedral -- Into the Mystic -- Chapter 6 Through Lines: Songs and the Source -- Daniel Moore: How Does Your Light Shine? -- Many Moore Songs -- The View from the Pulpit -- Jason Blume: The Flowering of the Song -- Soul Evolution -- The Pontiff and the Parthenon -- Numerology in Twos -- A Century of Progress -- The Breakthrough -- Craft and Communication -- Co-writing Chemistry -- Coda -- Pamela Phillips Oland: The Moment Is Its Own Reward -- Writing on the Wall -- Synagogues to Sin City -- Change Is Constant -- Waking Hours and Creative Powers -- Eyes of the Creator -- Sophie B. Hawkins: Drums of the Divine -- The Search Inside -- Child of the Drum -- Passing the Knowledge -- Trading the Truck -- Patterns and Purpose -- A Face of the Spirit -- Chapter 7 Meditations and the Muse -- Charles John Quarto: A Song Is Like a Bright, Strange Bird -- Poetic Pentameter -- Divinity Dialogue -- Texas Time -- The Poet's Particulars -- Silence, Sound, and Sense -- Tone, Truth, Texture -- Visions Retained -- Angels We Have Heard on High -- The Muse of Music Row -- Peter Case: A Sage on the Street -- Living the Life -- Shattering the Senses -- Father Figures -- Martyrs and Missions -- The Dream of the Song -- Transformations and Time -- Spiritual Bondage -- Rodney Crowell: Pentecostal Preachers and Music City Stars -- Chipping Away the Stone -- Words of Faith and Tongues of Fire -- Walking the Line.

The Flow on the Row -- Dreams of the Divine -- Silence and the Legacy -- Chapter 8 Give Me That Old Time Religion -- Susan Werner: There Must Be a Time -- Maps and Ministers -- Complex Creations -- Hallelujah and Halftime -- Jesus and the Jihad -- The Light from the Levee -- Say Amen Somebody -- Deities and Dan -- Inspired in Spirit -- Billy Joe Shaver: A Texas Troubadour's Fire and Brimstone -- Hours of Honesty -- Native Knowledge -- The Gift of the Spirit -- Michelle Shocked: White Girl, Black Church -- Sanctified Sound -- Idolatry and the Word -- Songs and Scriptures -- On the Rock Where Moses Stood -- The Gift of the Song -- Answered Prayers -- Chapter 9 The Power of Positive Music -- Harold Payne: Spiritual Grease and Elbow Grease -- Positive Payne -- Recycled Reverence -- Peter Himmelman: The Deepest Parts Remain Unchanged -- Outside the Self -- Black Belts and Balladry -- Orthodox Origins -- Historical Hysteria -- Stage Dives -- Michael Silversher: The Hand of God Is on Your Head -- The View Through the Tent -- Songs in the Spirit -- Laws, Light, and the Sabbath -- Chapter 10 Dreams, the Subconscious, and Creativity -- Jeffrey Steele: Love, Loss, and the Light -- The Gift -- Trials and Airs -- The Mechanics of the Muse -- Healing the Heart -- Karen Taylor-Good: Good Things Come to Those Who Wait -- Lone Star States -- Passages Past and Present -- Rising On Angel's Wings -- Epiphanies at the Waffle House -- A Father's Journey Home -- Answered Prayers -- Inside the Voice -- Conclusion -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X-Y -- Z.