Welcome to Harvesting Joy Music!

How exactly did Harvesting Joy Music come to be? Perhaps you are among the family, friends, and acquaintances that are scratching their heads right now wondering this very thing. Many will listen to the songs on the website and go, “Huh? I never knew Kristi could do that.” And those people would be right. I’ve kept this “secret” talent hidden for many years. So, what changed? Why share these songs now? Why share them with such a broad audience?

All great questions—so glad you asked!

I’d say that the greatest catalyst for this project was the pandemic. I know this virus has taken a serious toll on the whole world, and some of you may have even lost loved ones due to the virus. These are truly horrible things.

But, for me, the pandemic has had some positive effects. It’s as if God hit a reset button that allowed me to re-evaluate everything. Where normally my schedule was cluttered with activity, God gave me time. I rested, I walked outside and enjoyed nature, I remembered how much the people in my life meant to me, and I rediscovered my love of music.

At the beginning of the quarantine, my church started a memory verse challenge. The idea was to post a video of yourself quoting one of your favorite verses from the Bible while doing something you enjoy. At the end of the video, you were then to challenge someone else to post their own video.

One of the girls in our youth group challenged me. I felt honored that she had thought of me, and then panic took over. I’m extremely camera shy, so the idea of making a video was petrifying. And then I was supposed to post it . . . for the whole church to see!

Thankfully, my desire to be a good example to others won out, and I decided that instead of quoting my verses, I would sing them. My memory is quite poor, so the only way I can get anything to “stick” anymore is if I set it to music.

All this to say that posting that video led me to search for an app that I could use to record myself. This, in turn, led to looking for something that would allow me to record music. That’s when I “happened upon” the Spire app, which allowed me to record up to eight layers—a whole new world! Upon further investigation, I “happened upon” the Spire recording device, which I bought with my stimulus money.

I started recording songs on my home piano at first, but it’s quite old and beyond the help of tuning. I decided I’d just look into buying a new piano, and then I saw the prices! So, I started thinking, Who do I know that already has a nice piano that I could use? My church!

Thanks to the generosity of my church, I was able to use their grand piano for my recordings. After I’d finish a day of working from home, I’d go to church and spend hours playing the piano in my church sanctuary. They’d just lock me in the building and let me turn out the lights before I left.

I opened my book of songs and just started recording—old and new—as many as I wanted! Even at this point, I had no intentions of sharing my recordings, except with maybe a handful of close friends. But then my mind began to change, and I began to think of how I could even include others in the process.

So, I put together a team of the most talented musicians I know personally and asked them to join me by either adding instrument layers or helping me sing. As it so “happened,” God had surrounded me with exactly the people I needed—a guitarist, a violist, and cellist, and a vocalist. What my recording lacked, they filled in, with every layer adding more and more beauty.

And what I asked of my team members was difficult. None of them had music or any idea of what I envisioned. I simply asked them to listen to what I had recorded and add what they heard. So, this collection of songs not only represents my imagination but also the imaginations of all the other artists—something that blows my mind every time I think about it!

Many, many hours of recording later, I had enough songs to fill three albums, not just one. At some point, I began posting videos on Facebook, and I was amazed at the response I received of people who were encouraged by the music or were interested in hearing more of it. That’s when I knew that I needed to think broader. But even then, I had no idea how broad.

My initial plan was to give my homemade “album” to friends and family as Christmas gifts, but with our ever-changing world of technology, delivery isn’t as simple as making a couple dozen CDs. I don’t even have a CD player anymore! So, I had to think outside the box.

The next plan was to deliver files on thumb drives, but even that is becoming obsolete for some. Then I was leaning toward just sharing my Dropbox file with everyone, which opened up even more things I could share. My head was spinning with thoughts of pictures and bios and stories behind the songs!

I shared this idea with a friend over dinner, and she said, “Have you ever thought about having a blog?” I kind of blew her off at first, saying, “Who knows how to do that?” She said, “I do.” And just like that the idea of a website was born.

Working for a publishing company, I’ve had lots of experience writing and editing copy, as well as working on the backside of websites, so I decided to tinker around with a website myself. Seeing my ideas come to life was exhilarating—I was hooked!

In the beginning stages of the website, I decided I should make myself a new email address that could be just for my music. So, I began brainstorming with a friend. We came up with some great ideas, but all of them were taken. Then she suggested bringing a Bible verse theme into it, which led me to my favorite verses, Psalm 126: 5–6, and eventually the theme of harvesting joy. And that’s how Harvesting Joy Music was born.

Not only does the name reflect my personal journey spiritually, but such a broad name leaves room for others to come and join in the work. I have no idea what God intends for Harvesting Joy Music. I just know it’s His ministry, from beginning to end. My prayer is that He will use me and others to bring Himself much glory through our songs. He alone is worthy!

---

Keep checking back with this blog for more deep thoughts and new music!