The Winds of God

A Schubert-inspired collection of hymns arranged and performed by Richard Joseph Barber.


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Why This Album Came to Be

The “Winds of God” CD has never been a business enterprise. Nancy, my wife, from the beginning of our marriage was constantly after me to make a recording, but we never had any money to put into such a project.

Before we moved to Colorado Springs, I actually figured out a way I could do a CD, and I was working seriously toward the goal. It was going to be a album of songs by Schubert. I have always loved Schubert’s music and actually had received much local fame in my younger years because people enjoyed the way I sang his works. However, the deeper I got into the project, the more trouble my voice was giving me. It just would not work. I prayed about the matter daily several times a day, but the situation only grew worse.

After a awhile I realized that my motivations for doing a CD were not altogether pure and worthy of the calling to which I had been called by the Lord. I wanted to do a CD for Nancy’s sake as a gift of love, and that was fine, of course. However, there was also a stinking, rank pride in me about the potential outcome. “People are going to be amazed that after all these years I can still sing Schubert so beautifully.” I imagined getting emails and letters and phone calls heaping praise upon my work. “O, Dick, your CD is just so wonderful!” I believe that the Heavenly Father messed my voice up in those days to teach me about my pride in it and to teach me to repentant from such an abomination.

There is much more to this story that I could tell you, but suffice it to say that God led me away from the Schubert enterprise and clearly into “The Winds of God.” People haven’t stormed the gates to buy it, but enough have bought it and listened to it and enjoyed it and been blessed by it for me to have gathered a few hundred dollars after costs to give to our church and to send to a place called Harmony School in Zambia. I hope that though the sales be slow that every CD will eventually sell and that we can continue to give everything after costs to the Lord. Amen.

–Richard