Michael R. Hicks’ album, Creations, is a collection of original piano-based instrumental songs. Join Michael on a road trip from the red rocks of southern Utah to the emerald green lakes of Alaska, from the Redwoods of California to the historic Holy Land.
Creations was nominated for several awards and features the beautiful father-son piano-bassoon duet, Place of Healing.
Listen to a sample of the Creations CD:
When I was a kid, I loved going to the beach, digging in the sand and making big sandcastles–big for me anyway, they were at least three feet tall mounds of dirt! The thrill of building something so amazingly beautiful that my Mom insisted on taking a Polaroid, amazed me. When I was done with my work of art I knew there was something more to what I had just done. I had created something from seemingly nothing, just my two hands and a world of sand.
In my first album, I composed arrangements and medleys of sacred music. In a way, it was like walking over to my big sister’s Barbie sandcastle and adding an ingenious moat with shark infested waters. Everything she did was already pretty good and I added things that I liked, making it more meaningful to me. I love arranging songs, but I also want to create songs of my own.
So when I was thinking of ideas for a new album, something unique that I could call my own work–the perfect thought entered my mind-an album of my unique creations that celebrate God’s gifts to us, His creations.
Hence the album, Creations.
My tools were the 88 keys on the piano, and my goal was to give those tones life–finding a voice for my experiences to share with others.
In exploring the principal concept of creations, I wrote a song with words to try and capture the idea in both music and rhyme:
A grain of sand
almost lost within the canyon of my hand
but side by side
together they begin to show they really can
be more than sand
That’s the feeling–be more than just sand, more than just who we are and who we’ve been, but to be who we really can become.
Building something more…
The castle they’ve been living for.
So my creations, from childhood sandcastles to this album dedicated to the beauty around us, have taught me what it means to be a creator–to start with seemingly nothing and make something into a masterpiece.
Enjoy Creations!