"Stories, Songs, and Faith — A Conversation with Michael Kelly Blanchard"

In this special episode of Mike Stone Conversations, I sit down with celebrated songwriter, storyteller, and voice of faith-filled Americana, Michael Kelly Blanchard.

Together, we explore the stories behind some of Michael’s most beloved songs like "Be Ye Glad," "Daddy Cut My Hair," and many more. Along the way, Michael shares heartfelt memories, creative inspiration, moments of humor, and the life experiences that shaped both his music and his message.

It’s a warm, thoughtful conversation about faith, family, storytelling, and the power of songs that stay with us long after the music fades.

Join us for a meaningful and memorable Conversation with Michael Kelly Blanchard. 🎙️

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Michael has a unique way of connecting with people right where they are. And I think you're really going to enjoy this conversation. Now let's go to Mike with a special guest, Michael Kelly Blanchard.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Welcome to the Mike Stone Show Music Stories and Conversations. I'm so honored today to welcome singer, songwriter, author, and storyteller Michael Kelly Blanchard. For more than 20 years, Michael has been touching hearts through music, stories, and stage productions that reflect the mercy and the grace of God. From beloved songs like Be Glad to his books, plays and albums, his work blends faith, creativity, and the human experience in a powerful way. Today we'll talk about his journey in music and ministry, the stories behind his songs, and the inspiration that continues to shape his life's work. My conversation with Michael Kelly Blanchard starts right now. Michael, welcome to the Michael Stone Show. Well, by all accounts, you were raised in a family which uh values the arts. And uh, how did that influence maybe impact you as a person and and your own personal journey in music?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

That's a good question. My father came from Newfoundland, came from a large family, uh, but he was the only one who sort of picked up music, taught himself how to play the violin, was a fiddle player par excellent. And so when we were growing up, one of the real treats was live music when Pop had it in his mind to play for us, and then as I learned the guitar, I accompanied him. My brother played the piano and he accompanied him as well. So we had just music just bouncing around all the time, and it was just wonderful. Along with that also was the fact that my mother was an English teacher and her specialty was Shakespeare. I can't tell you it's my you know, the Bard is my specialty, but she had such a way of bringing about his creativity uh for us to understand what was really going down so often with Shakespeare, you know, you go, I don't know, what do you think? But she had a way of bringing that about so you could begin to understand. Anyway, I was just blessed to have uh English teacher for a mom and a fiddle player for dad.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

So you grew up right there in Connecticut around Unionville and the Farmington River, and that appears a lot in your memories, it seems. Did that landscape influence your writing and imagination?

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Well, you know, I think the answer is yes, although I'm very unaware of of that. I I'm not thinking of it trying to bring it in. It just sort of seeps in. And I tend to think that's probably the best way things should happen in terms of uh creating. Not trying to write about something, it just is your environment. It's sort of like the air you breathe. So s from a point of view, yes, all those river this is a a factory town and so the river played a big part when, you know, before electricity and but more than anything else, it's just a hard working blue cover town where efforts of people gathered together to pull off uh every year and pull off every situation. We had a big flood in nineteen fifty-five. An awful lot of people that's a long time ago, is is for me too, but I was there and it big snowstorms that people were rally together. So I think that all had an influence. Whether I thought about it when I was writing it, I don't know, but it all influenced for sure.

SPEAKER_03 3:58

Well, besides playing with your father, sounded like a great time with the family that playing the music. What were some of the first songs you remember hearing or first music you remember hearing that made you think, man, I I want to do this, or was it always part of who Michael Kelly Blanchard is?

SPEAKER_01 4:13

I'll tell you, Mike, one one of the humorous stories, I guess, is the fact that from the get-go, when I started speaking, I had a deep voice. Uh, it was a little bit strange, even uh odd. And my folks would not be uh bashful in exploiting that deep voice. My father uh played the guitar as well as the fiddle, and so he'd pull out the guitar and he'd bring the bring the boy out. And I was only about five, six years old. Have him sing uh Froggy Winter Courton. And I would sing Froggy Winter Courton. He did go in my pajamas, and they were all, you know, I guess I did all right. It's an easy gig to some degree. Everyone is quite enthused that the little boy is singing in front of them. But one time, and this is where the humor comes in, my sister, my younger sister, who was four years younger, and so crawling around, not really noticeable in some ways, crawled up at my feet, which was normal, as I was singing Froggy Went a Courton, or The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night, unbeknownst to me, pulled my pajamas down. So it was a strip show, uh unannounced and unplanned for, you know, still I remember today, both embarrassed, but makes me laugh every time I think of it.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Yeah, you don't reenact that in your shows, I'm sure, uh at this point anymore.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

No, uh yeah, there would be a much different reaction. There was a howling, believe me, and you know, we had neighbors over at that particular time. I remember uh I was notorious for about a day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

That's a funny story. Well, you grew up and got your education uh right there. Uh I was in Unionville, and then uh let's move on to your uh college, Berkeley College of Music. That's a uh very esteemed uh college of music there in Boston. Uh am I right?

SPEAKER_01 5:56

I think so. I mean, there's lots of very esteemed schools uh in Boston and in the whole New England area, also in the Chicago area. It is known as being one of the paramount jazz schools, uh, and that was helpful for me because I did not, uh in terms of playing the guitar, I didn't start playing it a very sophisticated way or a very trained way. I just picked it up and figured out chords and and got to be quite comfortable with it. But that won't hold much water when you go into music school, and so I uh the only school I could get into and audition for was Berkeley, because it was a jazz school, and a lot of jazz musicians didn't have necessarily reading down, many of them did, but reading music and things of that sort. So it was a school I could get into was the first plus of it. But it was a really fine school and wonderful teachers, taught me a great deal and sort of brought me up to speed in terms of my musical training. Didn't go the whole four years because ran out of money, but it was my training uh in a very important way. Sort of uh school, of course, is nothing more than a way that you learn the tools of your trade to go out and do what you do. And that's what uh Berkeley College of Music did for me.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Did you start uh your songwriting before you uh reached Berkeley or did you start there in college? Or how about your songwriting? How did that uh when did that take shape?

SPEAKER_01 7:26

That really took shape uh uh in the uh the end of my high school uh time, or or the last year of high school. I was in a sort of uh Peter Paul and Mary Wannabe trio. Girl in it was blonde, that helped. Uh I had dark hair and so did the other guy, so we could sort of look like Peter Paul and Mary. But in any case, uh it started the first song I ever wrote, I lied about. I because I wasn't sure anyone was gonna like it. So I told the trio, uh, the two other people that I heard this great song on the radio. I wanted to see if they liked it, and they did, and so we put it into our repertoire and sang it around. We had some quite a few gigs. And finally, at some point, when they were goshing and gollying over how great it was, and I felt confident enough not to be rejected, I said, Oh, by the way, I wrote that. And that kind of springboards me into uh seeing that this could happen. I could write music, people would like it.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

And your faith was always from the very beginning, a very strong big part of your songwriting, or did that come a little later?

SPEAKER_01 8:35

It's sort of like we were talking about earlier about the uh influence of the area, it uh almost like breathing or air. I didn't think uh in terms of the faith, something other than what I'm doing, whether it it was an overt song that talked about, for instance, in the Christian tradition, talked about Jesus or talked about God in some way overtly, or whether it was a song you know, dealing with a human condition, uh both delightful and sorrowful and painful and uplifting. I viewed them all as sort of fitting into the nature of the faith that I have and have. I see it as a kind of a the honor of being human, that uh we've been honored uh again, this is my spin on it. We've been honored, our humanity has been honored by God becoming one of us. That song about ten years ago, What if God was one of us, just a slob on the bus? And I I've always resonated with that concept. I think that's so true that our humanity is the best expression of uh what God looks like and happens throughout history.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

Honesty and brokenness fits into the songwriting, uh sometimes overtly, sometimes uh And I think that's what drew me especially to your songs, is it's not they're not typical, uh as you would say, maybe in the Christian vein, songs because you do bring humor. You bring so many things, heartbreak. You once said uh you write songs to express the joy and the longing and loss of the heart. I think that's what we're talking about. So uh which usually comes first when you're writing a song, the lyric, uh, the melody, or the story and man, your stories. I guess that you uh experienced many of the stories that you had behind your songs, but did that come first, the lyric, the melody, or the story behind the song?

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Great question, Mike. When I do songwriting workshops, that's one of the key elements that I try to bring out in the participants, is that most people who write songs know that they either that they have a strong of the two, one is stronger than the other. They either are lyrics strong, their music they bring to the lyric, or their music strong and they try to bring the lyric to some strong song that they've written. The problem is that often if we lead with our strength, and I when I say problem, it's not a deep problem, but when they when you lead with your strength, then you're left with the thing that's not as strong to try to catch up to the strong part. So I recommend in the workshops they experiment with uh if you know your strength, let's say in my case, my strength is the lyric. So my advice would be for me to write the melody first and bring my strength to that existing melody, but have the melody have all my energy at the first, instead of trying to bring a melody to an existing uh lyric. This in again in my case, and it is, I feel true, that the music part is not as strong for me as the written part. So that's my advice. Do I stick to my advice? I'm afraid to say that I think it's stunning advice, and some of the best songs I've written have either been, I think you suggested in a question to me, you know, they all happen at once. Well, the best songs sort of do. Uh you mentioned be glad that was certainly the case. It was so quick to be realized at least two verses of it. There's an interesting backstory there. I wrote two verses and liked the song a lot, liked it as an anthem. Sent it off to my friend and real mentor, uh Noel Paul Stukey, for him to hear it. I wanted to see what he thought. He liked it very much, but he said, you know, he needs another lyric. And I send him a first and a third lyric, and so I got to work because uh I listened to what Noel Paul says to me and put the the middle verse in to complete it. And once again, it didn't take very long. I often say with songs like B E Glad and a few other ones, I'm the junior partner, definitely the junior partner to the uh senior partner who really contributed.

SPEAKER_03 12:49

Yes. So you mentioned Noel Paul Stuke, and that would be from uh Peter Paul and Mary. Uh is that correct?

unknown 12:56

That is correct, yes.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

And I think you had a PBS special with him. Uh I've seen that, I believe. And tell us about that, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Well, it's called There Is Love, and that is based on the his song The Wedding Song, which I just saw on the somewhere on the net that it it's the most popular wedding song of the last 50 years. Whether we can believe that or not, who knows? But I uh it certainly is a beloved song. And so uh he and I did a uh along with my wife Greta and some other musicians, we we did a special. PBS folks refer to it as a holiday special because we do some Christmas music to it, but it's really a special uh that we filmed in a church in right here in Connecticut. It it came together. There's a lot of backstory as to how it came together, but it was something we had sung before, uh, Noel and I had sung together in different settings before and have certainly since, but it it just was an opportunity to film it. PBS was uh excited to do it, so so we did. And it it it really is a delightful show, particularly featuring some of Noel's humor, and uh he explains the kind of backstory, which is fascinating to me, of that song, the wedding song, a song he wrote for his colleague Peter Yarrow.

SPEAKER_03 14:17

How'd you come to meet Mr. Stukey? How did that happen?

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Well, it happened because, you know, whereas when I was growing up, people had Paul McCartney and John Lennon and Elvis Presley as heroes that they'd love to meet someday. Mine was Paul with Peter, Paul, and Mary. I went to their concerts, bought my field glasses, could only afford the nosebleed seats, and would watch and study everything he did. He was a comic, he was a master guitarist, and uh, you know, silver-throated singer, and he was what I wanted to be when I grew up. Vacationally up in Maine with another couple, got word that he had a studio up there close to where we were, and that he was not untouchable, he was very accessible. So I saw the studio in the phone book and called up, and he answered the phone. You know, I I didn't know what to say, I was so enamored of him. I think he could f sort of sense that because I was stuttering and just gasping, and he said, Well, we' we we're we're working on a thing, come on over if you're in the area and I'll show you stuff. And that's exactly how I met him. And uh he was just that affable and wanting to help. And uh we recorded uh, I think about a year after that, we recorded our one of our first albums called Quail uh up there with him. A few years after that, recorded one song uh from another album called Love Lizan, uh, the song Be Glad, which I've already mentioned, and he sang on that as well. So it's through the years now he has been a dear friend, someone who I admire and is a real influence in my uh my writing and also my performing.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

So you were a big fan of folk music and uh a fan of uh what other kind of music did you listen to uh during that time? Who were some of your biggest artists or your favorite artists, I should say?

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Well, in the folk time, listened a lot, Clancy Brothers, uh Joan Baez, Judy Collins, again listened a lot to Peter Paul and Mary. So those were the artists who I was really drawn to. I'm sure there's more. And Dylan, uh I don't think there's any question, almost anyone who was uh writing at that time was influenced by him as well. The other uh strong influence is Celtic. I remember being in Ireland once and um walking down Grafton Street, which is sort of the walking street in Dublin, and uh someone uh a photo crew or a news crew from the local television station pulled me aside and wanted my opinion as a common Irishman. I apparently looked it, and I when I opened my mouth, I kind of started talking in a little uh easily, at least it fooled them. So I think the Irish influence is strong in me, uh the Celtic influence. You can probably hear it in some of the songs, probably more the the last couple albums than the front couple, but classical is also a a big part to me, particularly in the classical world, the neoromantics of the 20th century, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copeland, uh Ray Von Williams, very melodic, but very different in their tonalities and in their uh harmonic structures.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

Music has always been so important to you and and the way you to express yourself, which you do very well. The album Love Lives On. What was uh the inspiration for creation of that particular album?

SPEAKER_01 17:57

You know, Mike, that was a long time ago. When you put it in perspective, I think it came out in eighty, forty-six years ago. In any case, I mean I hope I can remember much except to say that that we had on the cover uh this little child who was adopted, and his parents allowed her to play as we were having a camera shoot for the album cover, and it and she stole the show. She was up on a little ancient tool, like a like a some sort of farmer's tool, and she was just playing on that, but captured the whole uh import of the that song. There is a little girl playing in someone's backyard, and basically it's talking about the fact that even though in a age that is was then is now no indication it won't be in the future, terribly broken, terribly ruinous for human love in its wonderful, tender, simple little way, live done. And that was the theme of several different songs. There's one called Claire on that album that deals with a man with a a daughter lamenting her mother who had passed away, but trying to explain maybe to her, you know, uh spirit that that you should see dad now. Dad has been, you know, overbearing and uh hard and rough uh in emotional ways, but now he's a mess because he misses you and you were so much a part of who he was and what he needed.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

That is gonna be the theme for me again and again and again, that things are very tough in the human uh household, but love is stronger than that, survives and uh touches and moves and transforms uh I believe that theme, Michael, runs uh through almost everything that you do, even though we're broken humans and we are all fall way short of the mark. Yes, but love does live on in the face of the cross and the sacrifice and you portray that so well in a lot of ways, and that's that's why when I'm listening to your music, I can relate to it. I think the people who listen to your music a lot of them. They relate to the pain, they relate to the brokenness, they relate to the hurt. And uh we'll talk about if you don't mind just a few of those songs a little bit later on. Uh but you really I don't know if you've experienced that much pain in your life or hurt or brokenness. I think we all do, but you certainly reflect that in such a artistic and a way that I can uh really comes to grips and helps me to to see clearly uh what is uh really important and strive to bring that love as much as I can.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

You know, the the nature of our failings is is wrapped up in this, Mike, uh as well. Um I mean I grew up in a uh Irish Catholic home, and so the the joke is always, you know, the guilt factor is big, you know, Catholics uh sort of major in guilt. Uh and that, you know, uh we had things that I think are were important, certainly important for me, in terms of the church having confession where you could confess your sins. And I think that's all very important. One of the things that's been so actually liberating for me in the latter part of the sort of second half of my life, I'm 77 now and and for uh several years now, has been the the a rephrasing of the word sin. It holds up for me in so many of the broken stories that I try to uh express is uh missing the mark. It missed. It didn't hit the mark. Which is a lot a lot of interpretations of that. But I think it is so apt to so many of the brokenhearted situations. People who, for all sorts of reasons, miss the mark and continue to miss the mark. Is there a hope to change? Of course there is. But there is forgiveness again and again and again. The idea, I just was reading it the other day, I think it's in uh uh the Gospel of Matthew, where Peter says, How many times should I forgive seven times and uh Jesus says seventy times seven, implying again and again and again.

SPEAKER_03 22:44

I think one of your songs is so reflected in the theme really throughout most all of your your music, but the song I love you, I do, you bet. Uh that reflects so much about uh forgiveness. It helps me so much to say you know just got to forgive family and uh everyone uh you know you're your close acquaintances you just got to uh forgive just as uh you stated that song and uh can you say just a little bit about I love you, I do, I bet. Oh, you bet?

SPEAKER_01 23:18

It uses a experience I had, um, the first verse does when I was a little kid. I was told I had to go to uh Saturday school. It was uh a church-related uh thing on Saturday mornings at the local elementary school where I was going to school. I had to go back on Saturday, if you can imagine what a what a bummer for a little kid. A perfectly good Saturday morning where I could be out in the woods playing and uh I had to go to Saturday school. And on the way, the only element that kind of made it tolerable is that I could scoot into the five and dime and check out all the things that I didn't have money to buy before going to the uh school in in the other part of town. Well, in there there was a little green car I saw in the being green car was out of place there. And uh I thought, my goodness, no one's gonna miss this green car because it's already in a different spot. I didn't particularly need or want or think anything other than there it is, no one will notice, and boink, it ended up in my pocket, and boink, I ended up out on the sidewalk heading to Sunday school or to uh Saturday school. I'll just give you a tip here, Mike. If you're gonna start a life of crime, don't do it. You're heading off to um religion class. We we had a very, shall we say, substitute that morning, the morning I stole the Hoogin car. She was merciless about people who broke one of the Ten Commandments. So that car was just burning a hole in my pocket. There was there seemed to be no forgiveness whatsoever. I swung home hoping I wouldn't be hit by a car. And my brother finally blew the whistle. I mean, I'd been whimpering up in my room all Saturday afternoon, and my mother came up and said, What's up? And I wouldn't tell her. And she said, Okay, look, here's the deal. I'm gonna say the word chat. When I say the word chat, you tell me what you did and leave nothing out. Tell me everything you did. That's the rule. And I and I promise I won't get mad. My mother had a real strong uh uh anger boiling over a point. And so that was a big promise if she said she wouldn't get mad. So I boo-hooing, pulled the pillow back, and there was the green car. And she forgave me. I didn't know that she would, but she did, and she didn't get mad. Well, that sh ends up being the first verse of uh I love you, I do you bet. It basically set the stage for the next verses uh of if my mother does that, how much more uh God will do that to us, will do that for us. That once again we missed the mark, I shouldn't have sold a car. But his love, the love of God is so complete that no matter what, I love you, I do, he says, God says, you bet.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

You know, I think so many people need uh to hear that, Michael. There's so much guilt built up. Of course, I was a sheriff here for 44 years and seen that uh play out many times that people cannot forgive themselves, they get into a hole, and they uh try to uh remedy that with all kinds of uh whatever they may be getting into. But I think they still need to hear what you just said about the forgiveness and the grace and the mercy that is there. And so prevalent in your music and what draws me to that. So thank you, my friend, for bringing that to us. I believe uh you had a lot of inspiration to do that.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

The the writing of songs isn't, at least for me, is an intimate affair. I don't write it in group, it isn't a kind of a group think that comes up with the song, at least not for me. Very intimate, very uh individualized in my head and in my heart. So when that intimacy can be expressed in a way to many others, oh i it's beyond honoring, Mike. It is such a true wonderful gift that God has given to me, undeserving, to be able to take that intimate little story and have it meet more than just me, but others.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Is that why you like to uh go to maybe some of the smaller venues and uh make it real personal? And it does when you have smaller venues, and I think that's where a lot of I know you played probably bigger venues, but how do you choose uh I hope you're still doing some of that. So how about your concerts uh in your the intimate and the uh smaller venues? How does that come about and uh are you still doing that?

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Yes, certainly in your area, uh we mentioned uh our friends uh Fletchers Ken has booked a lot of what is called house concerts, which is a delightful concept because it isn't it's so kind of interactive and able to uh kind of uh have its own breathing. You know, in a standard concert, lights go down, like the spotlight, it's the mic, you come out from the side stage, and it's you and them, and you try to break that down a little bit, but it's pretty separate as the evening goes. But a house concert, none of that. You know, people come over with a plate of cookies, and so the the story songs particularly have an opportunity to springboard into stories that people will say as they're sitting on the couch. You know, oh that reminds me of I have one song called Tippy about a the dog I grew up with. Well my goodness, that just exploded. Oh my dog, you know, and not only does it take people talk a lot, but all of a sudden the water starts to flow, particularly with dogs, it's amazing. They they are uh they are the agents I think, and you can quote me, they they are many times the agents of God to get to our hearts. A dog can yell at the dog and he'll come right back and love you and lick your hand again and again. The you know, he doesn't know why you yelled, or maybe he does, but he loves you anyway. And he loves you anyway, loves you anyway. Boy, that sounds like God to me. So, from a point of view of the house concert, you can pick up on people's experience in a really lovely way and have them be part of the whole concert. So, yes, I do love those. We are doing a I'm presently doing a thing called That Takes Me Back, which is with a retired hospital chaplain, where we are doing uh senior homes and churches. Where basically it's a two-hour event where we sort of use my story songs and and the songs that kind of bring to mind things humorous, sometimes sad, all the time human, get people into what's called story pods, uh kind of a way in which people can really participate their story into the overall two hours of story. It's been very successful and very honoring to do. You look up and two hours has gone by in a blink because people love to tell their story, and what it turns out is they love to hear other people's stories too. And you know, we have a few rules so they don't someone doesn't dominate too much, but the at the end of the day, we've done a lot of nurses' conferences in caregiver conferences, and they all look up and say, I never knew that about that person because there wasn't the opportunity to tell their story. It's what humans long to do. So, in terms of these days, that's more what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_03 31:15

The name of that again is uh what, Michael?

SPEAKER_01 31:18

That takes me back. And of course, it's kind of a quote. We've said it all, it's been said in bars and libraries and places where people meet. You know, all of a sudden there'll somebody'll mention something or they'll hear a song and they'll go, Oh, that takes me back. Well, that's the title, and that's the goal. It's what it does, Mike, more than almost anything else is build community. We do it in churches, but also mostly in senior facilities as an opportunity to, you may be sitting down eating with this person for the last two years, but in this there's a kind of a prodding to tell a story. You find out things you just never knew and laughs, you never thought someone else felt the same way, so it's honoring.

SPEAKER_03 32:01

Such a great idea. And everybody, I keep on telling that on my my little show, everybody has a story. And uh when I would go into people's houses, as I had to do sometimes, I would look at their pictures, I would uh engage with the family because you you learn a lot by looking at the pictures on the wall and finding out exactly what this person is about. They have a story and they would love to share it, but oftentimes people don't don't uh go there, but it's not an avenue or they can.

unknown 32:30

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 32:31

Someone wants to uh bring that and I I'm gonna be talking to our folks here. I don't know if you want to share uh how they can get in touch maybe on your Facebook page or some way to uh get that production and get that uh event to their particular place.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

It's on our website. So just put my three names in to Google and Google my three names. The website will come up, and if you go to the home page, there there's a reference to it, or it's look for retreats have wide open to uh other places to do it. So yeah, that'd be happy to to uh and my uh the phone number is there too, so uh basically anyone who needs it you would like to find out more, they feel free to call. Um if I get some I'll call them back.

SPEAKER_03 33:21

Do you have a song that maybe that best captures your heart as a songwriter? And I had a few songs that particular favorites of mine, but I'll let you tell me first about maybe one that captures your heart as a songwriter.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Almost might have to split it into two segments because we talked about uh the influence of faith, and and there is a song that probably represents or I I think articulates better thoughts than I have in terms of faith. We could go in that direction, or there could be the ones that are the most revealing of the human condition.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

About your your art and your music is you take people through through all all the emotions. I mean, you'd be laughing at one song, such a well a humorous song, and then the next minute you'll be grabbing your towel. But some of my favorites would be like I think you had a couple about uh Danny's Downs or Daniel Downs. I'd like to know the inspiration behind that, maybe.

unknown 34:19

That's a good place to go, Mike. Um, because there are two.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

There's a sequel. Daniel Downs is the sequel to Danny's Downs. And it's basically dealing with, you know, the joy of our pregnancy, discovering that uh the child born uh is born with a condition called Downs syndrome. Uh it's a chromosome element. You break it down, break down the science of it. The child has health issues almost from the get-go, or can, and there is uh limitations, uh, intellectual limitations. And so it basically that song, the first one, Danny's Down, delves into the family uh unexpectedly dealing with what they were not expecting. And the kind of arc of how it went. There was a course a sense of disappointment when I say of course, is because they had built in their heads an idea of what it would be to have a child. And dealing with that, the mom dealing with that, father dealing with that. And in the midst of it comes an unlikely, but oh so likely and so loving angel, shall we say, uh in a Jamaican woman who is there in her job in the hospital, and she speaks truth to the mom. There were back then options that were, I guess they probably should still be today in some places. But she speaks truth and she says, take that boy home with you. They do. And in doing that, the child transforms the home. I remember Hubert Humphrey, uh, the senator from Minnesota, talk about one of his children had a child with Down syndrome, and he gave the most impassioned talk uh I ever heard from him or from most senators about how transformed their home. And he meant, you know, he is a grandparent, and the child, his parents was transformed by this little gift from God.

unknown 36:15

That's what the song Danny's Downs deals with.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

The idea that this woman from Jamaica uh just speaks truth to the mom and they keep the child, and their lives are transformed. And the sequel is that now the child is an adult, works in a grocery store, and he is still transforming lives. It's God speaking and living through this child. It's the truth of how God works. It isn't clash, it isn't uh power of you know munitions. No, it's the beauty of uh a child that the world might say of. But God knows, we know, humans recognize this is truth, this is truth in the checkout line. How wonderful, how beautiful. The second song is well, both songs are to some degree based on experiences for me, uh not our children, but but we're we're godparents to the boy uh and other circumstances. But in the second song, there is a man that we know who we've seen him since he was a young boy. He works in a local grocery store. And honest Indian, the idea of the the line sort of back up, w wanting him to be the one who is filling the bags after paying for the food, because his smile could melt you, and his greeting wouldn't you want to be greeted that way in a in any given day as you sort of pot along that all of a sudden somebody has a smile and he knows you, you might get a hug too. There to me is the essence of the truth of God through the who we are in our humanity.

SPEAKER_03 38:10

Such a beautiful story, just uh amazing song, and very, very uh touching, I I would say. Let me let me move on to one a little more humorous here. And my family's a a lot of family of baseball. I don't know if you're a fan, I think you're a fan of baseball. You're right there in Connecticut. Um my brother played uh professional baseball with the Mets and uh in 1973. Their song, The Little Come Back. That is just a wonderful song, and I've sent that to my grandchildren who love ball. Now that's a great song and a uplifting song, and a song of encouragement to somebody who may say I'm not quite as good, but they'll all come back.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

That's one of the key songs we do in this program that takes me back. Uh in in fact, we have a promo that I sing a portion of this of that particular song to uh promote that that uh uh program that we do that takes me back. And it's almost true, Mike. I I won't say it's perfectly true. I don't think they had trouble finding the ball that I hit, but I actually it was a case of my father coming to a uh and I was a terrible hitter. And he he had instructed me many times how to hit, but wasn't very good. But that day, for grace reasons, I'm sure, I hit it double. My good couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it today. But it also, as you allude, and it's as my kids would say, But Dad, you tell a good story, Dad, and then uh you have a sad thing at the end or the guy dies or something. Why do you do that, Ed? The second part is the lesson that the my father told me that I tell to him not to steal the thunder of the song. I I don't know if you play songs on uh your blog, but if you do, certainly feel free to play that one because that will explain itself.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

No doubt, and it will all come back. Um that's a deeper message, but you you perceived that uh so well with your baseball story. But uh another one uh that I love so particularly because uh I boy, I can relate to this. We have a drive-in about four miles from our house. We did have a drive-in that's no longer there. But that song about the drive-in. Uh that's a father's love picking you up and taking you in the house. And you uh Well, I'll let you expound on the song about the drive-in.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Well, I'll tell you something, Mike. One of the things now, I have another song called Snow Day, the English Snow Days, and Drive In. They're historical documents now. That you there are no drive-ins around, at least up here. So in doing it, I have to many times look out at the crowd and go, oh, okay, we used to have a thing called drive-in and explain it because to whole generations they don't know what I'm talking about, or they vaguely know what I'm talking about. But it was the idea that you all piled in the car. We were a family of four, all piled in the car with your popcorn and your Kool-Aid, because my father would not have us spend money, any more money than we did to get in, that would not have us go to a high price soda far in between the movies. But it was still a thrill to be there. And as you point out, and as the song points out, our stamina kind of fades. This particular case it faded because it was a movie we could care less about. Men and women kissing. And so finally nosediving, and whether we were asleep or not, we sure looked asleep in the hopes that the father would pick us up and carry us in.

SPEAKER_03 41:45

Beautiful story. Another story that the story about Marty. Everybody knows of Marty. I thought that was done so well. I'd like for you to tell us a little bit of how that came about, the song Marty. I think that's the name of it.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

We have another song called Tommy and Marty, and that's actually a Finley's disguised discussion between Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther. But that's another whole topic. So back to Marty. Marty was most of his guys, and I think many women as well, had some friend that they were drawn to, but they were dangerous. They traveled in much riskier circumstances than at least I did, with my friend Marty. And Marty, actually, I'll tell you, Mike, is a composite of maybe three different guys throughout junior high and high school that I hung out with. But it all zeroed into one just to make the song more understandable. And basically, I think the story, Marty, is a great story about the sacrifice. The at the center, I think, of the Christian faith is sacrifice. And at the center of this song is the kid that everyone thought would be the one who would got in trouble, of course, and who is is announced over the loudspeaker in the morning, Well, Marty, please come to the office. He was the guilty one, always th assumed to be guilty. And so when the field trip is put off or threatened to be canceled because someone stole the test, whoever it was who stole it did not test up. But Marty, looking at the room, realized there'll be no question if I stand up and go to the teacher's desk that she'll think I did it. And so he does. He sacrifices. To me, that is the essence of sacrifice of the humanity of our hearts. The song talks about spotting hearts years later and remembering Marty and his heart. And of course, the tragedy of that song is they're practicing for graduation and he didn't pass. The hero had it in for him, pulls him out of class, uh pulls him out of line in front of everyone and says, You're not gonna graduate. I've often thought of that scene from that movie years ago that Paul Newman did, Cool Hand Luke, where he's in a road gang guy who's overseeing the whole thing, beats him down to the point where he just cried in front of everyone and that's what happened to Marty.

SPEAKER_03 44:04

Hear that song and the Marty's of the world, my heart just goes out and um man, I get a little tear in mine when I when I hear that song because I'm so empathetic with Marty's situation. And then to stand up and take the sacrifice so other people could go on the trip quite a deal. Just a couple more here. I love this one because the body breadth of God because uh man with dancing with Jesus I don't know if my Baptist uh folks would uh quite understand that but I relate to that so well I mean come on and dance with me and that's a jig sort of an Irish jig but a beautiful song and uh I just love the way it's done.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

We we had a lot of fun recording it. That's one of the albums I did in Nashville and they have you have the premier musicians called up by the company just so much fun to bring that life. I mean the song was written without the fiddle but boy the fiddle just makes that tune. It is a dancing tune. There's no question I don't have as many joyous tunes as I do kind of heartbreaking ones. But the joyous ones I really I'm glad that they're because that's part of the whole picture too so much part of the picture. When I think of my father playing the fiddle and my sister dancing in the floor if Pop played it that's a little glimmer of heaven.

SPEAKER_03 45:18

No doubt I just believe that's uh hey come and dance with me. In other words I love you and we want a relationship and let's just have a dance. That's that's impactful it means a lot. A couple more this one might be one on the sad side the view out the window where the mother's dying and she tells the daughter who is there you know she's grieving and uh a view out the window is only a a very small part of the the whole view. You know you can watch the geese go by but I mean you can hear them but you can't see them.

SPEAKER_01 45:47

That's kind of a major piece uh for me Kirk did it in in actually three parts so that there's the first telling the story of the alien mother and then I had a chance to pull out my string writing chops which I studied at Berkeley for and I was so honored to do that and then to have Cynthia Carson who's just one of the most beautiful voices around the sing Bereff the lament of the child the lament of the mom having to go and then the child in the last reprise child being now a mother herself and feeling that tremor of fear about oh my gosh you know remembering long before it it seemed like it it should happen, you know, her mother got sick and so she's worrying herself and the mother gave her the clue see the wind in the trees that'll be my answer that all will be well. To me when completed and then also having quality of musicians oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 46:48

Cynthia starts it off but cello players, the violin players viola it was nothing but wonderful honored that it it got captured if you hang in there I think it's worth you know beautifully done well my last one here that uh is my personal favorite and maybe your your biggest song is probably international is Daddy Cuts My Hair. That song has been so impactful for so many people and I tell you it uh on my my personal level it uh every time I hear it I get a tear in my eye. How did that song come about Michael uh this beautiful song?

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Well I do think the nature of writing is tap into that which is real that which is true. You can't go wrong there and don't worry about even the the story as long as you're tapping in and so my father gave us haircuts. That was just the way it was now we didn't have a falling out that the song talks about but there was that closeness and then you know I think you'll prefer this have a hard time sometimes expressing what they feel. And so one of the sweet things about a haircut is you can't cut from a distance. You gotta get in close. And so all the other senses smell of coffee out the breath and and the touch and just the the closeness that doesn't happen normally. And so the song is dealing with just that and the arc when I do songwriting clinics I talk about one of the things that I'm most interested in in a story song is a full circle. It's kind of bringing it around so the song starts out in a haircut and then has a haircut happening as the man is serving in Vietnam and he's cutting hair for his friend and then the father who cut the hair in the in the first verse is now some degree an invalid yeah a stroke and so there's no speech but once again it's the it's that full circle of the haircut being the place in which all this takes place and happens. And the fact that regardless of all the uh events that we're just too precious not to forgive each other. I mean it's just it's too beautiful humans are too beautiful too here to just reject it walk away from and so that the song realizes that there's been a reconciliation even after the mother has died without a reconciliation she hasn't seen it. And with all the heartbreak that has transpired because of the difficulties and the conflicts at the end even without speaking love has won love well lives on regardless.

SPEAKER_03 49:33

I would say Michael that song probably has caused a lot of people reuniting with their family members I would think because uh you hear that you can't help but say maybe I need to call somebody today that I haven't talked to or have had a strange estranged relationship with I think that song more than you ever realize probably has brought families back and relationships back together in a powerful powerful way. And I know you did that with the Gaiters uh still find that on YouTube with you playing with the with the Gaither family I they all sit around and you came in and played that song. I don't think there was a dry eye in that entire building when you got through with that song.

SPEAKER_01 50:16

No, it was a deeply emotional uh time there were several encounters like after that from the individual people who were in that crowd who told me that then their specific story or just little snippets or just the fact that uh you know could barely get it out but you know uh uh I miss my dad or whatever. So yeah uh honored and so grateful to Bill and Gloria. That song was done the way it should be done all the post production to make it as impacting as it was so grateful to them and grateful to have that opportunity.

unknown 50:56

May it just do exactly what you said Mike is to help reconciliation.

SPEAKER_03 51:02

I just want to briefly say your wife Greta I know she's been a part of your journey for decades and I know you'll have some children and I'm sure that partnership is uh influenced your music and uh about everything else that goes on with your concerts everything else that you do with your art.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

Yeah uh 52 years and counting interestingly enough she's just in raw talent I think she's got a better ear than I do with mus musically I wouldn't doubt that she has perfect pitch. She has a tremendous sense of of pitch and things on toon off to but she has also a great sense of how to present the harmony just in the right way to fit it right where it should be.

SPEAKER_03 51:43

So yeah you're right that just took the iceberg of her influence on me and also the effect that she's had on all the aspects our children and many other people she's been a teacher she's retired now but for uh many many years and you know a week doesn't go by without someone who's commenting about how important her teaching was to them so great partnership in life and with uh your music career as well so more than fifty years of songwriting you still got the creative juices flowing and uh still pick up the guitar piano or write out of tune?

SPEAKER_01 52:20

Well I was afraid you're gonna ask that I'm writing poetry to some degree but even that performing thing pretty much I took a nosedive with uh COVID to shut travel down deservedly so I mean there's no point in being out there and you didn't want any gathering you know to be at risk. So it really shut down but for whatever reason it isn't at that kind of stage. I'm at the stage now of uh listening and I think it's an important thing. I listen a lot not to music but to just the whole pulse of things the age humans around me but in terms of the actual writing of songs that hasn't happened much in the last bunch of years. One of my favorite writers C.S. Lewis talked about with friends it was near the end of his life I'm not projecting that this is a similarity here but uh near the end of his life he he said he told a friend the stories I don't know I'm sorry the pictures are gone. Now if you knew something about Lewis in several instances talked about his creativity started almost always with a visual picture that he had in his head. For instance, if you're familiar with the Narnia chronic The Lion the Witch in the wardrobe the the children go through a wardrobe and the first thing they see or the first thing Lucy sees is a lamppost in the woods on with the snow coming down. That's the first thing she sees. Well that Lewis said was the very first thought he had about the Narnia Chronicles he got a picture of a lamppost in the woods and snow coming down. That's it. And he told his friend a couple years before he passed away he said the pictures are gone I I don't get pictures anymore. I'm not saying that's my case but I am saying I can relate the idea of something just sort of popping into your head and looking for a scrap of paper to get it down that still happens but doesn't happen much like it used to. So who knows?

SPEAKER_03 54:23

Chapters of life and the seasons of life as we turn the page um things do change. So we're gonna just a couple of more here if you don't mind uh what advice would you give some young songwriters maybe who are starting out and I know songwriting now and uh the way production is and uh the digital world and man music has changed a lot the professional business side of music and I know that's something we hadn't talked about but I think you probably have not been uh in that lane where you and then even in some of your songs you talk about uh not searching in for the glory the pride and the fame well but I was certainly guilty of it you know you mentioned what was my favorite song one of my absolute favorites I'll just throw it out there it's called North of Leaven uh it's off the Good Grief album it's the last cut on that album and it really is very personal because I can't deny the fact that when Nashville rang me up I wasn't flattered and in fact hungry and sort of uh unloving many times of getting what I was hoping would come and the truth of it is uh it never really happened and that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

Uh I have come to sort of realize that that it was more of a blessing than a disappointment. That really large pain any sort of exposure on the bigger stage it was really hasn't happened my situation has been blessed to be really under the radar. I'm honored happy that I can go to my grave knowing that that was absolutely okay. In fact it was more than okay it probably was the quiet blessing I never really appreciated about my life.

SPEAKER_03 56:17

Because I don't know you know when I talk about sin being missing the mark I think I probably would have missed the mark really big time had it become uh a you know household name and all that thing so I am honored to be just who I am and discovering that more and you know not with uh anything to prove at all just happy as uh some writers once said happy to be here I think that's what's drawn a lot of people to your music is that that's not what you are and I think people who are drawn to your music just uh appreciate the fact that hey here I am here's my heart here's my songs here's my stories and uh if you like them come join along if you don't that's okay too.

SPEAKER_01 57:04

I remember sitting with a friend at Willow it's a big big big church in Chicago I can't think of the name of Willow Willow Bank not Willowbank Willow Brook or Willow something. Anyway big church they had uh something like seven thousand attendees and they had their certain they had the weekends where strangers would come because it was a an event and they had drama and so forth. But in the during the week they had their own congregation which was about 4,000 people. So I'm sitting there with a friend in a hall full of people and I'm thinking how in the world do does a church this size pray for each other individually? And the a was almost the answer forthcoming woman came up to the microphone and said now we're gonna pray for one another and so she had a list of ten things that if you were going to you should stand up and the rest of the congregation would pray for them. And so the first one was having marital problems.

SPEAKER_03 57:59

Well the whole place went up you know uh having financial problems the whole place went up having other things problems the whole place went up number six she said are you brokenhearted not many people and I don't hear audible things from God but I I'll tell you it was almost audible I heard there they are there's your people the brokenhearted that uh says uh says it all right there well let's uh finish off uh with a uh question that I want to know uh answer to and when people listen to your music years from now what do you hope they remember about Michael Kelly Blanchard I know what I will remember but uh what do you hope they remember?

SPEAKER_01 58:42

I'll answer you theologically first theologically I hope not they don't remember me at all they remember the essence of whatever they felt that their heart was stirred. Humanly it's very touching and I have enough people who have written you know almost every month one person will write or two people will write will say I remember you know in 82 when you played here or so forth and that influenced my life and and that touches me. You know I could ask for no more and I I mean it but but from a point of view what what they remember you really have to take the Baptist legacy and he says I should decrease and I saw that perfectly seen a million years ago it seems when I went to see Mayor Jackson at a theater hall in Hartford Greta and I went she did a wonderful performance pretty sure she wasn't well and but it was one of her voice was wonderful and the last I didn't know it was the last song because it didn't seem like she had been out there that long she had us all singing and she invited us to close our eyes and kind of rock with the music. It was just wonderful and she she would lead us and we sang and lead us and sang and all of a sudden she wasn't leading us but we were still singing still singing and then we looked up and she was gone.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:11

That's the goal very very well said well I think I will remember mostly about your music is uh humanity that uh we have the brokenness then the love mercy forgiveness that is there reaching out and saying I just want to have a relationship with you brother sister that's all I think your songs reflect every one of those very very important to all humans grace mercy forgiveness and we so so need that in this world today and Michael Kelly Blanchard you have given that to the world and we I appreciate it so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:56

Thank you Mike I appreciate you taking the time to go through all this blessings on your endeavors to to keep on at it you've served for all those many years the public and now you're serving them in in a new way right that's honoring.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:14

There you go Grace again in saying hey you're not done with yet Mike uh maybe maybe you'll try this so I'm blessed yeah but I also realized the other part of the coin is we need to be helpful to other people.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:29

Well thank you so much anything else uh closing words uh you'd like to have let you have the last word farther up and farther in was uh line from one of the Narnia tales of uh going deeper into the heart of God so may it be so thanks so much Michael and you have a great day and the rest of your week and keep on going brother thank you Mike you've been listening to the Mike Stone Show music stories and conversations what a privilege it's been to spend this time with Michael Kelly Blancher an artist whose music and message continue to resonate across generations. I hope today's conversation gives you something to think about something to feel and maybe even something to carry with you into your own story. If you enjoyed this episode bear to it, follow the podcast and check out more conversations just like this one because the best stories are the ones that bring us closer together. Until next time I'm Mark for the Micstone show thanks for listening and remember to keep the music playing and the conversations going.