Janet Paschal, Famous Singer & Author of Treasures of the Snow

June 5, 2009

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. It’s my pleasure to have on the show the musician and author Janet Paschal. Welcome to the show.

Janet Paschal: Thank you very much, nice to talk with you.

Dr. Kent: Well, I sure would like to listen to a couple tunes, I’ve got a couple in the queue. But let’s talk for just one second before I do that. Tell me a little about your latest record.

Janet Paschal: Well, I’ve been doing what I do for a number of years, and over the years people have remembered songs from as far back as 30 years ago, and I’ve still continued to get mail and email about some of those older songs, so for this record project we went back and recaptured 12 of those most requested songs from as far back as 30 years ago and re-recorded them. We kept the same, original arrangements and just updated the music and the technology of course, and we called it Treasure.

Dr. Kent: I’d love to listen to a track from that, I’ve got the song Hide Me, Sweet Rock of Ages in the queue, so let’s listen to that.

Janet Paschal: Okay.

Dr. Kent: Actually, why don’t you tell me a little bit about that song before we listen.

Janet Paschal: Ok, that song I recorded for the first time when I was singing with my first professional group. I was 18 years old, I lived in North Carolina, I wanted to sing Christian music, and they were coming through my area, and they were looking for a soprano, and I auditioned and they hired me. We recorded this song a couple years later, so it’s special to me for a number of reasons. Because it’s a fun song, and because it was with my original group, but also, you know, a lot of times music and songs will take you back to a certain place in your life, and that’s just been another rewarding aspect of doing this CD, it recaptures those old tunes, and it reminds us of some of the places we were, and some of the experiences we had through those years.

Dr. Kent: Wonderful. So let’s listen to this song that will take us all the way back to the beginning, Hide Me, Sweet Rock of Ages. Here it is.

(music)

Dr. Kent: Wow, what a tune.

(laughter) It’s a fun song, it really is.

Dr. Kent: It’s got to be fun, doing this kind of music.

Janet Paschal: It really, really is, because it is feel good music. It’s buoyant, and it lifts your spirits, and it has a positive message. It’s really a lot of fun, especially when you have a little history with it.

Dr. Kent: You’ve been onstage for a lot of people in a lot of countries. Tell us a little about that.

Janet Paschal: Well, I have sung in almost every country. Not every country, but certainly the majority of them, and it just astounds me that music seems to cross over language barriers, and facial expressions, and the actual chords and progressions of chords. They translate in different languages, and I have always just sung in English, and many times the audience didn’t speak English, the majority of them. But somehow they seem to have been communicated to, so it works.

Dr. Kent: You are a unique musician on the show because you’re also an author. So you’re a sound author and a sound author. And your book is called Treasures of the Snow, and it looks very similar actually to the album Treasure, which is kind of neat. But tell us about the importance of this book in your life.

Janet Paschal: Well, it’s actually my second book, and I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, and plowed through a year, about a year and a half of treatment. I chronicled that journey, and of course I did newsletters and blogs and so many people requested that they get a copy of that, and was I going to publish it. So finally I was due for a new book. So what I did is I worked this out so that the book is in three sections, and the first section deals with breast cancer, my plowing through that. And then the other two sections are other stories from the road. But the idea, and we did release the CD and book together, that’s the similar covers and the similar titles, but the idea is when Job was explaining to God about how faithful he had been, and explaining some of his (inaudible) to God, God just turned on him and asked where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth, and can you tell all the waters of the beaches, how far to come and no further? Do you know when a mountain gives birth? In other words he made Job realize how small he was. But one of the things he asked him which intrigued me was, have you seen the treasures of the snow? And I had ton know on that a little bit, I didn’t quite understand it. And then it occurred to me that snowflakes from a distance all look the same, but when you examine them closely, they’re very different, and they’re very unique. So for me, that spoke to me in that the situations, the things that I will have to plow through, like breast cancer, you know, some of the rough places in life, if we just gnaw on those things and try to swallow them a little bit and understand what it means in the larger scheme of things, then there are real treasures to be had, there are wonderful life lessons to be learned, and great takeaways from those things.

Dr. Kent: Well, and that’s such a hard thing to do when you’re going in and out of emergency rooms or clinics or hospitals, because those places have a horrible feel to them in some ways, and your family’s being dragged into it, and they’re all emotional, and…

Janet Paschal: You know what was the strangest thing for me was following the signs to oncology for the first time. I was treated at Duke Medical Center, and my husband and I were looking up at the ceiling following the signs to oncology, and it was just, it was so surreal, because my family didn’t have any history of cancer, and that was sort of a tough day for me, just following those signs.

Dr. Kent: Yeah, and you are a very spiritual person no doubt. Job is such a heavy book in the Bible that a lot of people like to skip over. But when you’re going through times like that, it’s pretty brave to go into Job. Talk about the book of Job.

Janet Paschal: Well, you know what I love about Job, a lot of times I go there and he does my venting for me. Because a lot of times I’ll read in Job when he was saying, “Oh, God, why do the wicked prosper?” and a lot of times I sit and I read that and I go, “Yeah, yeah, I want to know the answer to that, too.” And so it helps me just to sort of process whatever it is that I’m plowing through. But you know, in the larger scheme of things we’re all creatures of this earth, and we’ll all have great days, and we’ll all have very painful days, and good times and bad times. And so I think the crux of the matter is how we take the tough things in life, how we juggle those and balance them and how we incorporate all of that into our joys and our pleasures, and hopefully when we’ve figured it out, when it’s all said and done, then we have made good decisions and we have left the world a better place.

Dr. Kent: Well absolutely. And certainly you have quite a list of accomplishments, and you’ve inspired a lot of people. You’ve put out a ton of CD’s and probably all the way back to records. Did you put out a record at the beginning, or was it a tape?

Janet Paschal: Yes, absolutely. My first solo project was an LP, and I still have people come up to me at concerts and want me to sign it. (laughter)

Dr. Kent: Well, I’ve got to say, I’m an iPod user, and an iPod lover, but there’s something about LP’s, the pictures on them, they’re so big and so tangible, and you put the needle down on them, there’s something about it.

Janet Paschal: That’s exactly, and you know, the sound is sweeter too, I think.

Dr. Kent: So you still have an LP player?

Janet Paschal: Yes, I absolutely do.

Dr. Kent: Well, it’s been such a pleasure speaking with Janet Paschal, she’s got a book Treasures of the Snow, and it’s really just a wonderful book to pick up, and such an inspiration to people, and for all of those like me who look at the book of Job with a little bit of fear, this is a good entrance into that. And the album that goes with it called Treasure is really a great album, full of great energy. So tell us where we can find out more about you.

Janet Paschal: You can visit my website janetpaschal.com, or you can Google me, so Google will definitely get you there.

Dr. Kent: Exactly. Well, Janet Paschal has done so many wonderful things with her life. Thank you so much for being on the show, and for helping so many people.

Janet Paschal: It’s a pleasure talking to you. Thank you.

Dr. Kent: Actually, before you leave, why don’t you say a couple words. We’re going to go out with the tune We Shall Wear a Robe and Crown. Do you have anything to say about that one?

Janet Paschal: Ok, this is again, I recorded it back probably 30 years ago, but it was one of our, the group that I was in at the time, it was our big hit, so, and you know, it still is, it’s been recorded by 150 different people, but it is still a great song.

Dr. Kent: Well thank you so much, and have a wonderful day.

Janet Paschal: Thank you. Bye.

Dr. Kent: Now this song is from the album Treasure, and it’s called We Shall Wear a Robe and Crown. Listen to this.

(music)

Dr. Kent: And that was the tune We Shall Wear a Robe and Crown by Janet Paschal, off of her newest album Treasure. Thank you so much to all my guests on the show today. I had Mark David Gerson, I had Janet Paschal, I had Mark K. Updegrove, and at the beginning the wonderful children’s author Kathy Lasky, who wrote that wonderful biography of Charles Darwin. Everybody have a safe week and pick up a great book. I’ll talk to you on the flip side.

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