Buffalo Rising Online

Jul 24th 2007, 10:29pm By Chris Brown

In early winter 2006 I found David Granville in the parlor practicing a song on his piano and singing along * and if you know David, that's not an unusual experience. However, I was struck by the beauty of the music and its message. It reminded me of a well crafted and moving folk song, the kind that would have been heard frequently during 1960s-era of musical and political empowerment.

I asked David "who wrote that song?" He responded, "I did!" I was surprised only because I had never known David to write a song before, and as he is quick to point out, although he has written music before and poetry before, he has never before had the inspiration to put the two together.

In the days that followed, David played the song for a few friends, who, like myself, were impressed by the song's beauty and clarity. The song is called "Peace Prints" and is inspired by the PeacePrints signs that are seen all over Western New York, an effort started by the late Sister Karen Klimczak. While the song is inspired by the signs and Sr. Karen's work, David's lyrics have a universal message of love, beauty and courage that seem to take a unique and personal meaning to each person that hears it.

In early January, I called my friend, Sandy Villa, who set up a meeting with Fr. Roy Herberger. David and I had met Fr. Roy several years before at a particularly memorable Easter vigil service at the old Ss. Columba-Brigid Church before it was destroyed by fire. Fr. Roy was a good friend of Sr. Karen's and I felt that it was important that he hear the song. He came by the house one evening in early January 2007 and David played the song for him. He was so moved by the song, he wanted to incorporate it into his combined bi-lingual Spanish and English mass that was held on the last Sunday of the month * just a week or so away.

David was set to work with the church's music director, Lynda Martin, but at the last minute, she was not going to be in attendance. Two days before the event, we had the divine inspiration to contact Bonnie Kane Lockwood, who years ago sang to David's accompaniment. Bonnie is a wonderful, natural performer with a beautiful singing voice. David and I invited Bonnie over for coffee the day before the mass and played the song for her. She loved it and we asked her if she would be interested in singing it. She said yes, and asked when * her eyes got big as saucers when we said TOMORROW!! Being a good sport, she said, "let me try." She sang the song and it was so pure and powerful I got goose bumps. The next day, Bonnie sang the song at the mass with David playing the piano. It was a great success and many people in the church were moved to tears. There were also several influential people at the mass who wanted to do something more with the song.

One of them was Sr. Bea Manzella, of the Sisters of St. Joseph, and for those who know her, she is aptly called a "force of nature." A few days later, David and Bonnie were asked to sing the song at the opening of the SSJ Sister Karen Klimczak Center for Nonviolence in early February, however Lynda Martin would be participating. David, working with Glenn Hufnagel, re-arranged the song as a duet for Bonnie and Lynda. It was performed at the opening and Bishop Kmiec was in attendance.

The newly arranged duet was such a big success that Sr. Bea had the idea to record the song. On President's Day, 2007, Bonnie, Lynda, Glenn and background singers that included Sr. Bea, Susan Tobe and others met at Sessions Studio on Amherst Street where Dwane M. Hall guided everyone to create a great recording of the song.

Two months later, at Sr. Karen's memorial service held in April at Ss. Columba-Brigid Church, the song was performed live and hundreds of copies of the recording were distributed to those in attendance. Our good friend, Sandy White, connected us with AFO Productions who recorded images of the memorial service and created a music video, joining the images with the CD recorded in February.

The recently completed video is very inspiring. But just like the song itself, watch the video, listen to the song and find your own inspirational meaning. Like the dove-shaped PeacePrints sign, the music video and song can now be shared with people all over the world.

Lyrics (and MP3 version of song): mysite.verizon.net/cbrown4884/