My father loved to sing! He was a Methodist minister in the S.C. conference and he loved singing hymns but he also loved singing the songs that he sang in the Army during World War II. Daddy used to sing songs with us at bedtime and taught my sister and me such songs as “My Grandfather’s Clock,” “Oh My Pa-pa,” “Do Your Ears Hang Low,” and “A Capital Ship.” If you’d like to hear a couple of these songs, go HERE. After I started taking piano lessons at age 8, Daddy was always my biggest fan! No matter how I played, he was at the front of the line to congratulate me and tell me how beautiful it was! My father was so easy to please, so quick to love and so quick to forgive. He instilled in me a love for music, for church music and for God. What more can a child ask?

My father told me that he wished he could have taken piano lessons as a child but that his family didn’t have the money during the Great Depression and so he and his family enjoyed singing and making music other ways. Music is a gift from God and I never take it for granted. As I grew up and became a parent and a professional musician I wanted to give my own children the love and appreciation for music that my father gave me. He was also extremely proud of my children’s musical ability and encouraged them as he did me. A few years ago, my oldest daughter played her violin in Carnegie Hall and I knew that Daddy was there with us in spirit. He passed away in 1999 and was a very beloved human being. At his funeral, three different ministers gave tributes to him. If you’d like to read what the newspapers said about him, go HERE. I miss my father very much today but I have all of his sermons and a few tapes of him preaching and singing the hymns of Charles Wesley that he loved so much.

I feel extremely blessed to have had a father like Michael Benjamin Hudnall!

Many of you know that my father was a minister…a Methodist minister.  I grew up hearing church music and loving it.  Most of my ideas about who God is and who I am and what I’m here to do on this Earth, came from the hymns that we sang and the sermons I heard my father preaching!  I have learned so many wonderful things through music that I don’t think I could have taken in at such a deep level otherwise.

At bedtime, my father sang songs with my sister and me and we often memorized Psalms and other scrpture.  When I saw this video of a little girl reciting the 23rd Psalm, it just reminded me instantly of my childhood and I wasnted to share it with you.  I hope you enjoy it!

Click HERE