This track is a stately orchestral track celebrating the "return of the Sun" - the days starting to get longer at the Winter Solstice - and looking forward to Spring.  It features big string and horn sections, and especially the trumpet.

Winter Solstice Procession - Preview 4

Winter Solstice Procession - Preview 3

Winter Solstice Procession - Preview 2

Winter Solstice Procession - Preview 1

On A Rising Wind - Preview 1 -  Bars 1 - 24

On A Rising Wind - Preview 2 -  Bars 60 - 84

On A Rising Wind - Preview 3 -  Bars 174 - 201

Born and grew up in Annapolis, MD. College in the beautiful mountain country of southwest Virginia. Lived in rural Maryland, Northern California, Southern Wisconsin. Thirteen-year resident of Japan. Now throwing down some roots on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.

When I was growing up, we lived in a small house. My Dad used to sit at a desk in my bedroom and listen to the local classical radio station while studying for his PhD. So every night as I was falling asleep my head was filled with the music of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and other greats.

Mom sang semi-professionally and was in demand to sing solos at weddings. And she insisted that the kids take music lessons. So I started playing the violin in elementary school and took piano lessons into my high school years.

The folks said I would be sorry when I insisted that I didn't want to take piano lessons any more, but I immediately started learning guitar on a cheap Stella that my sister had received for Christmas one year.

In the summer of 1969 as Dad drove us across the country pulling a camper, I sat for hours in the back of our station wagon and tortured the rest of the family while I learned the chords to various pop and folk tunes. That was the year of tunes like, ""Crimson and Clover" (Tommy James and the Shondells), "Honky Tonk Women" (Rolling Stones), "Proud Mary" (Creedence Clearwater Revival), "In the Ghetto" (Elvis Presley), and "Come Together" (Beatles).

Richard Mark Johnston