The Joy in my Life

Each of us are links in a chain that reaches farther back in the past than we can imagine and hopefully will continue far into the future. As parents we eagerly awaited the birth of each child, knowing that each would be special and unique.  We place great hopes in each of our children., trusting that they would keep the family chain strong and would provide  strong found ation for the generations which would follow them.  Jenny was one of our children.

Jenny, Jenny I See You

Kids love puppies because they are totally entertaining with all their antics. They are never boring!  However, puppies take a lot of work for the parents. This song  written by my wife Joy, is about our entertaining put pesty puppy

Puppy (2025 FAWM collab with Joy Schrock Thwing)

This song is about a mother whose kinds have grown up and ar out in the world living their life while their mom is all alone in a nursing home wishing that they would occasionally give her a phone call.  # Lonesome  #Mom  #Gramma   

Waiting For The Phone To Ring

If life were a game that you could play over and over again until you got it right, how would you play your hand?  Hoad , a wise but ugly old toad, gets a second chance at living his life and chooses a different course this time.  Of course, in real life, we only get one chance to live out our life. It takes a lot of wisdom to get things right first time around.  Good luck. Vaja con Dios!!

Hoad's Second Chance

Decisions,...decisions...decisions.  A life well lived is full of decisions that require wisdom.  Wisdom only comes after you've been up and down the railroad tracks a few times.  This song is about an ugly old toad who  lives his life before wisdom kicks in and it's too late to change course.  Is it ever too late to change course?  You decide!

Hoad's First Time Around

I started writing songs after I returned from Vietnam.  I had played the piano earlier in my life and developed a clear ear for harmonics.  This was further refined when I studied music at Bowdoin College where I was a member of the glee club, chancel choir and a close harmony singing group called the Bachelors.  While in this group, I picked up the guitar, wrote some new arrangements of existing songs and did a little solo work.
After Vietnam with this same guitar, I began writing songs as a form of PTSD therapy. Got so active in the anti-war movement  while in theolgy school, that my wife and I fled  to Canada where we pastored among the farmers and native people of Alberta and British Columbia.  I continued writing songs about  my experiences in those worlds  while raising my family.   After protecting those songs under copyright at the Library of Congress, I made up some demos and caught a bus to NYC where I tried to peddle my music with some high-powered citified record agents.  I didn't get any bites and got discouraged  when they told me to go to Nashville.  I didn't have the time or the money back then to follow up on that advice, so I sat on those songs for years.   Now in retirement, I've finally gone to Nashville in the hopes of getting my music out into the ears, minds and hearts of a whole different generation of young people.  Remembering the advice of a close friend - "With God's help, all things are possible". I decided.....Why not?

Hoad's First Time Around

Bill Thwing