"The Marriage Dream", sung by Jim with his wife Meredith on background vocals is in my (EJ) opinion one of the most beautiful, eloquent, and poignant songs written on the topic of marriage. The lyrics succinctly yet completely capture the essence of what the biblical concept of marriage really is, with the two taking each others' hands, the exchanging of the rings, and becoming one in God's eyes, with the Lord at the true center of their marriage, and the sharing of the faith with others via the marital bond.

Jim's rendering here is heartfelt, without being sappy, simple without coming across as trite... I could imagine it being sung either about or by a couple at a wedding, and of course, Jim has indeed sung this at more than a few weddings over the years, usually accompanied by Meredith on guitar, though I had the honor of accompanying the Martins at a wedding once.

"For My Bride" was inspired by and written for Kirsten for our wedding day. It was performed at our wedding reception with a lot of love and care by my college band G-FORCE as an instrumental, with my "Best Man" George "singing" the melodies on saxophone. I've never considered myself to be much of a lyricist, but before the wedding, I did have one verse of lyrics written which expressed what I wished to say at the time, though Kirsten remained the only person to have heard them.

Around 5-6 years after the wedding, I wrote a second verse, which expressed how I felt after a few years of marriage and going through a few surprises and trials along the way. Some of the words are repeated from the first verse because those feelings hadn't and haven't changed and still apply. As of this writing, I feel we're still living the 2nd verse.

The piano solo and the orchestral instrumental section in the middle is my way of expressing my love and range of emotions for Kirsten through my fingers, which seem to work much better than my voice. That's how God made me - I express my emotions best through music... and words just seem to get in the way...

The 3rd and final verse at the end has yet to be written and remains in instrumental form. Perhaps someday, God willing, we'll be grandparents and looking back at our lives together (while still hopefully very much looking forward) and I'll have something to say for the third verse, thanking Kirsten for all the years, and the Lord for allowing us to have them. We're just not there yet. I imagine it might be along the lines of Kenny Rogers' beautiful song "Through The Years".

This has been an extremely difficult recording to get "right". I confess that even after years of fussing over this, it's still not exactly what I hear in my head (though it's closer), and I haven't a clue as to what to do to "fix" it. Perhaps, because we're still living our lives forward, this is just meant to remain a "work in progress".

I need to thank by buddy/drummer from G-FORCE Bryan Celano. Referring to the rendition on the wedding video provided a number of tasty "just right" drumming ideas and he also provided a few very helpful creative suggestions during the recording and mixing phases of the process.

Caveat:
I had a few other singers in mind to sing the melody which has an insanely-wide two-and-a-half octave range, but Kirsten insisted that I had to be the one singing it, and I uncompromisingly refuse to change even one note of the melody. My voice isn't always pretty, but it is a sincere offering to my wife, to you reading and hearing this, and ultimately to the Lord, as all of my music is.

I hope you enjoy it!

---