Books by Dale Harris

Books by Dale Harris
A Feast of Epiphanies

Though I Walk, A Novel

Daytime Moons and Other Celestial Anomalies, a book of poems

Second Wind

Second Wind
An album of songs both old and new. Recorded in 2021, a year of major transition for me, these songs explore the many vicissitudes of the spiritual life,. It's about the mountaintop moments and the Holy Saturday sunrises, the doors He opens that no one can close, and those doors He's closed that will never open again. You can click the image above to give it a listen.

The Song Became a Child

The Song Became a Child
A collection of Christmas songs I wrote and recorded during the early days of the pandemic lockdown in the spring of 2020. Click the image to listen.

There's a Trick of the Light I'm Learning to Do

This is a collection of songs I wrote and recorded in January - March, 2020 while on sabbatical from ministry. They each deal with a different aspect or expression of the Gospel. Click on the image above to listen.

Three Hands Clapping

This is my latest recording project (released May 27, 2019). It is a double album of 22 songs, which very roughly track the story of my life... a sort of musical autobiography, so to speak. Click the album image to listen.

Ghost Notes

Ghost Notes
A collections of original songs I wrote in 2015, and recorded with the FreeWay Musical Collective. Click the album image to listen.

inversions

Recorded in 2014, these songs are sort of a chronicle of my journey through a pastoral burn-out last winter. They deal with themes of mental-health, spiritual burn-out and depression, but also with the inexorable presence of God in the midst of darkness. Click the album art to download.

soundings

soundings
click image to download
"soundings" is a collection of songs I recorded in September/October of 2013. Dealing with themes of hope, ache, trust and spiritual loss, the songs on this album express various facets of my journey with God.

bridges

bridges
Click to download.
"Bridges" is a collection of original songs I wrote in the summer of 2011, during a soul-searching trip I took out to Alberta; a sort of long twilight in the dark night of the soul. I share it here in hopes these musical reflections on my own spiritual journey might be an encouragement to others: the sun does rise, blood-red but beautiful.

echoes

echoes
Prayers, poems and songs (2005-2009). Click to download
"echoes" is a collection of songs I wrote during my time studying at Briercrest Seminary (2004-2009). It's called "echoes" partly because these songs are "echoes" of times spent with God from my songwriting past, but also because there are musical "echoes" of hymns, songs or poems sprinkled throughout the album. Listen closely and you'll hear them.

Accidentals

This collection of mostly blues/rock/folk inspired songs was recorded in the spring and summer of 2015. I call it "accidentals" because all of the songs on this project were tunes I have had kicking around in my notebooks for many years but had never found a "home" for on previous albums. You can click the image to download the whole album.

random reads

Phantosmia (A Scent of Smoke), a song

About three years ago I started having this strange experience where I would randomly begin to smell smoke, when there was no real smoke to be smelled. The first time it happened it was so strong that I figured something in my office building must actually be burning, so I started wandering the halls trying to pin-point where it was coming from, sniffing the air so deeply that I almost hyperventilated. Three years, multiple doctors appointments, two specialist referrals, one EEG and one MRI test later, I was told that this was a common phenomenon, a condition related to migraine auras, and completely harmless. Apparently there's even a name for it: it's called phantosmia

I've actually come to welcome my phantosmia episodes when they happen (usually one will come along every couple of months or so). The smoke scent itself is not unpleasant, something like a campfire smell, and they often trigger vague feelings of nostalgia. Early on in my journey with phantosmia, though, I was thinking about the ways in which this experience of looking intently for a smell that isn't there could be a metaphor for life. A few songwriting sessions later and I'd come up with this.



I’m being haunted
By a scent of smoke
I’m just being taunted
Cause when I look around
Nothing’s burning

Oh, how I hunted
For a scent of smoke
I had what I wanted
But when I woke I found
Empty yearning

Like a bird in a fist
That flutters away
Before it can be glimpsed
Like a dream that escaped
Before the dreamer awoke
My heart has been shaped
By a scent of smoke

Still I’m undaunted
I can take a joke
And yet I’m haunted
Cause when I look around
Nothing’s burning

Like a bird in a fist
That flutters away
Before it can be glimpsed
Like a dream that escaped
Before the dreamer awoke
My heart has been shaped
By a scent of smoke

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