“I could always see the path.. even though I sometimes strayed....”

Looking back on my life today, I see how one may use these words to define a large part of my journey. I would assume many of you feel the same, and some like myself have strayed more than others. But I always saw the path. I ever had a compass and knew that eventually, I would be happy, all would be right with the world, and I would find my way home - journey successfully completed. As I become older, and with so much increasing upheaval in the country and the world today, I am finding that I look ahead for the first time, and a thickening fog is covering the road. Once where I saw a beacon to guide me home, I now see a weak flickering light growing dimmer in the mist, expanding in the distance.

I am weary, I am angry, yet I also know I am blessed and have much to be grateful for. Despite anxious mood swings and unsettling emotions, I am constantly reminded that I still have much to do and miles to go before I sleep. I cannot give in to the fog, neither can you, nor can our country.

I want to thank everyone who took the time to respond on Facebook to my last post about our veterans who gave their lives and fought for our country. I also want to thank those who took the time to email me. All are welcome. Even though things are looking grim for our country at this moment, most of the posts and discussions were positive. I pray we can all find our beacon of light, as separate souls, as a country, and as a world. I believe we can, but nothing is written in stone. Go forth with energy, confidence, power, and light. Be part of the healing force so that we may find our way once again.

www.linktr.ee/jeffreypike

Just a week or so ago, I was in Marietta, Georgia, a place I know very well, and for the first time in many years, I found myself taking a long walk there and found myself in The Marietta National Cemetary. Established in 1866, it is the resting place of 18,742 United States Soldiers who gave their lives for our country. It is odd, in the 30 plus years that I have been visiting Marietta, I have driven past and marveled at this beautiful cemetery countless times. But it wasn't up until recently that I entered and paid my respects.
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While I was looking at the graves' names and dates, I wondered what these brave soldiers would think of the country they died to protect if they were alive today. I believe that most would be shocked into disbelief. I can only imagine the sadness and anger they might feel to see how corrupt and barbaric our once great nation has become, to see how morally low and spiritually bankrupt we have fallen.

This is not the America I was brought up in, nor is it the America I was brought up to be proud of. I wish I had an answer or something to shed just a glimmer of hope to anyone reading this, but in all honesty, I don't. I realize I am not the first, nor is this emotion unprecedented or unshared. But for the first time in my life, I feel entirely broken-hearted and lost as an American.

I believe that being outside and at one with nature restores my energy, soothes my soul, helps ground my spirit, and allows me to be closer to the universe and my creator.
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I have always been a child of the water and longed to be near the ocean. It was not until these last few years that I developed a deep love for being alone in the forest or on a secluded hiking trail. If you had told me just ten years ago that I would come to love hiking and jogging as I do now, I would have asked to have whatever it was that you were drinking. I hope to hike a lot more in the coming year in my home state of Georgia and other places across the country. These photos were taken during my last walk around my wooded park of 2020, just before New Year's Eve.
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I have many plans, hopes, and dreams for 2021, plans alone in the woods communicating with my creator and plans out in the world, making a difference, making music, and living my life. I wish the same for you. Thank you for being part of my journey.

​All my life I have had a melancholy and sad love affair with New Years Eve. This beautiful melody and lyric by Barry Manilow and Marty Panzer has been my favorite New Years Eve song since I first heard it back in 1977. It tugs at my heart stronger with each passing year. Enjoy and have a safe and wonderful New Years Eve.

MERRY CHRISTMAS
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I have many conflicting emotions caught up inside me on this Christmas Day. Although all situations are different, I can safely assume that everyone reading this feels the same. Our country and the world appear to be in a dangerous state of moral, spiritual, racial, economic, and political decline, the likes that most alive today have never seen. Like a lot of you, I have lost many people, a great deal of money, and most of my work. I won’t lie. I am frightened, but I am choosing to stay positive.

This is the last Christmas of my 50’s, and although it has not been perfect, I will not let the fear of the future defeat me. The sun is shining, there is no cloud in the sky, and there is a crisp Christmas chill in the air. All of my family are alive and well. I am healthy and in good voice with many songs left to sing. So I encourage all of you today to do your best to beat down the negativity, the anger, and the fear. I know it can be very hard. Pick up a large torch of gratitude. Carry it proudly and high. Let it light your way into the coming year with a full heart. May it ignite your courage to believe, work for a better life, and a better world.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Jeff Pike

Back on July 27, 2020, in the middle of our Covid summer, I released my first single in 7 years, 'Hug Inside An Envelope.' Yes, it has been seven years since my last official release. To let you know what was going on during those seven years could probably fill four self-help books. So let's just say that I have been "busy." To be completely honest, I had no plans to release anything at all. That is until I was approached by a lyric writing friend of mine in London, England. Her name is Rosalind Winton, and we met via the Internet a few years ago. She told me some time ago that she would like to work with me one day. Well, this past spring, she contacted me to inform me that she believes she finally had a project on which we could collaborate. I will not say anything else about it, for I want Rosalind to tell you how all this came about in her own words. So Ladies and Gentlemen, Mrs. Rosalind Winton.

THE MAKING OF 'HUG INSIDE AN ENVELOPE'

One morning in 2018, David, my husband told me that he had been listening to an interview with a lady who had written a letter of support to a friend who was in a bad place. The friend spread the word and the lady ended up sending hundreds of handwritten letters to people who needed a kind word. 

David told me that at the end of the interview, the lady said... "It's a hug in an envelope". David told me that, because he knew I was always on the lookout for great lyrical hook lines, and this certainly had my attention. 

When I thought about that line, I thought about why someone would be sending a letter, especially in this day and age. Also, there's the telephone, so I had to think of a reason why a phone call couldn't be made. I then had the idea of writing it in a way to depict that a lot of time had passed and a letter was the only way of contacting the recipient.

Once I had the concept, the lyric came to me pretty easily, but it was originally written as a love song. I had words like 'dear', 'love' etc in it. Then, at one point, I sat back and just looked at the lyric on the screen in front of me and as I read it, I realised I could tweak it slightly, so that it could be more relatable. I took out all the lovey words and altered it accordingly. It then became a lyric conducive to any relationship and any circumstance. I was happier with that, it felt better.

I then thought about who of my composer friends I should send it to and I decided to send it to Robert Benson. I've known Robert a long while and he has put great music to a few of my lyrics and I felt he would be right for this one. 

Robert liked the lyric and once he had composed the music, he sent me a demo, which I absolutely loved.
I then took the song into a professional recording studio and had the music arranged and produced professionally, so now it sounded like a 'real song'. Towards the end of the session, the producer mentioned that he thought something was missing, so he asked me if I would play percussion on the song. I didn't have to be asked twice. I played the tambourine on the bridge and shaker on the last chorus. That was an amazing experience, I loved it. Now to find a vocalist.

My original idea was to find someone local to me here in the UK, that I could take into the studio and give an experience to. I put the word out and a few people contacted me, but when I sent them the song, they either couldn't connect to it, or found it difficult to sing, or said it just wasn't right for them. So I gave up on that idea and looked to my professional singer friends.

I thought about my friend Jeff who is in the US. I have known him a good few years now and it has always been an ambition of mine to work with him. I sent him the song, he loved it and agreed to record the vocal. Once Jeff had recorded the vocal, he told me he loved it so much, he would like to release it as a single. Of course, I said. "Yes".

The whole process, from when David gave me the idea, to now has been quite a while. There were gaps of many months between all the aspects of producing the song, but it was well worth the wait. From the moment David told me about it, I had a great feeling about it and that is why I never gave up on it. 
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I would like to thank Jeff so much for putting such a great vocal to the song, it's perfect. I hope everyone who hears it, loves it as much as we do.

ROSALIND WINTON - LYRICIST
Rosalind Winton has been writing poetry and song lyrics most of her life. She has produced and published a book POETIC WONDERS, which contains poems written by herself and five other authors that she gathered together for the project. Very recently, she wrote a song with her collaborator AJ Clarke called ONE DAY SOON, which is a song for our time and raised much needed funds for the NHS during the COVID-19 crisis. Rosalind has written for unsigned artists, musical theatre projects and original school plays. She has also won awards (Merit and Outstanding) for two of her songs, both in 2001 at different music festivals. 

You can find Rosalind on Facebook at:   www.facebook.com/rosalind.winton

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I want to thank everyone who attended my Facebook Live event on September 25 to honor The Partridge Family's 50th Anniversary. I especially want to thank Sharron Liddle and all of my new friends on The David Cassidy Group of Great Britain, for it was initially planned as a show that was just for them. Thus my 2:00 PM EST start time. But then the 50th Anniversary of The Partridge Family popped up, and we opened it to the world. 

I have wanted to do a show like this for decades, and it delighted me to no end to execute it on such a special occasion. It was a great day of celebration in England and The United States, and there was a lot of celebration on and offline being enjoyed by so many people. Sharron Liddle did a fantastic job pulling together all that she did for a full day of Great Britain celebration in honor of The Partridge's. I also would personally like to thank Pauline Tombs, Andrea Dominianni, and Susan Samantha Cox for all of their help in promoting my show.  I had a fantastic time and look forward to doing another tribute performance to David Cassidy in the future. Thanks again to everyone who tuned in!