I Sing

In May & June, 2002, Michael had the incredible opportunity to record some of his music onto a CD. Words cannot express our gratitude to all the musicians and others who volunteered countless hours to bring this dream to pass. If the technology works like it is supposed to, you can listen to some of the songs by clicking below!
If you somehow stumbled onto this site or the CD and now want to know more about the Kriglines, you should be able to find your answers on this website. Michael is an English teacher who also just happens to write music. In Shanghai, our friends kept asking for copies of the music, and thus the idea was hatched to record it. The project was far more expensive and time-consuming than we could have dreamed, but it was also a lot of fun. Most of the songs on the CD even turned out pretty nice—considering that we were all a bunch of amateurs!
	(Left) Here is the “band” as they appear on the CD mailer. Twelve musicians from 11 different countries volunteered to help! (Right) This photo is also on the CD-mailer. Cherry was a fellow teacher at SIS. Her instrument is called an “erhu.”
This project was born here, at the Heng Shan International Church where all the foreign musicians met.	This tower is home to our recording studio (along with thousands of mosquitoes!)	Michael got to teach and sing every few weeks at the Intl Church (and also at retreats like this one), and people kept asking us to put the songs on a CD.
Tony in front of his wonderful recording equipment. You wouldn’t believe what this software/engineer team can do!	We were in the studio about 50 hours. Sometimes Vivian and Andrew acted as our caterers! Did somebody say McDonalds?	Dwayne Engh was our Producer, drummer and choir director. His wife Lynley did many backup vocals (and waited for us a lot!).
The “choir” sounded great and showed that many of these songs are easy to sing.	Michael discovered that glasses and headphones don’t go well together!	When it was all over, we hosted a banquet to celebrate and thank all the volunteers!

       If you have already got a copy of the CD, read the insert and you will see that you are welcome to copy it for your friends! Otherwise, you can only get copies from us—and almost all of the original 600 copies have been distributed! If you live near us in China, you can ask us for a copy; if not, write to me and I'll tell you how to get one.
       If you want a copy of the guitar chords for any of the songs (or if you want permission to re-record a song yourself), write to me (see below). I can attach the chords via a MS Word file when I reply. I would also be happy to answer questions about what the songs mean. Since I am generally busy teaching, please be patient! If you do not hear from me in a few weeks, ask again—sometimes e-mail never gets to us here in China.
       Thanks for visiting this web page. If I were God, I would have chosen a professional musician to pour these songs through, but His ways are not our ways. I marvel at the impact of these songs, and I am constantly encouraged to know that our friends have been inspired by the songs the Heavenly Father gives me. A great man once said “expect great things from, and attempt great things for God” or something like that. Being a “recording artist” is definitely out of my comfort zone, but I think we would all be amazed at what happens if we stepped out of the comfort zone more often! As the song says, though I feel far from “worthy” to “join in His song,” it is an awesome “joy to see what He does through me.” May you find the same thing in your own response to that still, small voice of “Heaven within us.”

Michael Krigline

Here are a few of the songs in digital format. You have my permission to copy them for your personal use. (see our Website Standards and Use Policy)

Sorry! Some songs do not download properly on all computers (though they all work at our home!). Also, to save space on my Chinese server, only Jing Ye Si is available at krigline.com.cn. You have to download the others from our US website. (If you are in China, just remove ".cn" from this page's address, and if it isn't being blocked in China, you should get to our US site.)

Our email address is on the Home page.

In December 2007 I learned that over 1300 people had downloaded Jing Ye Si, so I thought I'd better include the words to that wonderful poem (and the story behind my writing the song) :

When I had barely learned any Chinese, our teacher told us to memorize this famous Tang Dynasty poem (about homesickness). I had to set it to music in order to succeed! Our Chinese friends asked me to include it on this CD. Don’t Cherry's erhu and voice sound beautiful!

Jing Ye Si 静夜思李白 (poem by Li Bai, 701-762AD; music by Michael Krigline, 1985, Xiamen, China)

床前明月光, 疑是地上霜．举头望明月，低头思故乡．

Reminiscence in a Quiet Night (translation by Jin Lei)
Silver moonlight spread alongside my couch. That confused me as frozen dew.
Raising my head I saw the bright moon hanging in the sky.
Bowing my head I reminisced about my home far away.

(There is a "search" box on the home page)			HOME	Site map	(To search within any page, type "ctrl + f")
Current Update & how to contact us	Resources for students & teachers	Links for English Learners	EFL Movie Study Guides	Better Writing Study Guide	Our Students photos	Photo Index	South Carolina & USA photos
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)	Favorite Links	Things We've Written (articles)	Introduction to China	Life in China photos	Music Page & mp3 downloads	Archive Index	Real World Writing (my textbook)