This article appeared in the Minnesota Christian Chronicle on November 20 , 2002

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Lynn Peterson, with her prairie sky blue eyes and wheat colored hair, is the very picture of a Carl Larssen painting. But there the Nordic hues end. It is her voice, a Celtic-folk blend, that lures the listener into the songs of praise she sings.

Peterson's concept for creating Hymns for the Whole Family, Volumes I and II, began when she recorded a song for a friend as a Christmas present. "She loves Easter so I recorded 'Crown Him With Many Crowns,'" Peterson says. For several years she continued to create hymn gifts, eventually gathering the collection into two separate CDs.

Born the second of five children to St. Olaf College graduates in Northfield, Peterson grew up in a Lutheran home filled with hymn playing. "My mother played the organ for church," she recalls. "We had a piano and an organ in our living room and my mother and grandmother played these wonderful duets."

Peterson believes there is power in these songs of praise and now incorporates them into family life. "The home is like another little church, really, it's a sanctuary. We usually sing the first verse of a hymn at the dinner table to start our prayer," she says from her sunny music room, seated in a centuries-old hand carved Norwegian wood chair. After finishing her degree in chemistry at the University of Colorado, Peterson wrote songs for a record company in Colorado, and met Elliott Randall, who once played guitar for Steely Dan. Randall encouraged her singing career and Peterson decided to try a year in the Big Apple before going on to graduate school.

To support herself in New York City, she worked temporary jobs by day to support her nightly foray into the studio to record her songs. "I found a wonderful place called A & R Recording. Everyone from Billy Joel, to Frank Sinatra, to Aretha Franklin recorded there," she says.

Peterson found studio time expensive. "But I met a gentleman at the studio, who, 40 years ago, lived in Minneapolis," Peterson says. "He loved the Nankin Café, Nut Goodies, and Salted Nut Rolls, so I brought him Minnesota treats and he gave me deals on studio time late into the evening."

On one of those nights, Peterson had just finished mixing one of her demos when a woman overheard her and asked if she would come the next day and record an advertisement. "I had no idea I was going to record, The feeling you get with a Coke in the morning. You can't beat it. You can't beat the real thing," she says. Overnight, Peterson received calls for jingles, supporting her singing and songwriting career for eight years.

Upon her return to Minnesota, Peterson revisited the hymns she was raised on. "It really affected me, after living in a different world in New York, to come back home and realize the hymns hadn't changed and that they are a part of you," she reflects.

For someone who had been a songwriter for 15 years, Peterson was comforted and surprised by her rediscovery. "It's a pretty amazing thing to hear a hymn and go, 'Oh, that's a hit,'" Peterson says. "Not only are they great literature, they're some of the best music ever written."

Because her father was a Navy pilot, Peterson wanted a military component on both albums to honor the armed forces. For the first album she chose the United States Navy hymn, "Eternal Father Strong to Save." Explains Peterson, "William Whiting was a schoolmaster near the port of Birmingham, England. He actually wrote that hymn for the English Navy. The French Navy uses it as well." On the album's release, Peterson donated copies of the album to the U.S .Navy Chaplaincy. "They've used the CD's instrumental version for Change of Command onboard many of the aircraft carriers," she says, proudly.

Petersons believes hymns can be a way for Christians to draw together. "At a time like this in our nation, we should put down our pettiness and separation and find a common denominator," she says. "Hymns do that in a way that is so powerful."

Researching hymns broadened her awareness of the music's origination. "It's amazing how some of the hymns we love most may not have come from the denomination we were raised in. Praise to the Lord came from the Catholic tradition. As a matter of fact, when the Pope visited America, he chose that hymn for the Youth Rally."

Peterson reflects, "America's the noble experiment. Diversity is our strength. Why not draw from different parts of our Christian heritage and sing these great hymns?"

Two years ago, Peterson received a surprise phone call from Rich Dworsky, music director for Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. "Garrison was looking for a new duet partner. Rich came over and I handed him my very first reference CD of Hymns." Several days later, Dworsky phoned Peterson to say that Garrison wanted to meet her.

In November 2000, Peterson debuted at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul on A Prairie Home Companion. Since then she has gone on to perform over a dozen times with Keillor, singing a variety of songs, including those from her albums. "Garrison pulls interesting material out of the woodwork," Peterson says. "He's just so creative and intuitive. I don't think people realize he comes up with a lot of the arrangements. He has incredible insight about what's going to make a good blend and what isn't. It's always a challenge, creatively, for me."

Peterson believes people need to embrace the hymns for what they are. "Hymns are a form of prayer," she says. "'Jesus Loves Me' is all the theology you need to know. It's so simple. Sometimes I wonder if people sang that hymn more if they wouldn't feel better at the end of the day."

Lynn Peterson's Website

Prairie Home Companion Website

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