» He Won't Hurt Her

This song began as a lyric called "He Won't Hurt Me". Jimmy ("Nobody Loves Me Like You Do") Dunne loved the lyric and wrote a beautiful melody for it. He had a demo made with that lyric, but I kept getting the feedback in Nashville that no one was going to cut the song in the first person, because no one would want to identify with the narrator as the victim of abuse.

At that time, I was working with Jeff Hollandsworth of Marco Music in Nashville, and he was convinced he could get the song cut if the lyric was in the third person. Jimmy vehemently disagreed, but I told Jeff to make the demo anyway.

I was proven right in that the song got a lot of attention in its new form. Much later on, my publisher Cbris Keaton got the song on hold with Martina McBride, and I was told it would be the first single from her new album. Later on, though, I was informed that the song had been dropped - and when the album came out, it featured the hit "Broken Wing" - another song about domestic abuse that featured McBride's soaring voice much better than ours would have.

The painting is called "Abused Woman at Heaven's Door". It was painted by the father of the person (Ann in Calgary, Alberta) who set up this website - http://knittingunderwater.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/abused-woman-at-heavens-door-painting-review/ - but I couldn't find his name anywhere! I love it!