COOLSPRING TOWNSHIP

Music therapist releases CD, book set

"It comes out of your experience," explained musician Judy Christ of Coolspring Township. "But there won’t be many experiences we have had that other people didn’t. That’s why music is the universal language."

Fans of Mrs. Christ can get as deep into her music as they want with her first professional recording, the two-compact disc or cassette set "In My Arms," and the book "Onions on Your Ice Cream," which gives the background of the songs and her life.

Not intending such an ambitious project, she recorded a few songs with Fireside Friends bandmates Gary and Diane Nelms of Mercer, and he encouraged her to record more.

They ended up with 31 songs and more than 100 minutes of music.

Most of the songs are overtly or subtly Christian, and deal with or helped her deal with the death of her parents and first husband, Roger Good; her remarriage to Dan Christ; the passage of time; and her family.

But while the subjects can be grim, the songs are upbeat and positive.

"It’s about friendship, life, living, death, dying, the whole gamut," she said. "Some I write in my own life process. I use them in therapeutic sessions knowing other people would tap into it."

The guitarist and keyboardist is a music therapist certified by the Certification Board of Music Therapy of the American Music Therapy Association. She has a private practice in Mercer and a one-day-a-week gig at the Shenango Valley Multi-Service Center, Wheatland.

Her music touches on folk, bluegrass, gospel, church hymns and Dixieland jazz.

Mrs. Christ’s mother and grandmother sang and played music, but she didn’t pursue musical study because she didn’t want to teach.

She attended Westminster College, New Wilmington, for two years, met Good, and became a real estate agent, settling in Pittsburgh.

Never abandoning music, she decided to go back to college after her sons had grown. She picked music therapy after reading an article on playing music for the dying.

She got a bachelor’s at Slippery Rock University, and got a job with a Veteran’s Administration hospital in Pittsburgh.

Working there, she saw music ease pain and reach people who were uncommunicative.

"A person is three-fold: physical, emotional and spiritual. Music touches all of those. "

After 35 years in Pittsburgh, she moved to Mercer County three years ago. She became so enamored of Mercer County’s slower pace and rural setting that while stuck in a traffic jam in Pittsburgh she wrote the song "Take Me Back to Mercer County."

The story is detailed in "Onions On Your Ice Cream," a book title that refers to her grandmother urging her to be different and not to blend in just to blend in.

"I’ve had so many people come up and tell me they understand the music so much better after reading the book," she said.

The book and recordings are on sale at Hermitage Bible and Gift, Nelms Music, Mercer, or through Mrs. Christ at 475-2826 or djchrist@infoline.net