The music ministry of Janeen Michael is purposed to take the message of hope in Gods love to all who will hear it. A ministry that: *Hails theologically sound lyrical content *Embraces the excellence of contemporary style music and *Possesses an image that glorifies her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Native of Pasadena, California it was her mom that introduced her to music formally. "She taught me piano and how to sing. She’d say, “girl just open up your mouth and sang!" The greatest musical influence in her life was time spent with the family around the piano, during the holidays. As immediate and extended family would take turns featuring its members and favorite gospel songs, it was her mom that would usually request she sing a solo. "I remember one of the first pieces of music I learned to read was a song called, “I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked”. I guess I was around 9 years old. That was the standard request for a few years around the old piano, and then around age 10 it became “My Tribute". Those family gatherings included very talented and award winning gospel musicians and singers. In addition to those family gatherings was Janeen's young church experience. She recalls the story being told of worshipers at the New Revelation Baptist Church standing to see the "little girl" too short to be seen behind the piano, with the "big voice", leading "Jesus Loves Me". As time progressed and adult hood was reached there was a lot of pain she experienced along the way. It caused a great emotional and spiritual challenge for her to become intimate and vulnerable to her Maker, as her music ministry would one day require. "If someone were to tell me then, that I would be sharing my heart so openly now, I’d say they were absolutely out of their right mind!" After casting all of her cares on God, she discovered the freedom in Him, to be who she was created to be. God continues to open doors for her to encourage others, to give their cares to God too. During those difficult years of tremendous struggle and growth, her salvaged journal entries have become the greatest resource for her musical compositions. With grace from God, excerpts from those entries have been gently formed into passionate, insightful, lyrics that are certain to encourage and inspire. Her freshman project titled, "A Souledy & A Song", features over a dozen of her original compositions. In addition to traditionally composed lyrical formats, she has also composed the "souledy". |