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Inspired by a True Story, produced & performed by Grammy® Award-Winning vocalist Darlene Koldenhoven is a heartwarming, inspiring collection of 10 songs & compositions that touch a universal note in each and every one of us; dedicated to uplift your spirits and get you into a positive, refreshed and relaxed mood . . . a restorative journey for your true story.  

The album opens with the up-tempo pop “Kiss a Rainbow of Love,” followed by contemporary jazz, gospel, and folk-rock flavors, each piece gradually changing in tempo and mood through classical crossover to the final ambient piece, “Inspirial,” a 12 minute meditative instrumental composition. Each piece in the album develops the overall story of the unifying themes of positive self-discovery, universal inclusiveness and spiritual awareness to blissful inner peace – beautiful words, new age music, and vocals that are nourishing and truly transcendent.

All pieces were written by Darlene except her collaboration with Larry Steelman on "The Who I am in Me,” and “The Prayer" by David Foster & Carol Bayer-Sager. Darlene sings all the lead and background vocals on the album, except two songs where she is joined by her Young Vocal Artists Choir and studio singer friends. Employing her keyboard prowess, Darlene arranged, programmed, and performed all 10 pieces on the album except the song she wrote with Steelman, who programmed and performed the rhythm section of the track, with Darlene on the orchestral and ambient portions. Mike Miller played all the beautifully creative solo and rhythm guitar work and Pedro Eustache wonderfully played the world woodwinds on “Infinite Voice.”

Delving deeper are the interesting 'true' back-stories that prompted Darlene to include and create the songs forInspired by a True Story. For example, Darlene arranged and English-only solo version and sang live on-camera, “The Prayer” in one of television’s most popular soap operas, The Young and the Restless in 2002 and also sang on the original recording in the Warner Brothers Animation Quest for Camelot where it won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Grammy Award. . . . The classical crossover ballad "In God's Time" was inspired when one of her close new age musician friends told her a long time ago that she must be living in God's time because of all the special things happenings and accomplishments manifesting in her life at the time. He passed over a week later from a motorcycle accident, only in his thirties, now himself living in God's time. The lyrics try to describe what it must be like to truly live in God's time when we surrender to it. . . . Darlene was inspired to write "Essence of Your Peace" to sing at a church service in Orlando, Florida with their choir. "Infinite Voice" also appears as the title track from Darlene's #1 CD Infinite Voice. Darlene chose to include it again in this album due to the spiritual message and beauty of the song. . . . "Within the Consciousness of God" was written to sing at a church service in Honolulu, Hawaii, celebrating the date 10/10/10 and the debut of this song the day after Darlene's birthday on 10/9/10. . . . The lyrics to "The Who I am in Me" inspires us to be aware of the omnipotence of God and that with a deeper look on our journey of self-discovery, we may find that God is the core of our being and begin to see the truth of God in all of us. . . . The ultra happy pop song "Kiss a Rainbow of Love" invites us to have an intimate relationship with happiness and love and to call upon our joy no matter what happens in life. It features her choir of child and teen voice students, Darlene's Young Vocal Artists . . . .The true story behind "Sing" originates from when Darlene often sang with her pet canary as a young child as a way to escape certain overwhelming childhood emotions. She noticed at an early age that no matter what, the bird always sang with her and it helped her to "soar above the noise." Inspired by the many healthy and restorative benefits of singing and new age music that she learned throughout her life and now teaches, Darlene wrote this gospel ballad as a call for us to open up and freely express with our voices a universal song of peace and love, singing in harmony with each other, featuring a gospel choir of some of her closest singer friends. . . . "Release" is somewhat of a personal prayer Darlene wrote to help us prepare to let go of all things that keep us from being our true selves and finding our center. She positioned this song as a preparation for the final track, "Inspirial," a 12 minute instrumental piece composed to help us relax, meditate, or simply wind us down for a short nap. The title is a word created to mean "spiritually inspired" and no vocals are included in this piece to allow the listener to freely hear the true voice within his/her own soul.

Inspired by a True Story is more than just an album of songs with a positive message, but a musical way to joyfully help us be in touch with our own true story and remind us in difficult times how we are all part of the truth of God in our universe and tap into this emotionally safe and nurturing environment through new age music.