Songwriter's mission begets new music

Janice Kapp Perry gained a greater appreciation for small and simple things while serving an LDS mission in Santiago, Chile, with her husband, Doug.

"We didn't realize how some of the little things we did made a difference until we were ready to leave, and people said, 'I remember when you did such-and-such' or 'Something you did meant so much to me.' Sometimes it was no more than a kind word or a little hug."

She couldn't get that idea out of her head after returning from her mission, when the prolific songwriter got back to writing. The results: the title song of a new CD called "By Small & Simple Means."

"I wrote about three different experiences that happened to us."

One of them involved a man who was in a coma in the hospital, and his family asked Perry to come sing a song.

"I didn't think it would make much difference, but I took his hand and started singing. About halfway through, his hand began squeezing mine. He didn't regain consciousness, but I know he heard the song."

Her song was a comfort to him and to his family, "and it was such a little thing for me."

But that's the message she hopes people will get from the song. "We need to look to those little things. They are so doable. They give hope. They give help. Maybe someone will hear this song and think of little things they can try to do."

There are other songs with important messages on the CD: a rousing anthem about the importance of the family, a reminder that no matter what, "He Was Watching Over Me."

"Sometimes," she says, "our prayers are not answered as we want, at the time we want. And it's only looking back that we realize that we were being watched over all along."

For some of the songs she wrote both words and music, for others she collaborated with lyricists.

It took Perry a while to get back into songwriting.

"I thought I'd keep writing all the time I was in Chile, but it just didn't feel like the most important thing." For one thing, "I was so busy trying to learn Spanish that I didn't want to take the time to think in English."

But more important, there was so much else she was doing.