Loralie Tangen

Loralie Tangen began writing poetry in high school in the 1970’s. Poetry soon led to songwriting. She also began playing the piano, guitar, and the flute.

In 1981 she joined the U.S. Marines. The next year she married fellow Marine Eric Tangen. They started a family and for the next ten or twelve years, life was consumed by the usual family comm itments. When they joined their current church, she had an opportunity to complete a spiritual gifts survey and music rose to the top of the list. She was asked to join the worship team and the world soon discovered her wonderful voice.

She wrote a few songs including one especially for the dedication of a new church building. But the one that stood out was a song she wrote in honor of her mother after her death in 2005 titled, “My Mother’s Hands.” She produced a PowerPoint photo presentation to be shown at her church on Mother’s Day using the song “My Mother’s Hands” and received many good comments.

For a Creative Memories conference where she spoke, Loralie showed the PowerPoint presentation of “My Mother’s Hands.” The response was overwhelming with many people asking for copies of the song. This was very encouraging because the accolades came from people who didn’t know her and were outside her church family. The next day at church, a man asked her if she ever did anything with the song about her mother. Loralie took that as encouragement and a sign to record the song and make it available to a larger group of people.

As she approached her fiftieth birthday, she began to think about the things she wanted to do with her life that she hadn’t done yet. Recording a CD of original songs was at the top of the list. She began gathering her material and finding out what it would take to record a CD. She had no previous recording studio experience, and only a minimum amount of performing outside of Sunday morning worship. She also had never had any formal voice training.

 

In February of 2007, Loralie and Eric made the decision to make the best CD they could, hiring professional studio musicians and a top-rated studio. Now that the kids were grown, they had the time and some resources to do what God was clearly leading them to do. She just Googled “Christian recording studios” and followed the leads. They decided to travel to Waco, Texas to record at “Back at the Ranch Studio” using area studio musicians. Loralie’s CD, “Take This Heart” was released in October 2007.

Loralie says that people often use age as an excuse to not try something new. There is no age limit on making music. Besides, God gave us gifts in order to glorify Himself and to lift up the Body of Christ, that is, the church – other people. He definitely did not give us gifts to sit in our living rooms and amuse ourselves.

Eric and Loralie use the principle, “What is the next thing that needs to be done to reach our goal.” It is not necessary to have a complete understanding of the whole process before you start. One step at a time is what God expects.

 

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