I am a retired Friends/Quaker minister, variously serving as a pastor, teacher, peace educator, and writer in Quaker history and theology. I began writing and singing songs in 1977, with an ironic, often humorous twist. My musical competence has grown over the years, as the recordings in this collection indicate, but is still fairly basic. The action is mainly in the words.

The Brothers Doug is my recording persona, since all the voices and instrumental tracks are my own. The story of the Brothers Doug is told (in a mythical fashion) in “The Legend of the Brothers Doug” on A Musical Personality Disorder included on this site.

These recordings don’t have the polish of commercial songs — but I never had commercial aspirations for them anyway. I think of them as folksongs in the original sense of songs written for and sung to a community of friends and neighbors. In my case, it has mostly been various communities of Friends. There is no copyright on these songs. They are “commonright” — contributions to the common life on earth.

More about my motivations and approach to songwriting can be found in the pdf on this site, “The Foolishness of God: Inverse Wisdom in Verse,” which includes lyrics to 40 of the songs, and the linked interview with Chuck Fager in Quaker Theology.

I am a Christian Quaker and a southpaw who has found God working left-handedly in my life in many ways. So my songs come at faith and life with that ironic sense. I hope the playfulness of the songs meets with something in your own experience, religious and other.