Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam
Words: Nellie Talbot
Music: Edwin O. Excell, 1851–1921
Arrangement: Alan SandersonJesus wants me for a sunbeam
To shine for him each day
In every way try to please him
At home, at school, at playA sunbeam, a sunbeam
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam
A sunbeam, a sunbeam
I’ll be a sunbeam for himAlan Sanderson: guitar, vocals
Sanderson kids: vocals
Production Notes
This song is a favorite at our house. The youngest class at church, for the 3-year-olds, is called the Sunbeams. The kids sing this song with great gusto. They jump up in the air whenever the melody hits a high note. (The whole song is a high note as far as I’m concerned.)
Unfortunately the younger kids haven’t had their church classes in nearly a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they miss them a lot. On Sundays my wife and I take turns singing songs with them and reading them scripture stories at home. We have had a lot of fun and have learned several songs.
Today we decided to try something new in our church-at-home. I took my three youngest kids downstairs to the music room and recorded this song. It took us about an hour, start to finish, and when we called down the rest of the family to hear our work I was straightly charged to post it to the music site as is, without delay.
Well, here it is, mostly as was.
The song was recorded on Ardour 5.12 running on Linux Mint 20.1. Plugins included compressors and limiters from Linux Studio Plugins, Dragonfly Hall Reverb, and the Parametric EQ from x42. The cover art was drawn by the youngest in Tuxpaint, and I added the lettering in The GIMP.
Sanderson 
Found this from the linux musicians forum, sounds like this was fun to record! I’m Latter-Day Saint as well. Sometimes I actually enjoy listening to the primary songs more than I do the hymns.
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I’m glad you enjoyed this little recording. Yes, it was a lot of fun to do, and I had to keep that infectious little laugh at the end. I like to pull out the children’s songbook or a simplified hymnbook with guitar chords, and just play songs through a Sunday afternoon with whoever will sing along.
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