From The Leader – June 25, 2020
Reprinted on this page with permission.

Storeygard’s new record exudes positivity

“I plan to Be Happy Again” from the Jacksonville doctor and pianist upbeat and fun. By Staff | on June 25, 2020

Dr. Alan Storeygard retired recently from Jacksonville Medical Center after nearly four decades of treating and healing thousands of patients in the community.

A Minnesota native, Storey-gard did his medical training at the Mayo Clinic (Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minn.), then at the Duke University Family Practice Residency in Durham, N.C., before moving to Arkansas in 1981.

“I have been a family physician in central Arkansas for 39 years and have been a musician all of my life. I’ve recorded five full jazz piano albums over two decades and have been involved with the IBLA Grand Prize International Music Competition and Arkansas IBLA concerts for about two decades,” he said.

Storeygard recently recorded and released a new single titled, ‘I Plan to Be Happy Again,’ collaborating with singer/pianist/multiinstrumentalist Billy Hoover, who is also from Central Arkansas.

“We released this song as a single in that it is a very timely song with the global health care crisis we are all involved in,” the doctor said.

“It is a song of hope and dealing with a difficult problem. It was inspired by two personal injuries I had in September 2019 and January 2020 at a time we were all getting involved with the coronavirus pandemic. My injuries have pretty much healed and are not mentioned in the song. But the song ironically speaks to the health care crisis and even now speaks to the social unrest and protests going on across the country,” Storeygard said. “Billy Hoover performs the song uniquely and effortlessly in the style of Randy Newman in ‘Toy Story. We are wanting to get this song out to the whole country and other countries,” the doctor said.

All of Storeygard’s music, including the new single, is available on ITunes, Amazon, Spotify, SoundCloud, CDBaby and his website

www.storeygardmusic.com.

His other CDs include “Church Jazz,” “Just Havin’Fun,” “Third Time’s a Charm,” “New Directions” and “Jazz Meets the Classics.”

Storeygard said, “As a physician, I encourage you all to take the COVID-19 virus pandemic very seriously, and try to protect yourself and others by using the current well-known health care guidelines of:

1) Wear a facemask

2) Keep six feet apart as much as possible

3) Wash your hands frequently

4) Use hand sanitizer when possible

5) Avoid large crowds

6) Practice social distancing

“Hopefully, within the next year, we will have more effective treatments and a vaccine for this virus,” he said. “But until then – with 75,000 additional deaths in the USA predicted in the next six months — the best plan to me seems to be to try to stay alive and uninfected and to try

to keep those around you alive and uninfected.”

“As a musician, sometimes music can convey what words alone cannot. We all wonder, What can I do? Hopefully this song with its message can help in some way,” Storeygard said.