''Patch the Pirate'' is an

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

series of character-building, comical, and musical recordings for children produced by Majesty Music. These comical capers teach Christian values to children through story and song recordings, children’s choir clubs, and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

programs. Patch the Pirate is played by Ron "Patch" Hamilton, who is a popular Christian

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

evangelist Evangelist may refer to: Religion * Four Evangelists, the authors of the canonical Christian Gospels * Evangelism, publicly preaching the Gospel with the intention of spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ * Evangelist (Anglican Church), a c ...

, and personality. Ron Hamilton has created and published 40 Patch the Pirate Adventures including the first release ''Sing Along with Patch the Pirate'' in 1981, and the latest release in 2019 “The Final Voyage?”. Over 2 million Patch the Pirate adventures have been sold since the release of the first album. The Patch the Pirate Radio Program is recognized by the

National Religious Broadcasters National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) is an international association of evangelical communicators. While theologically diverse within the evangelical community, NRB members are linked through a Declaration of Unity that proclaims their joint comm ...

as the third largest religious children's programming outreach.

History

In 1978, doctors discovered

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in Ron Hamilton's left eye resulting in the loss of the eye. After recovering from the surgery Ron received an eye patch from the surgeon. Wherever Ron went wearing the patch, children would point at him and call him a pirate. Ron decided that he would either correct children the rest of his life or embrace the fact that he was now a pirate. Before he lost his eye to cancer, Ron and his wife Shelly worked at Musical Ministries, later called Majesty Music, writing and performing sacred music in churches across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. After losing his eye, "Patch," as he became known, released an album of children's music. This album was wildly popular and led to the creation of the Patch the Pirate series which included music and original stories. Ron Hamilton wrote the stories and most of the songs, and his wife, Shelly, arranged the songs. The couple and their five children, Jonathan, Tara, Alyssa, Megan, and Jason, also starred on the recordings as members of Patch's crew. After losing his eye, Ron Hamilton wrote a song entitled ''Rejoice in the Lord'', which became one of his most widely popular songs. Other famous songs written by Ron Hamilton include ''Wings as Eagles'', ''My Hope Is Jesus'', ''Wiggle Worm'', ''Bow the Knee'', ''Beautiful Hands'', ''Always the Same'', ''Here Am I, Lord'', ''Born to Die'', ''Little by Little'', ''The Poochie Lip Disease'', ''How Can I Fear'', ''Lord, I Need You'', ''Servant's Heart'', ''Clean It Up'', ''I Am Weak, but You Are Strong'', ''Christ Is Coming'', ''Jonah'', ''Call the Wambulance'', ''That's Where Wisdom Begins'', ''I Saw Jesus in You'', ''A Secret Place'', ''Cherish the Moments'', "The Incredible Race!" and many more.. Ron Hamilton has also authored a number of popular Christmas and Easter cantatas including ''Born to Die'', ''Klinkenschnell the Christmas Bell'', ''Peanut Butter Christmas'', ''The Hope of Christmas''.

Majesty Music

Patch the Pirate Adventures are produced and published by Majesty Music and are sold on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

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, and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

. Majesty Music was founded by Dr. Frank Garlock in 1973.Dr. Garlock, and his new son-in-law Ron, travelled to churches across the world speaking about music, and founded Majesty Music, Inc. to produce quality

sacred music Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. Relig ...

for churches. Majesty Music is widely popular in the

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

denomination, and particularly in the

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Fundamentalist Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing ...

Baptist denomination. Ron Hamilton married Dr. Garlock's daughter, Shelly, in 1975, and the couple managed Majesty Music for over 30 years. In 2014, Ron Hamilton's son-in-law and daughter, Adam Morgan and Megan Hamilton Morgan, began writing and producing the new Patch the Pirate adventures and managing the company, continuing the family tradition. In 2017, Ron Hamilton was diagnosed with early onset dementia. He is no longer able to travel with his "crew" but they still keep performing.

Discography

* ''Sing Along with Patch the Pirate'' (1981) * ''Patch the Pirate Goes to Space'' (1982) * ''Patch the Pirate Goes West'' (1983) * ''Patch the Pirate Goes to the Jungle'' (1984) * ''Kidnapped on I-Land'' (1985) * ''The Great American Time Machine'' (1986) * ''The Misterslippi River Race'' (1987) * ''The Calliope Caper'' (1988) * ''Camp Kookawacka Woods'' (1989) * ''The Custards' Last Stand'' (1990) * ''The Friend Ship Mutiny'' (1991) * ''Once Upon a Starry Knight'' (1992) * ''Down Under'' (1993) * ''Harold the King'' (1993) * ''The Evolution Revolution'' (1994) * ''Mount Zion Marathon'' (1995) * ''Giant Killer'' (1996) * ''Polecat's Poison'' (1997) * ''The Sneaky Sheik'' (1998) * ''Afraidika Fever'' (1999) * ''The Lone Stranger'' (2000) * ''The Tumbleweed Opera'' (2001) * ''Coldheartica'' (2002) * ''Limerick the Leprechaun'' (2003) * ''Shipwrecked on Pleasure Island'' (2004) * ''The Kashmir Kid'' (2005) * ''The Villain of Venice'' (2006) * ''The Colonel's Colossal Character Quest'' (2007) * ''Armadillo Amigos'' (2008) * ''Kung Phooey Kid'' (2009) * ''The Legend of Stickeyfoot'' (2010) * ''Incrediworld'' (2011) * ''Kingdom Chronicles'' (2012) * ''International Spy Academy'' (2013) * ''Kilimanjaro'' (2014) * ''Ocean Commotion'' (2015) * ''Operation Arctic: Viking Invasion'' (2016) * ''Time Twisters'' (2017) * ''The Incredible Race!'' (2018) * ''The Final Voyage?'' (2019) * ''Mystery Island'' (2020) * ''Whale of a Tale'' (2021)

References

{{reflist Christian radio dramas American radio dramas Children's music Christian music Baptists from the United States