When he was five years old, Chad V. Holtkamp declared he wanted to be a songwriter like John Denver.

Like many things a child says, it was quickly replaced by some other occupation, like being a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals.

At seventeen, Chad wrote his first song. Over the course of the next dozen years, he went on to write many more sets of lyrics, along with a litany of poems and other ideas.

From the yearning sadness of "Life is Precious" and "Someday" to the silly fun of "Summer Day" and "The Party," to the sweet seduction of "Blue Dress" and "Desire," Chad's writing explored relateable themes of love and loss, and sometimes, pure happiness.

Check out Lyrics, Poems & Other Odd Bits, the third and final volume of the From the Vault Music Series, his collected works all in one place.