Sunday's Music - October 18

I posted this on Summit Crossing's internal site and wanted to share it here.

Wherever I hear the phrase, “I sin in thought or deed every day,” uttered by a Christ-follower I get frustrated. That idea is in opposition to Scripture.

The apostle John wrote, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1, emphasis mine)

And then there’s Romans 8:11: “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Amazing! So there’s no reason for us to assume defeat. Yes, we still live in these tents of flesh and its our tendency to default to our old nature, but that is not the NEW default for those of us who have been buried with Christ and raised in His likeness, as His brothers and sisters.

Now, all that being said, I get mad at myself frequently because I realize this in my head, yet living it out can be frustratingly difficult. I like to indulge my own desires (there, I said it so you don’t have to). And that leads to sin. Therefore, I totally identify with the song we’ll be singing during communion time tomorrow:

Will Your grace run out if I let You down?

[Be]cause all I know is how to run.
Will You call me child when I tell You lies?
[Be]cause all I know is how to cry.

I am a sinner;
If it’s not one thing it’s another.
Caught up in words, tangled in lies.
But You are a Savior
And You take brokenness aside
And make it beautiful; beautiful.

I am thankful for Jesus Christ. I have no hope in this life or the life to come apart from His life, death, and resurrection. He makes my cruddy life beautiful in the sight of God. (Remember 1 John 1:9)

I’m sorry this is so late, but here are the songs we get to song together tomorrow:

• From the Day (I Am They)
• Absent From Flesh (Sojourn)
• Brokenness Aside (All Sons and Daughters)
• I Stand Amazed In the Presence (Daniel Renstrom)
• My Lighthouse (Rend Collective)

Below are your playlists! There is no recorded version of “I Stand Amazed” the way we’ll be playing it tomorrow so I linked to Chris Tomlin’s version.

Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1LVcHa7 

YouTube: http://bit.ly/1Pyu7J8 

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Read more »

Sunday's Music - September 6, 2015

I wanted to share the music plans for this coming Sunday at our church fellowship, Summit Crossing Limestone (and I added some stuff at the end).

For a quick-start, here’s a Spotify playlist for those who have the app:http://spoti.fi/1JUgi0R

And here’s a YouTube playlist: http://bit.ly/1i2KWPH

Here are the songs:

- Desert Song (Hillsong Worship)
– Our God is Faithful (UMobile Worship)
– How Deep the Father’s Love for Us (Christy Nockels)
– How He Loves (David Crowder Band)
– From the Day (I Am They)

I come from a church-culture background of singing and playing hymns. As some of you may remember, in the 90s, “choruses” edged their way in as the thing to sing. At least, they became the thing to sing for some churches. In many fellowships, though, music style quickly became a source of contention; believers argued vehemently and often quite viciously about which kind of song was the best kind of song for corporate worship.

It seems the lyrics weren’t theologically deep enough, or maybe they were too archaic. One group thought the music was too simplistic, but for some it was confusingly complex. And then there was the pivotal issue of “raise mine Ebenezer” vs. “All things are possible! All things are possible! All things are possible! All things are possible! (Repeat 3x)”.

And in all this confusion the Gospel was (and in many places still is), unimaginably sadly, lost. A totally unique vehicle that the Maker of the universe ordained for us to use to worship Him and loudly declare our thanks and praise — music — had become a source of divisiveness.

May that never be so among the people whom Jesus has brought to life. We have the mind-boggling privilege of being children of God. Do we really want to reduce that?

It’s my perpetual prayer that our corporate opportunities to sing to our Father together will be Gospel-centric; not focused on ourselves in any way.

Read more »

Sunday's Music - August 23, 2015

Yikes. It's been over a year since my last visit here. I thought I'd dust off the cobwebs and dive in with something I wrote to our church fellowship this evening. This coming Sunday I'll get to lead music with a talented group of musicians and singers. This is a post about what we'll be singing together
.

A scant few synonyms of the word "furious" might be "passionate," "unrestrained," or "fierce." The ones I typically think of, though, are more like "angry" or "enraged." (And I'm sure many of you think about cars and stunts.) I have to say that I haven't often thought of our Father's love for us as "furious."

Interestingly, though, that's one of the very reasons I so easily embraced our first song for this coming Sunday. It made me consider in a new way how how deeply God loves us. He is a love so passionate that He cannot be resisted. God's love for us will relentlessly persist in spite of our worst failures (and sometimes, it seems, in spite of our most proficient efforts).

And that's just the FIRST song.

The second song, "Look What God Has Done," has become a new favorite. I'll paste some lyrics below our song list for this coming Sunday...

• Furious (Bethel Church with Jeremy Riddle)
• Look What God Has Done (Ghost Ship)
• Come to Me (Village Church with Lauren Chandler)
• Like Incense / Sometimes By Step (Hillsong Worship)
• All My Fountains (Chris Tomlin)

(And here's a playlist for Spotify users: http://spoti.fi/1PoUoHk )

Here are some lyrics from "Look What God Has Done":

Look what God has done: He redeemed us with His blood.
We were lost and dead in sin. He came for us.
Look what God has done: He adopted us in Love;
We were orphans without hope, now His children.

Who are we that He would save us?
Who are we that He would send us?

To God be glory, through Christ our Savior's Church
Through all generations.
To God be glory, through Christ our Savior's work
Forever and ever.

Look at Jesus Christ: He redeems His precious bride.
By His costly sacrifice, we're invited.
See the wisdom of His ways in the mystery of grace;
Every age and every race, we're united.

Do you see where this song directs our focus? What if we spent every day remembering that focus and actively modeling it? When I consider how I tend to inadvertently (and, to be real, sometimes intentionally) look down on other people, and then remember that Jesus never had the same disdain for me, I'm utterly shocked at my own arrogance.

Who am I that He would save me? Who am I that He would send me?

Look what God has done!

Read more »

Christmas Thoughts...

As I noted a bit earlier this morning via Twitter, I discovered last night that the version of It's a Wonderful Life that exists in my memory is notably superior to the Frank Capra film.

I feel unChristmas-like when I say that it was not only boring, but for some reason I had a hard time believing that Harry Bailey was graduating high school at what appeared to be something like 36 years old, and that George Bailey was only slightly older than your typical college-aged guy when he looked 52. Kinda like Napoleon's classmate and antagonist Don in Napoleon Dynamite.

In other news, we're about to go get the ingredients for Christmas Eve fondue! I'd like to point you to BestFondue.com, where last year I discovered an incredible beef fondue recipe. I made the mushroom dipping sauce, too. Not only did the family not hate it, they (and I) actually loved it. I think it kept our Christmas Eve fondue tradition from dying. Had it been bad we might not have planned to do it again this year.

Finally, stop by Amazon.com and download the absolutely free Green Hill Christmas Music Sampler! It's a straight-ahead, mostly traditional (and on occasion easy-listening) Christmas album.

Merry early Christmas!

Read more »

Christmas Classics Flash Poll

Okay, dig in:

1. Mannheim Steamroller or Trans-Siberian Orchestra?
2. Johnny Mathis or Nat King Cole?
3. Andy Williams or Frank Sinatra?
4. Dean Martin or Bing Crosby?
5. Jimmy Durante or Burl Ives?

Your responses and vicious arguments are solicited. Leave your comments below.

Read more »

Ten Least-Loved Christmas Songs of 2012

I have about 750 Christmas songs on my iPod. The problem, if it could be called that, is that I've cycled through most of them a few times already. (That's okay, because albums like "A Charlie Brown Christmas" never seem to get old.)

So, after listening to our two local Christmas-music-only radio stations in an attempt to enjoy a little variety, I have determined that only about 50 Christmas songs must have ever been recorded other than those on my iPod. Among them are three versions of "Last Christmas" and roughly 26 versions of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (all nearly identical, which makes me wonder why they bothered to record the other 25 versions).

As fate would have it, those two songs are on my "Ten Least-Loved Christmas Songs of 2012" list. It's not enjoyable to wake up to an alarm blaring either of those, so I've decided to start using the buzzer on the alarm instead. It's more inspiring.

Because I enjoy not enjoying certain Christmas songs, I'd like to present the complete list for you. It varies a bit from last year's list in that it's a little longer. Please reciprocate by listing your bottom 10 (or however many you'd like to include) Christmas songs.

Dean's Ten Least-Loved Christmas Songs of 2012:

1. Last Christmas (Wham!, Taylor Swift, the Glee Cast)
2. Step Into Christmas (Elton John)
3. All I Want for Christmas Is You (Mariah Carey)
4. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (Brenda Lee, etc., etc., etc.)
5. Happy Christmas (War Is Over) (John Lennon, etc.)
6. Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (Jackson 5, Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, etc.)
7. The Christmas Shoes (NewSong -- it's a huge victory that I've only heard this song once so far all season!)
8. Do They Know It's Christmas (Feed the World) (Band Aid)
9. Little Saint Nick (Beach Boys)
10. Run Rudolph Run (Chuck Berry)

Don't forget to post your own list!

Read more »

Christmas 2012 Freebie 2

Here's the second set of freebies of the 2012 Christmas season! Like the first, this set of freebies is Christmas music. However, you'll need to be much more selective with these songs than you were with those in the first post.

During my hunt for instrumental (and tasteful) Christmas music last year I uncovered FeelsLikeChristmas.com. Some of the songs will make you feel like Christmas in a way that makes you all warm and fuzzy and makes you pine for olden days -- happy golden days -- of yore. Some may make you recoil in disgust like that one time you heard your Aunt Erma singing Christmas karaoke. It's okay if none of you has an Aunt Erma or has ever heard a family member doing Christmas karaoke. You'll still recoil in disgust at some of these recordings. However, some are excellent!

But they are all free.

First I recommend visiting the Traditional Instrumental Christmas music page. You can preview a song by clicking on its title. Then you'll be taken to a page where you can click the play button and preview it. Like it? Then just right-click on the title of the song and "Save as" to your "My Music" folder (assuming you're using a PC).

If you mouse over the "FREE CHRISTMAS MUSIC DOWNLOADS" menu item you'll see a pop-down of a few other categories to explore.

Your mileage may vary, but hopefully you'll find some great new renditions of old favorites.

Read more »

More Sleigh Bell!

Were the classic Saturday Night Live cowbell sketch with Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken executed in a Christmas setting, Walken would be Arthur Fiedler and Ferrell would be the person who played the sleigh bells on the quintessential Christmas favorite " Sleigh Ride." Of course, Blue Öyster Cult would be the Boston Pops Orchestra. (If you're not familiar with the SNL sketch, click here to see an excerpt at NBC's website. Mild language warning .)

"I've got a fevah (fever)... and the only prescription is more sleigh bell!" Although I'm not sure Arthur Fiedler put it that way, this is what comes across in the Boston Pops recording (link goes to Amazon.com's MP3 store), and although one rarely hears a percussion instrument droning in an orchestral song from start to finish, I'd have a hard time imagining "Sleigh Ride" without it.

The 1867 lithograph "A Brush for the Lead" by Currier and Ives

For this post I made a moderate effort to find the name of the Boston Pops member who played the sleigh bells on this song but I came up empty. If you know, I'd love to hear from you. It's a little odd; the person who has one of the most important parts in the song has gone relatively anonymous since 1949.

Fiedler has enjoyed fame as a conductor, the Boston Pops Orchestra has been in the limelight (if you consider orchestras as being in the limelight), and according to a reference at Wikipedia, "'Sleigh Ride' ... has been performed and recorded by a wider array of musical artists than any other piece in the history of Western music."

But for all that, the sleigh bell player remains an unknown. He did his job, did it quite well, and his effort has assumed its place in history. If he could have foreseen the popularity of the song (written in 1948, lyrics added in 1950), do you think he would have said to himself, "I can't see the benefit for myself in this. It will just promote the conductor, the orchestra, and the record company will make loads while I'll remain a nobody," and as a result decided to let someone else play on the record? I rather doubt it.

Raise your hand if you can tell that I'm about to draw a really obvious parallel here.

As we put our gifts to use as one of many parts of the body of Christ, we are called to play our part and do so to the best of our ability. We are not given direction or license to envy someone who has a seemingly more important role or to have resentment if someone else gets credit for what we think was our work or our accomplishment. That's not easy.

"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ." - Colossians 3:23-24 (NLT)

"In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary." - 1 Corinthians 12:22 (NLT)

I've got a fevah... and the only prescription is more sleigh bell!

Read more »

Christmas 2012 Freebie Number 1

I've no idea how many of these I'll be passing along, but here's the first freebie of the 2012 Christmas season!

I stumbled across classical guitarist Jon Sayles' holiday music site and found a plethora of well-executed traditional instrumental Christmas songs. He's posted them all for free download here. You'll have to right-click and save them one at a time, but the investment will be well worth it.

If you visit his site and download his music, I encourage you to send him some feedback. There's a contact link at the top of his Holiday Music page.

NOTE: after you save the songs to your computer you should ideally edit the song names, artist name, genre, etc. (the ID3 tags) for each MP3 so that when you play the songs on your computer or put them on your MP3 player, the correct song title and artist will display. If you don't know how to do this or don't know what I'm talking about, you can contact me and I'll do my best to walk you through it. I couldn't find anything very usable on the web -- just a glut of "free" ID3 tag editors you can download -- but it's all confusing if you've never thought about this before and I'll do my best to help.

Don't be intimidated and don't let that stop you from grabbing these tunes, though! If you don't want to contact me or mess with the ID3 tags, worst-case, you'll have a handful of songs called "Untitled" on your MP3 player.

Keep checking back for more free Christmas music over the next few weeks.

May you be a blessing to someone this Christmas season!

Read more »

Meeting the Minimum Requirements

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can neither do nor teach become critics. (Or so it's been said.)

Often I feel like I have a skill set that uniquely qualifies me to be a critic.

In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul noted that he had been given a thorn in the flesh to keep him from becoming proud. I get it. Not that what I'm about to describe could be called a "messenger from Satan" in any way, but when you meet the minimum requirements for a particular task there's little chance that you'll become arrogant about the job you do. That can be a good thing.

I have the privilege of leading corporate worship through music in a wonderful variety of places. My favorite, hands-down, is the Downtown Rescue Mission in Huntsville, AL. The first time I ever led music in a church setting was about 10 years ago at Wall Highway Baptist Church in Madison, AL, when we were going through what seemed to be a rather rough time for the church fellowship. We'd run out of options so I volunteered. I remember thinking, "What have I just done?!" Prior to that morning, I believe I'd only sung in public two or three times in my entire life. It petrified me, with good reason.

You see, I can tell if you have a good voice, and I can determine how well you stay on pitch. Matter of fact, I obsess about that kind of thing. The problem is that I don't have a particularly appealing voice, and believe it or not, staying on pitch isn't something that comes second-nature to me. It takes effort. I'm fine on background vocals, but if I'm the one who has the main vocal part, it's a risky venture. Every time I stand up in a group to sing with or lead them, I'm keenly aware of the shortcomings in my vocal ability.

For this reason I've never been able to identify with a worship leader who falls prey to pride in his own ability. God knew what He was doing when He led me into this area. He equipped me with the minimum amount of ability needed to do the job, and as a result I've been blessed far beyond what I'd have imagined.

I don't always agree with the saying, "God doesn't call the equipped; He equips the called," but in my case the statement is validated. I'm grateful for every single opportunity to sing with the Church.

This is why I want to encourage each of you to step forward into what God calls you to do, whether or not you believe you're the best person for the job. Sometimes the best person isn't actually the best person.

Read more »

Just Another Colton Dixon Post

"American Idol". I believe the show's name is unfortunately pretty accurate. The good thing is that it reminds me of how easy it can be for us to be consumed by something or someone other than Christ, and helps me to guard against that.

That said, I thoroughly enjoy watching "American Idol" early in the season. I've found that there's not much middle ground at that point. Viewers of the show either feel sorry for the idol wannabes or they take tremendous pleasure in the painfully off-key voices and the "he-didn't-really-just-do-that-did-he?" shenanigans of people who ought not be on national television. I fall into the second category and when that part is over I don't usually care to watch anymore. You know, when the good singers start.

This year, though, as my wife and daughter watched it, I would stop in the room to listen to Colton Dixon. Even if he'd had a terrible personality I'd have still appreciated his haircut and his vocal ability, but he wound up, apparently like most in the group of finalists, seeming to have a great personality.

I had to smile when he decided to sing his "favorite worship song" on one show. I reasoned that he would be the new Tim Tebow. Not that the first Tebow is old or anything, but we Christians like our publicly-adored, media-spotlighted figures. We point to them and say to the world, "See?! In yo' face! He's a Christian, just like me and he's way better than any of those dumb ol' secular singers (or football players or actors or inventors or authors or mimes or fountain pen repair people, as the case may be). I have to admit, I was kinda in that group with Colton Dixon on American Idol, which is pretty unusual for me, so I was actually quite deflated when he was eliminated from the show last night.

Dixon is apparently an honest-to-goodness, unashamed believer. Not because he sang a "worship song," but the way he lost last night was a great indicator of it. His closing comments contained an apology for flippantly dismissing the judges' counsel the previous night, stating that he would take what they said and learn from it. His closing song was a repeat of Lifehouse's "Everything" -- his favorite worship song. Only this time he was very deliberate in addressing the song to God. I'm sure the collective Christian community in America that watches "Idol" (wow, that phrase sounds really stupid) was cheering him on.

In an interview with HollywoodLife.com there were even more and direct indications of where he stands:

HL – "With your final song you kind of fell to your knees and sat there for a minute before you started, what were you thinking?"

CD – "It’s funny, I have been trying too hard to get a standing ovation from the judges that I didn’t need, I didn’t need it for confidence or anything like that, and during that song I wasn’t singing for them or my family or anyone in the audience or anyone at home, that song was between me and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We had a cool moment on stage for sure, but I wanted to end it the way I started it and told myself I would do this competition and I’m glad I got the opportunity."

Millions of "Idol"-watching Christians (zounds, there's another idiotic-sounding phrase) are probably bummed this morning. I totally get it. But the thing to do rather than waiting for Tebow/Dixon Version 3 (a terrible tendency of the average American Christian) is for you yourself to become the next follower of Christ that others will cheer on because you're bringing honor and glory to God.

Why is it our habit to try to use a figurehead or public personality to vicariously live out our own walk with Christ?

Enough musing. I'm just ready for the new Colton Dixon album to come out. Matter of fact, I think I'm going to pre-buy it at Amazon.com or iTunes whenever it becomes available. Dude rocked.

Read more »

EGBDF - The Album - Wish (Intro)

Today I continue with the low-down on the songs on my home-made album, EGBDF. Song number six is called "Wish" and is the one song with which I was graced with a cowriter.

I have a tendency to write murky lyrics. They're tough to understand sometimes, probably because I don't give them enough of a foundation upon which one can run with his imagination. "Wish" falls into thus category, I think. My brother in Christ, prolific songwriter Mark Williams, co-wrote the lyrics and among other parts, penned the bridge, one of the more elegant lines in the song.

But before I write about "Wish," I'd like to know what you think it's talking about. I've often wondered if it communicates the narrative or meaning that was intended. Take a look and leave a comment with your thoughts. It's perfectly acceptable to say that it doesn't seem to make sense.

Verse 1
Born and raised in Dixie; slow-motion dreams.
Open invitation, same old routine.
Instant recognition: just one more face.
Terminal condition; is it worth it?

Chorus
I won't wish on a fallen star,
Though sometimes that's all I can see.
(And) I won't wish, but I'll still believe.
The choice is up to me.

Verse 2
Born again in Dixie; old country church;
Lifetime dedication, love reimbursed.
Destination heaven when this life ends.
There are no regrets 'cause it's been worth it.

Bridge
When fallen angels sing their lullabies,
Temporary brilliance becomes permanent night.

(Chorus repeats a few times)

Okay, take it away! What does all this mean?

Read more »

EGBDF - The Album - Searcher's Goal

Today I'll hit song number five from my multi-selling smash-hit mini-album EGBDF. There's a little more lyric insight on this song as well as some sure-to-be-mind-boggling recording techniquery here.

Searcher's Goal

"Searcher's Goal" has some lyrics that I was really proud of, but I'm not sure they came across with any straightforward meaning:

With sights ahead,
I feel the eyes staring from behind.
Arms embrace what I despise,
Reaching for what I can't find.

This is the sensation of feeling like everyone is watching, and you make a big, huge mistake; something you know you shouldn't do but you do it anyway for whatever reason. Kinda like what Paul said he had a tendency to lean toward in Romans 7:15. "I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate." (Read it in context to understand all of what he was saying.)

The second verse says this:

If choice is black and white,
It seems I fall into the gray.
Impressions say a thousand things,
Stepping on the words I say.

Again, this is about wrestling with right and wrong, and no matter what I profess with my mouth -- who I say I am -- actions speak louder than words.

The narration in the next section contained a phrase from my favorite work of fiction, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", read by Michael York, the relevant part being, "'What is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'" It doesn't have a whole lot of relevance to verse two of the song, but it's the first phrase I thought of that wasn't as hackneyed as "A picture is worth a thousand words" (which was a theme in verse two).

Having discovered that "the searcher's goal lives inside" -- Christ in me, the hope of glory -- verse three should be self-explanatory and much more immediately understandable than the other verses.

Instruments used:
Look back at the notes on "The Answer Song" and "Dedication" to find out what "axes" were used. I had the same drum setup that I used on "Dedication" (remember, I only used the Roland R-5 on "The Answer Song").

The single keyboard chord in the song comes on the last note of the song. I used my Rhodes 660 for that.

Recording gear:
This song was also recorded at my friend Paul Proffit's living room studio, so the recording gear list is identical to that of the two aforementioned songs.

Production notes:
I don't know if anyone has noticed, but the only words in the song that don't have stacked harmonies on them (I think) are "the searcher's goal" -- the title of the song. It wasn't by design, but I remember listening to it and at some point that dawned on me.

Instrumentally, I believe my favorite part in the song is the little break before the chorus where there's only bass, kick drum, and a snare hit. That's my King's X part of the song. (Heh...)

I originally wrote and recorded completely different lyrics for this tune. The chorus was terrible, but I was just trying to flesh out ideas at that point. It had long, drawn-out phrases and started with the word "I." The sweeping reverse sound at the beginning of each chorus is a leftover of that recording. Let me 'splain...

I learned a secret and thought I was among the elite. You could flip the reel backward on the recorder, put reverb on something, and record the reverb. When you flipped the reel over and played it forward, you'd have... wait for it... reverse reverb! That's what I did with the old vocal track and left it on the final mix. That's the sweeping sound you hear at the beginning of each chorus. Took a good 30 minutes or more to get everything just right.

Today that would take about two minutes and a few clicks. If you hose it up? Hit to Ctrl-Z to undo it. It was good to engineer in the days before digital recording. Ah, the glory days of razor blades and splicing blocks...

Read more »

EGBDF - The Album - Easy To Smile

Continuing the series of posts on the background of the songs on my little album project, EGBDF, this evening hits "Easy To Smile". I believe this is my favorite song on the record, possibly my favorite song I've written. Since it's my favorite, this post is longer than the previous ones.

Easy To Smile
I had a Thursday (?) off from Robbins Music Center and didn't have a session at the studio that evening, so naturally I went to the studio first thing in the morning (probably around 10:00 AM. That was early in those days.). I decided I'd write a song and record it that day, so I went over a few ideas in my head on the 30-ish minute drive out to Harmony Studio in New Market, AL.

I don't remember if I had any lyric ideas by the time I arrived, but I did have a general concept of the song in mind, so I sat down at the Yamaha baby grand and played over the chord changes I'd thought of. It wasn't something I wanted to trash, so I went ahead and put a couple of mics on the piano, estimated where to set the input gain on the mics, armed the tracks on the recorder, hit record, and ran into the main room and played. It took two or three times to get an acceptable level, and once that was done I stopped the recorder and finished writing the chord changes.

From there I programmed the drums and started to think of a melody and a theme for the lyrics. Once the drums were done I recorded them, then went out to the piano to record the main part. I had to drag the Alesis BRC ("Big Remote Control") out into the main room since I was there alone, and did a few takes from start to finish before getting one I didn't dislike.

I had a very good idea of the lyrics by that time, so writing them was not too hard. I knew I wanted to make the song a little cerebral-sounding, hence the line, "And people wondered how the man without a dime garnered his perpetual smile." The word "garnered" actually isn't the best choice, but I needed a two-syllable word for "got" or "kept" or "had," and "garnered" seemed to do the trick.

Here's another song about "Johnny," just like "The Answer Song". But this is a different Johnny. This guy was poor all his life and by the time we hear the song, he's passed. I don't mean that morbidly, but I really thought it made the song work better.

There's the general background. Moving on to the physical stuff...

Instruments used:
I can't remember what electric guitar I used, but I believe it was the same cheap Stinger pseudo-Les Paul copy I used on "Roadside Park", but I'm not sure. Fairly sure I ran through the cheap Stinger mini-stack. Since the guitar parts aren't prominent in this song it wasn't as critical to me that they have an incredible tone. (That's good, because they don't.)

I used the Peavey Fury bass with new La Bella strings on it. I was very happy with the bass sound in the end.

The piano was a Yamaha baby grand. It was slightly out of tune, but given the choice between that and a Korg T-3 in the control room, the Yamaha won handily.

Recording gear:

The terribly popular (in the day) Mackie 8-bus 24-channel board took the inputs and fed them to two Alesis ADAT recorders. This was the basic signal path.

I think I used two Shure SM81's on the piano.

The vocal mic was an Audio Technica AT4033, one of the first almost-affordable vocal mics for the project studio community. I think they retailed for $699 back then. Still love the way that mic sounds. I remember saving up for one for a few months. I finally was able to buy it. I was elated. A week later there was a bill Callie and I couldn't pay; probably the utility bill. I had to sell the mic. Mercifully, it sold almost immediately. I hadn't even gotten to record anything with it. (The one I used on this song belonged to Harmony Studio.)

I used the Symetrix 525 compressor on almost everything except the piano and electric guitars. I may have even run the entire mix through it when mixing down.

I believe there was an Alesis Quadraverb in the rack, along with a Yahama SPX-90II (the original SPX-90 was better -- had an analog input you could overdrive and get some great snare reverb). There was also a Lexicon PCM41 in the rack. I loved the PCM42, but the 41 was an acceptable substitute. I ran the vocals through it with a modulating 23-or-so millisecond delay to get a bit of a chorus/double effect on the lead vocal. Hopefully I didn't over-use it.

General production notes:

I wanted this song to be a little more sparse, a little less-produced instrumentally than usual, so I wound up playing only piano, bass, electric guitar, and programming drums. Of course, there were tons of background vocals.

This song differed from others in that I actually did background vocals rather than straight-up harmonies on the chorus. The decision to keep the "Aah" so loud on the chorus was really arbitrary. I thought about mixing them lower but decided against it in the end.

I was thinking "Beatles" when I did the radio-sounding voice. No idea if it sounded like any Beatles material but I liked it. The song originally ended with a resolution, "I'm sure he would have wished the same for you," with that same radio sound and a piano outtro, but it sounded very contrived and cliche, so I clipped that part off.

My favorite part on the whole album is probably around 2:02 in the song, where there's a very wide-open drum fill/pause, and the bass hits with the floor tom. Very simple, and I actually played the part pretty tightly. That's the kind of thing I like; not busy, technically-incredible parts (which I'm really not capable of playing, anyhow).

Next song will be "Searcher's Goal", which started out to be a completely different song.

Read more »

EGBDF - The Album - Dedication

This is the third in a series of posts about my album, EGBDF, which you can find on iTunes, Amazon.com, etc. You may or may not find the series interesting. It gives background about the songs, how they were recorded, etc.

Dedication

This is probably the most heavy-handed song I've written. It's about drug use as escapism; trying to get away from worries in the real world. "Dedication to Hallucination" would be the extended title.

I noticed that a large percentage of the songs on the album (it's an EP, really) are stories about people. This one features Mary in the first verse and Bill in the third verse. I don't know a Mary or a Bill that had issues with drugs, just to be clear. I wish I'd chosen a name other than Bill (no offense to the legions of people named Bill who bought the album).

Factoids: you can sing "Mary had a little lamb" to verse 1 and it works pretty well. I was trying to subtly refer to cocaine in the chorus with the phrase "when you draw the line." I thought I was being really neat in the third verse by saying that Bill had been rescued from himself 2,000 years ago but prayed last night. Not hard to figure that out, though.

The original final mix had a different chorus at the end; a resolution to the situation, really, but it sounded very corny and awkward lyrically so I spliced in a couple of the previous choruses for this version. If you listen carefully you can hear the edit between the last two choruses (or chorii, as I like to pluralize the word) as the guitar plays a descending lead part and it's a chord that suddenly becomes single notes.

I recorded this song before the Meat Puppets did "Backwater," by the way. The 7th that the vocals do in the chorus are reminiscent of that song.

Instruments used:
The electric guitar and bass used on this tune were the same ones used on "The Answer Song". Strings on the electric were in decent shape for this one, though. I used a cheap Takamine Jasmine acoustic (maybe an S35 or its equivalent model of the day; can't recall) during the verses.

I had the bass too loud for the first five notes of the song but liked the mix well enough to not bother mixing it again. I do wish I'd gotten a less-muddy tone for the bass in the mix. It's one of my favorite bass parts on the record.

Drum sounds were a combination of the Roland R-5 and my Roland Rhodes 660 keyboard. The 660 provided the drums and the R-5 was used for cymbals (I mixed in some of the 660's hi-hats because I liked their crispiness at the time).

Recording gear:

The little Fostex R8 1/4" reel-to-reel eight track and the Fostex 424 mixing board got the song to tape. Matter of fact, the gear list is identical to that of "The Answer Song".

I forgot to mention the awesome panty-hose-and-coat-hanger pop filter. Cheaper and every bit as good as a Popper-Stopper (TM).

The low-fi vocals on the two bridges were accomplished by jacking the EQ around a whole lot.

Speaking of EQ, I wasn't happy with the overall EQ on the mix. Treble slices too much and there's no punch in the bottom end.

On that wonderful note I'll wrap up the background of "Dedication". Four more songs to go!

Read more »

EGBDF - The Album - Roadside Park

To recap, I've decided to post notes about each song on my earth-shattering album -- what went into it, what kind of equipment I used, etc.

This is about the second song, "Roadside Park".


Roadside Park
As a kid, my extended family lived in Memphis, Tennessee.. I grew up around my nuclear family -- three other people; not cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. Although that's different from the way my wife and my parents grew up, I've never counted it as a disadvantage or as a scenario where I've missed anything. On the contrary, it gave me a great love for my mom, dad, and brother.

On the occasions we'd visit Memphis (which were quite frequent), we had to do so without the aid of these modern "interstate" thingies. It was a trip of 218 (or 208) miles, I believe, and you could immediately tell when you entered Mississippi because the ride suddenly got bumpier thanks to terrible roads.

 Along the way there was this thing called a "roadside park." I don't know why, but the trip to Memphis just didn't work for me unless we stopped at the roadside park. There wasn't really anything to do there except get out of the car and stare up at the trees, feel the wind blow, and generally relax and unwind from the almost-two-hour trip we'd had thus far.

From memories of that landmark, now a thing only of memories, came the song "Roadside Park". A place where there isn't really much to do, but that's okay... "a rest in the shade of the sunshine."

Instruments used:
I programmed the drums on an old Korg T-3 keyboard (which belonged to the studio where I worked in the evenings, Harmony Sound), running into my Roland TD-5 Percussion Sound Module.

There were a couple of cheap Stinger electric guitars in the studio and a couple of really cheap Stinger mini-stacks. I took advantage of these gems in order to get the monster sound you hear on the record. (Okay, in truth the guitars and amps were not very good. Possibly the worst I've played.)

There was a Peavey Fury bass (I think it retailed for $199) in the studio, and to be honest, whenever I strung it with La Bella strings, it sounded absolutely fantastic. No, really. But I ran the bass through as much distortion as I could muster. Doug Pinnick of King's X fame used bass distortion quite successfully, and that was my inspiration. But my bass part just sounds like bass through a distortion box. His sounds great.

A note about the drum part... I went for a minimalist approach on this song, which was something I usually don't do. I don't ever intentionally over-program, but I try to program what a good drummer might play. On this song I tried to imagine what would be played by one of the best drummers I've ever recorded: James Blair (or J. D. Blair). Blair played in Huntsville for a while and then went on to play for many excellent artists, among them Shania Twian. I think he may be my favorite drummer ever. He could "say" more by hitting one tom than any other drummer could say by playing a whole song. He grooved. He spoke with his playing, and he is one of precious few who can actually do that.

Recording gear:
I've said so much by now that I'm out of words and ready to end the post, so I 'll be short here. Recorded this song on a Fostex G16 1/2" reel-to-reel recorder, ran through a Mackie 24-channel 8-bus board, and mixed to Sound Forge on a mammoth Pentium PC. Used several effect units in the process, including one of my favorites, a Symetrix 525 dual-channel compressor. Always thought it sounded quite good and didn't color the sound too much. Used an Audio Technica AT4033 mic for the lead vocal.

All in all, this turned out to be one of my favorite songs on the album. Lyrically it really doesn't go anywhere, but that's the whole point.

Read more »

EGBDF - The Album - The Answer Song

My old friend Jim Sturdivant posted an overly-gracious review on Facebook of my six-song album, EGBDF. He noted that he wouldn't mind hearing more about how it was done. Thinking back over that brought a smile to my face, so I've decided to post notes about each song -- what went into it, what kind of equipment I used, etc. I doubt it'll be of interest to many people, but in the off-chance that there's a gear-head from the early 90's who couldn't afford nice recording equipment, it may bring back memories.

I'll start with the first song (the link will take you to the song, which you may purchase for the bargain price of only $0.89)...


The Answer Song
This one was recorded around 1993, I think. I don't know why I decided to do a rap track. This one's terrible. I didn't want to try to have "soul" or anything like that, because not only do I not have a cool rap accent, I sound very white. So I figured it would be very unusual and surprising, even amusing, if I just used my regular old voice.

You may notice that the first line of the chorus and the first sung line in each verse have essentially the same melody. The verse is in the relative minor key of the chorus so I thought using the same melodic hook for both would be cool. Don't know if it wound up being cool, but I did it, and there you have it.

My biggest regret on this song is the intentional artificial-sounding drum machine pattern on the chorus. Wish I'd stayed with a drum part that sounded more like what a drummer might actually play. I usually obsess about that.

Instruments used:
My trusty Roland R-5 "Human Rhythm Composer" (a drum machine; not an "instrument," really) provided the drums and percussion. I always tuned the hi-hats down a few cents because I thought they sounded a little less artificial that way.

I played a T. Shepard Strat-style guitar -- a yellow one -- with a graphite neck. It belonged to my friend Paul Proffitt, whose home studio I used. The strings were ruuussssty, and I had no extra sets of strings so I used steel wool on them so they wouldn't cut my fingers. It worked but as you might imagine, they sounded quite dead.

I ran through an old Ibanez distortion pedal and went directly into the board. That pedal was unusual because it didn't sound absolutely horrible when running direct, like most stand-alone distortion pedals do. (On second listen, I believe I may have used a Rockman headphone preamp on this song. Not the more awesome Rockman Soloist, but the cheaper one, before the Guitar Ace came out)

I used a cheap, cheap Steinberger bass copy. Ran it directly into the board; no direct box.

Recording gear:
The mixing board was a Fostex model 454, purchased from a pawn shop. All the pots were dirty so I had to sweep the knobs and faders back and forth frequently to get the crackly trash out of them.

The recorder was a Fostex R8, a 1/4" reel-to-reel machine that had eight tracks. Because of the limited number of tracks I had to "bounce" (combine) the drums and bass to a pair of tracks, then as I added each vocal I had to bounce them down, as well, to leave an open track for the lead guitar.

I ran out of tracks quickly on this one. I believe there are seven vocal parts going on at once during the chorus. Notice that the lead vocal and lead guitar don't overlap. That's because I ran out of tracks and had to put the lead guitar on the lead vocal track.

I used a Yamaha hand-held vocal mic (also found at a pawn shop; didn't even know Yamaha made microphones until I saw that one. Really liked it.), used a Yamaha GC2020BII rackmount compressor -- easily the worst compressor I've ever used, but it got the job done -- and a Yamaha SPX-90 II and budget-line R100 for effects.

Used my own reference monitors, Peavey (yes, Peavey) PRM308S. Possibly the best product Peavey ever made.

The mix was done directly to... cassette tape. Only the highest quality would do. :-)

Read more »

Your Five Favorite Christmas Songs?

The Christmas season tends to make me really happy. Except for the parts that involve shopping in the midst of hyper-populated stores (this year Hobby Lobby and Sam's Club win the "isn't this number of people a violation of fire code?" awards).

At its ideal moments, Christmas lights and music whisk my mind back to my childhood in the 70's, when my parents had green shag carpet in their room and my mom wore trendy dresses with poofy sleeves. In my mind, though Christmas defies time and space, it exists in a few eras: 2000 years ago, the 1970's, the 1940's, the late 1800's, and the middle ages. The last three of those are particularly accessible in my imagination via music. This is why I tend to dislike modern Christmas music. While many are about Jesus' birth, they just don't represent Christmas past to me.

My perennial favorite artist/group award goes to the Ray Conniff Singers. They take me back to my early childhood; Ray Conniff was always on the record player during the Christmas season back then. Same thing with Billy Vaughn. Last year I purchased the mono version of "Christmas Carols" (this album was originally recorded in both stereo and mono versions).

Given that background, here are my five favorite Christmas songs. This list was more difficult than the one that named my least favorite ones.

1. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Veni, Veni, Emmanuel)
2. The Holly and the Ivy
3. The Coventry Carol (the link goes to an Amazon.com freebie!)
4. Pat-a-Pan
5. The Sussex Carol (On Christmas Night All Christians Sing)

I wish there were room on the list for "The Wassail Song (Here We Come A-Caroling)" and "Sing We Now of Christmas".

Now, if I had to use songs from this century, my list would look like this:

1. Sleigh Ride (orchestral or Johnny Mathis' version)
2. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Andy Williams)
3. The Christmas Song
4. Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town
5. A Charlie Brown Christmas (the Vince Guaraldi Trio album). This 16-song album is a must-purchase download at the Amazon MP3 store -- only $5.00!

Time for your input -- share your favorite five (or more) with everyone in the comments below!

Read more »

Your Five Least Favorite Christmas Songs?

Yesterday I was struck with a serious question. I had no choice but to tweet it and put it on Facebook for my very best friends to consider. You may have read it already:

If "I don't want a lot for Christmas," yet "all I want for Christmas is you," isn't that song ultimately one big insult?

With that, you can probably guess that "All I Want for Christmas is You" handily earns a spot in the list of my least favorite Christmas songs of all time. This isn't an easy list for me to make because I'm so opinionated. Lots of songs should make the list, but only five lucky ones will.

By the way, I thought about making this post about favorite Christmas songs, but that's just not as fun.

I'll be focusing on popular Christmas songs; not the obscure tunes that almost everyone hates. There's a high probability that you will like -- nay, even love -- multiple songs on my list. I'm willing to take that chance.

So without further ado, here is The Dean's List: My Five Least Favorite Christmas Songs of All Time (if you'd like to purchase any of these stinkers for whatever weird and disturbed reason, I've linked them to MP3's at Amazon.com):

1. All I Want for Christmas is You
2. The Christmas Shoes
3. All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth 
4. Last Christmas 
5. Santa Claus is Coming to Town (the butchered Jackson 5/Bruce Springsteen, etc. version, NOT the unassailable classic song upon which Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass based their gripping drama of the same name.)

I've chosen one song on the list to explain its inclusion. Ranting about each song would be very impractical from a time standpoint. I'd be here too long. Let's run with Newsong's "The Christmas Shoes" (who knew the title had "The" in it?):



There is so much I want to say about this song. It's possibly the most contrived urban legend I've ever heard, which is how this song unfortunately came to life (some will argue that it's based on a true story. I don't believe that for a moment). Shoes?? For a kid's dying mother? I probably shouldn't state the obvious, but very likely, well... she's not going to have an opportunity to wear them. And it's Christmas Eve! The boy should be at his mom's bedside, not leeching off of some stranger on the street. The lone child singing the last line is consumer manipulation at its worst. I can almost hear the producer saying to his associates in the recording studio, "You know what will really get 'em? We'll have a kid sing the last line!" and everybody in the room breaks into kudos for this bit of unexpected production genius.

Enough of that. You get the idea. Now, if my list were, say, a "Top Eight" list, I could easily think of three more songs. Since this is a "Top Five" list, though, I have to make a whole new one:

The Dean's List: I Really Dislike These Christmas Songs, As Well:

1. Little St. Nick (my daughter loves this song. I feel terrible having it on my list)
2. I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (same comment as the previous song)
3. Hey, Santa (this apparently isn't the correct name, but I believe these are the first lyrics in the song. A little help?)

The floor is open for you to share your list or just to give me some serious grief for dissing your favorite Christmas song!

Read more »

Imitator or Fan?

I haven't always liked Boston (the band; I don't even know what to think about the city, having never been there, and I'm not much for any kind of baked beans). In the early '80s my brother would plug an eight-track tape of Boston's eponymous album into the stereo of his '77 Mustang II (it was the best-looking Mustang II I've ever seen, hands-down), and I'd plead with him to change it. The organ, in particular, was incredibly cheesy and 1970's-sounding, and I was into anything but retro music. I hated it. At some point not too much later, though, I realized that the band was phenomenal and their music style was incredibly unique, and at that point I became a fan. (Have a look below; who wouldn't be a fan?!)



On the way home from work not long ago I was listening to "Hitch a Ride" with my 12-year-old daughter (who was introduced to Boston's music while playing Guitar Hero III, I believe). As the first solo instrumental wound down and the acoustic guitar began to pave the way for the upcoming incredible guitar goodness, I commented to Alaina, "This has always been one of my favorite guitar solos." We then proceeded to listen to -- you guessed it -- one of my favorite guitar solos. It's still amazing to me after all these years.

As the song wrapped up I casually thought, "Tom Scholz is really one of my biggest guitar influences." The other side of my brain would not let this statement go unchecked and immediately fired back, "Oh. Really? Name a song you've recorded that gives any indication of sounding like Tom Scholz." The first side of my brain thought for a moment and grudgingly conceded to the second. "Okay, so maybe I just like Tom Scholz's playing a whole lot." Both brain sections agreed.

There is a major difference between liking someone and being influenced by him. If I like someone, then that's that. If I claim to be influenced by him, there will be some change in me associated with my listening to his music. Otherwise there wouldn't really be any influence. If I say that one of my musical influences is Floyd Cramer, but you listen to every one of my songs and realize that there's not a shred of his style, feel, chord voicings, etc., then you'll wonder why I said he was an influence. On the other hand, if I said that Floyd Cramer was one of my favorite pianists, you could easily believe it even after listening to all my Floyd Cramer-less songs.

There's a major difference between liking Jesus Christ and being influenced and changed by Him. Many people -- most people alive, surely -- would agree that Jesus was an incredible teacher and gave moral lessons that are excellent. Others will not only like Him and His teaching, but will actually follow Him and will become imitators of Christ -- imitators of God. (This is all over the Word; places like Leviticus 19:2 (and 1 Peter 1:15-16), Luke 6:35-36, John 20:21, Ephesians 5:1-2, 25-26, Philippians 2:5-11, Hebrews 12:2-3, etc.)

It's pretty easy (and sometimes unfortunately it feels satisfying) to pinpoint this in someone else's life, but how about your own? Who are you? If you had to take a good, hard look at your life, would you find that you're a Jesus imitator or simply a Jesus fan?

Read more »