Tomorrow, my last studio project hits the five-year mark. Let Go came out May 9, 2011, the result of a three-month music sabbatical the previous summer. Freed from the weekly ritual of sermon writing, I could devote all of my creative muse to songwriting. Having a Lily-endowed grant to leave no musical stone unturned didn't hurt either.
Some highlights from the whole endeavor:
- Working with a noted Nashville recording studio and go-to cellist John Catchings,
- Watching the string section take "Where There's Love" to places I never fathomed,
- Taking a bit of a risk letting the band record the vast majority of "Better Off" live instead of tracked, and embracing the little joyful imperfections,
- The awesome party in Doug's driveway that became the beautiful chorus at the end of "The Dance/Grace,"
- Huddling around a studio mic with my wife and two sons, all of us wearing headsets, singing "na-na-na's."
If anything, "Let Go" taught me that the studio is not where songs go to be finished, but to be birthed. So many of those songs wound up going in very different, beautiful directions than what I anticipated them being when I first took them there. Lots of thanks to fraternity brother/former bandmate Doug Davis, who owns a super little garage studio outside downtown Winston-Salem, pushed me not to settle, and knows exactly what he's doing.
My oldest son occasionally asks if I'll ever do another studio album. I honestly don't know. It takes a lot of time to do it right, along with a lot of money, and these days I don't have much of either. Besides, other than the occasional retreat theme song, I'm not doing a lot of writing. If this winds up being my last album, I can count myself content. Five years later and I'm still proud of it.
I hope you'll give it a listen if you haven't already. It is - as it's always been and always will be - a totally free download. Thanks much for listening.
Some highlights from the whole endeavor:
- Working with a noted Nashville recording studio and go-to cellist John Catchings,
- Watching the string section take "Where There's Love" to places I never fathomed,
- Taking a bit of a risk letting the band record the vast majority of "Better Off" live instead of tracked, and embracing the little joyful imperfections,
- The awesome party in Doug's driveway that became the beautiful chorus at the end of "The Dance/Grace,"
- Huddling around a studio mic with my wife and two sons, all of us wearing headsets, singing "na-na-na's."
If anything, "Let Go" taught me that the studio is not where songs go to be finished, but to be birthed. So many of those songs wound up going in very different, beautiful directions than what I anticipated them being when I first took them there. Lots of thanks to fraternity brother/former bandmate Doug Davis, who owns a super little garage studio outside downtown Winston-Salem, pushed me not to settle, and knows exactly what he's doing.
My oldest son occasionally asks if I'll ever do another studio album. I honestly don't know. It takes a lot of time to do it right, along with a lot of money, and these days I don't have much of either. Besides, other than the occasional retreat theme song, I'm not doing a lot of writing. If this winds up being my last album, I can count myself content. Five years later and I'm still proud of it.
I hope you'll give it a listen if you haven't already. It is - as it's always been and always will be - a totally free download. Thanks much for listening.
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