Singin' Down On The Farm
This
past Saturday night we were in
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Nashville Musicians featured on Faith like a Mustard Seed
Allow me to introduce you to the 
Jason Webb played the piano, keyboard and Hammond B3 organ. It's been a dream of mine for several years to have Jason play on a project that I was a part of. He has played on many big Southern gospel records. He's played for groups like the Perrys, Greater Vision, Hope's Call, and others. He was the session leader for our tracks, which means that he wrote the charts for all the songs that each musician reads while he is playing. On the song "He Delivered Me", I went back to the piano room and videoed Webb conceptualizing the song and recording.
Dave Cleveland was our guitarist, and I knew virtually nothing about him going into the recording. I was blown away by his talent. As you will hear on the record, he has that unique ability to know where to place every note perfectly in a song. On top of all his talent, he has a wonderful, engaging personality. He and I talked about how rewarding it is to play Christian music and also discussed vintage instruments and why so many bluegrass pickers regularly play older instruments.
Speaking of older instruments, Larry Franklin played both fiddle and mandolin for us. As I sat out in the control room and watched Larry play, I noticed that he had two fiddles and that he was alternating between the two. One of them, I learned, was made sometime in the 1800s. How cool is that? He uses two fiddles because he likes to keep them tuned a half-step away from each other; if a song changes keys, he can maintain an "open key" sound, a sweeter sound for the song. His fiddle run in the first chorus of "He Delivered Me" is my favorite lick on the record. He also perfectly placed a mandolin chord at the end of the first line of "I've Touched Heaven".
Mark Hill played the bass guitar for us, and did a great job. I never did get the story on the interesting art work on his guitar.
Scotty Sanders played both the dobro and steel guitar. Since the dobro is my favorite instrument, I was excited to hear this guy play live. He has played for groups like
Steve Brewster, as you hear on the record, is a major talent as a drummer. The drummer's primary responsibility on a recording is to find the right tempo and then keep it. All the musicians are following his lead. No pressure, right? Brewster did a whole lot more than keep tempo; his work with the sticks was nothing short of sensational. He recently played on the Hoppers' new CD called "The Ride".
These guys take the songs that you have selected for a recording and bring them to life. At the end of the day, you hold a copy of your new tracks in your hands, which is the foundation that the rest of the record will rest upon. The studio musicians usually don't get enough credit for all the flavor they add to a recording. We appreciate the fantastic work these men did for us.
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Tess & Brooke Go To Singing School
On June 16, we headed down to Boaz, AL from Kentucky to pick up our two oldest daughters. Tess (14) and Brooke (12) had just spent two weeks at Snead State College in Boaz at a singing school. This school is called the Alabama School of Gospel Music. This school is similar to the old Stamps-Baxter type schools; in it, they teach shaped note singing, voice, choir singing, and directing, among other things. This is an intense two-week course that is primarily classroom-taught and features some of the most talented instructors in America.
Tess's teacher was Charles Towler. Towler is one of our great songwriters in the old convention-style realm of singing. This school uses two songbooks each year for instruction, and one is put out by Gospel Heritage Music of Cleveland, TN. Towler is one of the editors of this songbook. The other book is put out by the Leoma Music Company of Leoma, TN. Towler is such a prolific songwriter that he sometimes writes under a "pen name", or an alias, because so many of his own songs are being published. He wrote a wonderful song in 2006 called "Unchanging God, Unfailing Lord" that our family considered cutting on our new CD. Though it ultimately didn't make the cut, I try to keep my eyes on what Towler is putting out as a songwriter. He is sensational. He's got another song in the 2007 book ("Chosen") called "I Don't Worry About Tomorrow". The song has a great groove and a strong message in it; we are going to practice that one and see how it goes.
On the final night of the school, all the families of the students and the community are invited to come to a local church for a program that showcases the students singing many of the songs in the books. I use this opportunity to scout for new songs for our group. Tess & Brooke and a couple of their friends were selected to sing as a quartet on the program. They did a 2007 song called "Now That I'm One Of His Own", written by Jack Clark and Donna Lee. This is an absolute killer song that our family has already begun working on. Many of you Southern Gospel aficionados may remember Clark as the piano player for groups like the Homeland Harmony Quartet and the Harvesters Quartet back in the day. He has also appeared on at least one Gaither Homecoming video; this is the video where he reads his own definition of "gospel singer", "quartet", "lead singer", etc with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. He teaches in this school as well.
At the end of the program, the school hands out a limited number of scholarships for the following year. Kathy and I were delighted when both Tess and Brooke's names were called as scholarship winners! They will be going back to the school next year for free. God is so good to us!
After the program, I got to meet Joel McKissack, who is one of the editors of the aforementioned Leoma Music Company's books. Our family selected a song out of the 2006 book ("Joy") called "I've Got Good News" for our new recording. When we sing this song in churches and concerts, I always introduce it as "a song written in 2006 that sounds like it was written in 1936". I mean this as the highest of accolades. We love the old songs from the period of the 1930s, '40s and '50s, and one of the great appeals of this school has been that the songs being taught from these books are reminiscent of this golden area of quartet songs. "I've Got Good News" was written by the husband/wife team of Marty & Ann Phillips, whose 1980 song "What A Meeting In The Air" has been recorded by many groups, one of which was the mighty Cathedral Quartet.
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