It was October in 2003. I had been writing and recording some tunes, at a leisurely pace, in the time since Glorybound and “Architect of Beauty” had come out at the end 2002. Specifically, “A New Dream” “Forgive Me Lord” and “In The Vine.” I didn’t really have any direction as to what these songs might be a part of, but I have always felt that a cd project needed to have a good reason to exist, other than “my love of the art form,” like it says in the liner notes. Well, I didn’t’ really have any good reason, so I wasn’t really looking to do another disc so soon…
During that October of 2003, I was in Alexandria, attending a small group leader’s retreat. I happened to be reading about Hannah being barren, and her desire for a child, then her receiving that child… I was once again reminded of My sister Deb’s desire to have a baby and how it finally came to pass with the birth of her son Sammy. I started getting little phrases (‘now your sorrow has turned to joy” and ‘God has shown His favor with the gift of this boy”) and little melodies to go with them. Not usually the way I write! Most times I am sitting at a keyboard or with a guitar. But the melody and lyric of this song came almost completely on this fall weekend in Alexandria. When I got home to White Bear Lake, I found the e chords on the piano and finished the tune, called ‘Hannah’s Hearts’ Desire.”
I guess I am always attempting to minister something of God’s love to people, either in a general sense, or maybe to someone specifically. I saw this song ‘Hannah” as perhaps being a springboard to write some songs proclaiming God’s love to Deb’s family, as they all have Biblical names, and maybe in the meantime bless other folks as well…. I had found my reason and direction for a new cd. The rest of the songs for Sammy, Luke, Jacob, and Grace came pretty quickly, making up the 5 song suite that is, in some sense, the focal (or at the very least, the starting point) of my 5th CD, “The Good King’s Highway.”
We started recording drum tracks at Fuzzy Slippers Studio in downtown St. Paul in March of 2004…. Brian Ricke and Micah Taylor really gave us great sound and service. We recorded the drum kit from several starting points: Erich played to some keyboard sequencing that was already done to a significant degree, (“Jacob Asleep”) or he laid down a groove to a click where the tune was not really arranged at all yet, (“The Good King’s Highway) and everything in between. Mr. Hoffmeister proved to be a really critical element in this collection of music. His well-rounded musical knowledge (from fusion to progressive rock styling to semi-classical motifs) combined with his excellent technique really congealed this stuff. That combined with the fact that he has become a trusted friend, a man after God’s own heart and his willingness to really invest something of himself into this music has secured this into my heart: I got the right man for the job! We did 5 sessions over the next 4 months to get the drums complete, at which point I took those tracks home to “Makeshift Studio” to continue with vocal, guitar, bass and keyboard overdubs. Recording and mixing was complete by December 2004, at which point I took it to 3rd ear studios in Minneapolis, where Tom Herbers added the finishing touches with a plethora of audio toys: tube compressors and eq’s plus running my Protools mixes through an analogue 2 track tape machine. …Thanks and nice job, Tom.
First song is “A New Dream” which was inspired by the idea Phil Collins once talked about in an interview: that they (Genesis) had written the tune “Los Endos” over a Weather Report (Jazz-fusion pioneers) drum groove. Thematically and harmonically, I didn’t see much of a correlation of what Genesis did to that of Weather Report, but I sure loved “Los Endos! ” So anyway I have a Peter Erskine (Weather Report Drummer) CD that I used a groove from, sort of a four on the floor Brazilian sort of beat. Drummer Erich Hoffmeister expounded on the idea beautifully. The chord, melody and lyrics followed. I liked the idea of this bass figure repeating over and over then having the chords change over them, so that’s what I started with. The chorus finally comes around with a fairly standard chord sequence where the message of God giving me a new dream can get driven home! The point lyrically in this song is twofold: 1) God has a dream to give us all! “A glimmering vision, a plan with precision,” to quote the lyric in the chorus. It might not be the dream we wanted for ourselves but SO WHAT? God is steering this ship! 2) It will require us to “die to self” – a concept the Bible has much to say about! Look at the fruit of Christ’s laying down His life for us! Vocally, the tune benefits much from having Ruth Richmond and Jill Anderson adding harmonies and vocal licks! I got the idea of putting a big vocal intro at the beginning of the song to kick whole cd off, sounds pretty neat. It starts off with just Jill and Ruth singing, me reversing them and applying echo and reverb, then all of us singing the chorus accapella. A fitting start for the song and the CD.
A mentioned above, “Hannah’s Heart’s Desire” starts the 5 song suite out for Deb and Jon’s family; Jill and Ruth once again add harmonies, and Ruth adds a sort of “otherworldly” vocal thing over the instrumental bridge section. I just had her do several takes over that section, picked the ones that worked well together and used those. Seems the slide guitar bug bit me on this cd, as I played it on perhaps 5 or 6 tunes, this one with a George Harrison “flava” to it. Joe Schmid’s fretless bass lines really adds allot to the track, plus it has a really nice full tone; also listen for Erich’s tasty drum fills, esp. the one halfway thru the slide solo!
The song “Arise, Samuel, Arise” is, of coarse, taken from the story of God calling Samuel, who thinks it’s Eli, the priest and his guardian. If you’ll recall, Eli tells Samuel that it’s THE LORD who is calling him, and to answer thus: “speak Lord, you servant is listening!” Good advice for us all, let me take this opportunity to encourage you to get yourself in this subservient mind/spirit set. Ask him to give you opportunities to obey! There are several things about this track that I like: powerhouse drums, the twin lead guitars and electric 12 string, Kim’s flute solo at the end, Jill’s harmony vocal stuff. But I really love that whole middle section: the piano motif, and the keyboard orchestration that follows…But the coolest is my nephew Sammy reading from the book of Samuel! I hope that he can hear God’s voice calling to him thru the years, and that this song will encourage him to be listening for that voice.
The song “Luke the Physician” (the 3rd song of the suite) has bit of classical flavor to it… it was sure fun to do. I programmed the percussion, definitely a different experience programming stuff from an orchestral standpoint as opposed to that of programming drum beats; of coarse my preference would be to have a real orchestra playing tymps, crash cymbals, violas, French horns, etc... FAT CHANCE! (A guy can dream, can’t he?) A guy named Dave Stewart, (NOT the dude from the Eurhythmics) an English chap who is a brilliant composer/keyboardist, most defiantly influenced the chorus chords. Once again I’m happy to have my wife Kim playing flute on this; it’s so nice to have that texture available to me when a song calls for it.
Lyrically, it’s a little history lesson as to the type of man Luke was: a physician, scholar, historian, and disciple of Christ who played his own unique part in building God’s Kingdom. The Lyric then shifts focus to address my nephew Luke: “So Luke, my hope, my prayer, is that you’ll play your part too.”
The scripture where Jacob dreamt of the ladder heading to heaven was the inspiration for the song “Jacob Asleep, Underneath a Sea of Stars”(4th song of the suite)… It has a pretty simple chord progression, one that came about by my playing the piano for 20 minutes, recording it, then picking out the good stuff and discarding the rest, to write the main body of the tune. After the synth solo, comes the middle section, where it’s primarily voice and the piano. That took a little longer to write. This is also the section where I turn the lyrical attention TO my nephew Jacob: “Jacob, Son of my sister, asleep underneath a sea of stars, and I know in my heart: God will have a dream for you, my prayer is your heart receives.”
After that it’s into a 5/4 feel with Erich’s tom groove on the drums, and guitar solo over that, then finally the end section fade out with the flute, bells and keyboards.
The last song of the 5-song suite is the song “Grace.” This one would have to be at least a contender for one of my most beautiful pieces. Kim is featured quite a lot, this was my intent all along on this “toone.” The intro utilizes a nylon string tuned way low, with my good pal Dave Moulton playing the tasty piano figures over the top of it. The song gets under way, basically explaining what grace really is; then periodically asking my Niece Grace this:
“So Grace, I ask you remember always the beauty of your namesake
And what it reveals of God, God I thank you for all of the ways
That you show us your grace.”
This song really turned out beautifully. Also the lead guitar stuff that dances around the flute during the closing sections is really indicative and representative of a particular musical striving of mine: to play simply, eloquently and beautifully… I’m not there yet, but I’m getting closer. The goal: “to find just the right notes.”
I played synth bass on this song, a fretless sound on a Roland module I own; I like the sound of it and the note selection, but it turned out to be quite a challenge to mix this synth bass sound with the rest of the track! It’s main competitor sonically being the nylon string guitar which is tuned low. After MUCH mixing work I finally got everything to “sit” right; or at least as right as I can make it sit!
The title cut “The Good King’s Highway” was written in my sister and brother in law’s home in Walker, MN. They have a neat little room there that overlooks a beautiful lake. Each of my last 3 cds has at least one song each on them that was written there; I think a total of 5 or six by now. Anyway from lyrical standpoint there is an encouragement to go ‘further in and further up” in following the Good King’s Highway. At the end it exhorts: “to crawl, walk or run down that highway” … sometimes we maybe have the strength to run down God’s path, other times trying to find enough strength to crawl, but the main point is to stay the coarse, and keep your “eyes on prize.”
This song utilizes a really wild and wacky low tuning on my acoustic guitar: the song practically wrote itself! It’s fun when they come whistling down the pike at ye, straight from the Lord! Bruce plays the fretless bass; Dave did the nice Rhodes piano. I really enjoyed doing the slide and lead guitar stuff. I was able to use my friend Andrew Miller’s boutique amp: a Soldono. (3400.00$ worth of boutique!) It’s so sensitive to the touch, it’s amazing… really makes me want to totally get into a more of a guitar focused type recording project someday. Hopefully Andrew will let me use that amp again!
The Song “Why So Downcast? /Downcast No More” is co-written by friend and Woodland Hills Church worship teammate Ruth Richmond. She had these wonderful lyrics she had given to me, perhaps at least 2 years ago. At that time I found some music to go with, just general ideas really. I recorded them and promptly forgot about it for 6 months. Then I thought to myself. ‘I should probably try to finish up the tune with Ruth.” I could not find that recording of the basic idea ANYWHERE! Looked and looked to no avail. So I started completely over, and it turned out quite well. I have to say form a production standpoint and writing standpoint as well, this, to, stands out a being some sort of musical pinnacle. The song in it’s new earliest form really had sort of a
Medieval sort of vibe to it; Ruth had added some vocal counterpoints to my melody. The tunes was written on an acoustic, not unusual really, but this time it really seemed to reinforce the medieval vibe. So after the tune was basically written, I started thinking: “What would it be like to have this be a song of transformation: from being downcast to being free in Christ?” (indeed!) This got the creative juices flowing. From that point
Onward, every musical/lyrical/production decision was made to reinforce their transformation. The 2nd _, the “being free in Christ” section begins with the introduction of the electric 12 string. (Which got a real workout on this cd.) The drums build in intensity thru out; we wrote lyrics that of our not being downcast any longer and Ruth came up with my favorite lyric in the whole tune:
“Jesus You’re the lifter of my head, You lift my eyes to Yours!” – then I come in singing “Oh! I’m not downcast anymore!” The reason the lyric Ruth wrote is so powerful (and obviously very Psalm-like) is found in the 2nd part… YOU lift my eyes to yours; you see, I really believe that, when we have reached that point of despondency and defeat we may not have it in ourselves to look up to Christ. BUT that, at that point, Jesus himself can gently lift our chins (so to speak) to have us gaze into His eyes, look at His sacrificial love for us, peruse His power, His loveliness. … at that point, when we really see all of His truth for what it is, inner healing takes place and… we’re not down cast Anymore!” There are times when I was mixing this song that when Ruth sang that line tears would flood my eyes, because I really saw the Spiritual Reality of those words.
Musically the song fulfills many musical dreams for me.. Dave Moulton really worked so very hard, and if you listen closely the keyboard orchestrations are completely wonderful. Him working on this song was like working on like 2 or maybe even 3 songs. Pretty long piece with many sections and motifs. Erich’s drum work is completely cool as well. He worked very hard in developing his part; lots of dialogue between him and I as to how were going to tackle this behemoth. I played the bass, having a great deal of fun trying to keep up with Erich, plus the electric and acoustic stuff… Andrew lent me his Soldono on this as well… I’m glad. It really provided such a powerful tone to make it sing and soar. So between what Dave, Erich, and Ruth brought to this song, it really took a fantsatic journey. Thanks to them for helping me fulfill the vision I had for this song . I hope to be able to get into more involved/evolving pieces like this one in the future.
I thought following “Downcast” with a simple, shorter song seemed like a good idea. This song came about by an appreciation I have for the beautiful simplicity of hymns. I wrote the chords and melody and the first verse; I asked Ruth to finish the lyrical idea I had: to express the multi-dimmensionality of God’s loved for us. I wrote the verse about God’s Love being like that of a Father. She finished off the tune’s lyrics by writing about God’s love being like that of a Mother (verse 2) and finished off by describing his love being like a brother’s. she was very adept at using Hymn-like imagery as well. I love her voice in this one too! Dave’s really understated piano part at the end knocks me out. I also had a lot of fun playing that clean slide guitar stuff.
The song “Forgive Me Lord” is a song of repentance. I guess, for me it’s always (maybe not often enough) important to enter into my sorrow and grief when I have sinned or fallen so short of God’s standards. Not to wallow or anything. But can we really enter into the joy of His salivation when we haven’t yet felt the weight of our own sin?
Musically, it’s basically just an acoustic gtr song with some piano, keyboard and electric guitar embellishments; uess I like the idea of the vocal staring out so low, then soaring high at the end. Joe’s fretless bass once again helps to create the mood.
The last song on the cd is “In the Vine.” It’s pretty much verbaitem from John 15. The trick was in determining how to get the fact across that these are the words of Jesus. So I came up with the idea of introducing His words thus: ‘In the words of my Savior, spoken with eloquence, lives the truth” then I start singing the “I am the true vine….” Etc. The song has sort of a mild progressive rock flavor. Had fun with the synth solo in the middle. Once again Erich really helped bring the song to life with well thought out, wonderfully executed drum parts.
God had me reading this chapter, John 15, over and over, for close to a month. It was in the spring of 2003, if I recall correctly. It’s really a powerful bit of the Word. It reminds me that I can do all things thru Christ, but can do nothing without him This has certainly proven true for my position in music ministry and in the creation of my own music…. Let me encourage anyone who reads this: to let Christ be your strength your guiding light and comforter. Trying to “do, do do” running on your own steam, using your own volition, will leave you exhausted, depleted and feeling very much defeated. I outta know, I’ve been there. But this is a lifelong lesson. If we find that we have dropped the ball relationally with our Lord, He is completely ready to see us restored to Him and Him to us. He never went anywhere!
