A little bit more about the recording...with added pics

This is a post from Saturday night, but since I posted it I received some pictures of the song writing team...I wanted to throw those in, along with my take on them, so here you go! Thank you, Nicky T!

First of all, I'm getting tired of saying "the recording." The CD will be called "Reach Out" after the title of one of the songs. I will from here on out refer to it as its name. I mean, I wouldn't just say "Kiddo" every time I referred to my child...oh, wait, yes I do. Okay, that's beside the point. Back to "Reach Out."

Half of the songs are "cover" songs, meaning songs originally recorded by others. These are some of the favorites we do on Sunday mornings. "Revelation Song," "Highest Praise," "Glory In the Highest" to name a few. The rest of the songs are originals that our song writing team has written. I am so privileged to be friends with several of the team, and getting the "inside" scoop on those songs is just amazing.

I have no clue as to the hours spent writing the songs we did. I know there were at least two weekend trips away, but there were many weeks of just meeting and throwing ideas back and forth until a song was born. My favorite one is "Isn't He," inspired from Psalm 66. Here's just a peek...

"Isn't He the Matchless One,

The risen King, the Morning Sun,

The One who holds my very soul

in the palm of His hand?"

Words and Music by:
Mike Krumm, Brent Climer,
Billy Walgenbach,Jae Sims,
Doc Kruse, Don Sparks

After the songs were written all the arrangements for the band had to be written, and re-written, and I'm sure re-written. I know how much each of the songs changed from the first rough recording that we had to practice from to what they sounded like for the concert.

When the arranging was finished, then came time to write the parts for the Praise Team and Choir. This is where I got to get in on the fun. Now, Brent and Don pretty much had what they wanted us to sing, but the three section leaders had a little input. Or maybe I just threw my opinion in there and counted it as "input." Kim, the Soprano leader, Prez, the men's section leader, and I had a couple of practices with Brent (our Worship Pastor) and Don (our director of instrumental ministries) to learn the parts. This was where it got fun for me. When all of us got to singing those parts together in Don's office, hoo boy, it left chill bumps.

From there we started practicing with the choir, or Worship Team. I wondered what the songs would sound like once the choir was singing them. We started rehearsals the second weekend of July for the August 16th recording. I was nervous that it wasn't enough time, but these people are good. In the picture above, Kim is at the far left, preparing to lead the choir. Prez is the one in the back wearing a green shirt and a mean look. But he's not mean. Trust me. He has made Diet Coke come out my nose on more than one occasion. You can also see my friend Loretta in the pink shirt in front. The same Loretta that sent that infamous email.

Sorry, what a tangent I can get on. So this is us rehearsing. Or preparing to rehearse. We are more than likely talking. We do that a lot.

Here are my girls, my altos. I heart them. They make me happy. The ones in the back hugging are Robbie and J.B.. If you have not clicked on Jennifer's link to the left of my blog, you need to. This girl has one smooth voice. And she's one of my altos!

My sweet friend, Billie, sitting on the front row in the floral shirt and pink shorts, took me shopping for my outfit for the night of the concert. Oh, you better know that's a post in and of itself. Her husband, Scott, is the Pastor in charge of all us hooligans, also known as the Magnification Pastor. He's in the back with the gray shirt on in the picture above.

This picture shows how stealthy Prez can be. See the serious look on his face? Yeah, and see the girl laughing hysterically in front and to the side of him? That's Sherrylynn, and I just know that whatever she's laughing at has to do with him. It's a wonder any of us get any work done. We just like having a good time too much. Wait, that didn't come out the way I wanted it to.

We had several rehearsals to get ready for that night. And with every one, I realized what a privilege it was to be getting to do what we were about to do. I'm still blown away.

Next recording post, not only did we have to make sure we sounded good, we also had to make sure we looked good for that night. What to wear, what to wear?