Our Weekend at Ardent

ZZ Top...Lynyrd Skynyrd...Led Zeppelin......

CHC Worship Team.

This was the weekend for our Worship Team to record at Ardent Studios! I just cannot convey to you how unbelievable this was. We had the best time, worked harder than we've EVER worked before, and left exhausted but exhilarated. I hope I can sum up for you the weekend.

We were scheduled to be at the studio from 10:00 a.m, so most of us met at the church to ride on our very old but much appreciated church bus. My Sound Man wanted to go with us, but wasn't sure if he was going to stay all day, so we drove in his truck. When we got there, none of us, with the exception of the few that had been to the studio already to tweak their solos, knew what to expect. I have been in a studio before, but it was on a very small scale and with only a few people. I had no idea how our day would turn out.

Here we are just standing around. I'm telling you, the people in this picture are some of my favorite people in all the world. J.B, Sherrylynn, Donna, Loretta, Tricia. I do love the Praise Team girls!

This is in the hallway looking out to the courtyard. It's surrounded on all four sides with windows so wherever you walk in that part of the building you can see outside. I want one of these in my dream house. That and someone to clean all those windows.

I heart my altos...Tricia is one of them I heart a lot. She and her family are also in our small group. Her husband is our electric guitar player. We all go way back. They even suggested I take singing lessons once. Sorry, inside joke. Don't you hate those? Oh, we got 'em this weekend. Between tiger sauce and big guys, we got 'em.

Hey, there's my Sound Man! I heart him, too. He Rocks! you know....

You know, now that I look at these pictures, I'm just now realizing we were left to ourselves just way too long...This is Sherrylynn and J.B. The sign they have their pretty faces next to is just inside the doorway and says this: "Take Notice: It is forbidden for vagrants, beggars, itinerant musicians and females of doubtful reputations to enter these premises. May, 1901" I have no idea where the sign came from, but it sure is funny. Especially with those doubtful- reputation-girls I hang out with.

Here's control central. I don't know if they really call it that but doesn't that sound cool? They do call it the control room, though. Jason Latshaw is our producer, engineer, and all around cool dude. See, he knows he's cool:

Seriously...Latch has produced and/or engineered for the likes of Todd Agnew, Skillet, and Audio Adrenaline...bigtime names in the world of Christian Music. Not to mention the tons of secular bands he's worked with. From the way he was acting, it looked like he was having a ball working with us.

Here we are finally in the studio room. Isn't it big? It had such cool ambiance and the BEST acoustics...but horrible lighting, so all my pictures taken from in here are not the best quality. I did, however, wanted to give you a picture of how big the room was. The sopranos (sops) are in the foreground, the men in the middle (duh) and the altos at the far end.

Once we got situated, we didn't wait around long before Latch started the track up and we started recording. Kim, our Soprano section leader, got to direct us all weekend. I have to admit that I was a tiny bit jealous that I couldn't direct at all due to my back being stubborn and mean. When I saw how much she was having to move around to keep us on our toes, I knew my back wouldn't handle it. Not to mention she was so much better than I could even imagine being. She told me she absolutely had a blast and offered to let me direct, but I knew it would be a complete downer from the energy she was putting into it. I was grateful she offered, though! She is another one of my favorite people. I am so glad I get to be her friend.

Since I had been a part of studio work before, I knew that we would sing a little bit of a song, stop, sing it again, stop, and sing it again. Then repeat that whole process a jillion times. I was not disappointed. That's exactly what we did. One thing Brent, our Worship Pastor, and Jason wanted was excellence, and nothing less than that would be put on the CD. They conveyed their thoughts to Kim through the headphones she wore and she conveyed those thoughts to us. "Guys, you're flat!" "Altos, watch your pitch!" "Sopranos, sing louder!" Unless, of course, one of them came in from the control room. We knew we were in trouble any time that door opened and Brent or, heaven forbid, Jason walked in. "No, do it more like this..." "Can you give some of this and this..." "I WANNA HEAR ANGELS SING WHEN YOU HIT THIS PART!" Until we got the much desired, "Double it!" which meant we had done exactly what they wanted and were going to try to repeat it to layer over what we had just done. It is very, very tedious work. Not just for us, but for Latch and his super-cool computer.

Knowing there are so many more pictures and stories to tell, I'll cut this post short...uh...off. It's definitely not short, but I'll save more for later. There is just so much to what happened this weekend that I want to tell you about. One last thing I will say is this...I know that from here on out our Team is going to step it up a notch, simply because we know what we are capable of now. Where will the Lord take us next?