Used in worship for the first time...

Tonight I used BIAB to make soundtracks for three hymns for our Wednesday night Bible study. The hymns were "Hallelujah Side", "Because He Lives", and "How Great Thou Art". The first two were straight bluegrass and the last one was straight country. I put them on a cd and used the cd to lead worship. This was my first attempt at using BIAB to lead worship.

It went................ok.

I got distracted half way through the first song and got lost in it and ended it early. Everyone laughed it off with me, thankfully. The last two went much better. Worship wise it was difficult simply because I had never led worship using a cd before or using straight bluegrass. It felt a little bit awkward and it's hard to lead true worship when you feel self conscious.

Though one of my main goals is to incorporate modern lyrics into a bluegrass and country hybrid, I didn't use such lyrics this time because of logistics. We have our Bible study in the fellowship hall where we don't have a computer or projector. Therefore we use hymnals.

Despite the awkwardness mentioned above, I'm pretty happy with the way it went and plan on doing it again next Wednesday. I also hope to incorporate a BIAB generated song with modern lyrics into one of our Sunday morning worship sets in the near future.

I love this journey.

The Jeremiah Train

Tonight I uploaded a song I wrote about our son Jeremiah, called "The Jeremiah Train". You can listen to it in the Bluegrass Emitter to the right.

Jeremiah is not only the subject of the song, but the star. One of the prominent instruments, in addition to the standard bluegrass instruments that I usually use, is an actual recording of him yelling "CHU CHU!!!".For those of you who don't know, Jeremiah is three and a half years old. He isn't talking like he should. He has emotional problems. He has unusual trouble adapting to situations. We don't have a specific diagnosis yet. It could be part of the autism spectrum.

One thing we recently found out was that he has a duplicate chromosome 15, which is represented by passenger 15 in the song. This isn't a worship song per say. It is a song of faith and declaration that he will overcome the slow start he has experienced and will not only live a normal life, but an exceptional one. "This train was built for mountains".

We refuse to let him be put into a societal box that says he can't live a full and normal life because he has challenges. We expect excellence from him and intend to raise him that way.

We thank God that, since he entered preschool, we have seen tangible progress in his learning ability and demeanor. Once he reaches full speed, no one will be able to stop him.

I Can Only Imagine

After a few weeks of not uploading music, it feels good to get something done again. Once again I remind you I am not a professional singer or musician, so don't expect that.

The latest song is "I Can Only Imagine", which was made famous by Mercy Me. I chose a straight bluegrass style for this one. Check it out in the Bluegrass Emitter to the right.

This is a great song. Imagination is powerful.

Gonna post two or three songs this weekend...

This weekend my intention is to post a rendition of "I can only imagine" for my friend Devan.

I also expect to post a new song that I wrote this week that I am very proud of and that I think will be a very important song in my family. I feel very special about this one.

The instrument tracks are done for both of these, leaving the vocals to be recorded. I may try to do a third song as well.

Progress...

I think I got my microphone working again, so I hope to be recording vocals just as soon as I can get my kids to bed at a time when I'm not too tired to work on it. Don't really have an insulated studio. My studio is my living room.

My goal tonight is to make three sound tracks to lead worship with before our Bible study tomorrow night. This will be my first test of using this music in actual live worship.

The History of Bluegrass...

Bluegrass has a rich and fascinating history. As I attempt to incorporate this style into a hybrid form of worship music, it is ironic to find out that bluegrass itself is a hybrid form of music, having roots in the music of Scotland, Ireland, England, blues, and Jazz on instruments that have origins in Spain, Italy, and Africa.

http://www.ibma.org/about.bluegrass/history/index.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluegrass_music

Getting off the back burner

I haven't posted here in a while. Getting busy with other things. Not feeling well. Etc.

This project is still heavy on my heart. I have music that I will be working on soon. I have one that my friend Devon requested where the music is done, but I can't finish because my microphone quit working. I hope to resolve that soon so that I can get this thing rolling again. The one Dev requested is "I can only imagine". I really like the way it is shaping up. As soon as I can get vocals done I will post it here.