Story Unfolding, Track 7: Hope Fulfilled

This is the last of 7 daily posts about the songs on my first solo EP, Story Unfolding. It will be for sale on Bandcamp starting January 27, 2013. Before the official release, you can listen to samples on Reverb Nation.

When I was a kid, reading the book of Revelation was akin to reading Stephen King. Dragons, swords, fire, pestilence, death, destruction. My grandpa used to tell us that he had figured out who the beasts were, and that the antichrist was coming soon. Creepy, especially when I was 10 or 11. Then there's a line in Ghostbusters where Winston (incorrectly) quotes Revelation to explain why all the ghouls are showing up, and that stuck in my brain for a good long while. It's fair to say that my understanding of Revelation was, well, messed up. I wonder how many of us would be willing to admit the same.

These days, I can't read the last couple of passages in that last book of the Bible without getting choked up. Seriously. The picture John paints of God returning, reclaiming, recreating the world is so beautiful that my heart swells. It is a picture of hope...

We all have experienced tragedy and heartbreak. I have wept at funerals where the person celebrated left too soon. I have stood and stared in horror at the television in the wake of disaster. I have held my wife and cried over a child never born. I know many people who have had the same experiences...

"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

We all have yearned for renewal. Our culture of advertising is constantly telling us, "Here is the thing you need to make you new! Youthful! Stronger! Smarter! More beautiful! Happy!" We spend gobs of money on the promise of something better, as if our souls know that renewal is there, and we're desperately trying to find it...

"I am making everything new!"

We all have been through dark days of the soul, where it feels like no light can be found and there is nothing good around us. I have doubted and mistrusted friends. I have spent days and sometimes weeks wondering if my faith is in vain. I have looked away from the ugliness of mankind in light of child prostitution, slavery, injustice. I have felt the oppression of the darkness...

"I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp."

So often, people see passages like the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25) or the slaves waiting for their master's return (Luke 12) as a warning. What's the phrase? "Get right or get left"?

Sheesh.

I see these passages as a promise: He is coming. He will bring provision for the meek, comfort for the weary, rest for those who wrestle, rescue for the prisoner, answers for the seeker, water for the thirsty, mercy for the broken. It is the fulfillment of the hope we hold.

May our hope lead to joy, and may it keep us going until we see Him face to face.

"Behold, I am coming soon!"

Story Unfolding, Track 6: Skipping Like a Stone

This is the sixth of 7 daily posts about the songs on my first solo EP, Story Unfolding. It will be for sale on Bandcamp starting January 27, 2013. Before the official release, you can listen to samples on Reverb Nation.

Two years ago I traveled to India. It was my first overseas experience. Ever. And it was a good one. I was part of a team from my church, and while there we worked with missionaries in northern India, staying in a large town but going out into surrounding smaller towns during the day to share our testimony with people we met. It is recent enough that I can still recall many things from the trip vividly, including the smells of the city, auto-rickshaws and loud car horns, spicy biryani and interesting street vendor foods, and laughter and music and prayer with the local missionaries.

Being a stranger in a strange land is a little unsettling. It was hard not knowing the language, and our pre-trip training was filled with the sort of information that points out the worst situations, most of which never occur: watch out for pickpockets; beggars are usually working for someone else; if asked where you're from, don't lie but don't tell them your life story or where you're staying; etc. So you arrive on edge, anxious, worried that everyone is out to get you. 

It's not true. I met the most wonderful and warm and friendly people, both in the villages and in the city. One of our party did lose his wallet, I guess, which might have been stolen from him in a busy marketplace. But overall the people I encountered were hospitable and kind, and more interested in helping a stranger than taking advantage of one.

We stayed at a hotel in the city. The first time we arrived, I was startled to see a tall bearded man in a dark blue turban standing by the doorway, with a short-barreled shotgun. He had the kind of face that makes you suddenly feel the urge to stare at your shoelaces. A deep scowl, and dark eyes. I soon learned that he was a Sikh, and he was security for the hotel. Which somehow didn't make me feel that secure. Again: stranger in a strange land. Anxiety that was unfounded, but came with the experience.

Every single time I went in or out of the hotel, there he was. Guarding. Pacing. Staring at passersby. Making me feel nervous. Until one day...

Several of us were coming back to the hotel at the same time, and as we walked in, there he sat at his post. Someone in our group -- maybe me, but maybe not -- made eye contact with him and smiled. It was a simple thing, and a custom of our country, if not of his.

And he smiled back at us. It was like seeing an magician pull a rabbit out of a hat. The hard lines of a scowl and glaring eyes were replaced with rows of white teeth and crows' feet wrinkles. He could have been a different person, such was the change of his countenance. It was amazing, and warming, and transforming.

We eventually got a picture with him. He turned out to be an incredibly friendly guy.

All that to say, we often misjudge people we come across. We can't help it, and I'm not writing this to make us feel guilty. We just all come from different experiences, different levels of understanding or ignorance. Hopefully we recognize our own biases and can at least consciously work against them.

For example, I had a moment a while back when I was reading from the book of James in the Bible, and it occurred to me that I had conjured a character in my head that was a personification of James. His voice was solemn, and he sat hunched over some sort of table, writing the letter, painstakingly committing each word to parchment to carry his message to others. His eyes had bags under them, and he had a beard that came to a point at his chin, and a mustache. He wore a kind of robe. He looked tired, and serious, and old.

Then it occurred to me: where does this character come from? Why do I picture an old man whose life is draining away in a room somewhere? Why, when I read this short letter, do I think of someone so serious and silent?

What if James wasn't like that at all?

What if James splashed in mud puddles, and smiled at children? What if he'd just as soon skip a flat stone across a pond as write a letter? What if he lived a life of joy and laughter, because he understood how it's all connected, and how God is at the center of it all?

What if his opening line, "Consider it pure joy," was really the condition and attitude of his heart?

That's what "Skipping Like a Stone" is about. I wrote this song on the idea that James might have been the friendliest, warmest guy you'd ever know. A defender of the faith with strong words of correction, but also a man of laughter, friendship and encouragement.

When I read James now, the character in my head can't be found in the dark room at the table.

He must be out taking a stroll on the beach.

Story Unfolding, Track 5: Where Will You Go

This is the fifth of 7 daily posts about the songs on my first solo EP, Story Unfolding. It will be for sale on Bandcamp starting January 27, 2013. Before the official release, you can listen to samples on Reverb Nation.

One bit of advice I heard from a more experienced songwriter a few years back is: it's okay to borrow. He played a guitar riff of his that he knows is very similar to one in a Bruce Springsteen song. But that riff is very much like a riff in a song recorded 10 years earlier by another artist. Artists borrow all the time.

Sometimes in the process, I realize that I've done this, too. As I sing/play/write a song, I'll sometimes realize that the hook I thought was so catchy and original, is actually based on something I've had in my music library for years. And that's okay. I don't want to totally rip-off someone else's song, of course. I've thrown out a song or two over the years because I realized it would always sound like that other song. But when another artist's work is inspired, and when it is inspirational to you, it moves your own art in new directions. Such is the case for "Where Will You Go."

The song started out as a finger-picked guitar melody in A-minor, but capoed on the 2nd fret to put it in B-minor. It was pretty and delicate, and the minor key made it mysterious and spooky. I recorded it on my computer (GarageBand is great as a digital musical idea scrapbook) and let it stew for a while. 

I came back to it. Played it some more. Got better at playing it. Hummed a few vocal melodies along with it. Started imagining that the song would be a great duet for a baritone and an alto.

"Wait a minute. Hold up. What does this sound like?"

I turned the guitar melody over a few times in my head. Then I went to my iTunes library. Looked for songs with captivating male and female harmony, great acoustic guitar melodies, and spooky minor keys.

"Uh-oh. There it is. If the song were in 4/4 instead of 3/4, this would sound a lot like '20 Years' by The Civil Wars."

I love The Civil Wars. Which is why, when I wrote the little guitar melody, I liked it a lot. The inspiration for the song came from another song. And that became the inspiration for writing the rest of it, too.

I changed the guitar picking a bit, I left it in 3/4, and I kept going on it. I wrote some lyrics based on Jesus healing the leper in Matthew 8. I came up with a different chord progression and vocal melodies. I played it for Daniel Christian, played it for my brother, played it at an open mic. At this point the song had taken a life of its own. I asked Crystal Davy to sing on it, because I couldn't get the male and female harmonies out of my head. We recorded it, added a big bass drum, shakers, vibraphone, a Nashville-strung guitar, and sent it off to Eric Medley for mixing. Got a message back from him a few days later:

"I'd like to add a bass instrument and perhaps a little snare drum just in the short big section prior to the last breakdown. I think it would take it a little more in a Civil Wars/Decemberists direction."

Good call. I hope the end result reflects the inspiration, but is at the same time unique and original.

Story Unfolding, Track 4: Running Back to You

This is the fourth of 7 daily posts about the songs on my first solo EP, Story Unfolding. It will be for sale on Bandcamp starting January 27, 2013. Before the official release, you can listen to samples on Reverb Nation.


"Running Back to You" is a song that underwent a complete overhaul in the process of recording Story Unfolding. It sounds so far from where it started, and it's been a reminder to me that art is a process, and in some ways it is a process that is never finished.

I wrote "Running Bak to You" based on the parable of the Prodigal Son, and based on my own struggles with pride and selfishness and independence at the cost of relationship. I hope the lyrics come through pretty clear on that.

The fun thing about this song is that it started as a 4/4 driving beat. Think "Hurricane" by David Wilcox, or "All I Want Is You" by U2. It was very straightforward and driving. I loved the bridge section, which had this ascending 4-note melody that repeated and built the tension, along with some chromatic bass movements, finally releasing at the end to go back to the chorus.

I recorded a live version at my brother's birthday party one year, when he had a concert in his apartment. I posted that version online (it might be out there still, somewhere). One day I got an email from a friend, Adam Ross, with an attached mp3. He had added his own electric guitar lines to the song, heavy with delay and reverb and overdrive. It was really cool, actually, and sounded a lot more like U2.

And that's how the song stayed in my mind for a long time. Fortunately, time has a way of giving new perspective, and one day about a year ago, listening to David Ramirez, I started to think "Running Back to You" could sound a lot different. A lot better. I felt like I could rewrite the music to better fit the mood and message of the song. So I started.

It was hard, especially at first. I had to record a version of it -- a really rough version -- to dislodge the original version from my head. I switched from a driving 4/4 to a slow shuffle. I rewrote melody lines to fit the new time signature. I added space. I subtracted other space. I had to demolish the bridge section that I loved, and then rebuild it.

When I brought it to Mark for recording, I gave him both versions: the original and the more bluesy version. It was an easy decision, in his mind. The newer, bluesy version left more space for instrumentation, creativity from the musicians, and emotion. And I think he's right.

One other tidbit about this song that is both a point of pride and humility. I wrote the guitar solo during the bridge. I'm still learning the finer points of playing electric, and I wanted to try my hand at a solo on my own song. So I wrote it, rehearsed it, and Mark recorded it, and I listened. And it sucked. I was so proud that I had written an 8-bar solo that I thought fit perfectly into the song. But I couldn't play it. 

So I called Joe Kirby, and he learned it, came into the studio, and laid it down in about 3 takes. And it was awesome. It'll be several years before I can play it that well, I'm afraid. Humility. 

In the end, Joe's solo is one of my favorite parts of the song. The dude exudes groove.

Story Unfolding, Track 3: Psalm 134

This is the third of 7 daily posts about the songs on my first solo EP, Story Unfolding. It will be for sale on Bandcamp starting January 27, 2013. Before the official release, you can listen to samples on Reverb Nation.


"Psalm 134" is a full-circle moment for me.

Around 9 years ago I was living in Norfolk, NE. I was getting used to the schedule and life of full-time music ministry. I was trying to write some songs, too. Some of them I sang in church. Some never left my basement.

One of the albums that was getting a lot of time in my car CD player was Flatland Figurines by Matt Banta. You might remember Banta, an Omaha native, as the frontman for Blue Moon Ghetto, who had a great local following in the early 90s. When the band broke up, Matt continued to write and recorded a couple of solo CDs. Flatland Figurines was his second. Incidentally, it was recorded by Mark Hansen (who recorded my CD), and mixed by Eric Medley (who mixed my CD). More on that in a bit.

Anyway, it's a great album. It highlights Matt's incredible voice, and ventures into a more country-rock sound. There are a few songs where it's mostly acoustic guitar picking and Matt's voice, with layers of backing harmonies that blend and dance and soar behind. Really beautiful stuff, and it started to affect the way I wrote songs at that time. 

One day, I turned on the mics and started picking a simple progression. I tracked a djembe part, some shakers, and then the guitar parts. Then I needed some lyrics. I had recently read Psalm 134, a short but eloquent call to the servants of God's temple to continue their praise. I worked out the melody and recorded it, then tried my voice on some harmonies that emulated what I was hearing on Banta's Flatland Figurines, particularly tracks like "Ballad of the Desert" and "Alleluia." I might have even sent Mark an mp3 of the finished track to get his thoughts on it.

Fast forward to earlier this year, when I was going through the tracks I'd like to include on the album. I started thinking about "Psalm 134," and told Mark how I had modeled it after the vocal harmony-laden album that he and Eric had produced for Banta. Mark's reply was that Eric was behind a lot of the gorgeous harmony I mentioned.

Eric would be mixing my album. And Mark guessed Eric would be happy to try the same type of harmonies on my recording.

And he was right. Eric's voice appears a lot on Story Unfolding, in large part because I gave him permission to try whatever he'd like, and because he's got a great ear for melodies and harmonies. "Psalm 134" is a perfect example. Eric harmonized with the melody with skill, and he wrote echoes that fit perfectly in the song. And I could not be happier with the result.

So the song that I modelled after Eric Medley harmonies, now features Eric Medley harmonies. 

Wow.

How's that for coming full circle?

Story Unfolding, Track 2: Old Enough to Know

This is the second of 7 daily posts about the songs on my first solo EP, Story Unfolding. It will be for sale on Bandcamp starting January 27, 2013. Before the official release, you can listen to samples on Reverb Nation.



One of my favorite books of the Bible is Ecclesiastes. I'm fascinated by the teacher, who tries everything under the sun to find fulfillment and happiness: money, work, knowledge, pleasure, women. He goes to such lengths to find purpose, and yet it all leaves him empty. There's this beautiful passage right in the middle where it seems like he just stops. It's a hard cut to another scene. Suddenly he's standing in the house of God:

"Do not be quick with your mouth, 
   do not be hasty in your heart 
   to utter anything before God. 
God is in heaven 
   and you are on earth, 
   so let your words be few. 
As a dream comes when there are many cares, 
so the speech of a fool when there are many words. 
... 
Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God."

Ever feel like your life is just rambling? I do. There are times when each week feels like a skipping record, replaying the same 7 days over and over. Other times I'm not sure what  I should be doing with myself, or where I want to end up 5 or 10 or 20 years down the road.

And here's a guy who tried it all and suddenly runs into this epiphanic stop sign. As if God himself is pointing out what a fool he is being. All these words: useless. All the teacher's talk: silly dreams. All he really needs to do is stand in awe of God. Quit looking at everything under the sun, and just look to God!

I wrote the words to "Old Enough to Know" about 5 years ago. And it started with my own little rambling road. I still have a document on my computer that starts like this (I'm not even kidding):

"I don't know what to write for this song. 

"Is it about growing up? Is it about going into the world? Is it about serving the world? Is it about justice? Is it about peace? Is it about war? What's on my mind? 

"I'm tired. I want to get this song written, because it's been in my head and under my fingers since February or so. Plus, I think it'll round out a nice set of songs that I might be able to call an album."

I won't bore you with the whole thing, but it ends with this sentence:

"Write! God, what do You want this song to be about? What do you hear?"

And then I started typing the lyrics. About Ecclesiastes, and the ramblings of someone searching for meaning who is at the end of everything he could try, which eventually brings him back to God. I took a lot of phrases and ideas right out of Ecclesiastes.

A couple years ago I was at a songwriter's workshop led by Andrew Osenga. (There was a chance for each of us to play a song we had written and have it critiqued by the rest of the group, and I played this one. Andrew suggested I change up the melody in the verses a bit. It was too repetitive, and he suggested a theme and variation approach. Following that I toyed with changing the first line of the chorus and a few other phrases, and eventually landed where it is now. A few minor tweaks, but still very close to the original version that I wrote 5 years ago.

So a long rambling search for meaning leads to a long rambling songwriting process, which in turn leads to this long and rambling blog.

I believe the road home can sometimes be long and rambling. And when we get back there, He's still happy to see us.

Story Unfolding, Track 1: Author

This is the first of 7 daily posts about the songs on my first solo EP, Story Unfolding. It will be for sale on Bandcamp starting January 27, 2013. Before the official release, you can listen to samples on Reverb Nation.


I am the King of the Land of Self-Imposed Pressure. Case in point: a few years ago my brother Ben and I put together a house show for an artist we love and respect named Eric Peters. I volunteered to open, and another local artist and friend, Mark Thornton, also played some opening tunes. The question that always accompanies such tasks is: what songs should I play?

I'm a slow songwriter. I wish I were better disciplined at writing songs. I picture most songwriters getting up in the morning, pouring a cup of coffee, sitting down with a notepad and favorite pen in a sunlit room, guitar in hand, and spending 2-3 hours trying different melody lines, jotting down chord structures, smiling as the words flow from head to mouth to pen to page. Probably an unrealistic picture. Definitely not how it plays out for me.

So there I was, the day of the show. I arrived at Ben's house early to help set up. Then I retreated to his attic room, because I didn't have a single new song to play, and I was feeling pressure to have something new to offer.

I wrote the verses and chorus sections to "Author" sitting cross-legged on the floor, in a stuffy room, on a yellow pad with a favorite pen. The words came in spurts, and I struggled to fit them into a melody I had in my head, which was actually the hook from a song I had in rotation on my mp3 player. In the end, the words took over and I adjusted the melody. I had no pre-chorus section but knew it needed one, so I just played some 3-chord progression with no singing to get to the chorus. And no bridge. This song was bare bones, and that's how I played it for Ben, Mark, Eric, Andrew Peterson (surprise guest) and a couple dozen guests. I had several positive comments on the song, so I tucked it in my pocket as a keeper.

Earlier this year I pulled out the song and began working on the missing pieces. I came up with a pre-chorus and bridge that moved well between the other sections. I moved around verses, tried a few different turnarounds to get out of the pre-chorus, tweaked, practiced, changed. Daniel Christian came over one night and we exchanged notes and critiqued each other's songs. He advised a lyric change that fit perfect with the theme of the song: "Your blood is the ink, your life death is the pen." I can't hear the song another way.

Writing is hard work. Writing a 4-minute diddy spanned a couple years, and took a lot of effort and advice from others. The theme of this song, though, is that the Author of it all is writing my story, or has written my story (a nod to my Arminian and Calvinist brothers and sisters). And I take it for granted. I forget about the story going on in and around me, until a plot twist finds me crying out to the Author, or crying out at Him.

In those moments, I hear the Author reminding me of the end of the story. It's written. It is finished. When I'm lost and weary, when there seems no way to go forward, the Author comes near and reminds me of the bigger story. 

His story. 

His glory. 

His love for me. For all of us.

Story Unfolding, releasing January 27

One of the first things I was drawn to in my MWS coursework was the revelation that the Bible is a great and complete narrative. It tells God's Story from Creation, to the Fall, to Israel, to Christ, to the Church, to New Creation. It's an all-encompassing story that never ceases to amaze me. His Story has informed and molded my worldview, and it is the reason for the story I live out day by day, which is a sentence (maybe) within a paragraph, within a chapter, within a volume, within the epic Story that stretches beyond time. Heck, a sentence gives me too much. My story is like a punctuation mark. Hopefully an exclamation mark.

Living in awe of the Story has led me to desire to tell part of it. Over the past few years, most of my songs have revolved around this idea. Which is why I'm releasing Story Unfolding, a 7-song EP that will be available on January 27.

Take a look at the artwork for Story Unfolding.

The smaller story, the story of this album, started in the spring of 2012. Mark Hansen had been encouraging me to do a recording for a while, and I finally committed to a start day a few months away, in August. It's amazing what a deadline will do. Suddenly I was creating scratch tracks, rewriting lead sheets and rewriting songs and lyrics. 

The start of the recording process was a pretty full Friday and Saturday of tracking drums, guitars, and a couple vocal tracks. From there, almost every Monday and Thursday night I'd help put the kids to bed, then show up at Mark's studio around 9 and record for 60-90 minutes. Mark would add guitar and keyboard parts to the songs as he had time, and slowly each song began to take on a life and style of its own.

Tracks and stems were then sent to Eric Medley in South Carolina. Eric mixed them down, advised on changes or additions, and added his own parts. Eric also mastered the tracks.

Some songs were finished quickly. Some went through changes and tweaks. One song was nearly finished when we decided to go a different direction and had to throw out some hours of work. The process has been sometimes fun, sometimes grueling, sometimes tedious, but always worthwhile. As with most good things, it took time and work.

I'm so proud of the results. I've poured much time, energy and resources into this, and I feel it's a worthy effort.

I'll have CDs on sale for $10 at the CD Release Concert on January 27 (also featuring Daniel Christian releasing his full-length album Speak), and I've also put up a BandCamp page where the tracks will be available for download for $7 on January 27. But limited budget means I didn't have a chance to print any liner notes. Starting tomorrow, I'll post some notes on each of the songs here on my blog.

Stay tuned.