November 6, 2006

It's finished! This afternoon we wrapped up our recording session. It is hard to believe that four days could go by so quickly. Gary Miller and Nick Gaultney (also of Vocal Union) arrived this past Thursday morning. They brought a trailer filled with sound equipment and set up five sound booths in my mother's home here in Abilene, Texas. It was so exciting to watch the "studio" being built!

On Friday morning, the four of us in Cornerstone gathered with Nick and Gary to pray and ask God's blessing on us during the recording. We prayed that we could put all distractions aside and focus on His message. We prayed for His use of our gifts. We prayed that we could be unified in His Spirit for His purpose. And we thanked Him for the opportunity to serve Him in a way that we love!

That day, we were able to record three songs. By the end of the day, each of us remembered why we loved recording so much. It is an incredible joy to be together all day, doing what we love! It was a blast to listen to each song in a new way and try to think of new things to add to them to give the words the most impact. We all went home that evening in high spirits.

On each of the next three mornings, we met and began with a prayer. We spent all day singing: trying new things, making our voices blend, working to make each song shine with His light. We actually got ahead of schedule, so we were able to take our time and enjoy the whole process. It gave us the chance to be as creative as we wanted to.

One of our songs, "Rejoice," was a pleasant surprise. I just wrote it this summer, and it is complex with different parts flowing over each other. We had rehearsed it quite a bit in the last several months, but it was difficult. We were each a bit nervous about recording it, feeling that it would take us four or five hours to iron out. At about noon on Saturday, we decided we couldn't put it off any longer. We thought we might work on it for an hour or so and then take a lunch break, thinking we'd need to give our minds a rest in the middle of a potentially intense project.

We manned our sound booths, and we gave it our best. Incredibly, the first take went beautifully! After only a couple quick fixes from that first take, the song was completed. We looked at our watches - it was 1:05 p.m. We had a beautiful song in just one hour!

Another great memory was the time Gary recorded Tim clowning around on the mic, quoting Tim Conway from the Carol Burnett Show. Gary warned us, "You know, I save things like that." We had a laugh, and then went ahead with our singing. About halfway through "Rise and Walk," we hear the recording of Tim saying, "How's about it, Mr. Ted-ah Ball-ah?" in our headphones. We all laughed! We tried to keep going, but Don was laughing so hard we had to quit singing. Gary CLAIMS it was an accident... but I guess we'll never know.

It was exciting to realize how much we have grown as a group since the last time we recorded. We were much better prepared this time, and were therefore able to complete each song more quickly. Our blend is better. We know each other better. We have more experience. And we hope this will allow God to use us in new ways.

Something I had never experienced before is recording songs that I have written myself. It was amazing to hear something come to life that came from my head and my heart!

One thing we can say for sure is that we ate really well this weekend. It was hard to resist chicken and dumplins, donuts, Oreos, sopa lima, and Molten Chocolate Cake from Chili's. In fact, I think I gained another pound just from writing about it. Yummm!

All in all, it was an incredibly exciting weekend. It was a joy to sing all day, every day, for four whole days; to fellowship with each other in song! It went by far too quickly. But I can say for sure that we are very pleased with how the recordings turned out. Prayerful ballads, blues, doo-wop, contemporary, classical, and spirituals all blend together into an exciting way for people to hear God's words. We hope and pray that God will take Everywhere and use it to His glory.

Pictures from the session coming soon!