I'm sitting at the mixing console with my good friend Tim Brown at the reigns. We're working on the mix of my tune "Pilgrim Man" and I couldn't be more blown away. It is sounding so amazing -- I can't wait for you to hear it. My friend and producer extraordinaire, Chris Davis (Veggie Tales, Ruth McGuinness), created an amazing track. We got fellow Minnesotan Paul Eckberg (Eager) to throw some awesome drums on it, and Mike Payne (Matthew West) did killer guitar parts. Then we had a small soiree at my house, with members of Nashville Soul Choir over to sing the big chorus parts and the blessing at the end—they blew me away. Then Matt Huesmann let us use his studio to record my lead vocals. To top it all off, JR and Jonathan Davis (Winco Productions) caught the whole thing on HD video. I'm struck by a couple of things about this whole process:#1 - I'm blown away by the amazing talent of my friends, and their willingness to step up and help me, even when there doesn't appear to be anything for them to gain from it all. I hope I can repay them somehow. For now, love will have to do.
#2 - It's really incredible how much work goes into just one song. It seems like music is so disposable these days, doesn't it? So many songs fly by you on the radio every day, in the background in the restaurant bathroom, or over the speakers at Great Clips. It's easy to take music for granted. We like how certain songs make us feel, and if we want to feel that way again, we might possibly look up the song on iTunes, or turn it up the next time it comes on the radio. But most songs just go in one ear and out the other. So it's strange to put so much work into creating a song that will be so easily disposed, or possibly never even heard.In spite of this, I still believe that music can change a life. And if we hear a certain song at a certain moment, something magical or supernatural occurs. That's what I hope to be a part of-—creating a moment where the person who is just about to give up hope…doesn't. Or the person who feels completely alone…realizes they aren't. To be a part of that, to me, is perhaps the greatest honor I could attain.
That's why I wrote this particular song, "Pilgrim Man" - as you can tell by the lyrics of the chorus: “Don’t give up, though the road may be long and the journey hard. You are not alone, and God will carry you. Hold on, Pilgrim Man, you’re almost home.”
The possibility that somehow, somewhere, someone will be encouraged or inspired to take one more step on their own journey…allows me to keep pushing forward on mine.
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