Who’s Who? The Moment of Silence

Rachel has been singing for me since she was barely sixteen years old. I think that her voice is one of the purest, most beautiful sounds I know. There is something childlike about it, even while it sounds so mature. I played one of her songs for someone in the music industry over the summer, and he remarked about how beautiful her voice was. He called it a “story-telling voice.”

Rachel has such a great love of music, and is such a perfectionist, that I think she can barely listen to herself sing, because it is never quite right. But we have certainly had our moments. One of those happened four or five years ago, when the high school music director asked her to sing my song “Evening Lullaby” for the annual high school Holiday concert. I went that night to play for her, and we went out onto the stage and performed the song. It was simple. Just piano and voice. There was an amazing spirit in the auditorium. I felt it. It brought tears to my eyes as she finished the last little lullaby section of the song, but I wasn’t sure if anyone else felt it.

The last chord faded away, and I braced for the applause… but it didn’t come. There were over 300 people in the darkened room, but all there was, was this moment of pure, awed silence. Then suddenly, the place went wild. They clapped and clapped. They gave a standing ovation. We finally left the stage, and just looked at each other in surprise. But the audience would not settle down until we both went back out on the stage. I realized something that night… that most people go through their lives without feeling that spirit that we felt there that night.

A couple of years later the music director called me. He said that they had completed their new music auditorium and that they were having an inaugural concert. He wanted to know if Rachel might be able to come and sing again, because he said that night when she sang was pretty magical. He was right. It was.

Rachel took countless hours out of a completely hectic work and nursing school schedule to help out with this CD, and I could not be more grateful. There is this line in Bleak Midwinter, where she sings, “Yet what I can, I can give him… give my heart.” And that is exactly what she does when she sings. Thanks, Rachel. Love!

On Traveling Far

This has really been a journey. Many of the songs I am producing were written over the last ten years. My taste in music has changed... is constantly changing. I know more about song structure than I did, and I cringe a little when I look at some of the older songs. I have changed and updated many of them... but one of the challenges is, I care more about the accompaniment now. Many times when I was writing a song for the children or a soloist to sing, there was a deadline, and being the world-class procrastinator that I am, I would wait until the day it was due, before I would start to think about the song. I cared the most about the words, I think, and the accompaniment suffered. Now that I am recording the songs, in many cases the accompaniment is ruining my enjoyment of the song. I realized when I rewrote the accompaniment for The Gate, that I can breathe new life into the music, by coming up with a concept for the accompaniment that really speaks to me.

I record the vocalist while playing the old-style accompaniment. But then when I begin to work on the finished product, I simply throw that accompaniment in the trash and start new. I rewrote three accompaniment parts this week! This is one. I kept it very, very simple. In most of the cases, the new accompaniment is not fancier, but simpler... in line with my new tastes, perhaps? Maybe you liked it better the old way... I kept a little of that, in the middle. So many of my friends have listened to this song for the last five years, and there may be a rebellion when they hear what I have done. Just remember, we have traveled far...

Evening Lullaby

They traveled far along the dusty way
To reach Bethlehem by close of day.
Come Joseph, hasten down the winding road.
Bring your donkey with its precious load.

As they entered through the city gate
Shadows fell; the hour was growing late
Then in the purple of a falling night
Shown a brand-new star in glory bright.

Who will share a room, a loaf of bread?
Where will Mary lay her weary head?
A tiny manger in a stable bare
Will be the cradle for her baby fair.

Come, shepherds, watch and wonder at the sight.
Find the stable bathed in holy light.
Enter softly; see the babe foretold
By prophets far and near since days of old.

Baby Jesus, now it’s time to sleep.
Close your eyes; angels their watch will keep.
And when you wake the night will fade to gray
Then you will smile upon a brand-new day.