As a way to introduce the new records, I am writing blog posts going song by song to give you some insight into the writing, recording, production and story of each of the songs. Here is the next installment.
Song By Song – A Picture Of Your Grace
In 2009, I had started leading worship at our church in Sarasota, Faith Baptist Church. Pastor Dave asked me if I would perform a song for our Easter Sunday service. I don’t remember the exact song, but I think it was by Keith Green. Not to knock Keith Green, but I remember getting the song to listen to it. I made it about 20 or 30 seconds into it and thought, “I can’t do this song.” At this point, I was scrambling! If I was going to tell Pastor Dave I wouldn’t do this song, I had to come up with a song to take its place.
Where I landed was a song by Jeremy Casella called “The Purchase”. I’ve never been good at picking out the music for a song by ear. Since I was in a crunch, I sent an email to Jeremy on a whim to ask him for the chords to the song. Not thinking much of it, I put a link to my meager website at the bottom of the email along with my phone number. Jeremy replied with a gracious email giving me the chords and a description of how he played the song on his record. He then dropped a line that he had checked out my music and wanted to talk about recording in Nashville. I still remember absolutely geeking out at work when he called and left me a voicemail. As far as I was concerned, I had been called by a celebrity.
Later that year, I traveled to Nashville and spent four days recording with Jeremy and Cason Cooley the four songs that would make up the Grace EP. Back then, I was still writing what I envisioned as full albums. I plucked those four songs from the full album concept because I thought they were the best I had going at the time. I was simultaneously working on another song within that album concept called “A Picture Of Your Grace”. This tune was coming at the end of the Grace period and was really being written during a time of transition when I had the feeling that my time in Florida was coming to an end parallel with the loss of my grandfather in 2010. The song endured and has now found its way onto the Home EP.
This is probably about as close to mainstream contemporary Christian music as I will get. Not taking anything away from the tune, but that’s my honest assessment of it. That being said, I tried to write something that was rich in theology while still sounding like a Christian pop/rock song. I hope I achieved that. The time period places it in line with 7-23-10. Mired in the study of the book of Romans, the lyrics certainly reflect my shift into reformed theology. No man has an excuse, and the way God makes Himself known while still remaining hidden were the main themes I wanted to explore in this song.
Like the first track on the Home EP, this song brings together Michael Anderson on keys, Michael Kinchen on organ and Kevin Beck on electric guitar. When I tracked the guitar and vocal and when we tracked the drums and bass with Larry and John, my idea was to do a fade out of this tune. So, we recorded a lot of instrumental space at the end to give us plenty of time to pick a good spot and fade it out. Then Michael Anderson laid down his keys track and completely upended that idea!!! When I heard his track, I knew we couldn’t fade out any of that. Every time I listen to this song now, it blows me away. He’s such an amazing player and composer – it was an honor to have him be a part of this project. Then to do that on this song was the icing on the cake!
Check back in a few days as I continue to go song by song with “Let’s Fall In Love Again”.
