Yesterday, Friday December 6th 2019, we released the first single off of the Ep. I thought it would be a good idea to share a little about the back story of the album. There were SOOOO many amazing things that happened in that two day trip to Nashville last June…more than I can share in one post. But I will be telling those stories as we release more of the music. For now, I want to tell you a little about the players that made the album sound so great.
Brandon Bailey and I were going through a long list of producers to see who might be a good fit to help us with the production of the album. We were sitting in the office and chatting about the possibilities when Brandon paused and looked up at me and said, “Dude, I know who needs to produce this.” He picked up his phone, hit a contact and in a few seconds he was talking to Billy Chapin. Billy has a rich history in the music industry. He was the guitarist for Backstreet Boys. He’s written and produced tons of great hits in both the secular and Christian music world. You can go to his AllMusic page for the list. Billy was reluctant at first because of the sheer volume of work he was already involved in but he agreed to listen to the demos. A few days later, he said he loved the music and would be happy to be involved. He and Brandon began making calls to Nashville and they pulled in SOME of the best musicians (not an exaggeration). Here are the musicians on the album. Every one of them have a long list of outstanding albums they’ve worked on. Some with which you are likely to be familiar.
Drums: Miles McPherson
Bass: Tim Marks
Electric Guitar: Justin Ostrander
Pedal Steel: Russ Pahl
Keys: Dave Cohen
Choir Arrangement: Robert Bailey
String Arrangment: Jordan Lehning
In a few weeks we were on a flight to Nashville to record in Studio A at the Sound Emporium. Filmmaker, Matt Skow, came along as well and filmed the whole session. The footage is amazing and will be released along with the albums.
We intended to record a minimum of two songs; Every Era and The Dawning Fire. As a back up, we had 3 other songs waiting in the wings just in case we had extra time. At the end of the weekend, we recorded all 5—four with the full band and one acoustic song “Reign Forevermore”. Later, that song had a full band treatment as well…but that is a story for a future post that will blow your mind!
This album is more than I could have hoped for. The sound, style, feel, vibe (whatever you want to call it) is off the beaten path of what is known today as “Christian music”. There was a time, in the not too distant past, when Christian music set the standard for excellence. Today, it seems that we as Christ followers, in an attempt to be “relevant” often mimic what the secular industry is doing. We serve the God of all creativity. Our art should reflect that while still holding to sound doctrine. I am confident that we did just that and I’m so excited to share it with you.
