I work as a staff songwriter for a music publishing company. That means I’m required by contract to write a huge pile of songs every year. That also means that some of them (okay a lot of them) will never see the light of day. Every few years a handful of these songs force their way into the sunlight on one of the recordings I sell from the back of a U-haul trailer as my band travels the rural byways and major highways that argyle our country.
It’s time for another of these lyrical adventures. We’re using KICKSTARTER to include you in the process
If you’re new to Kickstarter, here’s how it works. Friends and family members join us in funding the record by making pledges toward our budget goal of $4500. In exchange for your financial support you can sign up for a wide variety of premiums and packages. Check out the the project by clicking on the widget to the left.
David Myers and I have been playing this song as an acoustic and mandolin duet all year and I thought it would be fun to put this new HD camera to the test and record it this way. Sorry for the PJ’s but it was a chill, rainy day in Nashville and I was enjoying some rest. A perfect song for a day like this.
Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace and it means something richer, something deeper than peaceful circumstances. Shalom means “nothing missing, nothing broken.” It is a peace that is not dependent on your circumstances. Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 6:33). And later he said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).
The song was co-written last year with Stu Garrard.
Merry Christmas everyone. This month has been a blur running around with Josh Wilson and Wes Pickering bringing a little Christmas joy to Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Home at last, I want to give a Christmas gift to all of you who have prayed so consistently for me…who have checked in on me here and sent encouraging notes along the way. You’ve driven hours to come see us and sing along with us. 2010 has been a tough but fruitful year full of singing, writing, teaching and driving…endless driving.
We released an EP of worship songs at the end of June called “Open Hands.” You have bought more copies of these few songs than anything I’ve released to date. We recorded one song that didn’t make it to the record and I want to share it with you now.
“You Alone Can Save” was written in January of this year in a hotel in Mumbai, India. Seth Condrey, Matt Papa and I were in a room together worshipping long after it was appropriate to be singing in a hotel room. Our neighbor finally knocked on the wall at 1AM and we quieted down. This is a song for the morning, lyrics meant to ride the back of the dawn. You can click HERE to download the song (along with a chord chart and a bonus remix of Open Hands) or click on the cover art for the EP at the beginning of this post.
This month I’m out with Josh Wilson and Wes Pickering on a Christmas tour through MO, AR, OK and TX all month. It’s been a surreal experience. I spend all year driving around the Southeast with a truck load of guys and a trailer dragging behind us. This time however, it’s a new set of guys and I’m really just along as a supportive friend. I LOVE to serve but I am also realizing how much I crave attention. It’s my cocaine, equally destructive, equally addictive. I am learning to serve and be invisible. It has been a humiliating discovery. Vanity is NOT a coat I am proud to wear.
The best part of this role is the remarkable talent of the two guys I’m traveling with. This Christmas show is stunning and I geek out a little every night that I’m friends with these guys.
Christmas bonus: I found a new widget to goof on. It let’s you stream full length songs from my last four records. If there’s a song missing here that you would love access to, send me a comment HERE and I’ll try and make it happen. Merry Happy Jingle HoHo.
“Our Shalom” was born in the busy summer of 2009. Summer is always crazy for us with 8 weeks of camps stacked back to back. We usually have a day or 2 in between each camp to drive to Nashville and do laundry and rush to the next group. This particular weekend we were staying at the same location in North Carolina for 2 weeks back to back. Conor Farley at Centricity emailed and said he had scheduled a writing appointment in Nashville that Saturday afternoon with Stu Garrard (Stu G).
I’ve been a fan of Christian music for long before I was ever a writer and have watched Stu G’s work as guitar player for the band Delirious for years. I drove the 5 hours to Nashville, had 2 hours to write with Stu and drove 5 hours back to North Carolina. Needless to say, that experience in the middle of what is already an intense summer schedule left me scattered and ill prepared for creative output.
When Stu and I got together on couches in the Centricity offices we started by passing some ideas back and forth. I was desperately scanning my writing journal for song ideas and found some notes I had scribbled down while listening to drummer/producer Paul Mabury speak at a writer’s retreat earlier in the Spring. In a vain attempt to convince us to quit trying so hard to impress the world with our talent, Paul had given us a rabbinical definition of the Hebrew idea of peace, shalom: nothing missing, nothing broken. I was struck by the simple symmetry of the idea, perfect peace, nothing missing, nothing broken.
The idea seemed to resonate with Stu and as he began to lazily strum the acoustic in his hands these words melted over me. What I needed most in those frantic days was BIGGER than peaceful circumstances. I needed, we need, an eternal peace that is evidenced by wholeness, not threatened by chaos, and always resulting in unhindered praise of the One who is our Perfect Peace, Our Shalom.
