The Way That I Should Grow (God Is Great)

Isn’t that a spiffy title? (And by “spiffy” you know I mean looong?)

This is, I believe, the second song I wrote with words. (The recording I have of the first one with words is quite hilarious and I look forward to sharing that on a future ORW post. Cue anticipation…now.)

I got the initial idea for it out of nowhere just before I was about play piano for a Sunday evening worship service at the local Methodist church in my town. While washing and drying my hands in the wonderfully echoy Methodist restroom, I started singing the “God is great and God is good” line and thought it was worth flowing with it for a few minutes, and perhaps even be write-down-able. I sat down at a nearby piano in the choir room with pencil and paper, writing and plunking on the piano. Thirty or so minutes later, I emerged from the choir room and took my usual spot near the piano in the church sanctuary. It was about halfway through the service by this time (it was a pretty informal service) and I felt a little sheepish about having missed the first part. After a few minutes someone asked what I had been up to, to which I responded, “I think I just wrote a song.” The friendly folks asked to hear it, so I proceeded to play the chorus and first verse for them. That was quite fun! The second and third verse were added a few weeks later and I felt like the song was complete.

This version of TWTISG (GIG) was recorded in Nashville for LifeEast’s first original music CD, called re:fresh, and it ended up as track number seven out of nine. All of the songs on the album were written and performed by LifeEast students and myself over the course of an extended weekend in Nashville at two different studios, one for most of the instruments and the other for vocals and percussion. Dave Zaffiro was at the helm as our fearless producer. It was really cool to work with him because, A. He is a cool guy to work with; and B. He produced the first two Passion Band albums in the late ninety’s, of which I was / am a great fan. I learned a lot in the experience and am really grateful that I got to be a part of the re:fresh project, wearing many musical and directorial hats.

If I could change anything about this recording of the song, it would be to add in the great harmony vocals we had practiced but ran out of time to record, maybe re-do the keyboard solo, and probably sing the third verse the way I originally wrote it instead of with a handful of words omitted per the request of the executive producer, because it was too “wordy.” I definitely agree that the song is wordy. I mean, just reading the title should be a clue you’re in for an earful of lyrics! Oh well. Maybe I’ll re-record it someday. Until then, I still really like this recording of it and am happy to have it to share with you.

There’s some background about this song. I hope you enjoy it! Please post comments on Facebook or Twitter if you have ‘em. I’d love to know what you think about any of the Old Release Wednesday tunes I’m sharing.

Thanks for listening!

Hello world!

This is my first Old Release Wednesdays post. (It’s not actually a Wednesday, but I had to start somewhere!)

Outro Idea

The Song: “Outro Idea” recorded in my home on August 4, 2008

I think this lil’ number is appropriate to kick off the blog for several reasons:

1. It’s an unfinished song. I don’t know quite where it will end up, much like this blog.

2. It’s intended as the “outro” to a song, which is exactly the opposite of what this post is to my blog, an intro.

3. It’s short. (Don’t want anybody to nod off during my first post!)

4. It’s just me on the guitar (three times). I like overdubbing parts a lot and instrumental music is really where I got started. Singing first became a big part of my musical life in college so this is, in one way, a tribute to my musical beginnings.

So here it is, this first, lil’ musical slice from my life. I hope there’s many more to come! If you like, take a sec and write back what you think. I love good conversations about music.

Thanks for listening.

- Fritz