🌅 Sneak peek at the music for Good Night, God
Supported by incredible musicians
Last Saturday we gathered 8 musicians with the hope and prayer to set Good Night, God to music. So I picked up a carafe of El Porton coffee and some mixed fruit and somehow convinced my friends to spend their day setting my book project to music. I got there early, and as each musician pulled up to David’s house I kept feeling a sense of gratitude that each one was bringing their unique artistic talent that I’ve admired for years to collaborate on this album.
You may remember that I wrote the music for The King is Coming over several months of reading and singing the book with my kids. David Belt was a core collaborator and brought so much to the project, so we decided to open up the Good Night, God music project to some of our musician friends through All Saints Dallas and Art House Dallas.
Paul Demer, seasoned singer/songwriter who I’ve admired since college and also the producer for this album
Graham Jones, a church music director and excellent songwriter and friend
Cole & Lindsey Novak, new friends of mine and melodic geniuses
David Belt, joy-filled music director at All Saints
Anna Cutchen, multi-talented vocalist and creative with Art House Dallas
Rachel Bundy, a career violinist and harmonic sage
And we’d be remiss to not also acknowledge Brady, Lauren, and the extended family who wrangled kids for 5 hours while we put in this work. Thank you!! 🙏
Writing 10 songs in 5 hours
We started by reviewing the book and words as a group, identifying any musical themes or motifs we wanted to lean into. I had a simple riff on ukelele that ended up threading some of the tracks together. The group chewed on the book page by page to understand the intent and context of each part.
From there, we split up into two groups of four, starting with some of the more obviously “lyrical” bits of the book, and giving ourselves 30 minute blocks to collaborate and produce 10 short, memorable songs.
Have you ever found yourself among people you admire, leaning into their strengths for a single purpose? All I can say is there was chemistry. Between the two groups, we recorded demos for the entire album within 5 hours and an extended Chipotle lunch. Truly remarkable!
Aside from providing feedback, we did work as a large group for two songs: How did you feel today? and Good night, God and the creativity only compounded. I’m so excited to bring this all together in the studio at the end of the month.
Prayer
Gratitude for such a successful collaborative session last weekend!
For continued clarity of finance, process, and supply chain in getting this project across the finish line.
For the right relationships to come about to get these resources where they need to be.
Deeply encouraged,