Tuesday, July 12, 2011

'Running' Lyrics

Well, I've spend the better part of 3 days with headphones on and I'm down to one song to finish.  At least until, I get some other ears to listen to the mix masters.  I'm going to try to finish the last song tomorrow and get several different people to listen so I can make corrections, but till then here are today's lyrics.



RUNNING
BY
McEWEN/WILLSON

Sometimes it’s hard to even, get out of bed
With all the problems rolling around in my head.

CHORUS
I’m running, running back to You.
It’s the only thing I want to do.
I’m running, running back to you.
My belief in Christ will get me through.

Letting go seems to be the hardest
With work, church, family life is tough.

CHORUS      

Bridge:
I need Christ, the world need Christ, we all need Christ (x3)
Christ is Lord.

Solo

Please help me Jesus go another day
To be the example You have set.
Let me have love for my fellow man.
Show me that You’re not done with me yet.

CHORUS
BRIDGE

Monday, July 11, 2011

'All The World Is Guilty' Lyrics

'All the World is Guilty' was our first song and now that the temp is down, I got some mixing done.  Next lyrics will be of 'Running'..
If all goes well, the mixing will be done by the end of the month and the CD released by the beginning of August.



ALL THE WORLD IS GUILTY
BY
McEWEN/WILLSON
There is none righteous
None who understands
None who seeks from God
All have turned aside

CHORUS:
All the world is guilty
Will you be justified?
All the world is guilty.
That’s why Christ had died.

There is none who does good
Not even one
Throat is an open grave
They just lie.

CHORUS

BRIDGE:
All have sinned and fallen short from the grace of God.
We’re justified by the gift of grace through His cleansing blood.

SOLO
BRIDGE

Poison of snakes on their lips
Mouth full of bitterness
Path of peace they do not know
They have no fear of God.

CHORUS

Sunday, July 10, 2011

The Ride

I took a few days off as our AC went down and the music room was too hot with equipment running.  This actually gave me time away from the songs, so when I came back to work on them, I heard some things that needed changing.  The next song finished is 'The Ride'.  Here are the lyrics, enjoy.



THE RIDE
by
McEWEN/WILLSON

God we need you now, like we never did before.
Too many times we go around constantly closing the door.
We have our hurts and hang ups, that much is true
And what we do with them is all up to you.

We don’t have to drag God along for the ride.
He is always right there, to be by our side.

If you have no place to run, remember He is “The Man”
Doing things we think are for him
Instead have Him lead you by, lead you by the hand.

You don’t have to live a life of total ugly despair.
Just call on His holy name, and He’ll  be there.
Look up for your redemption is near.
Open up to His salvation, it’s all quite clear.

We don’t have to drag God along for the ride.
He is always right there, to be by our side.

If you have no place to run, remember He is “The Man”
Doing things we think are for him
Instead have Him lead you by, lead you by the hand.

Repeat

Solo

We don’t have to drag God along for the ride.
He is always right there, to be by our side.


Thursday, June 30, 2011

Noah - Cover song license basics.

I looked into a mechanical license for 'Noah Found Grace In The Eyes Of The Lord'.  The minimum license is for 25 songs and some are more expensive than others.  This song is about $0.25 per song to sell.  For those who aren't aware, from a $0.99 download from iTunes the artist gets about $0.67.  So at $0.25 per song, an artist would get $0.42 a sale.  Imagine if there are 5 people in the band, a manager, and possibly a crew to pay.  You have sell a lot of cover songs to break even.  However, Casting Crown's song 'Who Am I' would cost $1.00 per song to sell, so we'd lose $0.23 per song to sell.  Not going to put 'Who Am I' on the CD.




Noah Found Grace In The Eyes Of The Lord
By
Richard Schmertz

CHORUS
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
And he landed high and dry.

Well the Lord looked down from His window in the sky
Said I created man and I don’t remember why.
Nothin’ but fighting since creation day.
I’ll send a little water and wash them all away.

The Lord came down to look around a spell.
There He found Noah behaving mighty well.
That is the reason the Scriptures record
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

CHORUS

The Lord said Noah there’s gonna be a flood
Gonna be some water, gonna be some mud.
Take off your hat Noah, take off your coat,
Get Ham, Shem, and Japheth and build yourself a boat.

Noah said Lord I don’t believe I could,
The Lord said Noah get some sturdy gopher wood.
Ya never know what you can do till you try.
Build it 50 cubits wide by 30 cubits high.

CHORUS

Noah said there it is, there it is Lord.
The Lord said Noah it’s time to get aboard.
Take a creature, a he and a she
And of course Mrs. Noah and the whole family.

Noah said Lord, it’s getting mighty dark.
The Lord said Noah get these creatures in the ark.
Noah said Lord it’s beginning to pour.
The Lord said Noah hurry up and shut the door.

CHORUS
SOLO
The ark rose up on the bosom of the deep
After 40 days, Mr. Noah took a peek.
We ain’t moving Lord, where we at?
You’re sittin on top of Mount Ararat.

Noah said Lord it’s getting mighty dry.
Lord said Noah see my rainbow in the sky.
Take all the creatures and people to earth.
Don’t be more trouble than you’re worth.

CHORUS

Monday, June 27, 2011

Mix-O-Matic Part 1 with 'Lies' lyrics

For those unaware, the part of getting a song ready for CD can get tedious.  I'm working on what will be my 6th CD and mixing/mastering is the hardest part.  You want everything to be heard.  The guitars can't over power the vocals.  There can't be so much bass that speakers rumble with the bass turned off.  I like the songs, but I think I've heard them 1000 times each, on the PA, in the car, headphones, school stereo, etc.  For the most part, I can do a pretty good job on a rough mix right after finishing the recording of tracks, but you want it as perfect as possible before it goes to iTunes.  After July 4th, I'm going to call a buddy who used to do mixing for a living to listen and instruct or re-mix.  As of now, I have 3 of the 10 songs finished to my standards.  They will be checked by the other half of the group, but till then I'm done with them. 

Since 6 page CD inserts cost extra, I'll be posting the lyrics for the songs for interested parties and here's the first song on the CD:


LIES
By
McEwen & Willson

You look at me with a straight face
Telling me of love, of God’s grace.
One story to another
Telling me there is no other way but His way.

I’m doing all that is right, pray to God to show the light.
I was told to walk away.  Funny, it was a rainy day.
Trying to make it clear, in and out my other ear
No phone call to see how I was doing.

CHORUS      

I don’t know why men of God lie.
The Lord must cry when the men of God lie.

You’re telling me lies with a smile on your face,
Not to mention there’s no grace, all I see is distain.
Stabbing people in the back, can’t handle a front attack.
Got to have it your way, listen to no one.

Firing people left and right, praising God when you’re not right,
Ask for tithe when you’re not giving.
Run God’s church to ground.  What’s worship?  Not around.
Empty pews, empty seats, do you call this serving?

CHORUS

SOLO

You look at me with a straight face
Telling me of love, of God’s grace.
One story to another
Telling me there is no other way but His way.

Stabbing people in the back, can’t handle a front attack.
Got to have it your way, listen to no one.
Firing people left and right, praising God when you’re not right,
Ask for tithe when you’re not giving.

CHORUS

Saturday, June 18, 2011

From Above

The final song for the CD is just about complete.  For those who have recorded before, you know how you record something and think it sounds like crap on a stick the hear it again later and it sounds good?  That's what happened with my lead track.  I may go back and do a second one without recording over the first one just to try, but would be OK with the current one.  In doing the rhythm tracks for this, I channeled my inner Motley Crue or Lita Ford (?) or several other artists that used a version of the lick.  I'm not 100% sure how they did it, but I made mine with some dissonance on purpose as to not copy exactly.  You can tell that it is similar, but also different.  I was actually trying to write a blues song and got side tracked when I found a cool drum beat on R&B2.  It sounded almost frantic and I just went from there.

The words came together fairly rapidly.  I'll have to print them later as we did a quick vocal and words were taken home to work on, but the scratch vocal is pretty good.  The general idea is that we should trust in the Man above as we are led from above. The time is now to take advantage of His offer of grace.  Next posts will probably be the lyrics after the mixing phase is done.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Lies or Why I haven't been to church recently Part 2

After our hero, the vocalist, was asked to leave the church, we have the following cast of characters that gave us the other part of the vocals for 'Lies'.  The pastor, the deacons, the backstabbers (new choir leader & husband) and former Music Minister.  The Music Minister kept the church services together while we were looking for a new pastor.  Personally, I thought the music was the best part of services.  Music Minister thought Mr. Backstabber was a friend and would talk about things that bothered him.  Mr. Backstabber would blow everything way out of proportion and tell the pastor.  The problems were caused by Backstabbers wanting more attention and a lack of communication between Pastor and Music Minister.  Pastor preaches from Matthew only, and at the time was at the take the log out of your eye and don't point out the splinter in your brother's eye.  Pastor has deacons fire Music Minister for wanting to split the church.  2 Deacons then lie about dealing with Music Minister and the rest go along.  Now, the pastor seems like a hypocrite, the deacons are OK with lying to the congregation, and my church service sucks.  The music now sucks because the music is now CD solo tracks and the ladies leading are so far apart, they can't hear their lack of harmonization.  Occasionally they accidentally sound good, but there's no one to give suggestions.  So my choices are to put up with a pastor that preaches only Matthew and bad music or find a different church.  It's sad because I like the majority of the people that still go there.


So why let the world know?  It's where the lyrics came from, it might help me heal and forgive to get it out again, and to let people know that pastors and deacons are just men like the rest of us.  They make mistakes and God cries.  Church can be a lot like high school.  There are cliques and groups.  It may not be right, but God is still in control.  Something will work out for his glory.  Maybe our next song......

Look for 'Lies' on Jango internet radio coming soon.