The Making of "Witness"

I had the idea of creating a Hymns CD years ago, after I had released Moment of Peace I think. I had even gone through the process of getting copyright clearance for some songs that I wanted to include on the CD. For some reason, my focus shifted and I eventually put my efforts on what would become Heart To Heart. At that point in time, I had a lot of original music flowing through my brain that needed to come out.

Looking back, I am really happy that things turned out the way they did. I feel like the Hymns CD is so much stronger because I feel like I know more about music. With my first few CDs, I was a guy who had a bunch of music in my head that I wanted to share with others, but I didn't really know about music. I know that I still don't know very much about music, but I know more than I did.

I had one goal in making a Hymns CD. I wanted the listener to feel something deep within their heart when they heard the music. I wanted to listener to feel the love of Christ. The goal of having the listener feel something in my music has been a constant goal. A while back I was doing a CD signing and performance in a store. The store had slowed down a little, and it was one of those situations where no one was around and I felt like I was playing for an audience of one: myself. After a few minutes of this, a lady came up from behind crying. She said "You have everyone around the back of the store standing there crying." I knew that I was doing something right when she said that.

When I first started working on doing arrangements for the hymns I wanted to include, I was really frustrated. I played the piano for hours and hours, and I would try many different songs, and I just wasn't coming up with the sound and feel that I wanted. I started to get discouraged, and wasn't sure I was going to continue on the project. The thing I knew for sure was that if I couldn't do it in a way that would communicate feelings, I didn't want to do it.

I don't know what made things click suddenly, but they clicked. It was like turning on a light. When I sat down at the piano to work on a song, things were coming to me that sounded like I wanted them to sound. And it was happening a lot. It isn't unusual when I sit down to write music that I will play for a few hours and come up with absolutely nothing. That wasn't the case when working on this CD. Things came together much quicker than I had originally planned or hoped for.

I worked on the songs for months and months. I actually had all the songs recorded on a Yamaha Clavinova from Keith Jorgensen's Piano Center (don't mind the commercial, thanks Paul Anderson!), but decided to go with a piano at Spiral Studios. I think the piano at Spiral Studios in St. George sounds amazing. It is rich and bright, and is perfect for a solo piano record. The CD was recorded over the course of three days at the studio. The first day was a nightmare. I had a similar experience to when I first started working on the hymns CD: nothing would come. I tried to play songs that I had been playing with my eyes closed, but I couldn't remember how to play a song to save my life. It was very frustrating. Fortunately, some things did come together toward the end of the session on the first day and we got some things accomplished. Thankfully, things went much smoother the second day in the studio when most of the CD was completed.

Let me comment on a few of the songs that are included on the CD. I Know That My Redeemer Lives is one of my favorite songs. The words, not to mention the music, are pretty powerful. I was happy that things worked out well with this one.

Originally, I didn't plan to include the song Did You Think To Pray? because I had worked on the song for hours and couldn't come up with anything to make it sound good. Then one day both kids (almost three years old and almost one year old) were asleep at the same time, not a usual occurrence. Instead of trying to take a nap, which is also an unusual occurrence, I sat down at the piano. I was just playing around, and stumbled upon what would become the introduction to the song. I was really feeling good about it and was playing it over and over to see how it fit with the song. As a side note, my memory is horrible. Just ask my wife. Because of this, whenever I come up with a song or part of a song that sounds decent, I pull out a little tape recorder and record it so I don't forget. Okay, back to the story. So I was playing the introduction of the song, and my sister called to say hello. I had to put her on hold for a few minutes, go grab the tape recorder, and record it quickly, because I knew that if I waited until after the call, it would be gone.

I wanted to include one original song on the CD. Yea, I know it's not a hymn, but I love when some of my favorite musicians like Paul Cardall, or David Tolk include some originals. For a long time, the music for the hymns was just flowing. It wouldn't stop. Writing original music, on the other hand, was a different story. On my CD Moment of Peace I included a song that I wrote for my son Jackson, and my wife suggested that I write a song for my daughter Danica to include on the CD. After she gave me an idea of what to write the song about, it came easily. I wanted to write Danica's name into the song, so the first three notes of the song play out the name Danica. It is played a few times early in the song, and then a few times at the end. My wife always sings the song "You Are My Sunshine" to our kids so I wanted to add a little arrangement of that song in with the new one also. I think you can hear it if you're listening for it. When I finished the song, I played it for my wife a few times to see if she picked up on the parts of "You Are My Sunshine." She listened to it a few times, and gave her usual response, "That's good, Cor." I asked if she recognized anything, and she gave a funny face and said "Well, it sounded kind of familiar." She could hear it easily when I told her it was there. I named the song Angel Eyes for my daughter Danica.

When I was working on arranging the song I Need Thee Every Hour, I noticed that the style I was playing it in was similar to another song I played, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Then I realized what song it was - Silent Night from the Christmas CD. Everything from the bridge of the song to the second verse to the ending is played similar to how I played Silent Night. When I recognized this, I really played it up and wanted those similarities to stick out.

Late in to the recording process, when almost whole CD was done, I had the idea to include a solo piano version of a previous original song that I had recorded with other instruments. Looking In from the CD "Heart To Heart" was the first one that came to my head. I think it works well by itself on solo piano. I have played the song so many times that when I was recording it at the studio, I did only took one run-through to record. No touch-ups, no starting over, nothing. That is one of those songs that I could probably play in my sleep.

I wanted most of the hymns on the CD to be recognizable and favorites. Certainly the songs on the CD are some of my favorites. But I wanted to include a song that maybe wasn't as well-known. I had become familiar with the song Now The Day Is Over many years ago when it was played at my uncle's funeral. The song really came together when I came upon the bridge (you music people, is that what it's called?) between the two verses. I don't think the song would be the same without that little addition.

When I first started thinking about doing a Hymns CD, I knew that it would be solo piano, but I also wanted to include one vocal track. The idea of me writing a vocal song immediately went out the window because I wanted it to actually be good. My main goal with the vocal song was to find something that would touch people and help them feel the Spirit. I went on a search for that kind of song, and found a few that I thought would work well. The one that I had at the top of my list was Kenneth Cope's song Face To Face. I pretty much thought this was a long-shot. For some reason, I didn't think I would get copyright permission to record the song. I decided to give it a try anyway and found Kenneth's number. I gave him a call and we talked about the project I was working on, and I expressed my interest in recording an arrangement of his song. He said, without hesitation, "Absolutely!". I think that after I got off the phone with him I yelled "Yes!"

After I got the okay to use the song, I needed to decide who I wanted to sing it. Immediately, the person I had in mind was Sam Payne. I first met Sam after one of his concerts in 2003. This guy is an amazing musician. The writing on his first CD "Railroad Blessing" is just so good. I have listened to the CD more times than I can count. Aside from being a great musician, Sam is just a really nice guy. I've seen Sam after shows, and he's the kind of person who makes everyone feel right at home like they're an old friend. Another cool thing is that a few days before going to the studio, Sam and his band had just been nominated for I think six Pearl Awards (Faith Centered Music Awards).

He came to the studio, and got to work recording the vocals for Face To Face. Needless to say, he made it look easy. The thing that stood out to me most during the session was the passion he was putting in to the song. At one point he said "Is it sounding okay?". Steve Lemmon, who was recording the session said "You just about have both of us crying in here." I had goosebumps the whole time during the recording. I think it is the perfect song to end the CD.

In my humble opinion, I think this is my best CD. I will be the first to admit that I had a lot of help from "the man upstairs" during the whole process from arranging, writing, and recording.