Hey Everybody!
I posted a new a couple new songs on the website today: Southbound Queen, and Don't Worry Worship - which turns out to be a Southern Blues Rock Gospel song! The history behind this song goes like this:
I was attending my local Contemporary Methodist Worship gathering on a Sunday not too long ago when we watched a Chris Tomlin video as part of the service. In that video Chris talked about 'worry' ... and how, when you inevitably begin to wring your hands and fret over a family or other such situation ... a good thing to do - instead of "worrying" - is to instead "worship". The Bible teaches us to avoid worry by connecting with the Lord through prayer and worship ... take a look at Matthew 6:28 - 34 ... which includes one of my favorite verses, "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble".
Anyway, after hearing Chris suggest we, "don't worry; worship instead", I immediately wrote that down in my electronic "Hook Book" for later use. Several weeks later words started arriving in the wee hours of the morning - which I dutifully recorded on my phone while sitting on the side of the bed. A week or so later I had a verse and a chorus - which I used as part of a submittal for a Melody Class I was taking with BERKLEE ONLINE. The Instructor was very kind and had several good suggestions that led to final song form - which is a "Verse-Refrain, with a Repeating Bridge" (who knew??).
The Instructor's suggestions led to the requirement for a few more verses which, with a little New Testament research came together - what I thought was - fairly well. THEN - I put together an MP3 recording and submitted to the Evaluator Staff @ NSAI (the Nashville Songwriters Association International). The 'evaluation' came back in a few days (they are efficient over in Nashville) with a series of suggestions noting that I (among other things):
Should take care not be too preachy (f I weren't a preacher ... and, I'm not!)
Should not overuse the word "bear" when rhyming with "there" (oops - had actually used it 3 times!!!! Bad, bad, bad!)
To be fair, thankfully, all the comments were not "corrective" in nature and overall, very encouraging.
I let the evaluation "age" for a week or so - then got busy .... eliminating overt 'finger wagging' and tightening up the rhyme schemes. I also slowed it down a tad. What you can listen to in the MUSIC section of the website is Version 2 of the song ... navigate over to www.MedicineCreekBand.com - or you can get there with www.RCFreemanSongs.com - and take a listen. I hope you like it.
While you are there, take a moment to scroll down on the HOME PAGE and sign up for the MAILING LIST. I promise to overfill your inbox!
Thanks,
Richard
