New CD!!!

Here’s the news, my brother and I have started work on another CD. The first disk “Lightning Strikes” was produced with truly minimal cost. Artistically, it makes some of the statements I’d hoped it would, but the production was by far the weakest part of the project.

Bill Heeter (my brother) had given guitar lessons in and around Blue Springs, Mo for years, in addition to being a respected player who is able to just jump into anything you might be playing. A couple of years ago, one of his former students (making us feel old now, ya know LOL) opened a recording studio in Blue Springs. Recently, Bill has been invited to work at the studio, doing production and engineering as well as playing on customer’s projects. I’m really excited to say that he’s decided we should do another CD! And this one will be produced in the professional studio, rather than Bill’s living room!

So we’re in the planning stages here. I’ve always said I prefer artists who do “albums” rather than just a number of songs on the same disk. Examples would be Collective Soul’s “Disciplined Breakdown” and Janis Ian’s “Between the Lines”. Those songs, while they don’t all sound the same; all seem to fit as pieces of a whole. That’s what I prefer to listen to. That being said…at this point I doubt I’ll be able to put together an actual “album” this time. There are too many songs I want to do and too many styles I want to explore!

The first CD included a Santana-esque original song “Warriors” (which, for a limited time, you can download for free if you sign up for my mailing list at http://jenniferphillips.yolasite.com/music.php ), an original blues number “The Lonely Road” which is my personal testimony, and “Isaiah” which in my mind is reminiscent of the romantic era of classical music. We also did original arrangements of 9 old public domain hymns. Some are well known – “Amazing Grace”, “When We All Get To Heaven”, “Revive Us Again”, “To God Be The Glory” and “Blessed Assurance”. Additionally, we included “A Charge to Keep, I Have” which is an old Methodist hymn (the only one on the CD that doesn’t appear in my old Baptist Hymnal!) and “Steal Away to Jesus” which would best be described as a spiritual.

For the new CD, I’m completely out of original lyrics (unless the Lord gives me some, that is), so looking for more obscure hymns. Looking to see if some of the lesser-known songs by Fanny Crosby (she wrote over 8000 hymns in her lifetime – with probably 400 that are extremely well known) might be worth revisiting. I’ve already presented two well-known songs to Bill with arrangement ideas “Near the Cross” and “Nothing But the Blood”. Now, if he is able to grab hold of what I am hearing in my head, “Nothing But the Blood” will be quite an attention grabber! But I’m not going to share the details just yet!!

I’ve also asked the praise team from Cross Creek Baptist Mission to sing with me on some songs for the new CD. Every week I listen to our music and feel so very blessed to be able to sing with such gifted musicians! Pastor Ray Gurney is one of the best singers I know (and that’s saying something!) and his daughter; Chrissy Gurney-Long is a truly gifted worship leader. Kathy Ricker-Paine has a lovely voice, though she’s not comfortable yet doing any solos (maybe someday!). All in all, I feel that for the small church we are, we have a fantastic praise team. And the praise team would be worthless without our wonderfully talented sound director, Annie Lang.

If you’re in or near Kansas City on a Sunday morning, please feel free to drop in at Cross Creek! We love to have visitors and we love to serve the Lord!

Ok, going to wrap this up, as I’m afraid I’m starting to ramble (I don’t want to be THAT kind of blogger LOL). Thank you for taking the time to read my blog…please check back often for more updates.

Have a great day and Be Blessed!

Jennifer Phillips

http://jenniferphillips.yolasite.com/music.php