Through a series of events, a man in Nashville-Les Butler-heard some of the songs we had recorded in the past and we began to speak with him about the possibility of working together. Because of his strong affiliation with the southern gospel style of music, (something difficult to find around here) and his 27 years of experience in producing and radio (he heads up Solid Gospel Radio with over 100 stations across the country), we were very interested in working with him. We were pleased that he wanted to work with us also! This started a process quite different than anything we'd done before!
First of all, he sent us over 60 songs, all originals-never before recorded. Randy listened to all of them and narrowed it down to 25 for us all to listen to and choose from. We scored them, picked our favorites, and then had to divide them between songs for the adults, the girls, the whole crew, etc. We really wanted to have variety on this CD-both stylistically and vocally-without compromising the message of the gospel being presented in a solid - Biblical way. We are very excited about the songs we've selected. Randy wrote two great songs and the other 12 are almost as good!
In February, several of us flew to Nashville to do what they call "scratch vocals". We had the privilege of listening and watching some of the best musicians in musictown lay down the tracks for these new songs. The guys would get a sheet of paper with numbers and symbols on it, talk for a couple of minutes, maybe ask us a thing about the style for that tune, and then they'd pick up their instruments and go! It was pretty incredible to watch! Within a couple of takes they'd be done except for a fix-up here or there. (We had the somewhat unnerving job of singing along with these songs we didn't know very well so they could tell where a break was for a piano lick or other instruments to fill in.) After 2 1/2 days, the process was complete and we went home with the unmixed tracks so we could get to work on writing out vocal parts.
We had only about 6 weeks to get all the parts written and learned before we had to go back to Nashville and record. We spent a lot of time practicing, trying to really get it down pat so we could go in and blow the socks off Les and the engineer, Terry! Were we ever in for a surprise. Over spring break we packed up everyone who would be singing-Seth, Olivia , Jordan , Arielle, Courtney, Levi, Malachi, Taylor, Hailey, Dawn, Randy, Ginger and Dale. After the first day we sensed we could be in trouble when we only completed 2 songs. We had 12 more songs to record and only 2 ½ more days in which to do it. The second day didn't go much better and we knew we had to come up with a plan because it was obvious we were not going to finish the job quickly. We didn't realize how scrutinized we'd be, how picky Les and Terry were, or how they'd decide to change parts that we had ingrained in our brains! It was very difficult and tedious work. This is when we decided it would be the girls' songs we'd focus on the 2 nd time around. We pretty much finished up the adult songs and the ones with the younger kids on and left the other songs for our return trip in May. The girls were a little less than excited to go back; knowing what was ahead of them- a lot of time in a tiny room with headsets on (messing their hair!) and singing the same line 8 times before they would hear "we can work with that."
Despite all the hard work, we did a lot of laughing, snacking and eating real good BBQ! We learned a lot working with some of the most experienced guys in the gospel music business and are very excited to hear the finished project which is titled "Livin' for the Call". Les Butler has been very enthusiastic about the project and plan to release several songs as singles to the radio stations. The CD should be available by mid-September, in time for National Quartet Convention and our CD release benefit concert on September 24.