Hello all! This will be the last newsletter until January unless anything new happens ~ happy reading! :~)
Studio Time
None as of right now…but we’re starting in full swing in January after meagan’s wedding in December…that is occupying much of my time right now and I want to be free this fall to do whatever she needs me to!
Prayer Requests
~Pray for the new direction that God has taken this project on: wisdom within decisions and continued encouragement as we progress.
~Priase the Lord!! God really laid on my heart what the next step is to be with the music and recording and all that and it’s such a huge answer to prayer! Read on in ‘Interesting Tidbits’ to find out what you’re praising our awesome God for and that will give you more information on the inew direction that we’d like prayer for as we start up more fully into the production in January! :~)
Interesting Tidbits
As Dan and I were talking on vacation, and dreaming a little too :~), we were thinking about what it would look like for me/us to do some different speaking and singing things together in the future and a thought dawned on me…I’m only ever, until the point that I’m able to support a ‘group’, going to be on the stage with only a piano. I know that I’ve been wanting a full-group sound, and I hear so much of that for these songs in my head, but until the point that a full group would actually be able to join me wherever I go to sing, it would still only be me and the piano on stage. So the thought was: ‘Why am I putting together a CD of what I’m NOT right now? Maybe I need to just put a CD together of just me and the piano.’
There are many many ‘pros’ to this idea. As we talked, we realized that it just made more and more sense AND seemed to be the point that God was trying to get me to from the get-go; maybe that’s why there has just not been good coordination of schedules and coinciding of free-time to work on this project on everyone’s part…yeah, this was just all very mind-blowing for me too as I realized that, as God gave me peace in things not going very fast, He was leading up to the point at which I would realize the ACTUAL direction that needed to be taken!
So this is very exciting and the ‘pros’ for going in this direction are the biggest part of this being so exciting and letting us know that God has been ‘waiting’ for us to take this direction. The first ‘pro’ we thought of, of course, was that without having to rely on others’ schedules, we would be able to produce the album quite a bit faster. This also brought us to the second thought; this new direction would mean less trips to the studio (which is almost an hour away) and less studio time, both of which mean less overall cost. One of the things that influenced these thoughts is how little time it took to actually make the radio spot recording and how well it sounded when we were done…THAT was a big help in realizing that this could all be done well and not have the full band that I thought the music would need to sound good.
The next thought to follow was that this way I am able to give the audience CDs of what they actually heard, not something completely different than what just happened on stage. Also, if we were able to have a full-time ‘group’ in the future, we would be able to add the instruments over the piano and singing and the fuller version of the album would be that much easier to make. These are the main thoughts right now and, although more ways that God is using this new direction just keep pouring in, we are VERY excited to know and feel God’s leading and, for those of you who know me well, I’m personally THRILLED that I now have an accomplishable goal/direction ahead of me! :~)
Next Steps
One of the things I will need to do first is to check with Randy on the song list for the first album. It might change a little since it will only be a piano with me, i.e. we might need to cut out songs that can’t be done well fast-paced on the piano and replace them with songs that will be more appropriate that I’ve either written recently or are from the top ones you chose. This little step is one of the things that I would love your prayers for! :~)
One of the things I WILL be doing this fall is coming up with what I would like to call the album. Now that it’s just me and the piano, I’m trying to come up with something that says that without saying ‘unplugged’ or something else that’s over-used; your help with this would be great! Give me your ideas, I’d love to hear them! :~)
And now we wait! :~) I know that I need to take a break from even thinking about all of it and just concentrate on Meagan’s wedding this fall, so our next step will be in January as I take free time to just spend at the studio and get recording!
Thank you all for being such a big part of this with me! Your continued questions about how God is directing and what we’re doing now are all so very encouraging! :~) As always, let me know if you have any thoughts or questions!! :~)
Walking a day at a time in His grace…
~Gretchen & Family~
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