Episode 472 - THE WOOD DRAKE SESSIONS with Paul Ranheim and Kirk Sauers

Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, a singer, a songwriter, an author, a worship leader, and an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. The Voices in My Head podcast is where I discuss music, movies, books, pop culture, theology, and more with friends, colleagues, and sometimes just by myself. Now make sure to let me know what you think of today's episode by leaving me a review on iTunes or by tweeting at me @RickLeeJames on Twitter. And please join my mailing list at RickLeeJames.com where you can receive an email every time a new episode is released. By the way, in case you're interested in a daily dose of kindness and encouragement beyond this podcast, I also run the Twitter account @MrRogersSay where I post daily quotes from Fred Rogers, one of the voices in my head. Well, I guess that's it for the intro, so sit back, relax, and listen to the latest episode of Voices in My Head.

Welcome back to Voices in My Head. As always, I'm your host, Rick Lee James, and I'm so grateful for all of you who are listening today. From the valley to the golden shore, The full-length debut from worship newcomers The Wood Drake Sessions released on April 29th, showcasing collaborations with such luminaries as best-selling singer-songwriter and worship leader Sandra McCracken, singer and songwriter Leslie Jordan from All Sons and Daughters, modern hymnist Wendell Kimbrough, and NPR-lauded singer and songwriter Liz Vice, among others. The album was written by the Wood Drake Sessions co-creators Paul Ranheim and Kirk Sauers. Paul and Kirk have stopped by the podcast for a visit today, and I'm so glad about that. Paul Ranheim and Kirk Sauers, welcome to Voices in My Head.

Thanks, Rick. It's great to be here.

It's great to be here.

Thank you.

Well, I am so glad to know both of you and, and to be able to have a few minutes to talk today about this really spectacular release. I thought as we began today, I just wanted to give both of you a chance. Maybe we start with Paul and then go to Kirk. Just give us quickly a little bit about yourself, some information that might be helpful to our audience today about who you are.

Yeah, thanks, Rick. Yeah, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest in the Seattle area, grew up in a musical home, so I started playing music when I was 3 years old. Went on to do an undergrad degree in music composition. Random little job, I worked up in Alaska as a conductor of a railway for 6 years before going on and becoming becoming a pastor, did my MDiv and got ordained, and, um, eventually met up with Kirk when we were in Nashville. And now I live out in Colorado, Longmont, Colorado, where I am one of two pastors planting a church.

Wow.

There's the brief overview.

I've got to say, you're probably the first that I know of, uh, railroad person that I've ever had on, on the show. So that's, that's great. We, we We are starting some firsts today. So that's awesome. There's got to be a bigger story behind that, but we don't have time to get into it today.

But another day, another day in the future.

Well, thank you.

Well, Kirk, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Yeah, so I'm from the Southeast, so I grew up in Georgia and I have a business degree, went to Georgia College, and not long after that, I spent a few years working in college ministry and did that for actually about 5 years, working college ministry right after graduation. And then after that, moved to Nashville, and I was in Nashville for about almost 9 years. And that was a wonderful, just fruitful time in many ways. Had a lot of random jobs while I lived in Nashville. Just kind of doing the songwriting thing there. And, uh, uh, yeah, I was a barista, I was a, uh, fruit— a fruit truck delivery guy, um, and all kinds— not, not a railroad, I didn't, I didn't work at a railroad. So, but met my wife there and, uh, and met Paul there as well on a songwriting retreat. And not long after that, uh, well, actually about 3 years ago, moved, uh, back to Georgia in Augusta, and I work in Augusta at First Presbyterian Church here as a worship leader. I live just on the other side of the river in South Carolina.

That's fantastic. Well, thanks for letting us know both of your stories. I'm glad to know the way that you both came together. And speaking of the way that you came together, and now this album that has come out, and I guess we're going to call it the sort of the banner of what all this music is being released as right now is called the Wood Drake Sessions. And there's a fantastic new album. I really love it, From the Valley to the Golden Shore. Tell us a bit about what the Wood Drake Sessions are and where that name came from.

Yeah, it's a— I mean, the Wood Drake Sessions is the collaboration of Kirk and I and whatever friends we invite into the process as well. The name, I mean, it was really born at the outset of the pandemic when the world kind of flipped upside down. Kirk and I had been writing back in Nashville. For a couple years before then, and both moved away. And when all the world went on to Zoom, we decided we'd try our hand at songwriting on Zoom as well. And so we just found that moment to be one that offered space for us to process the anxieties, the confusion, the— yeah, the wondering of like, where is God and what is he up to in the midst of all this? So we just started writing songs. And that is what kind of eventually turned into the Wood Drake Sessions as we asked the question of how do we steward these songs of hope in the midst of turbulent times. As we thought about like what should we call this project, I was reading through a collection of Wendell Berry poems and came across this one poem that described the tumult of the world and how Wendell would slip out behind his house to this little pond and sit to see the wild things that rest on the water, including the wood drake, this duck. And I was like, man, this poem, it just captures what this music does. It hits pause on the anxiety of life and reminds us what's really true and good and beautiful. And so we're like, let's pull our name from that. And that's how it came about.

Yeah, that's terrific. And I wanted to, if you don't mind, I actually brought up the poem from your website, "The Peace of the Wild Things" by Wendell Berry, because I just feel like it's so beautiful. Too. I won't read the whole thing, um, but I just thought it— even just the intro of how it starts, and I'm so grateful for the way that you placed it on your website. Just, when despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds, and I come to the peace of the wild things. And it goes on a bit more, but what a perfect analogy and way for you to kind of express what this album is saying. I even think in the opening track, which we're going to share at the end of the show, by the way, so everybody stay until the end of the conversation for sure, but the opening track that, that has the lines from the valley to the golden shore that is sung by Sandra McCracken. I just feel like it's such a— how good it is to come together again. It reminds me of this time that hopefully we're going to be able to stay in for a while, where so many of our churches haven't been able to meet together in person for so long. And again, I don't know if that was intentional in what you were writing as you were thinking through pandemic and doing Zoom writing and whatever that would mean, but I think— don't you think that was one thing that our churches just as people, we missed so much in many places. We just didn't get to come together the way that we would like. So was that sort of in your mind when you were in the writing of that song?

Yeah, we, uh, I feel like we wrote that probably within a few weeks of when the pandemic started, um, and, uh, just kind of when You know, everything stopped, and then everybody was sort of immediately in many places sort of kind of being in a place where they have to isolate, and then everybody stopped gathering for worship. And we were writing the song together, and a lot of it started in a conversation of just Just this idea that it's almost like the moment we got away from being together, we realized, man, it is such a sweet and beautiful thing, and how often we take for granted just the simple thing of gathering weekly together. And we kind of knew that eventually we're going to come out of this, and this was just sort of a song that we wanted to be able to sing in faith that God's going to God's going to bring us through this, and, uh, and it's a sweet thing to, to be together with the people of God.

Well, thank you for, for that answer. It really leads me to ask this next question about collaboration, because, um, it's obvious that the two of you have, have figured out there's something really beautiful when you collaborate as a songwriter, which also— myself as a songwriter over the years, I found that probably some of my best music has been when I've been able to get over myself and ask somebody else to come in and say, say, hey, I'm not— either I'm not quite getting this, or I really value your opinion and I'd love to know, or would you like to sit down with me and see what we can make of this? There is a real beauty of that coming together in the collaboration. So I wonder if either or both of you would talk a bit about the whole process of collaboration, not only with yourselves, but even with the, the many people that came together to obviously to make this record happen, um, and, and just sort of how you sense the move of the Spirit through that collaboration together.

Either one of us, either one.

Go ahead.

Why don't you start, Kirk?

Or you can both. That's, that's great. I'd love to hear from—

we'll talk at the exact same time and try to, um, yeah, I think, well, we alluded to it earlier, Paul and I met in Nashville on a retreat, and I think We just both really felt a kindred spirit, I think, as writers. I think one of the things we probably mutually appreciate with one another as writers is we really want to get the song right. You know, sure, we want to put some time into the music and into the crafting of the song. And you're right, I think we've kind of both found that we both sort of bring unique perspectives to the table as writers. And I think we both found that we get a stronger song often by sort of doing this together and sort of processing even the ideas inside of the song together. And one of the things I love is I just feel like I, especially through this project, I love how much I I feel like I'm just learning and meditating on some of these things that we're writing about in an awesome way. It's so good for my soul personally, where I can just work through, you know, "Oh, how good to be together," work through the sweetness of community and try to bring that in a song and bring ideas into that. So I've just found the collaboration process personally has been awesome, and we just really both enjoy collaborating together, and it's been a lot of fun to bring in various artists on our project. You know, kind of early on as we were writing, we both just feel like one of the things we value in this project is we really want to see the church flourish., and we wanted to see how— we wanted this project to be sort of a representation of a great variety of voices because the church has a great variety of people and voices from all walks of life, races, genders, all those things. So we just wanted to be able to have that represented on our project, and it's been a lot of fun. It's been a lot of fun to meet people along the way. In the collaboration process as well with these artists and musicians we've got on here?

Yeah, I think it's been a fun process to build trust in songwriting. And there is a risk of writing with another person. I mean, you're kind of putting out fresh ideas, unprocessed ideas for this person to hear and to critique or build upon. And I know that was a little daunting for me at first, but it's been fun to build that, that trust with Kirk and, and to have that shared vision of wanting to really craft a song. I heard that— I don't know if it's true, I think it's true— but I heard that Leonard Cohen would take like a notebook journal for each one of his songs, and he would just write draft after draft and just work his way through a journal of writing drafts. And, uh, we certainly don't go to that length, but we do work these songs through a lot of drafts, and we have we have no problem like sitting on it for a couple of weeks and coming back and saying like, I mean, that line just doesn't resonate. I think that was, that was an easy line. We copped out like, let's, let's fight and wrestle and we'll wrestle for an hour or two just to finish that line until we find something that works well. And, and we both have that value and, and it's, it's been fun to do that together.

Well, and I, I was going to say too, I think there's something about having community around you to help you hear what you don't hear. I remember in an album I was recording one time. We were going down and hitting record and just about to record this song, and the people in the studio went, "That sounds a lot like this other song that another person had written," and I didn't— like, I didn't hear it. So we, like, found ourselves in the moment, like, okay, well, what can we do to change it? Because obviously in the back of my mind or whatever, I had this other song that the tune was— so it was a moment where if they hadn't been there and Thank God they knew the other song when they heard it, because I was thinking like it wasn't an exact copy, but it was close enough that I went, oh no, I can't, I can't release that. They're going to think I'm stealing. So it's, it's good in the moments, like not just in fellowship, but it's good because I've even heard other like very famous composers say that same thing. You know, I was sitting in the room playing this piano and I was writing this piece and I thought, this is going to be glorious. And my son came in the room and said, Dad, why are you playing The Lion King? You know, he goes, ah, you know, So we just have those times where the beauty of community is there, you know, it's a safety net too, you know, to catch us in those times and in those moments. I wanted to hit on something that, that you, you both, I believe, alluded to, but just the idea of writing songs for the church as opposed to maybe just writing in, in other formats. There's a very unique thing when you're writing. I even think like when you're writing for the church, as in a way that the church could possibly use these songs, and hopefully something that could be used congregationally and something that people could sing together, versus songs that are just like, you know, statements of faith or something about God that are not so communal in that nature. But there's a whole other level and a whole other craft, I think, when it comes to writing songs like the ones on this album. They have a very— as I had told you guys before, I said that the vibe is great on the song. They have a good feel to the music, But they're also songs that for the most part, as far as I can tell, I could pretty easily probably bring to my congregation and say, "Let's sing this, then let's start singing together," you know? And there's a whole other side to that. Can we talk just for a minute about that whole motivation when it comes to songwriting versus maybe saying, "I want to write the next big hit," or even, "I want to write just even some kind of ballad-type song"? What's your approach as songwriters when you come? What questions are you asking as songwriters to say this has to be a song that is for the church, so it kind of can't be just like any other song? And either one of you can chime in on that. I'd love to hear from you.

Yeah, I, you know, Kirk and I, we're both songwriters who have written for various contexts, various bands we've been in. I know Kirk was in Nashville writing a lot of country music for a while as well. But for both of us, our heart and love is for the local church. We've been serving as worship leaders for probably decades at this point. And so as we're in our local context, we're wanting to create music that serves these churches well and fill in some of the gaps that we haven't had songs for. I think "Oh, How Good" is a great example of that. As I was thinking, man, what song would I lead as we regather that would really demonstrate the joy of being together as the gathered people of God? Like, I didn't have a lot of great songs, and that was part of the motivation of that. So as we come together, I think we're asking questions like— some of the first questions are, you know, what are we wrestling through personally? Because we found that the best songs that we write are the ones that minister to our own hearts and minds as well. And so that— I mean, Never Shakes, prime example, first song that we wrote together on Zoom. It's like, what do I need to believe right now? What do I need to know that like when the world is turned upside down, that God will never shake? And it's like Psalm 46, uh, the earth could fall into the heart of the sea, but, but we have a God who's with us who's unshakable. Um, so I think that's, that's probably the first one. And then as we get into the song, we start asking those questions like, and like, how will this more broadly be able to reach the churches that where we're in? Uh, are these songs singable? Could the average person sing this? Is the range not like 2 octaves, but is it like— is it like a singable range? Is it catchy? Like some of those types of things that allow for these songs to be useful and utilized by local churches. Eric, you got anything to add?

No, no. I think you touched on a lot of it. I think just Singability is a big deal. And that I was— I'll say just as a— in my experience as a songwriter in other areas, like Paul mentioned, country music, one of the things I really noticed is there's a challenge in having to write a song that's lyrically you know, you wanted to be lyrically robust, you wanted to be melodically catchy and like something that sticks to people, you know, that's really something you want to do. I mean, but then also it has to be singable, and sometimes that can be a real challenge, especially like melodically catchy and singable is a challenge, you know, because it's sometimes singable things, they can't have too much surprise elements of surprise for people or too much range for people. And so it kind of brings down some places you can't necessarily go in congregational songs. But yeah, I won't go on too much longer, but that was the thought I had to that.

That's all right. I think Paul, you had something else to add too.

Yeah, I was gonna say one of the things we very intentionally asked this is, um, does this engage both our minds and hearts? The question is that we ask is, does this help us feel truth? You know, there's in the history of Christian church music, there's some songs that are very heady that are like rich in theology, uh, that engage our minds but can be difficult to engage our hearts, and others can be very emotionally directed, and what we were trying to say is, or ask, is how can we grab on to deep theological truths in a way that our hearts are eager to respond? Yeah, and so I think that's been one of our ongoing questions. Is this something that is mentally robust and emotionally engaging?

Yeah, now those are really Great answers, and I appreciate both of them. And the songs really do take you on a wide variety of emotions. I noticed as I was listening through, you have really celebratory songs like the opening track, and then you have songs that are very psalm-like. I almost feel like they're with their questions, but then the resolution being, you know, where our faith goes. I love the track with Wendell Kimbrough where he just sings, you know, it's really scripture, take heart as he has overcome the world. And then it repeats He repeats it again and again. And there are times that we, I think, need to sing words like that. If this makes sense, in times when maybe we don't even believe it ourselves, you know, there's been a lot of moments of questioning. I know in my own church, just in this past winter, like the pandemic really finally hit our church hard at that time. We lost like 5 people either in or connected to our church. They lost their lives due to COVID. And it was just such a hard time, you know, It's a difficult thing to come in and as a worship pastor to kind of, come on, come on, let's just rejoice today, you know. And the songs that are on this album, they give us some ways to worship in the midst of questions, which I think is incredibly valuable for churches. You know, I really do. So thank you for being so thoughtful, I guess is what I want to say, in the way that— excuse me— in the way that you have written for the church, because you're not just going for an easy, how can I get people to sing? As you've said, how can we get people to sing? Maybe I'll say it this way, songs worth singing. You know, how can we get the way the church— how can we put words in the mouth of the church that are going to carry them through maybe when their hearts aren't even feeling it, you know, in those times? So, um, well, you know, before we run out of time, and this is, this is rich conversation today, but I feel like we would be remiss if we didn't mention some of the other talented people that you brought in for this project and the different voices that we hear on the album, and maybe how that all came out to be. So tell me whatever you'd love to tell me, because there's— I'm afraid to start listing names because I'll miss some of them, but Liz Weiss, incredible. I mean, I've been following her for a few years now. Sandra McCracken, of course. Wendell Kimbrough, as we mentioned. You're gonna have to help me out because my mind's going blank. There's so many great great people on this. But just talk to us a little bit about how they all came to be involved.

Yeah, I remember the first time that, well, Kirk and I were on a Zoom call and we're thinking about like, what voices would help these tracks come to life? And I heard, we were actually thinking about Oh How Good, and I just heard Sandra's voice in my head. And we started talking about it, I was like, and I just couldn't get her voice out of my head. And I'd become friends with Sandra and her husband through my time in Nashville. Thankfully, she was so generous and offered to help in any way. I was like, well, would you be up for singing this one track? Because it's got your name written all over it. And, um, and when she came in and sang, I was like, yes, this was absolutely the right, right call. Uh, it was kind of made for her voice. And I'd say similar with Wendell, um, we've been friends for, oh gosh, maybe a decade now. And, uh, we were talking about Grace for Veil. I was like, man, Wendell would do just such a wonderful job on that. Um, we had a great producer named Lucas Morton, um, and he's worked on a lot of different projects from Delve Grace to Porter's Gate to, uh, a lot— some more like pop music as well. And, um, as we were talking about, uh, other artists, we came to like I See a King, and we were all sitting there like, man, Liz would be awesome on this. And thankfully he had connections to Liz and Leslie Jordan and He helped make some of those connections, but it was really just saying like, and how do we steward these songs well and which voices are going to represent these songs well to the church? And thankfully every person that we asked said yes. And so that was— we feel super honored that the people, all these, these guests, I think there's 5 guests on there, Tammy Bullock, our friend from Nashville as well. That all agreed to lend their voices to this project and make it more than it could have been just on our own.

Terrific. And all the talk about the voices in your head, that's perfect with the podcast you're on right now, Voices in My Head.

So I'm keeping on brand for you, Rick.

Really appreciate that. Well, they're great. And I've had Sandra on the podcast before. Actually, she and I met at a conference in Nashville and I was in Nashville in the media room with her for a few minutes, and just a lovely person. So, well done on picking her voice because it does, it just fits that opening track so well. I love hearing it and I always want to come back and hear it again and again. And I've had Leslie also on the podcast through the years, and I mean, they're not just great talents, I mean, they're really lovely people as well, and I'm grateful to hear all their voices on this. So we're going to, in just a few moments, close the show with the track that Sandra McCracken sings. But before we do that, I— this might be too broad of a question for the few moments that we have together today, in the last 10 minutes or so that we have. But what I wanted to ask you about, because I know that both of your hearts are in the local church, and I'm speaking to you as also a person who works in a local church and is a a worship pastor, and I'm trying to find ways over the years to make creative community in the local congregation. Like, how do we cultivate that? And ideas for maybe ways that we've figured that out together. Sometimes because of the job and the way it is, sometimes the easiest thing is to just do it ourselves. You know, we walk in, we plan the worship, we do, you know, put everything in the computer and go on. It actually is a, is a real discipline, I think, to bring others in sometimes when you're in that local church context. So with maybe just a few minutes that we have, I know you both probably have some thoughts on this. Are there any tips that either of you, both of you, maybe there's lots, maybe there's just a couple, but any tips that you have found in creating creative community in your area, or maybe even more more specifically in your local church. I'd just love to hear if you have any thoughts on that because this album to me just yells collaboration from beginning to end, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Maybe we could start with Kirk and see what we have to share.

Yeah, I actually have a kind of a unique story on that. Right when I moved to Augusta, you know, I'd lived in Nashville, and Nashville is obviously just, you know, anywhere you go, somebody's a songwriter or a musician, you know, doesn't even matter what job you're working, somebody does that. So the arts community is just so full, you know, in Nashville. And when I came to Augusta, I didn't really know what to really expect. I knew not to expect Nashville, you know, like what was in Nashville. But, you know, what I found was I knew two people who really loved to write songs, and I just kind of met them and they were part of serving in music at our church when I got here. And I said, I just invited them to collaborate with me. I knew that's what they love to do. And then so we wrote some songs for our Advent season coming up. That year. And then I met some— just as I kept going, I just kept meeting more musicians, and I said, "What would you do with this song?" You know, I just kind of put it in— put the ball in their court, you know. I showed them the song, and I just kind of gave them the license to have some creativity with it. And then I met a guy who's just really knows, uh, uh, you know, Logic really well. And, and so we sort of created this thing for our— just this little album for our church. And what was fun about it was just like, uh, just discovering the talent that was actually there, you know. And I think when— I think sometimes we think, oh, that all the talent is in these particular places, Nashville or LA or whatever, you know, whatever that may be. And but there's really robust talent, um, even in small communities at church. And I think sometimes, uh, it— especially as worship leaders, it's a— I feel like it's part of my role to help discover that and draw that out of people, because I think sometimes people don't know if they should, if they can, or they're allowed to try to to try to have a voice creatively speaking, and it's like when you open the doors up for that, you realize there's really a lot of talented people, and you'd probably be surprised where you're at, you know, even if you're in a small town as a worship leader, what kind of talent is there. So I think just pursuing and inviting creative ideas as a worship leader is important, rather than just plugging them into only, you do this role and that role, but what are your creative passions and how can you invite them into that?

Exactly. Now that's so good. Paul, did you have any thoughts on it?

Yeah, I have 3 quick thoughts. One would be like, I think, I mean, as pastor, I think like having just solid teaching on why creativity is important is really helpful. Understanding like that our God is a creative God, and then one of the first tasks that humanity is given is to create. One of the first people filled with the Spirit is Bezalel who is like designed with creating in the temple, so I think teaching is really helpful. Second thing is I think trying to find these— trying to find some venues where creativity can be explored in the church, that it doesn't have to be, um, songwriters getting together that we're going to write the songs for worship. Uh, let's not expect people who are beginning songwriters to be able to put together a song that's, uh, that is of deep theological significance and highly singable. Like, it's a skill that takes time. And where's the independent, like, the learning grounds? How can we put the training wheels on? And, um, I have one, one worship leader, and he had some songwriting— a songwriter group in his church. And then once a year, he would get like a house band and would do like a Songwriters in the Round, get 4 of those songwriters and play— each one play 3 of their songs. And it was a great way, uh, to be able to share some of these songs. And you hear some more like beginner songwriters, and you usually have like a more advanced songwriter there as well. Uh, but it was a great way for the church to be able to hear and experience these things, a great way for those songwriters to grow. And eventually it got to the that those songs were— some of those songs were used in worship. And so it was a beautiful place to nurture that talent without the expectations or burden of having to like hit a certain level of expertise. And the last thing I think is along those same lines, I think we kind of live in an American Idol, Simon Cowell world when it comes to music, and we have this this vision of how perfect music needs to sound in order to be good or worthwhile, and I just— in terms of the local church, I push back against that so hard. We don't have to have music that is that perfect and that has had that many professionals work on it for it to be good and worthwhile and valuable. There are the vast majority of musicians that are doing good work are not seeking like commercial viability. They still can make really wonderful music that is just as worthwhile and just as valuable, and so I think being able to encourage people in the local church to say, hey, you have gifts. You have talent, and there's no pressure to like put out a record. You can serve here in this local context, and that is a worthwhile valuable thing. That's beneficial for the kingdom of God. So those are my quick thoughts.

I was going to add one thing too. I think when you invite that creativity and create those spaces, um, it's— it, it quickly becomes a community experience, and you experience a depth and a richness in community in that. So there's— I think there's real tie with community and creativity. Yeah. So when you bring those— when you marry those when you marry those two, it really is beautiful. It strengthens your community so much. And, you know, the example I shared, that's definitely the case. You know, I felt like we really connected as the body of Christ, probably in a much more— and that was probably the greatest win of what happened, is that we felt a sense of togetherness. And community that wouldn't have happened if we hadn't kind of created that creative outlet, you know.

Awesome. Well, these are both so good. I, I kept hearing the word invite. I heard the word ask. I heard, you know, try to draw it out of people by encouraging them, finding venues for your creativity and teaching. These are, these are such good things. I hope people that are listening are jotting down some notes. Well, we've come to the end of our time together, and in just a moment, as we close, we're going to play a song from the album. But I do want to take a moment to let all of our listeners know that if they go to, whether it be my Substack page at rickleejames.substack.com, or if you just go to voicesinmyheadpodcast.com, on this particular show, we will have easily just one-click links where it'll take you to everywhere where you you can find the music. It'll take you to their websites, and you can find out more about the new album, From the Valley to the Golden Shore, from the Wood Drake Sessions. So Paul Ranheim, Kirk Sowers, thank you so much for being some of the voices in my head this week.

You're welcome. Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Pleasure to be here, yeah.

Mm. Oh, how good to be together. In this weary world we try. What a gift and what a treasure, kindred in the house of God. On this day the Lord has fashioned, come And rejoice with all your might. Raise a banner of salvation. He has led us through the night. All the joy, all the sweetness, to be gathered in the name of the Lord. Evermore, he will keep us from the valley to the golden shore. When it looked like evil conquered, when we felt the darkest hour, in despair we sought the Father. He has proved his mighty power. All the joy, all the sweetness to be gathered in the name of the Lord. Evermore, he will keep us from the valley to the golden shore. To be gathered in the name of the Lord evermore. He will keep us from Levi to the Golden Shore. All the joy, all the sweetness to be gathered in the name of the Lord evermore.

He will keep Thank you for joining me here this week on Voices in My Head. I hope you'll visit me on my website at rickleejames.com where you can find out more about me, get my music on vinyl and CD, follow my blog, and even schedule me for a concert or a speaking engagement. Better yet, even a book signing in your neighborhood. You can find all that and more at rickleejames.com. Also, it would mean a great deal to me if you could write a review of this podcast on iTunes. The more positive reviews that we receive, the more visible this podcast will be online. And now for the benediction. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. God bless you, and thank you for listening to Voices in My Head.