Rick Lee James records the first two tracks for a worship album at Old Bear Studios in New York: an unreleased Rich Mullins song called "Thunder" and an original inspired by Brennan Manning. He's crowdfunding to finish the remaining eight songs, which will tackle less-common gospel themes like loving enemies.
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Hello, I am Rick Lee James, and I am honored to be sitting here in Old Bear Studios in their new wing here that they haven't even got set up to record yet, but eventually this is going to be an amazing room, and I have been having a wonderful time here in New York recording music for my new album. We started this process doing two songs. One song is a song by Rich Mullins called "Thunder" that has never been published before, and we have the honor of being able to release this song for the first time into the world in a published fashion and in a real recording studio setting. The other song is one that is one I wrote that fits hand in hand with this Rich Mullins song that was inspired actually by the writings of Brennan Manning. And if any of you know much about Rich Mullins, you know that he was greatly inspired and greatly influenced by his friendship with Brennan Manning and by the books of Brennan Manning and the message and the ministry. So we thought it would be a good way to start this project to kind of do a one-two punch, so to speak, of this song that I've been asked to record by Rich Mullins that was never released on the 20th anniversary of his passing away to go be with the Lord. And also this song that's inspired by Brennan Manning, one of Rich's really powerful influences. And what we're trying to do with this, in these two songs, is have you, those who listen to music, those who are so supportive of artists, help us to make this album. And so we've come to the studio to record just the first 2 songs to kind of give you a taste of the album that we want to make. And we really want to try to do something new and something that maybe is unique in worship music specifically. If you've listened to my music for a while now, you know that I have a heart for the church and I'm a music pastor, and the songs that I write, my deepest desire is that they would serve the church in some way. So we want to make an album of songs that would serve the church and help congregations worship, but also tell some stories along the way, maybe talk about some topics that don't get covered a lot in worship songs, things like singing songs about how to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. You know, in our volatile world, we need to be reminded that that is an important part of the gospel. We plan to make songs that are personal and tell stories. There's things in my own life that I want to tell, and Music is such a beautiful way for us to tell those stories. So if you're watching this video, this is just sort of our way of saying we need your help, and we are going to provide you with information and ways that you can volunteer to do things like pre-order this album in advance, and that money will help us cover costs when I come back to New York to finish the rest of these 8 songs in addition to the 2 we've already recorded, or however many we decide to put on the album. You'll be able to get some special rewards in advance, things that nobody else would get if you just waited and streamed the album later on. So we want to make it worth your while, and we hope that you will take a chance to kind of sample some of the music we've already recorded, tell your friends about it, help us raise some funds, and be a part of this project together, that hopefully we can, as a team and as a community, make something special. We've had a great time. I feel like God has brought us together And it's been a very special moment to be able to come together and record here at Old Bear Studio. I'm Rick Lee James, and I thank you for taking time to listen to my plea. Help. We would love to have you help us.
