Voices In My Head Podcast Episode 335: Simple Hymns - Songs of Redemption

This episode of Voices in My Head is brought to you by Podbean. With Podbean, you can create professional podcasts in minutes without any programming knowledge. Best of all, everything is mobile ready right from the start. Visit podbean.com/voices to find out more. That's podbean.com/voices. This is Rick Lee James, and the music you are hearing is from my new album, Thunder. The title track, Thunder, is a never-before-released song by the late Rich Mould. There are also 12 other tracks made up of original music, hymns, and readings to guide the listener on a journey. You can buy Thunder today on clear vinyl and CD, or stream it on Spotify, Apple Music, and almost every other music streaming service. Thunder. Hear it today at rickleejames.com. Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, I'm 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. And 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 glad that you are listening to us again this week. It's great to have you here. On August 30th, Venture 3 Media launched its Simple Hymns series with the release of the album Simple Hymns: Songs of Redemption. The project features such well-known worship leaders as Pat Barrett of Housefires Chris McClarney of Jesus Culture, Lee Nash of Sixpence None the Richer, Dan Koch, Anthony Skinner, Aaron Keys, and more. This 10-hymn album is available at iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and more digital and streaming outlets globally. Here today to talk to us more about the Simple Hymns series is Steve Nicol, President and CEO of Venture 3 Media. Steve, welcome to Voices in My Head.

Thank you, Rick. It's a pleasure to be here today.

Well, it's a real pleasure to have you, and I appreciate you taking some time to be able to discuss this new project and what's going to be a series of projects. I'm very excited about it. Congratulations. Uh, it's, it's always a big deal when a new project comes out, so we want to start by saying that. But what can you tell us about the Simple Hymns series and how this all came about? Very good.

Well, I was presented the idea about a year ago from a close friend. We worked together at Kingsway Music for years, and we started Kingsway North America together. And just a wonderful guy, John Hartley. And we've got over 80 songs recorded already in the simple hymn style. And the unique thing about the brand is, number one, it's a hymns focus and also done very simply so that most any worship leader could perform them in their church, or they're really beautiful for just background if you're having devotions or you just want to reflect. They're not obtrusive in any way. They just kind of really blend some phenomenal lyrics from, usually from well-known hymn writers such as Fanny Crosby and Charles Wesley. And that's really something that is a thread through my life, the hymns. I remember as a young guy gathering around the piano with my dad on the keyboard playing piano and and all of us trying to find our harmonies, and, and then a church, and then choir. So hymns have been a part of my life for quite a long time.

That's terrific.

And to be able to bring them now to a new generation that probably never experienced sitting around a piano singing hymns, um, but the embrace that we've had for these hymns from the millennials and young worship leaders has been just nothing short of amazing. There's something about hymns that have stood the test of time that's a real attraction, I think. When times get really difficult and the future seems somewhat shaky, hymns can offer really kind of like an anchor for people where the focus is on the lyric. The lyrics really extol the unchanging nature of God, and I think those are things that are very appealing to a broad selection, broad demographic of the Christian community today. There's those of us that grew up with hymns that find this just to be tremendously nostalgic, and there's so much of our faith that we carry in these hymns. And then for this generation, there's an opportunity to take some of these lyrics and sort of revisit them and bring them into today's musicality. A lot of the hymns, quite honestly, the way they were written would be almost impossible for, you know, the average worship leader to play.

True, yeah.

Because the movements are so classically inspired that they're just really difficult to play. So bringing them to a guitar and playing them simply opens up a whole opportunity for those songs to live and breathe.

Well, that's terrific. And You know, you're right. I was just thinking when you had said that, that's been one of the struggles through the years. It is often, as a leader of worship myself in my church, trying to bridge the gap between younger players and older players at times. Often the older ones are more used to the classical hymn style, and the younger ones don't have any idea. And never the twain shall meet, it seems like. So it's fun to listen to the way that you've kind of blended these things together in a way that makes it more accessible. Songs of Redemption, it has a lot of fresh interpretations of classic hymns just in this first release, and you already mentioned that there are around 80 songs that you've already got recorded. I wonder what the selection process was like when choosing hymns for these projects and kind of deciding which ones are going to make it on and which ones maybe to save for another time or just not to do at all.

Well, I think that There are songs that I think that we, we listen to today and we go, that is just as relevant as it was 150 years ago. And, um, and so that's an attraction to that lyric. Um, and sometimes it's, uh, it's really the worship leader that we have themselves. It could be somebody like Aaron Keys or Lee Nash or somebody that just says 'You know, I love this song.' And so that really kind of brings that song into focus. And most all of them have videos as well. And the wonderful part about that is for a worship leader to be able to see how that's being performed, and they go, 'Yeah, those are chords that I understand, that I could do that.' We have chord charts for every song, we have lead sheets, we have lyrics, and we have multitracks too. So we're giving them, the worship leader in particular, we're giving them all the tools they need to be able to do these in whatever setting. It could be a large church, and that's a wonderful thing, but we really have a heart for the smaller church and the smaller churches that don't have the A-level players They don't have the lights. They don't have big sound systems. They can perform and play these songs, and I believe the congregations will warm to them because there's a focus once again on lyric, and some of the depth of the lyrics that these people have— because the lyrics were the focus, and because some of these people were such gifted lyricists. Fanny Crosby is one of the greatest songwriters of all times. As you know, she was blind when she was, I think, maybe 5 or 6, and just some sort of a bad medical reaction she had, and she became blind. And because of that blindness, she focused all of her attention on writing lyrics, and at some point she was asked, "Well, don't— wouldn't you like God to heal you?" And she said, "Oh no." She said, "Then I would be too distracted from the things God's called me to do." And that kind of devotion to a lyric is just stunning. And so many of these Fanny Crosby songs, believe it or not, have never had music put to them. They were lyrics that were written, about 2,000 lyrics and they were filed in a cabinet and never had music put to them. They've never seen the light of day. And so I have to think in finding music for these hymns, up in heaven I can just sort of picture in my mind's eye Fanny Crosby just sort of smiling thinking, 'Well, finally, you know, someone will hear that lyric.' And that honestly, it's all the things I've done in my life. I've been involved in music for 40 years. I think this is the most important thing I've ever done, and I'm just humbled that I have a role to play in this at all.

Wow.

That's a powerful thought that you've shared with us this morning, and I hope Vanny is smiling, however that works in the afterlife and however they see. That's a beautiful story. Well, hymns really have become popular again. I mean, in some areas they've always been popular, but you're right, the younger millennial age especially, there really is kind of a thirst for the depth that's in hymns. I just returned a couple of weeks ago from the Sing Conference in Nashville that was at the Opryland Hotel, and there were over 13,000 people at that conference, and the emphasis. It was heavily upon hymns and getting congregations to sing hymns again. And they really emphasized, not that your church be known for your band, but be known for your singing. And I really appreciated that. All this is leading to this question: how do you personally define what a hymn is?

Right, good question. Really, really good. Some are obviously have been written 100 or more years ago, and so they've been involved in hymnals, and so that's an obvious hymn. There are other songs— Anthony Skinner is a local artist in Nashville, and he's writing what I could only call modern hymns. But I think this— I think the definition is in the lyric itself. Because the lyric is the focus, and I think it's songs that have a real substance, and they're— it's not necessarily flowery, but it has got a real true description of the character of God and our response to his love, and It's a lot of focus, it's completely vertical obviously, but it really is extolling the nature of God as opposed to perhaps how God has worked out this situation in your life or some sort of personal testimony. I think that those are characteristics, and I think too the musical style plays a part of it as well. It's a music that has a melody that can lend itself to perhaps harmonizations that would be more traditional in a hymn. It's a great question, but you can hear it when you hear it. Yeah. But I think that there are modern hymn writers today. I always thought that Twyla Paris, in a lot of ways, was a modern hymn writer in her day. She wrote some just beautiful songs that definitely would make a hymnal if they were doing modern hymnals today.

Sure. Yeah, she is great. You're right. I always am interested in people's response to that question. In fact, I released an album a few years ago with Lifeway Worship called Hymns, Prayers, and Invitations. They weren't all like old hymns. Some of them were new things that I had written or things taken from just different poetry. I'm always fascinated by what the definition is. I've found sometimes people, when they say, "Sing a hymn," they actually mean a gaither song. It depends on who you're talking to when you're you're talking at times. But I do love the versatility of hymns so much. And I think one thing that often makes so many of the hymns so versatile is the poetic meter that they were written in so that they could be reinterpreted and reimagined. I think maybe we forget that, especially let's take maybe some of the hymns from Charles Wesley, who maybe didn't have music necessarily at the time of it being written. It really was written in this poetic meter, and then tunes were put to it. And a song like "And Can It Be," you can go to different hymnals and find multiple melodies to that song, and it fits so well because of the way it was written in that meter. And so that's why I really appreciate what your artists are trying to do on Simple Hymns, because I really do think that these hymns are are becoming more accessible when we realize the music isn't necessarily the sacred part. These lyrics, as you have already referred to again and again, really do stand the test of time. Yes. And I think that's terrific. Maybe you could highlight for us, just in your descriptions, and we're gonna be playing the music throughout the show, just little clips and samples from Simple Hymns: Songs of Redemption. But I wonder if you could highlight for us some of the great moments, or maybe some of your favorite moments on this new project?

Well, very good. Um, yeah, Pat Barrett is, uh, from Housefires and just a wonderful worship leader, and he chose to do Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone. So you've got a phenomenal lyric that has got to be one of the most famous songs of all time, Amazing Grace. But then you had Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio who added a chorus to the song that takes it into more of a format that would be— you'd see today.

But—

and it brings a freshness to that song and carries it into another generation that'll be singing that song, but not in a traditional form. It'll have a chorus that will, I think, really complement, you know, the phenomenal lyrics and the story behind that song too. John Newton is just an amazing thing, so people even just look into his story as a result of hearing that song. That would be a wonderful thing too.

My Savior has ransomed me, and like a flood, your mercy reigns. Unending love, amazing grace.

I think that you've got Stuart Townend, I would consider him and Keith Getty, and you mentioned Keith Getty's event in Nashville. They are modern hymn writers obviously too, and they've written some songs together that we've done. And then Aaron Keys has written with Stuart Townend too. He's written a song called Psalm 62. Which is another wonderful way to bring about a focus on lyric is to sing scripture, obviously. I don't think there's much better you could do, and singing from the Psalms is such a natural thing. So Aaron has put a wonderful— with Stuart Townend— wonderful lyric together for— a melody together for Psalm 62. Definitely a high point for me.

My soul finds rest in God alone, my rock and my salvation, a fortress strong against my foes, and I I'll not be shaken. Though lips may bless and hearts may curse, though lies like arrows pierce me, I'll fix my heart on righteousness. I'll look to him who hears me. Oh, praise him.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah, mighty light and my reward, everlasting, never failing, my Redeemer, my God.

I would say that one of my favorite singers, female singers, has always been Lee Nash. There's a character to her voice. That, um, from that song that, you know, it's gone around the world, Kiss Me. Yeah, there she goes, you know, that's— she's just got such a wonderful voice, but she's got a real passion for hymns. And I did it with Kingsway, I did an album with her where she did a hymn, a hymns album for us. Um, and so she's just— it's just part of her nature She just loves the hymns' lyrics and to reinterpret them. So, she took the song Blessed Redeemer and just did a wonderful job of reinterpreting that.

And that's a good example of, you know, if you take the original tune that most people, if they know that hymn, would be familiar with, it's almost one of those— I call them like carousel songs because it almost has a da-da-da-da, you know, a lot of the songs. And her version doesn't sound like that at all. I don't know that necessarily people who hear it would even think, oh, that's a hymn, or, you know, something from the book. And again, it's the beauty of the way those songs were written and how versatile they can be. And then you get somebody talented like Lee Nash in there, and that's when the magic starts to happen for sure.

Blessed Redeemer, full of compassion, great is thy mercy, boundless and free. Now in my weakness, seeking thy favor, Lord, I am coming, falling to thee. Blessed Redeemer, wonderful Savior, Lamb in a windstorm, Ancient of Days, hope of the faithful, light of all ages, Jesus my Savior, he will I pray.

I want to talk also, before we have to end our time together, there are some, some great music videos which you've already talked about just a little bit. But for almost every song on the album, I think this is a unique thing that people can go online to YouTube and actually watch these songs being performed by the artist or sing along. Yeah. Um, and the videos, like the songs, they, they are acoustic., and they're simple, and they're pared down. And as you said, that was a real point, an important point for you to have them in this simple manner for small churches, correct?

Exactly. You know, it's a very easy trap to fall into trying to be clever when you've got a great a group of musicians and you've got producers that have produced amazing music. So the discipline to actually be simple is, is actually a little bit goes against nature in some ways for players. But knowing that how important it was that they could make these songs accessible for most anyone to be able to play along with and be able to replicate in their own church, or for background devotional. You don't want a lot of, you know, intricate, clever playing with key changes and all kinds of things that musicians love to do. That was a real upfront decision that we would keep these really simple and playable and singable and keep the— even keeping the vocal within the range of most people. And I think that the very nature of the sing-along means that you have to have keys that people, most people, can sing along.

Yes.

And so that was another important factor.

Yeah, well, they're great, and I really appreciate that. And it also helps for musicians that maybe just need a little inspiration. How could we do this on Sunday morning? To just look at those videos and, you know, try to figure it out. So I appreciate what you've done, not only just with the audio recording, but the videos really are a help, especially in the day and age that we're in, for sure.

Yeah.

Well, you know what, we're just about out of time, at least here on my end, so I'm going to try to wrap it up today. But I do have one more question for you today. These songs that have made the album Simple Hymns: Songs of Redemption, these are songs that really are about the majesty and the greatness of God. And I wonder if you have learned anything new personally about the majesty and the greatness of God, just through the process of kind of combing through these songs, listening, the process of recording and all that's gone through? Has there been anything that has been a learning moment for you?

Yes, phenomenal question. The actual title, Songs of Redemption, was a light bulb moment for me. You don't hear that word being used very often in worship music today. But people that grew up during slavery understand what redemption is, and Fanny Crosby was a huge proponent of abolishing slavery. She spoke to the Congress and to presidents and lobbied heavily to get slavery removed from the United States back in that day, and That term redemption, having been redeemed, is a theme that is so heavily used in hymn writing, but it's absent today. So one of our strategies was to bring some attention to what redemption means. And perhaps that's a gift in itself for people to understand what our redemption means. When our sins are forgiven and we're made free, the freedom that comes with that is, in this day and age, it had a really strong, powerful meaning. And today, I don't think we understand that the way they did. And so let's bring that into focus. So that's really something.

Yeah, man, what a great answer. Thank you for sharing that with us. And I'm going to have to read up some more. I've always known the music of Fanny Crosby, but I really didn't know that part of her story that she was was so instrumental in the ending of slavery in our nation. What a powerful story.

Phenomenal. There's certainly books you could read or Wikipedia. I really hope someday somebody makes a movie on her life. She's just been such a hero.

Wow, that's terrific. Well, this has been a real pleasure to be able to talk with you today, and I'm so honored to get to share some of these these songs here on the Voices in My Head podcast, and thank you for sharing some of the stories that go along. For those who are listening today, I just want to remind you that you can visit the website at www.simplehymns.com. They also have a Facebook page and a Twitter page and an Instagram page, and also the YouTube videos that we spoke of. And I'm going to make sure that we have links to all of these pages on my site at Voices in My Head podcast So if you're listening and you just want to click on the show notes, you should be able to go right there and find all the information that you need about these great songs.

We've got every 5 or 6 weeks we're going to have a new album. Oh, terrific. So the next one is October 4th, which is Songs of Worship, and we've got Songs of Refuge, another interesting topic. Refuge from the storm. You know how that theme is such a powerful theme in a lot of hymn writing.

Sure.

And it's because, you know, when there's plagues and all kinds of turbulence and what they were dealing with, they needed to seek refuge. Today, that's a sort of a theme and a thought that we don't really kind of relate to that often, but that was another interesting one. And songs of communion and Christmas and Easter and stuff.

Oh, that's terrific. Well, maybe we can have you back again to talk about some of those as they release. So Steve Nicole, president and CEO of Venture 3 Media, thank you so much for being one of the Voices in My Head this week.

Thank you, Rick. Appreciate it so much.

There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea. There's a kindness in his justice that can set a prisoner free. There's no place where our sorrow are more felt than on the throne. No failure is too great that it cannot be atoned. There's welcome for the sinner, so there's room for you and me. There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea. For the love of God is broader than our minds can understand, and the heart of the Eternal won't refuse a broken man. Was there ever a kinder shepherd, half so gentle, half so sweet? Why would anybody wander from a love so true?

So deep.

There's welcome for the sinner, so there's room for you and me. There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea. There's welcome for the sinner, so there's room for you and me. There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the see. Oh, we make his love so narrow by the limits of our own, and we magnify his strictness with a zeal he will not befall. There's welcome for the sinner, so there's room for you and me. There's a wideness in There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea! There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea! There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea!

Thank you for joining me here this week on Voices in Prayer. I'm Rick Lee James. May God bless your day today. Shalom aleichem.

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 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.