Voices In My Head (The Rick Lee James Podcast) Episode 417: The Erwins - This Is Love

Today's podcast is brought to you by Audible. Get a free audiobook download and 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/voicesinmyhead. That's audibletrial.com/voicesinmyhead. Over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle, or MP3 player. That's audibletrial.com/voicesinmyhead. Give it a try today! Hey friends, Rick Lee James here inviting you to join me over at rickleejames.substack.com. Substack is a great new free platform that helps me connect directly with all of you who listen to my music and podcasts. All you have to do is subscribe with your email address and that's it. It's easy to use and we can interact right away. So go to rickleejames.substack.com for some inspiration in your inbox. 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 glad that you're back with us again this week for what I know is going to be another another great conversation. There is something captivating about the blending and swelling of sibling harmony. When that is combined with pure talent and a servant's heart for people, you have the incomparable ministry of the Irwins. The Irwins started singing as soon as they were each able to talk. Appearing in over 270 dates a year with their mother and father, who have been in full-time evangelism for 44 years, they have been traveling full-time their entire life, singing in concerts, revivals, and conferences all across the country. With their highly anticipated 8th career recording, This Is Love, now available, Grammy-nominated, Dove Award-winning Stowe Town recording artists The Irwins are also celebrating the launch of their album's debut single, The God I Know. Impacting radio right now, the inspirational ballad heralds the One who still moves mountains and calms the raging sea, carrying the project's message of Christ's unwavering sustainment. Two of the four Irwin siblings, Keith and Katie, have stopped by the podcast for a visit today. Just before we go to them though, let's listen to their latest single, "The God I Know."— but still the answer hasn't come.

And a thousand hopes left broken have left you all but numb. I can't begin to tell you why he's asking you to wait.

But here in the silence, keep holding on to faith.

'Cause the God I know can still move mountains. The God I know still calms a raging sea. He holds you safely in his arms and he won't let go. That's the God I know. Our God is always near to those who call upon his name. And he said that he'd be with us when we're walking through the flame. So tell your heart to trust him. In this moment, give him praise. Lift a hallelujah, 'cause he will make a way. The God I know, I know, can still move mountains. The God I know, I know, still calms a raging sea. Behold, you're safely in his arms, and he won't let go. That's the God I know. I've seen him move so many times before. And if there's one thing I know for sure, I know for sure, the God I know is he who can still move mountains. The God I know comes the raging sea. He holds you safely in his arms, and he won't let go. He won't let go. No, he won't let go. That's the God I know.

Well, that song was The God I Know from the Irwins' latest album, This Is Love. Keith and Katie Irwin are my guests today on Voices in My Head. So Keith and Katie, welcome to Voices in My Head.

I'm glad to have you. Oh, thank you. We are honored to be on here today. We're excited.

Yes, we are. Thank you so much, Brother Rick, for having us.

Well, I am really honored to have you today. I do want to let my listeners know just a couple of things audio-wise today. We had not only just a slight bit of technical difficulty, uh, from a Skype end of recording, so we're all recording on our phones today, which is a little bit different for this podcast. And also, outside my window today, uh, the I'm happy for them, but my neighbors across the way are getting a new roof put on their home, so hopefully we won't hear lots of hammering during our conversation today either. But we're going to have a good conversation nonetheless. I'm so glad to have both of you here this week, and I'm so glad to do this interview. I want to start by saying congratulations to you and your family on your recent Grammy Award nomination for your Christmas album What Christmas Really Means, uh, your 2020 Dove Award win. I mean, these are just really some huge honors. And so I have to ask you, first of all, because I know everything has been a little bit different this last year— let's face it, everything's been a lot different this last year. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. That's right. What do you do to celebrate? How do you celebrate in 2020, 2021 during a pandemic when you're nominated for Doves and Grammy Awards?

Oh, well, I mean, we don't know, Brother Rick. This is our first time, so for both of us, thank you. This is not only a new season in our life when it comes to the pandemic and all that stuff, but it's also a brand new feeling to be nominated for things like that. And so it's just an amazing honor. I mean, it goes without saying just how God has blessed. And anyway, it's all Him, man. This ministry has gotten so much bigger than us, and we just praise the Lord for His goodness towards us. And, you know, we We did not see any of those awards coming, either the win or the nomination. And man, it's— we just praise the Lord for it all.

Just to show how unexpected we were, let's start with the Dove Award. We were at home the night of the Dove Awards when they announced our category. And it was actually me, our mother, my brother Chris, Rick Lee James, and our Aunt Tammy, we were all sitting at the dinner table eating dinner, and we had it on in the living room, but we weren't really paying attention to it just because we literally had no clue. We thought it was way just not going to happen. And so we had it on in the background, and then we hear them say something about the Irwins. We didn't know what it was. So we run in there and we start freaking out. I start going on the floor, bawling my eyes out. I am a mess. I'm crying. So that was the devil word experience. I mean, all 4 of us, we weren't even together. Like, we weren't watching it together. We weren't doing anything. We had no clue that that was going to happen. But like Keith said, we're completely honored. We still really can't believe that it happened. And the same thing goes with the Grammy nomination. I mean, this is something that we would have never, ever imagined would be happening in our ministry. But we're very, very thankful for it, and we're excited. You know, we're definitely even more excited about this new album that we just released and hopeful to see what God's going to do about or do with it. And so we, we can't wait.

Well, I am so happy for you and congratulations to you and to Stowtown Records. I know that's got to be an exciting time for all of you together. And again, I know it's not for the awards and the nominations that you do those things, but It really is, you know, affirmations are nice and it's really nice to have those things. So I'm glad to hear those stories and to hear the way that you kind of were so surprised by those and the way you got to celebrate a little bit kind of with each other, together apart sort of.

Yeah, that's right. That's right.

Well, you know, I know that every album is— because I recorded a few albums myself over over the years. And I know every album tends to take on a life of its own while it's being created. And there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, as they say, that go into making an album. And there are a lot of prayers that go into it as well, into making albums like these happen. And in some ways, I liken them almost to like a child. When the child is born into a world and, you know, you're kind of presenting it to the world and say, here it is, this is what I'm, and I need to show it to everybody, you know. And there's this almost this time of like, here it is, you know, I hope you think it's as beautiful as I do. And I'd love for you to tell us a little bit, both of you, I'd love to just hear from you. I love hearing stories about the album and kind of, you know, what makes this album unique about sort of make, be the making of it, some of the stories behind bringing this album into the world So to speak, is there something unique about this one that you found to be special for yourselves that you felt like when you were making it, you thought, man, these are just some neat moments that we found going into this?

Well, I mean, I hate to continue to reiterate, you know, about the pandemic, but that is what's made everything unique when it comes to this record. The one thing, you know, we had over 100 dates canceled. In 2020. And the one thing that, that was, that was what we were able to do in 2020, we were able to get in the studio and we actually cut two new records in 2020, one of which is a kind of a table project. It's an accumulation of songs that kind of shaped our love for gospel music, a lot of old gospel songs that people would recognize. And then of course this Mainline record that we're talking about today, and we cut them at the same time. And we were done with them. We were done with both records. We did them both at the same time in the summertime. In fact, we had to cancel twice just because of the protocol issues with either our end or the studio's end, our producer's end, the engineer. I mean, it was— I mean, obviously there's so many moving parts already. And then when you bring in the pandemic issue, I mean, we— it was delayed. We wanted to— we were supposed to— the plan was we were going to finish in May. Uh, but we had to— we, we didn't finish our end until August, and, uh, and we didn't— and of course the release day was just a couple of days ago. So I mean, you're going from August to when we were finished with This Is Love, this record, and then we just, we just released it 3 days ago. And, uh, so, so we have never— usually, I guess the most unique thing about this whole record is Usually, you know, you'll finish a record, you know, say in August, and usually the normal timeline is releasing the record in November or December, just a couple of months later. But for this to go on so long, for us to sit on these lyrics and to simmer, let these lyrics simmer in our hearts, and knowing these lyrics and being so excited to show everybody and sing to everybody these amazing lyrics that these songwriters came up with that gave us these songs and You know, it was so— it was, you know, we wanted to sing them so fast because we knew that God was going to use them. But just to kind of allow these lyrics to simmer in our hearts and really just to appreciate them more than we ever have was a special and unique thing just because of the timeline being so different than normal. You know, we had these songs for a long time, and man, we were anxious, so anxious to start singing these songs and to allow our friends to listen to these lyrics. That God has given us.

Yeah. And I think I heard Chris say the other day that we actually had all of our songs picked in February of 2020. But that was before we even knew about the pandemic. We had all of these songs picked, like Keith said, and we were already so excited for them. So now that we're finally being able to release it and start singing them on stage, I mean, now it's actually, it seems real that these songs are actually ours. Yeah, so we're, we're excited, we're having fun.

Oh man, talk about finally getting delayed, right? And anticipation and all the buildup for it. My goodness, that's such a long time to wait for sure. I understand. Well, our listeners had the chance just a few moments ago, as you know, to hear the first single on the album, The God I Know, and it's a great song. And I, I wondered, how do you know How did you know that this needed to be the first single? I know that you already talked about the songs were selected back in February, and I'm sure that there must have been a lot of songs that you went through to select for an album like this. What makes this one really stand out to you when it comes to all the songs you could have selected that you really felt like, wow, this is the one that kind of really needs to be the first one that people need to hear?

I'll let Keith start on these. He has a lot, much of a bigger role than I do on picking songs. I feel like Keith's going to talk about this one. I'll let Keith have it.

Well, that's not entirely true. It's a group effort. It is. But I guess on a practical standpoint, I mean, we do. I just so happen to, I mean, I've got my email address sent to a lot of the writers. And so I'll be listening to most of the songs first, me and actually mom, our mother,, does that also. So, so me and her really get the songs first before anybody, and so we do listen to them first, and we kind of, I guess you could say, we've met them first. But, uh, but this, and honestly, uh, Brother Rick, this was one of the first ones. This was the second song that we heard. The first one, uh, was When My Scars Touch Yours, the last song on the record. That was the very first song that we found. But, but then we found this one, and, and Kenna West and Jason Cox kind of wrote the song. Kenna sent us the song And, uh, it was one of them. Honestly, every once in a while this happens. One thing unique about this, about this particular song in the demo that we were sent, um, there was a man named Michael Farron who is a prolific songwriter, but it's an amazing singer, an amazing singer also. And he actually, uh, sang the demo of this song, and man, he absolutely wears it out. I'm talking just unbelievably. And it was, uh, it was almost intimidating. We're like, well, man, I guess I have to sing this, and I'm not gonna be able to sing it like this guy. I wonder if we could just let him, let him sing it for us. And that's happened a couple times, you know, you know, because some amazing singers always sing demos. I mean, just for, you know, some extra money on the side. Chris Allman sings a lot of demos. Bill Shavers sings a lot of demos, uh, and, uh, and many, many other artists that, that everybody would know just for some extra money on the side. They just— these songwriters will send them the lyrics and they'll sing the demos to them. And of course, Gordon Moat, I'll never forget one of the most amazing demos we ever had. Gordon was singing on it, and we knew, of course, Gordon has such a signature voice. We're like, well, that's Gordon Moat. I don't know how we're going to sing this song like Gordon. And so, but that's how this kind of— this demo, The God I Know, kind of came about. Michael was singing it and it was incredible, and they really portrayed the song well. I mean, he didn't over-sing it, which can happen, you know, and this guy really sang it very well. The lyrics were clear, and it was evident to us very fast that God was opening the door for us to do this song. And we think it's honestly one of the most powerful songs that we've ever been able to sing.

That's great. Well, and it is a song that really is about the God who moves mountains and calms raging seas and does the miraculous. And I wonder, do you feel like it also really maybe has kind of a special place in 2021 in the sense that I feel like everyone's very hopeful and that maybe we're starting to come out of this pandemic a bit and we're starting to see some new life and we're starting to see, you know, some big changes. And I know, I know that I just started booking concerts again for the first time, you know, and, you know, and I'm kind of feeling like, yes, finally, it's been over a year, you know, and things like that. And does it feel like that to you? Like, the God I Know specifically, it kind of feels like, yeah, this is sort of like, this is a good one for 2021, you know.

I, I, you know, whenever we are going through the process of picking our songs, we really, really try to make sure that there is a song for every season that someone will be going through. You know, we try to make sure that there's a song for everyone. And I really think you said it perfectly. The God I Know is really an anthem for coming out of 2020 and coming into 2021. You know, our God can still move mountains. He can calm the raging sea. That's the God I know. You know, other people serve all other kind of gods. That's not the God I know. The God I know can do all this. And so I, I really think this song is going to speak to so many people's hearts. I really hope it does. We're starting to sing it live, um, the last few concerts, and it's just— it's working. It's just clicking with the people. And it's amazing to stand on stage and just watch people get the lyrics to this song. People are grasping onto so easily, and they begin worshiping with us, and it's just a powerful thing when we sing that song every single night. So far it's been amazing, and we are very thankful that this song is ours. We're honored to sing this song every night.

So that, that's great, and we're grateful for, for writers like you mentioned before, Kenna Weston, right, and Jason Cox, and, and for them to, to write a song. I think it might hold a lot of meaning for a lot of, you know, congregations too who haven't been able to meet the way they've wanted to meet over this past year. I feel like a lot of our churches are kind of in a very hurting place right now, and I feel like many of them are maybe, when they come out of into this new year, are going to be facing some new challenges like they've never faced before. And I think they're going to need to hear strong and really encouraging messages from the church about you know, like this, about what God really is truly capable of. So I think it's a really good song for, you know, seasons like that. And I think you said that very well, for sure. So, uh, great song. You know, there's, there's another song I want to talk about too that I like an awful lot, and it really is the title cut really of your album. Um, and, and it has to do with an iconic songwriter, uh, Jaron Davis. Who the church has been singing his songs for many years. Songs like Holy Ground come to mind, and In the Presence of Jehovah, which really are songs that I've— since I was a little kid, you know, I remember singing in church, you know, for the longest time. And he has a song on your album, All of My Help, and the song is All of My Help. Tell us a little bit about that song and what it means to you to be able to record a song from just a writer like Jaron Davis for this project, because he's truly one of the great writers of our time, for sure.

Well, Brother Rick, this is a special thing. Like, you're taking the words right out of our mouths. I mean, Jaron has been a writer, one of our favorite writers for many, many years. We've sung his songs all of our lives. And, uh, and this is not the first Jaron Davis tune that we have cut. Um, in fact, uh, you know, on our Only Faith Can See, uh, record, uh, let me— it was it Only Faith, Katie, or what was it? Only Faith? Yes, we did, uh, Same Grace, the song that he cut. And it's actually a testimony song of mine. We, we met Jaron, uh, many— well, about 5 or 6 years ago. And after we had met him, he said that I want to write you a testimony song. We wrote— he wrote Same Grace for me, and so we've already been, been well connected with Brother Jerry. And so, and actually, this song, All of My Help, was the last song that we found for this record. We were looking for one more kind of a fast, kind of a, uh, second to third on the slot, the concert slot song. And then we were really selective on that. We kind of— what we— because when we go through the song search process, we kind of think about where these songs would fit in a concert setting. And we had just about everything we wanted, except we felt like we were just one short on a second or third top of a slot for a concert. And so we told our producer that we're very connected with our producer when it comes to song searching. So he's kind of the go-between. A lot of people send him songs, you know, he'll say, hey, everybody, the Irwins are looking for songs, and then they'll send him and then he'll send them to us. So he's kind of the middleman there. And of course, he sent that to Jaron, and then Jaron sent this song, and it fit perfectly with what we needed. And the lyrics are strong because one of the pillars of our ministry, we always want to even— even as sometimes progressive as some of our stylistic ways of our songs sound, we always want very much substance to our lyrics and our songs and our music. And so, and that's no different from "All of My Help." You know, the lyrics of this song are strong, very, very strong lyrics. And that is really what, if I can use the word lightly, sold us on this song and really made us know that this was the song that we needed to have to finish out this "This Is Love" record. Yeah.

And it has a fun groovy sound too. You know, we don't have a song that sounds like that. This is very different. For our ministry. So I'm very happy with how the track turned out. I love that track. I think it's so much fun.

Well, and you know, This Is Love is a great album with a lot of different kinds of songs on it. And I mean, the horn tracks throughout really kind of make it have a different feel too. And there's just a lot of different styles on it. But All of Help is one— sorry, All of My Help is one that really stood out to me. And I think a lot of people are going to have a lot of different favorites on there. But when we finish today, I'm going to make sure I want to play that one specifically because that was just one that I really liked a lot. And you're right, it does have just a really great feel to it. And I love knowing that about that Jaron Davis too. I didn't realize that he had written a song for you specifically too. What an honor. So yeah, that's a great thing to know. I'm definitely going to have to look that song up now that I know the song's story. Behind that one as well. So, well, that's great. Well, you know, we've talked a bit today about how 2020 has been a difficult year, and, and 2020 has been a little bit as well, but things are opening up a little bit. And, um, it's been difficult for artists for sure, and you've already mentioned how you've had over 100 shows canceled just because of the pandemic, and everybody's trying to figure out what best to do to keep keep, you know, their people safe and their congregations and to figure out, you know, how to best care for each other. Well, I'm wondering, are you guys able to start doing some touring and performing live now? I know you've been doing a few shows here and there, and it looks like you have some things coming up in Texas very soon. But is your schedule starting to fill up a little bit more now as 2021 is roaring forward a bit?

Yes, sure. I'd say it, I'd say it definitely is. We're actually on the road right now. We are talking to you from San Angelo, Texas. We're doing a revival with our father all week here. So I'd say it's starting to pick up. We leave next week for South Carolina. Definitely the weekends are pretty busy, especially the Sundays. Sunday mornings are staying very busy for us, thankfully. It's slowly but surely starting to pick back up and we're starting to notice, you know, at the product table after our concerts, people aren't so— I don't want to use the word scared, but maybe cautious, where they're actually kind of coming up to us, you know, and talking with us and still following all the protocols that need to be followed and everything. But we're starting to see people seem to just relax a little bit more. When it comes to all of it. And so, and like you said, the dates are starting to open up a little bit more, and we're thankful for it. We were home. We've never been home as much as we were home in 2020, ever in our entire lives. So it was definitely a change of pace, right? It was definitely a change of pace for us. We picked up some new hobbies that we didn't think we'd have any interest in, in 2020, but we definitely missed being on that bus and traveling with our family. And so that's our calling. Our calling is to be on that stage and spread the gospel every night of our lives. So not being able to do that, um, in 2020 was pretty difficult, but we are very, very excited that it's starting to happen again and to open back up.

So, well, good. Well, good. Well, I'm, I'm excited for you, and I'm, I'm so happy about your new album. It's always an exciting thing when a new project is released. I'm most excited that you guys are using your talent for the Lord and just allowing God to lead wherever God might lead you on the path. And who knew it would lead to a Grammy nomination, it would lead to Dove Awards and things like that. And, uh, that, that's just exciting things. What a wonderful thing to have affirmations like that, and I'm so grateful to both of you, and I'm proud of the work that you're doing for the Lord. And I just hope that you'll continue to have many, many more blessed years of doing this. I know that in the coming days you're going to have some great opportunities to get to share these songs and many more. And I want to thank both of you for taking the time to visit with me today all the way from Texas on your phones and to be able to just spend some time today. Uh, everybody listening to Voices in My Head today, I want you to know you can go to voicesinmyheadpodcast.com, or you can also go to our Substack page at voicesinmyhead.substack.com. And we're going to make sure and have all of the links for the Irwins, for their social media pages and their website and everywhere, where you can just click right on there and it'll take you to all of the places where you can find out more about them and find out whenever they're going to be coming to a town near you. Get on their email list so you can just have it come right to their— to your inbox and find out immediately. I know you're going to want to hear them live whenever the opportunity presents and whenever you can safely do that. So we're very excited about that. So is there anything else today, Keith and Katie, that you would like to share with my listeners that, that maybe you wanted to talk about today that we didn't have a chance to talk about?

You know, I'll, I'll share this one fun fact about the album that not a lot of people know yet. Um, we all four got to write our first song together on this album. Nice. Uh, we all four wrote the title cut, This Is Love. Us four and Kenna West and Miss Sue Smith. That's a little fun thing about, uh, the song. We actually wrote it in the middle of an ocean on the cruise, on a cruise ship. So that's right, we rode a cruise ship. That's a little fun fact, a little short fact for you.

And, and nobody got thrown overboard, so that's good, you know. It's really cool when you're doing that as siblings. It's tempting sometimes, I'm sure.

So, you know, that's for sure. Oh no, it was a great experience. It was very fun.

Well, that's— that is terrific, and I'm so glad to know that. Well, This Is Love is the new album, and it's a good one. And I hope that everyone listening is able to go out and either stream a copy on wherever you stream music from, whether that be Spotify or Apple Music or Amazon or wherever you stream music from, or better yet, go buy a copy of the CD. Again, we're going to have all the links available through our website, or you can find the Irwins on online. Keith and Katie, I want to thank you so much for being my guests today, and thank you for being two of the voices in my head this week.

Oh, Brother Rick, it is our honor. And I have literally just— be an honest moment here— I literally just subscribed to your podcast on Apple Podcasts, so I cannot wait to listen to other interviews. And, uh, man, I've, uh, and I just, I really so appreciate what you do for Christian music and everybody involved. And And thank you for having us today.

Well, thank you so much. I do appreciate it.

Way, dealing with struggles every day, but trying to find the answers to questions that I face. But when solutions are so hard to find, I can depend on this great friend of mine. I look to the Healer, my Help, my High Priest.— place. All of my help comes from the Lord. All of my peace, all of my joy, my hope, my strength, my delight. Everything worthy, everything right. Oh, what a comfort to know. All of my help comes from the Lord. I still believe in the power of prayer. When I call on Jesus, I still find him there. He already knows my need before I can pray. His plan for me is already at work. I'll overcome by the blood and the word. I don't have to see to know he's made a way. All of my help comes from the Lord. All of my peace All of my joy, my hope, my strength, my delight. Everything worthy, everything right. Oh, what a comfort to know, oh, I'm not afraid, I'm not alone. I have a hope, I have a song. I'm not afraid. I'm not alone. I have a hope. I have a song. Don't be afraid. You're not alone. He'll be your hope. He'll be your hope. And give you a song. Oh, don't be afraid. You're not alone. He'll be your hope and give you a song. All of my help comes from the Lord. All of my peace, all of my joy. My hope, my strength, my delight. Everything worthy, everything right. Oh, what a comfort to know. My hope, my strength, my delight. Everything worthy, everything right. Oh, what a comfort to know all my help, all my help, all my help, all my help comes from the Lord. It comes from the Lord. It comes from the Lord.

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, me, follow my blog, and even schedule me for a concert or 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.