So, for a while, we've been trying to figure out what to do for a video on "Empty Me. The song is a special song to me, and as we've been out on the road, we've seen how special it is to so many people, that I knew the treatment of the video needed to be something cool and special. We've finally figured out how to do it.

You, my friends, can star in my first music video!

We want for you to video yourself in an interesting situation (in front of the White House, in the airport or on a plane - be creative) lip-syncing to "Empty Me". It doesn't matter the quality of the video: use your cell phone, or use professional quality stuff, if you have it! Just make sure you have the actual song playing either through headphones or over a sound system to make sure your lip syncing lines up with the actual song.

First off....because we want to make it as easy as possible for you guys, we are asking (depending on what letter your last name starts with) you to do 35-second clips of the song. Secondly, we're doing this because it will make file sizes smaller. So...you can totally do the whole song if you'd like to, but it might make more sense for you to do a couple or three 35 second clips.

So, here's the breakdown of names and what 35 second clips you'll do:

A-C - 0:00-0:35 (start of song until "to see how it gets in the blood")
D-F - 0:30-1:05 ("I've tasted my share" until "Empty Me" of 1st chorus)
G-I - 1:00 - 1:35 (full 1st chorus)
J-L - 1:30 - 2:05 (full 2nd verse - "I've seen just enough...")
M-O - 2:00 - 2:35 (full 2nd chorus plus 1st "everything is a lesser thing" from bridge)
P-R - 2:30-3:05 (full bridge - starts with "everything is a lesser thing" - plus guitar solo - DO A CRAZY AIR GUITAR SOLO!)
S-V - 3:00-3:35 (quiet chorus until 1st "empty me of me so I can be" of last chorus)
W-Z - 3:30-4:05 (first "empty me of me so I can be" of last chorus until the end of the song - MAKE SURE TO MAKE THOSE HIGH NOTES AT THE END LOOK AS PAINFUL AS POSSIBLE!)

So...the key to this is going to be your creativity...do crazy things and you WILL end up featured in my first video!

To send it, you will need to use a website called yousendit.com. The site is pretty self explanatory...you simply upload your file and send it this email address: emptymevideo@gmail.com.

You need to have your video submission in by October 24 to be in the video!

Now, get to work and thanks for your help in this...I think it's gonna be pretty awesome!

Guys, please pray for the family of Steven Curtis Chapman. Steven Curtis is well known the world over for his stand on international adoption. On Wednesday, one of his sons, driving down their long driveway, hit and killed the Chapman's 5-year old adopted daughter.

I was supposed to play with SCC this weekend at Zellwood. Please pray for those at the event, and for me to have the right words to bring glory to God in this excruciating time. I have no words to convey or understand the pain the family is going through right now.

So, pray for the family, most of all. Steven Curtis has long been one of my heros...and my heart cries for him today.

Hey, I thought for the guitar lovers out there, I'd post some of the equipment I got to use as George Cocchini as the "Tone Chaperone". Basically, George brought over a bunch of stuff for me to use. And it is awesome. I probably got to play on about $50,000 worth of equipment.

GUITARS
'65 Fender Jaguar
'60 Fender Jazzmaster
'75 Fender Telecaster Deluxe
'67 Blonde Fender Telecaster
'63 Brown Fender Telecaster
'61 Gibson ES330
'64 Gibson SG Junio
'05 Gibson SG Heritage
'98 Gibson Les Paul Historic (w/ vintage PAF pickups)
'97 Rickenbacker 6 string

AMPS
'60 Vox AC30
'97 Matchless HC30
'60 Fender Super Amp
Orange Tiny Terror
Bogner Ecstacy 101

SPEAKER CABS
'69 Marshall 4x12
'61 Blonde Vox 2x12

I thought I'd also add in my equipment. I don't have a bunch of vintage gear, but I have had the opportunity to get a lot of really great stuff that I can't wait to play out on the road.

ELECTRIC GUITARS
Michael Kelly Country Gentleman
Michael Kelly Jazz Guitar
Tradition Les Paul
Fender Stratocaster HSS
Fender Telecaster
Fender Telecaster Deluxe
Fender Jagmaster
Gibson Les Paul
Hagner Supersonic

ACOUSTIC GUITARS
Taylor 614ce Special
Takemine EF 350SMBSC

BASS
Fender Jazz Bass

AMPS
Vox AC CC
Peavey Classic 30
Fender Blues Junior
Fender '59 Bassman Reissue
Fender Deluxe
Crate 15-watt
Gallen-Krueger 30-watt tube amp

SPEAKER CABINET
Gallen-Krueger 8x12
Fender Supersonic 2x12
Airline 2x12

The last two days have been a little bit boring, to be perfectly honest. Not a ton to write about, so I decided to combine them into one.

Guitar overdubs are slow and painstaking. Every note has to be perfectly in place. With bass and drums, if something is slightly off, you can go in and move things around. Guitar is a little bit tougher, so everything has to be perfect. I always felt bad because when I'm at home, it can take an hour to get a guitar part right. Then I see pro studio guys take an hour and it makes me feel kinda good...or at least that I'm doing better.

I already told you about George. George has been great all week long, getting the right sounds.

Thursday, we did more of the same. We had 3 songs left for electric overdubs, so we hit it hard...we really wanted to get the songs done so we could start vocals on Friday, after we did some acoustic gutars. So, we started with "Running Back". The rhythm part, we decided should be a little more brit-rock, so we used the Orange Tiny Terror. It sounded pretty freaking great. The part I played was more of a Switchfoot kind of rhythm part, basically downstroke-upstroke in 16ths, while the chord changes happen on off-beats...for those non-musicians, basically that means very syncopated. We started that one and in a couple of takes on each section, nailed that part. Then I doubled the part. Then I tripled the last chorus to give it some extra "umph". I even surprised myself, actually...since I'm supposedly so bad at rhythm I guess I kind of buy into it sometimes. But I/we found my "rhythmic difficulties" untrue in this situation.

We finished that part around lunch time and broke for lunch. Thursday, Sarah stopped by, as well as Mindy, Ash's wife, and thier kids. Debbie, Brown's wife, made a great chicken ceaser salad to help me stick with my diet, which was very kind. Steve Bishir and George and the rest enjoyed it, believe me, but I was thankful they were able to help me. At lunch we took some time to relax and watched part of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"...what a great movie. Such great dialogue. The Coen Brothers are great.

After lunch we went up and worked on "In a Moment", which came really easy. I've played that song so many times that it just kind of comes natural. This new arrangement has such an incredible build to it. It starts off with a slow build and when you get to that last chorus, it is just absolutely huge.

Once again, I nailed the part pretty quickly, then doubled the part.

Then, it was on to the last song: "Cry Tonight". We decided what I needed to play and I pretty quickly got that one down. Seriously, I don't know if it's just the surroundings, but from a rhythmic standpoint, I was on this week. So, that was encouraging...I was scared of taking hours and hours to do electrics. In fact, Brown, thinking that I would have rhythmic difficulties had hired George to be there for a full 3 days for electrics plus a day for acoustics, so we got done a full day early!

After we finished "Cry Tonight" we listened through everything to make sure we had what we needed, then I headed home to get some sleep.

The next day, I showed back up to the studio and the electric guitar equipment was all gone. We immediately got to work on acoustics.

This stuff doesn't really need a bunch of acoustic stuff to carry the rhythm...but Brown really wanted to put some acoustic stuff in the songs for flourishes and just something different sonically.

Ash didn't come in on Friday because it was kind of the same thing we'd done...same studio, same people, etc. So it wasn't quite as fun without him there.

We started off with "Empty Me", which definitely needed an acoustic part. We layered the acoustic guitars, using my Taylor and a 1960 Gibson B-25. My Taylor has a bright and airy sound while the B-25 has a deeper, darker sound. "Empty Me" went pretty quickly and we broke for lunch.

My diet for yesterday was basically a fast, so they went and got great-smelling Mexican food...I was pissed! I wanted to ask someone for something so bad, but held firm. No cheating for me. So, I went back to the control room and ate my 1 oz of cashews and two celery stalks.

After lunch, we listened and decided to add a part to "Cry Tonight". I wrote a really great acoustic part but realized pretty quickly that I just wasn't a good enough guitar player to pull it off in the couple of hours we had before Brown had to leave. So, I taught George the part and he went in and recorded it. It took him 2 and a half hours to get it. So, thank God I didn't try...George is one of the best guitar players in town, so I'm sure it would've taken me twice as long. Anyway, he recorded 3 passes. The first one was with my Taylor which we did stereo. Then we used his B-25 as a mono track. Then he used a 1961 J-45 (the acoustics the Beatles played) to record another mono track. Altogether, they sound great.

As soon as he finished that, Brown headed off, and left us to lock up. We headed out soon after and I went home for some much needed R&R.

However, Mitch invited Sarah and I to go to see TobyMac, Aaron Shust, Superchick and several other bands on the Winter Wonderslam tour. Aaron is on the same label as me and with the same management, so I thought it'd be great to meet him. So I went home, hung out for a little bit and headed off for the show. We got to meet Aaron and hung out with Mitch for a while. These Nashville shows are a veritable churning pot of who's who of CCM, so I met quite a few really cool, influental people backstage. Aaron's show was only 4 songs, but it was really great. I was impressed. Mitch left after Aaron's set, but Sarah and I stuck around for part of Toby's set. Wow. I've seen Toby before and he blew me away, and he didn't disappoint this time. Seriously, the best performer in CCM, easily. He just jumps around stage and his band are all energetic and incredible. You need to see Toby sometime, even if you don't like his music.

And there's the last 2 days.

Today was kind of different. I woke up early and went to pick up Ash and headed back to the house where I had a meeting with the stylist who is doing the styling for my photo shoot for the album, which I am doing next week. She came by the house and just looked through all my clothes to figure out what we have and what we need. Thankfully, Idol did give me some really cool clothes, so we just decided that we needed a few things.

After that, I went to get a massage. I have been having some serious pain in my back, and have been really needing a chiropractor, but haven't had the time or the chance to get to one. Today, Sarah called at the last minute and got me an appointment with the massage therapist close by...I only got 20 minutes with her but it was well worth it, plus I set up an appointment for Friday. Anyway, the 20 minutes was great.

Then it was over to Brown's house/studio at about noon.

Today was really cool because Brown brought in a guy named George Cocchini who is a legendary guitar player in Nashville. He's actually the guy who wrote and played on dcTalk's "Colored People" (in fact tonight, he showed me how to play that guitar part, which is pretty surreal to learn an influential guitar riff from the person who made it up - weird). Anyway, Brown brings George in to be the "Tone Chaperone". Basically, he brings in a bevy of vintage amps, pedals and extremely expensive, vintage guitars that I play. It's great...the work gets done by George and I just get to play...no tuning, no lugging stuff in and out. It's a great concept.

We got the amps set up and the speakers set up with mics on them and once we figured out the right alignment of speaker/speaker cables/amps/etc. then we got to work (this actually took about an hour and a half to get set up). We decided to start on "Know". I got to doing my rhythm parts and was actually in the pocket. As we all know, I have "rhythmic difficulties" so I was pleasantly surprised that I was in the pocket. I actually only took about 45 minutes to lay down my rhythm parts and we all were excited.

A lot of talking and joking around goes on with these guys because they have all worked so much together. As we finished up "Know", Brown thought it might be cool to add a couple of rhythm parts on the riff during the breakdown and on the outro. We added a really high pitched kind of distortion that cut through the mix really well. Then we did a deeper sounding distortion in drop D tuning. Put all together, it sounded great. Then George suggested putting a jangly part at the end of each phrase, so we pulled out an old Rickenbacker 6-string and laid down a nice little section, basically 1 bar at a time. Anyway, you probably won't even notice when we get to the mix, but all of it give a sonic texture.

As we were finishing up all that, Steve Jones, the president of my label stopped by with Mitch. We hung out for a little bit. Steve was in town for a sales conference for Word Distribution, which is the company that my label is distributed through. They invited me to come and perform a couple of songs and to get the sales team on board with the project and get them excited about it as soon as possible.

We got there and Steve got up and told the story of how we had gotten hooked up with each other and then introduced Brown who got up and spoke for a few minutes, basically conveying his excitement about being on the project, saying very kind things about me and the music...and then he introduced me. I went up to the stage and took a seat, cracked a joke and went into the first song, "Pleased". It went well, I think. Then I gave my testimony about coming to the decision to make a CCM record and then sang "Empty Me". I think it went over really, really well. Like I said, I think this might be our big song for this record.

After we got done, many of the sales reps took pics with me and encouraged me that they thought "Empty Me" was a big hit. That's encouraging because it is these guy's jobs. So, I left that feeling very encouraged and good about our chances of breaking in the CCM market. If you have sales guys behind you, you have a great chance of getting great retail space. So, "schmoozing" is a good thing.

We got back to the studio and worked on "Empty Me" (oddly enough) and laid down some really great sounding big guitar parts that filled out the choruses. Seriously, when it hits that chorus, it just feels huge. I can't wait for you to hear it. Stuff is sounding big and huge and Brown is just doing an incredible job of making things sound really, really great.

I should finish guitar parts tomorrow and start vocals on Friday. It's a good possibility I could be done with my parts of the recording with Brown by next week. I'm pumped...one step closer to you guys hearing some music.

By the way...someone asked if it was possible for me to post the new recordings...unfortunately I can't put out the actual produced tracks until the record comes out just for copyright issues. Well, we may put some stuff up on myspace a month or so before the album comes out, but before then, it's not possible. But with that said, I'm counting down the days to you hearing this music.

We got to the studio once again bright and early...10am comes early when you had a 13 hour day the day before. We immediately got to work on "In a Moment". Last night we had gotten the loop and acoustic guitars done for "In a Moment", so we had what we needed to do piano, drums, bass and guitars. Because we had the basic outline for the song already mapped out, and because this song is more along the lines of the AC stuff that these guys normally play, the song went really, really quickly. By noon we had the song done, including punching in everything that wasn't quite right the first time around.

On "In a Moment", we ended up actually keeping a lot of the piano parts that we had on the original, but it's more as a lead part on top of the rhythm, as opposed to THE rhythm part, so it feels similar but not the same as the HPF album's version. The drum part that Dan played was incredible...the real churny part on the bridge sounds so much better with "real drums"...the HPF album was all real drum parts, but we programmed them all to make them sound better. Having "real drums" adds so much harmonically to the part.

Mitch came in from the beginning which is always great...he and I have become really great friends, which is incredible and, I think, rare. After we finished with "In a Moment" we went to lunch at a local Irish Pub. We had eaten there once last week and once again it was incredible...I got chicken this time around though (last time I got a prime rib sandwich).

We went back to work and started on "Cry Tonight". Cry is staying pretty much the same, so we played the demo and immediately got to work. Brown noticed there was a similarity in the notes used in Know and Cry Tonight, so we had Jerry change his basic part on the intro. That was really the only serious change we made. We began work on that song and within another couple of hours we had the track done. Jimmy Lee did some bass parts after the fact, but by 4pm, we had the track done.

And we moved on to the last song for the tracking session: "Empty Me". More and more, as I've performed the song out, we feel like this song has the makings of being a big single for us...obviously you never know how something will work at radio, but people have really, really been reacting to the song, so that is always encouraging.

We began working on the track and took some time to decide on which tempo to go at. The demo was at 70bpm and we tried it at 71 & 72, but ultimately came back to the tempo that we had on the demo Clint and I did a few weeks ago. As soon as we got the tempo set up, the song started to really come together, all the way up to chill bump levels.

As we got to work, Blair and Brown had the idea to make the verses (which start on a minor chord) a little more haunting. So, Blair made the piano part a (and I hate to say this) little more Evanescense-esque. But it worked, really well. And now when you get to the chorus, it just explodes. It really sounds great.

We finished up around 9pm and I headed home...got another studio day tomorrow.

12:15pm

Well, my weekend from Hades is now over. I'm wasted and still fighting off the sickness...but I'm in the studio with the killer bands of killer bands right now, so I can't complain.

Today, I have Dan Needham on drums (a first call session drummer who's played on a plethora of really big CCM albums), Jimmy Lee Sloas (who has played bass on albums ranging from Point of Grace to Megadeth and produced Downhere's 2nd album), Jerry McPherson (amazing guitar player who was in one version of White Heart, if you guys ever liked them, and has literally played on hundreds of big records) and Blair Masters (a keyboard guru who has played on and programmed for tons of stuff that you would recognize)....so, I pretty much have the masters in the studio right now.

My brother Jon is here with me, so that's kinda cool. He took off 2 days of work to come up...he went to Pensacola with Ash and me yesterday, too. I'll have a post about that trip, but it was great and interesting at the same time.

On to the session today.

I got to the studio a little late because I wasn't feeling well and when I got in, everyone was set up and ready to rock and roll. They had listened to the demo of "Running Back" and Brown had decided to start with that, and we immediately went to rocking.

We've taken several takes of everyone jamming on the song and it sounds really, really great. As with everything else, it has taken a step up from the demos. As a side note: I say that demos are crappy, but they really are pretty good for demos...but they are demos. Stuff will change from the demos because the demos are me playing everything and I am limited in my programming AND playing abilities. So, when you get incredible musicians taking my ideas and making them way way better, things start to change a little bit to a lot.

We're working on making sure everything is perfect with "Running Back" and then it's on to lunch and "Know".

9:30pm

Well, after lunch we started working on "Know". The band got in and started rocking pretty quickly. They listened to the song twice and worked out specific drum patterns and guitar sounds and then went to work.

One thing about these guys is that it's obvious they've all worked together a good bit so they know each other really well...lots of joking around, lots of stories, lots of joint stories...all of this adds up, though, to a lot of not recording. So, "Know" took for-freaking-ever to lay down. Plus, this band works a little differently than the other studio bands worked. Jimmy, the bass player likes to wait till everything is down, then go in and record his part. So, once the Dan and Jerry got their parts (through several overdubs and punching), then Jimmy would go and do his part...so it just took longer.

Brown was very kind to my production of the HPF album and very little is changing about the 4 songs from that record (3 that he is doing). "Know" is basically the exact same as the HPF recording, except it will simply sound better than the recording we did on $500 worth of equipment. The arrangement and feel are the same and the players just took mine and Adam's parts and made them better. So, it sounds incredible.

I couldn't be happier with how "Know" is sounding.

After we finished with "Know", Jerry, Blair and Jimmy were able to leave because we were done with them for the day. Dan stuck around for a while to work out a drum loop for "In A Moment". He laid down a nice little loop (after several tries that Brown and I didn't think quite worked) and then he headed out. Brown gave Stephen Leiweke a call to come and lay down soem acoustic, and we ordered pizza while waiting. Stephen got in and set up and after dinner we got to work.

When I originally wrote "In a Moment", I actually wrote the song for Phil. The HPF album was completely done, I thought, when I went to Hollywood week and Phil and I hit it off as roommates during Hollywood week, and I offered to write some songs for him. I wrote him 3 songs..."In a Moment" was 1 of them. I recorded the demo for the song (the track that ended up on the HPF album minus Adam's lead guitar and the strings) and was going to send it to Phil. Adam came over and started working on some mixes and saw the file for "In A Moment" and immediately asked what it was for...I told him and he replied that I would be stupid to give up that song. I let several people listen and they all agreed that I couldn't give that song to anyone. Because of the restrictions with Idol, I didn't feel like I should do any more recording, so we kept that arrangement, even though I really would've done another arrangement for the record than what we did.

So, all that to say: Phil didn't get the song and now that we're re-recording the song, we're doing a little bit of a different arrangement. Instead of piano based, the song is going to be acoustic and loop based...think more "I Could Not Ask For More" kind of feel, but more rocking. If that makes sense.

Anyway, Stephen is recording acoustic guitar part 2 right now. It's almost 10pm. I'm wasted. Should be done in an hour or so. Hopefully I'll be in bed by midnight. Then it's back here tomorrow bright and early.

Here are the songs that will be included on this record, as well as the credits up to now...as more people are involved in the record, I'll add their name in





Running Back
words by Chris Sligh & Tony Wood
music by Chris Sligh

Stars go down in the western sky
The light fades in as the darkness dies
Sunlight, sweet sunlight
Brings the day that You've create

Perfect remedy
For all that tears at me?

Arise, arise with the morning
Arise, your mercies are new
Arise, arise with the morning
That finds me running back to you

Darkness comes and covers all my faults
Tears fall down, sting my wounds like salt
Hopes fade, till I'm caught
In the day that You've created

pre-chorus * chorus

I'm anxiously waiting
Redemption is brimming
With stories created
Each new day
I know you are coming

chorus



I'm Clean
words by Chris Sligh
music by Chris Sligh & Jason Walker

Love is just a picture of your glory
And my best tries at love have fallen short
I pretend these dirty clothes are holy
Knees patched up with grace from you, O Lord
No one is righteous,
But I'm not the one you see

I'm clean,
?I'm covered by forgiveness here
And only You can forget all I've done
I'm clean
Through no good of my own
But when you look at me You see Your Son
And I am clean


Looking back, my past is worth forgetting
But every try brings me to my knees
Where I can see the shades of your forgiving
Each color covers a sinful memory
I can't be righteous
But I'm not the one You see

chorus

On my own,
I'm simply man, at best
But my sin's
As far as east from west
Covered by the blood
That Your Son shed:
His perfection now defines me

chorus



Empty Me
words by Chris Sligh & Tony Wood
music by Clint Lagerberg & Chris Sligh

I've had just enough
Of the spotlight when it burns bright
To see how it gets in the blood
I've tasted my share
Of the sweet life and the wild ride
And found a little is not quite enough

I know how I can stray
And how fast my heart could change

Empty me of the selfishness inside
Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride
And any foolish thing my heart holds onto
Lord, empty me of me so I can be filled with you

I've seen just enough
Of the quick buys of the best lies
To know how prodigals can be drawn away


pre-chorus * chorus

'Cause everything is a lesser thing
Compared to you, compared to you
'Cause everything is a lesser thing
Compared to you, so I surrender all


solo * chorus



Something Beautiful
words and music by Chris Sligh



There's something beautiful
About the way you don't make sense
A crown for a cross, heaven for earth
Beauty for ashes in the dirt

There's something marvelous,
Some kind of mystery in your grace
Love comes from pain, joy comes from loss
Still we find beauty in the cross
And hope from what was lost

Though I can't wrap my mind
Around the mysteries I'll be fine
There's something beautiful in all I can't see through
Though I don't understand today
The mysteries of grace I'll be okay
There's something beautiful in all I can't see through

There's something wonderful
About the way you break my heart
This world for a cross, riches for shame
Trading this glory for your name
And success for lovely gain

chorus

Oh, something beautiful
Oh, something beautiful




chorus * bridge



Pleased
words and music by Chris Sligh

Can you see through all these filthy rags
That I like to call my good
And see the mirror of my heart reflecting you
I know you listen to me, but what do you hear
Am I lovely to your ear?

All I want is to hear you say "well done"



Are you pleased with me?
Am I everything you want for me to be?
Are you pleased?

I know that I am nothing
Outside of who you are
And Your example is the mark I'll never reach
I know you're watching over me, but what do you see
Am I moving towards the grace that covers me?

pre-chorus

Are you pleased with me?
Am I everything you want for me to be?
Am I drawing closer to you?
Is my heart deciding you are all I need?
Are you pleased?


Oh, I know I could never do enough on my own
But still you see me through the precious blood
Oh, it's only the blood of Jesus…
All I want is to hear you say "well done"

pre-chorus * chorus 2



Know
words and music by Chris Sligh

Lost in the windows of time,
You see a time of change
Don't it all feel strange?
Stuck in the reverb of me,
I hear echos of myself
But I can't say what I see.

I'm finding the answers
To my great divide

Someday when the sky is falling I will let you know
Someday when my dreams are caving in I will let you know
I'll let you know

Forget the first verse of life:
There's nothing learned at all -
At least until you fall.
Stratospheres and atmospheres collide,
Worlds come to an end
And there's nowhere left to hide.

pre-chorus * chorus

...when I'm falling
I'll let you know when I'm calling
I'll let you know when I'm breaking
I'll let you know when I'm making it through.

chorus



In a Moment
words and music by Chris Sligh

In a moment, love can pass you by
And in a moment, a heart can come alive

Every moment's getting better
Every moment brings me closer to you

Can I hold you till the morning light
Takes away the dead of night
And sunrise shines on you?
Can love take all these fears away
Till morning comes with brand new day?
It's love that pulls us through
In a moment.

In a moment love can tear you down
And in a moment a heart can come around


pre-chorus * chorus


I feel you in my heart
I feel you in my soul
Oh, you make me whole
In a moment…

chorus



Cry Tonight
words and music by Chris Sligh

You could never understand
Just how scared I am
I've lived and loved and lost a thousand times
Is this a second chance
Just to make it past all my doubt and fear

I don't wanna cry tonight
Don't wanna hang my heart on my sleeve
But you're everything my soul could ever need
Don't wanna cry tonight

It's just a little faith
Gets us further in this race
We both know trust don't come too easily
Is this just romance
Or will we take a chance on something beautiful

chorus 1

I don't wanna cry tonight
Don't wanna know my heart's broke in two
'Cause all I ever need right here is you
I don't wanna cry tonight

Don't say it's hard enough to be myself
'Cause all I ever need is you All I need is you…

chorus 1 * chorus 2





Love Is Raining Down
words and music by Chris Sligh



Feels like the world is spinning out
In all directions
Sometimes it seems like all this doubt
Is an infection
I'm feeling cold, feeling it's too late
I've got the strangest feeling
That it's time to celebrate
Oh, don't hesitate

Dance, dance, can you feel it now
Shake, shake, can you hear the sound
Move, move, do you feel it now?
Love, love, love is raining down
?Love is raining down on me



Feels like the darkness in my head
Is slowly fading
While all the joy you give instead
Becomes engaging
Was shallow love given up too late?
I've got this strange suspicion
That it's time to celebrate
Oh, don't hesitate

chorus * solo section

Just let go...don't hesitate

chorus



Loaded Gun
words by Chris Sligh & Tony Wood
music by Chris Sligh

Love is a loaded gun
And my trigger finger lingers
Waiting for the right time to let this go
I know I'm not the only one
Who feels this; hears this; is it a near miss
'Cuz I think it's finally time to let my feeling's show

Good intentions, is that as far as I can go?

Kind words just a bullet in a chamber
Big talk, but nothing's ever changing
I take aim, but never making my mark
Love can change the world,
But it's gotta start with my heart

Love is the gift of One
And it's all I can't buy but I'm
Looking for a reason I can give it now
Every single mother's son
Reaches out for love from someone
And I hold the key to breaking through the doubt

pre-chorus * chorus * breakdown * chorus



Waiting
words and music by Chris Sligh

It sure seems like you're taking your time
I'm just waiting for the sun to shine
I don't wanna go another day without you here
Without you here to stay

It's half past forever and I'm still waiting for you
I'm still waiting for you
It's half past forever and I'm still waiting for you
I'm still waiting for you
Yeah, I'm waiting

All I want is to see you smile
'Cause if a blink takes forever, this might take a while
I don't wanna go another without you here
I want you here to stay

chorus

It's never gonna be enough to dream of you
It's never gonna be enough to dream of you
I wanna see you, I wanna see you

chorus



Potential
words and music by Chris Eaton & Chris Sligh

We were young, with hopes to last a lifetime
Burning dreams of anticipation
10 years on and we're still trying to figure out
What to be when we grow up

We're almost 30
Still getting it together
Getting desperate:
Is this gonna take forever?

Oh, does everybody feel this way...
Getting old but never growing up?
Oh, is there a destination waiting for me...
Where I can finally meet the man I'm meant to be?

We are young, with hopes that fade with ages
Life is full of empty pages
We're like a river, twisting and turning
But never finds the open sea

chorus * build-up interlude

Oh, I need someone to change me
I need someone to show me
Where could I begin
Oh, I need someone to lead me
Hold my hand and take me
To where I've never been
Getting desperate:
Is this gonna take forever

chorus





Running Back, Empty Me, Let You Know, In a Moment, Cry Tonight & Loaded Gun produced by Brown Bannister

Dan Needham - drums
Jimmy Lee Sloas - bass
JerryMcPherson - electric guitar
Chris Sligh - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, wurly, synth, programming, string arrangements
Don Chapman - string arrangements, key strings


Are You Pleased?, Something Beautiful & Potential produced by Brown Bannister & Stephen Leiweke

Will Denton: drums
Joey Canaday: bass
Stephen Leiweke: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, synth, keys
Jason Walker: piano, wurly
Chris Sligh: electric guitar, piano, wurly, synth


I'm Clean, Love Is Raining Down & Waiting For You produced by Will Owsley

Jim Bogios: drums
Will Owsley: bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keys
Jason Walker: piano
Chris Sligh: piano, synth, programming, wurly, electric guitar

2:30pm

I woke up and headed off to the studio. I am tired...this week has been packed with a lot of stuff. 3 long recording sessions in a week, plus a show, plus pre-production. Then tonight I leave for Greenville, SC for a show tomorrow morning for the Meyer's Cancer center, and then tomorrow night I'm getting with Don to work on string arrangements and to hang out a little bit. Friday we're then waking up early and heading off from Greenville to Chatanooga, TN to sing for my cousin's wedding. Then, after the morning wedding, Sarah and I are driving back to Nashville, and at 7pm a private plane is picking, Sarah, Ash and I up at a local airstrip and we are all flying to Pensacola for me to play a solo acoustic show for Marcus Pointe Baptist Church in Pensacola that just worked out at the last minute. Then Monday & Tuesday of next week, I have 2 more tracking sessions at the same place I've been at for these 2 sessions. So, it's 8 days of craziness.

But it's good craziness.

Anyway, I picked up Ash and we headed off to the studio. We got there around 10 and immediately started to load stuff from my hard drive to the session tracks. We are working on "I'm Clean", "Love Is Raining Down" and "Waiting For You" with Will Owsley producing, and Will likes a lot of the pre-production stuff I have in the demos, so we just imported some of the synth and keyboard stuff into these sessions. As soon as I walked in the door, we quickly took care of that.

Right as we were starting on the first song, my manager, Mitch came in to hang out for a while. Mitch and I have gotten to be great friends, so it's always nice to have him around. He was playing skippy at work to come hang out and listen for a while.

Jim Bogios, the drummer for Counting Crows now (and he's played with Sheryl Crow for years, as well as Dixie Chicks and several other major bands), and I hung out for a while as Will got stuff hooked up and ready. Seriously, Counting Crows has been one of my favorite bands for a long time (at one point they were all I listened to) and Adam Duritz has long been a songwriting hero of mine, so to have the drummer that Adam picked for his band playing on my record is an honor and extremely awesome! And on top of all that, Jim Bogios is just a cool, laid back cat who's just a great hang.

Will had lost a bunch of stuff because his Mac crashed so he hadn't had a chance to work out his bass parts, so we decided that today would be just a Jim Bogios day.

The first song we started on was "I'm Clean". We took a couple of minutes to make sure the sound were great and then Jim started to playing. After the first take, we had what we needed. For safety's sake, we took one more take, but when we comped the two takes together, we used the first take and something like 2 bars from the second take. Amazing.

Session players in Nashville are incredible players, but for the most part they are very safe playing...it's really hard to talk a session player into just rocking out, which is good...for the most part you want session players to not detract from singer/songwriter they are playing for. Jim, though, can do that, but comes from a band situation where he's able to show off a little more, which was exactly what I was looking for. He came in and just ROCKED the FREAK OUT!!! So much energy and so in the pocket. I'm in love with Jim Bogios's drumming.

After we finished with "I'm Clean" we immediately went into "Love Is Raining Down". As we were taking the first pass through the song, a rack mount broke on Jim's drum set, so we took an early lunch. Mitch, Steve (the engineer), Ash and I walked down to an Irish pub for lunch while Jim and Will ran off to Fork's Drum closet to grab something to fix the drum set.

We ate and and ran back to the studio. Soon after we got back, Jim and Will got back and we immediately started tracking. For the loops we decided to create live loops with Jim playing, but do some wacked out EQ and compression to make it sound distorted and loopy. So, we decided to break up the drums and "loops". We first took 2 takes of drums and had all that we needed. Once again, Jim nailed it like crazy. Then we took 2 takes of the "loops" after Steve had changed a bunch of settings and now we're comping those together to make a track.

3:30pm

We started working on "Waiting For You" about 30 minutes and we have what we need. Simply incredible. Jim Bogios went in and nailed an extremely complex drum part in 1 take. I seriously have never worked with a drummer as freakishly great as Jim. We're just listening and comping and then I'm going home. Shortest studio day yet. Amazing.

I can't wait for you guys to hear this.

I woke up early again today and went and worked out. I drove home, took a shower and jumped in the car to go pick up Ash. I got Ash and we headed off, getting Stephen's a few minutes after 11. Stephen was listening to "Pleased" when we got there, trying to figure out what else it needed. After a few listens we figured out it just needs some guitar parts done by Stephen later on. These 2 days of overdubs are specifically for trying to get as much stuff from me as possible, so Stephen's stuff will have to wait, if possible. So, we moved on to "Something Beautiful".

"Something Beautiful" took a really great turn...it still has an 80's vibe, but instead of 80's pop, it's more like 80's pop/rock. The little synth intro is gone and replaced by a big guitar/bass riff. It's real punchy and cool.

Today, we sat down and started off with Stephen laying down a rhythm part. I would normally play it but the part is a little more complex than usual, and after a couple of tries, we decided that Stephen should go ahead and lay down the part just for time's sake. He went to work and after a few takes, he had the part. I sat down at the keyboard and laid down a nice little piano part. As soon as I figured out the part, I laid down the part and then we added some effects to it to mess it up a little. We changed the piano sample from a grand piano to an upright piano...for those who don't know: grand piano would sound a more like 70's & 80's Elton John...upright sounds like John Lennon's "Imagine" or some Coldplay stuff. The upright sounds a little dirtier. After we figured out the sample, we put a distortion on the piano, which made it a little more dirty. Then we added an echo delay, which finished up the "messing up" of the sound.

I then moved on to a synth part. Stephen just got this new program called MiniMonsta. It's a synth based program that samples all the great Moog sound from the 70's and 80's. It has a ton of presets to start with and like 20 knobs that you can then turn to change the synthesis and the way the sound is produced. It has filters and knobs just like a regular Moog, so you can really get great, great synth sounds that other programs I've messed with have failed to recreate.

I started off laying down a synth part on the verses. The part was just a simple one part melody that was contrapuntal to the verse melody and I moved on to the pre-chorus part, which was an arpeggiated melody that fit really nicely under the melody. We listened to it a few times and really felt we loved the synth part and Stephen added a really, really simple melody on the chorus underneath the vocal melody.

Stephen then went to work on another big rhythm guitar part. He laid that one down a little slower because it was vital for this specific part to be exact. It's a little crunchy chunky part he did with a strat through an old 70's Marshall head that kind of had that Police "Every Breath You Take" vibe to it on the verses. On the choruses, he did an octave part that kind of added some movement in the choruses. It was really cool.

I then got an idea to double the bass part on the verses with a synth bass. We got this really great 80's-sounding synth bass with a great filter sound (you can hear it opening up and down). On top of the real bass it gave it this really cool Maroon 5 or 80's pop/rock sound.

As we finished that up, Stephen went to work on some more guitar parts. Sarah stopped by and she stayed for a little bit while we worked. While we working I uploaded a bunch of photos from the first day of studio work on myspace. I also played some Tiger Wood's Golf on PSP.

I had to leave a little early because I had a show tonight. One of the larger booking agents in town also has a sports side of things. They were having a banquet tonight to celebrate a piece of their side of things where they put on Faith Nights at sporting events. They were meeting with well-to-do people to contribute to their idea, as they just moved from a 'for-profit" to a non-profit. They wanted to give the meeting the feel of a Faith night, so they had music and a testimony from a Christian pro athlete. I was the music.

I sang 3 songs and it went really, really well. And now I'm back at home and I'm going to bed early. I work out again tomorrow morning and then it's off to the big studio again for my tracking session with Will Owsley. Tomorrow is really cool...Jim Bogios, the drummer for Sheryl Crow for several years and now the drummer for Counting Crows (which is of course one of my favorite bands) is flying in from San Fransisco to play on these 3 songs! I am pumped!!!

Anyway, today was a great day. We got a lot done.