new CD on iTunes

"A New Heart" is now available on iTunes, along with "My Money Talks: songs for worship." My first two CDs will soon be available there too.

For some reason I've been having trouble posting a direct link to the page of the iTunes store (digital dinosaur that I am)... but hey, if this is how you access your music, you know how it works.

(UPDATE, sent in by alert-and-media-savvy-reader-and-friend-who-happens-to-work-for-Apple: the link is RIGHT HERE.)

Enjoy! Tell your friends! And your enemies!

new cd has arrived!

It's here! Hooray! Have a look...

it's off!

The new CD is done! Took the master in yesterday, signed off on the design, and away it goes to be pressed, printed, poked, prodded... The initial run of 1000 copies should be in my hands by the end of the month...

the shiver test

The "shiver test" has become a very reliable way for me to evaluate a song that I've recorded. When we get it right, and I am really moved by a song (mine or someone else's), I literally get shivers up and down my back.

Today we finished preliminary mixes of all the songs for the new CD. "Shiver test" results? EVERY SINGLE SONG, at one point or another.

And listening yet again in the car on the way home I found myself weeping. Sleep deprivation (from too long spent in the manic stage of the recording/mixing process, not sleeping at night because of loops of songs playing endlessly in my head)...? Inexpressible relief (that it seems like this record is actually going to get finished and be good)...? Overwhelming gratitude (for the amazingly gifted people that have made these songs sound way better than they have any business sounding)...? Moved and comforted and challenged and encouraged by the songs themselves...?

All of the above, I think.

By the way, I'll be on summer blogging schedule from here on in... less frequent and more sporadic than my once-per-week non-summer pattern... wishing you a wonderful summer... come on back for a visit now and then...

the gears they are a-changin'

Well, after a very good (and intense) weekend as part of the North America Stewardship Conference in Toronto (so many highlights... some powerful speakers... Bill Phipps' keynote address on the first night, and Rick Tobias on the next night particularly moved and inspired me), I'm now in the throes (throws?) of the final stages of recording for the new CD (recording some children's and group vocals here at home - last session in the studio this Saturday, with the flute/pennywhistle/clarinet player and hopefully the trombone and trumpet players as well)... and beginning work on the graphic design phase... while packing boxes for our impending move, and getting set for our various summer travels (I'll be heading to Paraguay for 2 weeks as part of the songleading team for the Mennonite World Conference Assembly there)...

And in a few minutes Matthew gets home from his last day as a grade 6 student... looking forward to celebrating that with him as well...

Summer's here!

how many styles in a week?

... let's see...

Thursday morning - recording some bluegrass for the new CD with Darren and Rick at CedarTree.

Friday night - all-ages concert in Alma

Saturday night - performing some Cuban and Andean music with Amos, and jamming with South African jazz musicians at the "World Music Collaborative Concert" at the "Sound in the Lands" festival

Sunday morning - accompanying congregational singing, led by Julie, with our church community

Tuesday night - recording some Amos Lopez originals in our kitchen

Wednesday morning - laying down some accordion parts and pretending to be a Cajun player at another recording session for the new disc...

All in a week's work. Whew! Good fun.

in awe

Recording the new album is going so well, and I'm having so much fun doing it, and I'm in such awe of the incredible musicians that are collaborating with me on this project... I'm having trouble thinking about anything else.

nice to hear

Apparently MPN's "Catch The Spirit" 2009 VBS curriculum has been selected as a "Top Pick" by the Center for the Ministry of Teaching of Virginia Theological Seminary (CMT)... The article says that "the Center’s evaluation highlights the curriculum’s focus on worship and the original music by Mennonite composer Bryan Moyer Suderman as particular strengths."

Nice to hear...

new recording and "upper body injury"

NHL hockey players are not the only "tough guys" that battle through physical injuries during the grueling "second season" of the Stanley Cup Playoffs... it turns out that recording artists occasionally have to "take one for the team" as well...

Last week we began the recording sessions for my new CD (the 4th to be released on my SmallTall Music label), and I'm very excited about it! So excited that it seems I somehow injured my shoulder (was it the vigorous guitar playing all day Monday as Darren laid down those drum tracks...? Or the continuous tossing of various backpacks and instruments over my right shoulder while getting on and off buses to get back home after the session? Or perhaps it has something to do with my now 40-year-old body and all those tennis games over the weekend - the first of the spring...)

Anyway, I find myself nursing what the doctor calls (please pardon the melodramatic medical jargon) a "mild shoulder sprain"... trying my best to ice it regularly and down enough anti-inflammatories so that I can play through the injury and heroically head into tomorrow's recording session and fight through the pain to do a bunch of guitar tracks...

It's tough being a tough guy, but I'll do my best. Better watch some more playoff hockey, to draw inspiration from those that grind it out and give 110% and play it one game at a time and leave it all on the ice and don't let such minor things as broken bones and facial scarring get in the way of a good playoff run... and if I can avoid fisticuffs in the studio, that would be great too (so far so good), although Rick at CedarTree Studios has been telling stories of various bands (such as The Police) for whom such activities were all in a day's work and part of "the creative process." Maybe I should give it a try.

But then again, given my lack of success with such basic macho requirements as a "playoff beard," maybe not... I can only carry this "tough guy recording artist" image so far...

In fact, maybe I should go the other way and try getting in touch with my "sensitive side"...

Which reminds me, where did I put that ice pack?

pulled in two directions

As we get started on recording the new SmallTall Music CD (Yippee!!), I find myself pulled in two (at least) directions.

I had a conversation with a close friend last week who said "I don't know if I'm ready for a new CD from you yet, Bryan... I think the last one is so important, and relevant... I'd like to see you ride that one a while longer, and get it into more people's hands and hearts... I'd be sad to see you move on from that material already..."

This would be one representative voice from the camp that has been particularly moved by the songs I've written that are more "adult oriented", that lean more toward the "tall" than the "small"... and that have been encouraging me to write and record more in that vein...

And then there is another friend with a small child who recently told me "I hope your next CD will have some more songs that are fun and playful again..." This would be a representative voice from the camp that regularly tells me things like this: "I have been looking and looking for good Christian music for my children (or "for the children I teach/lead"), and I've been so discouraged by what I find... until I found your stuff. Thank you so much! Songs that are fun and engaging and easy to sing along with, that express a theology that I can support and feel good about..."

The other night I got together with "the band" to explore the new batch of songs that we'll be recording in the next two months, and again it is a real mix of "songs for small AND tall"... some are really fun, rather quirky, with some delightfully silly moments (I've been having fun with these in concert already), and others are more reflective and a couple are fairly dark - one that is even quite "apocalyptic" in its imagery, and another that is an expression of deep pain and hurt.

Can I get away with putting all these songs on one album?

This is not the "conventional wisdom" of how "the music business" - or even how the world of "Christian ministry resources" - works. I really have not been able to find a better label for my music than "songs of faith for small and tall," because that is EXACTLY what they are. The new CD will have songs that are guitar-based folky, a few that are piano-driven, others that are bluesy, jazzy, one that might be bluegrass...

Is it "children's music?" "Christian contemporary?" Gospel? Folk/Roots? Something else?

Too bad iTunes and music awards don't categorize artists by theology, ecclesiology, and missiology rather than by "genre"...

In any case, I continue to be pulled in different directions, as from a "marketing" perspective I'm sure it would be more "effective" to pick a "category" and release songs that way... and yet I continue to resist that approach, because what I do really is for the CHURCH, which is an intergenerational body, and I continue to be driven by the question "what do we need to SING together?"

If you have any thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them.

smalltall studio sessions

Just finished the recording sessions for the Year 4 Gather 'Round CD... check out this amazing recording facility... note the tremendous care taken to create a comfortable, informal, homey atmosphere... complete with dishes in the sink... (ok, don't look that closely...)

The sessions at Many Streams were fun too - that's where we recorded the drums, piano, and some guitar and lead vocals.

And how about all those SmallTall Recording Artists? Thanks Mara, Janine, Kenrich, Geralde, Elise, Samara, Susie, Matthew, Julie, Emily, Annika, Aiden, Charlene, Darren, John... it's a delight to make music with you all!

more than I can chew?

... and, it's no secret, I can chew quite a bit...

Just about finished sending out the second annual surge of "renewal notices" marking the second anniversary of my "membership" (or "Community Supported Music") system. The fact that it is in some ways a hum-drum administrative task is tempered significantly by the fact that it's so much fun to be in touch with all these folks who for some reason seem to care what I do... I am grateful...

While I'm excited about the chance this year to "raise the ceiling" of what I'm able to take on (in terms of performances and projects and so on), I've been so swamped for the past two weeks that I'm beginning to wonder if I've bitten off more than... ok, you get the picture...

So the fact that I've posted so little lately has - I assure you - nothing to do with a decrease in the regular bursts of brilliantly bloggable ideas... it's just that when the bursts come they've been finding me... how shall I say this... I'll settle for too-tired-to-think-straight. Not that that's ever been a pre-condition for blogging, but it does help if you can keep your face off the keyboard.

And today Matthew and I set a new world record for daddy-waking-up-late-and-getting-father-and-son-fed-and-to-the-bus-stop-just-in-time. Eleven minutes flat.

one down, two to go

Today I hand over the "master" for the first of 3 CDs I'm scheduled to do this year.

This one is the CD of songs to accompany the Vacation Bible School curriculum for next summer. It's a relatively small project, and I've done all the recording (and mixing and "mastering," such as it is) with my home studio set up. It's actually gone way better than I expected, and I'm getting the hang of a lot of features of the Cubase recording program (including editing features) that I've never tried before.

Not bad for a non-techie like me!

Next up is the Year 4 CD for the "Gather 'Round" Sunday School curriculum. This is a bigger project (more songs, significantly bigger circulation), and I'll be doing some of it in my home studio but some at another studio (hopefully Many Streams with John and Mike). Planning to do that in November.

And then in the new year it's time for the next SmallTall Music studio album... the 4th... This one, as the biggest project, will be done pretty much entirely in the studio with "the pros."

It's going to be a good (and full) year. Looking forward to it!

new songbook

It's here...! Hooray!

how does it feel...

... now that the new CD is done and "out there"?

Exhilarating? Euphoric? Exhausted? Relieved?

The reaility, when I first picked up the discs and started letting them go...

Terrified, mostly.

Hmmm...

Oh, and thankful too. Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

The new CD is here!

Well, almost. It's at "the plant" getting pressed, printed, poked, prodded, and whatever else they do to these things before they are unleashed on the public.

But the new CD is available for pre-order online, and you can hear some tracks, read some excerpts from liner notes, and view some of the album art here.

You can also see where we're going to be having some concerts and parties and sharing this new music... join us if you can!

Now you know why blogging has been so sporadic lately.

More soon...

decision time

Julie loves to get things done, cross them off the list, and move on. When she writes a letter (the old-fashioned kind, on paper, that you put in an envelope with a stamp, remember?) she immediately seals the envelope and sets it aside. Ahhh, done. Finished. What's next?

I, on the other hand, have a terrible time sealing envelopes of any kind, ever. What if there's something else I might want to add? I want to keep all my options open as long as possible. I don't like to seal it up until I'm standing by the mailbox, and the letter is about to go through the slot, and I absolutely have to... if I really want it to get where it's going, that is.

Well, it's decision time - "envelope-sealing time" - with my new CD project. I've been recording for a couple of months already, rather excited about how things are turning out, but there are still LOTS of things that I've left open-ended because for me the songs are living, breathing, evolving things, vastly variable and adaptable in public performance and use, and it kills me to set down a "final" version on the recording that becomes identified, somehow, as "definitive" and "the way the song goes."

So...

Should I add the backing vocals one at a time over a couple of "repeats" of that refrain, or should they all come in full-force right off the top...?

Which lyric should I use for verse three, since I've recorded two different versions and I like to use different variations in live performance...?

Should the violin take the solo for the whole chorus, or just kick in after the first two phrases, or maybe just after the first (we recorded all 3 versions, just in case, and I could talk all day about the interpretive possibilities and implications of each one)...?

I thought I'd decided to keep that last chord unresolved, but I keep having second (and third, and fourth) thoughts...

And on and on it goes. I'll spare you.

This week Matthew and I head to Winnipeg, where I'll have two full weeks in the studio to "wrap up" this project (at least the "audio" portion - then there's all the design stuff).

Anyway, it's time to get this done and move on. Hold my breath (and probably my nose), make some decisions, seal the envelope and drop it in. There's a new cycle of songs for the fall that I'm itching to get started...

seasons

It feels like I'm going through an abrupt seasonal shift. And no, this time I'm not talking about climate change.

The last few months have been a fairly intensive time of songwriting - a season I've been enjoying very much. A couple of weeks back I met with a small group of folks and sang through 13 or 14 new tunes to get their reaction and feedback as I work toward the new CD project. I think from that round there are probably 8 or 9 "keepers," some of which I've also tried out with my home congregation and a couple of other groups.

Now it seems I need to make the shift to a more "administrative" season, as I need to:

- get going on logistics for the new recording (figuring out who I will record with, where, when, how...)
- take care of some detail stuff for my March tour in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana
- post my February delivery of songs to the members of SmallTall Music (the songs are written and ready to go, but I need to record them, get the notation done, and write up the accompanying resources)

Another STM membership arrived in the mail yesterday - it's been great to see how word of this "CSM" ("Community Supported Music" - the kind of "musical CSA" that I've been developing) is getting around and, I think, gaining some momentum. So much so, in fact, that another friend and colleague has been in touch with me to help him set up his own CSM...

And speaking of friends and colleagues, it's good to see that Phil and Darryl are up to their old (new) tricks again, and that the word is getting out... (see the "Arts and Culture" section of the January 22 issue - for some reason it won't let me link to the actual article). Not only does Phil build great guitars (he built mine), he also writes great tunes (he was the "guest artist" on my last delivery of songs), and I'm glad to see he's sharing his stuff more broadly. And Darryl's been making great music - and helping other people make their own - for a long time too... So go have a look and a listen and share your own creativity as well...

"...to everything there is a season...turn, turn, turn..."

(I know, with a title like "seasons" you were probably wondering when I'd get around to referencing Ecclesiastes/Pete Seeger... so there you go...)