"This is Nashville..."

This past weekend I had the opportunity to ride on the coattails of a dear friend, Leimomi, at church who is a songwriter. She asked me to accompany her and her husband to Nashville to sing one of her songs for a demo CD that she will hopefully market to vocal artists and interested labels. Her daughter, Liz, sang another one of her songs that will go on the CD. Steph joined me for the road trip down to Nashville with 6 CD's packed with some of our favorite tunes to rock to on our 5-hour journey. She visited one of her friends from high school during her time in Music City. We had a blast with jam sessions, good conversations, and some nice food during our car rides.

I was awed by the process of making a song from conception to finished product. On Saturday morning, the group entered the studio, which happens to be the home of a music publishing business that produces the songs of some of my favorite artists, including Steven Curtis Chapman, Chris Tomlin, as well as the Wow series. The Gaithers' TN Studio may or may not occupy space in the same building. No big deal... Liz said that it is surreal to see Gloria walk by every once in a while. When I walked into the building, there was a package on the front desk with a casual post-it, "For CeCe Winans". I think I was just a little bit star-struck.

On Saturday morning we began layering the song, beginning with a the music that Leimomi had created. One of Liz's friends, Matt, is an incredible recording engineer and musician and had added instruments and drums to the tunes. We then recorded vocals over the music. Next came the guitar parts, played by an amazingly-skilled friend of Liz and Matt. He actually layered 3 guitar parts to enhance the sound of the song. Liz put some background vocals on the song that I sang. On her song, they layered her voice 4 times over. She was a one-woman "Point of Grace". It sounded incredible.

Over the next couple of weeks Matt will "mix" the songs to perfection and produce the demo. I might share the final product with you here if I can...or you can support Leimomi and buy a copy. :) Her husband, Tim, is working on album covers... :)

All in all, it was a great Nashville experience. What better place to make some music? One of the running jokes throughout the day when someone made a mistake or did something unprofessional was the scolding, "That's just not gonna cut it. This is Nashve-uhl" (said with a sophisticated southern accent). I know God will be honored by Leimomi and the team's work.