Aaaaaaaaamazing

I just came back from an amazing musical mountain retreat that was one of the highlights of my life. We took 9 FINK Music Guilders away and wrote 28 Bible verse songs in 48 hours.

 

The first 8 albums Faith Inkubators produced were Luther's Catechism verbatim, along with accompanying Bible verses. They were fine and campy for their day, but ten years has passed and some of the music just didn't work anymore.

 

So we put the word out in our Faith Inkubators Music Guild (40 musicians) that we needed to do a little rewrite and invited them to the mountains outside of Salida, CO.

 

We voted the two worst songs off each album, then wrote new ones (NRSV verbatim + Luther's Catechsim). Then we chose the next two weakest songs and did the same. With a portable studio and a bunch of inspired folks, we cranked and cranked and...

This was our modus operandi:
1. Once the verses were chosen, we broke into writing groups of 2 -3 and handed each a verse.
2. Four groups disappeared to write, and came back with songs which we cranked out every 15 minutes
3. Groups would take their new song to the studio downstairs and lay down the guitar first and voice second
4. Then we'd mix the writing groups up and send them away with another verse, repeating the process.

 

Well, pardon my enthusiasm, but it was an amazing time. Prayer. Tears. Exhaustion. Food. And laughter, laughter, laughter.  Literally 28 in 48 hours. (Including hiking time, snowballs, eating, and only a little sleep.)

Thanks to Craig T. Olsen, Meg Sander, Tim Tahtinen, Dale Francis, Angie Witmer, Mike Lee, Dave Roggee, Jon Anderson, and to our host Nancy Nordhagen Hellenbolt!

We're gathering Feb. 15 at Badlands Studios, 423 S. Main in Stillwater for dinner, a listen to the songs, a divvy up of new verses, and photos of our next Guild Retreat site in Puerto Rico next January.

For extra photos, check the gallery called Aaaaamazing!