My friend Dave Stuntz of Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC is planning to use my Psalm 127 song “Rest in the Lord” this Sunday and asked if I had a demo he could play his musicians. Indeed, I did not. I have a video of me yacking about the song in a Calvin new song chapel, and though I do play the song at the end of the video, it’s not something I would put my own musicians through, never mind Dave’s musicians.
So I decided to take the opportunity to record a quick demo of the song. It was going to be strictly a one-take affair, but you know how it goes: a cord crackles, it feels empty without the bass, boy it could really use a shaker and some background vocals…
This is also a good opportunity to update the music. I’ve made a few small changes recently, so if you have an older version of the song destroy it without delay and download the new new PDFs of the leadsheet or vocal/piano score.
Then we’ll wait for a report from Dave about how it went, and maybe he’ll even be willing to share a recording from their service.

I’m helping with worship at the WCRC event in G.R.usalem this week. On Wednesday morning there’s a band and a string quintet leading the worship service. I thought it would be nice to put them together at some point in the service. After all, the theme of the conference is “unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.” Shouldn’t that include praise bands and string quintets joining together in sweet harmony?
Faithful followers of this music blog know that I love nothing more than a good song contest. I’m not sure if it’s the thrill of the chase, the fun of donning a completely different musical guise for each contest, or the quirky satisfaction of adding “winner of the Robot Dance Song Contest” to my resume–but I can’t say no to a contest.