Howdy Folks!
I’m just a humble dude. Not very big on that there book learnin’. When my church asked me to record music at the start of this pandemic so that people could experience the in person fellowship experience at home, I was delighted to do so. I have an outstanding grand piano at my house and a bunch of recording equipment from my days recording and playing in rock and reggae bands. The first few songs went pretty well so they asked for more. Well as you could imagine, after a few months I accumulated a little collection of home recorded music. To me it seemed only right and charitable that I make it available to a wider audience, and thus the Hymn from Home project was born.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
Now since I aint no clever legal scholar, I am only recording the songs that are fairly old from standard Methodist, Baptist and Adventist hymnals. From what I have gathered, older songs are considered Public Domain and recording them should not get me into any copyright hot water. That’s fine to me as some of our best hymns have come from the First and Second Great Awakening periods of American history. This was a time, from the late 1700s to the mid 1800s where our soaring spirit of National Expansion and growth fueled a parallel expansion of spirituality and a bit of a yearning to return to our moral roots. Following the Civil War even more great hymns were produced both in the States as well as in England that have become part of our musical canon. In the early 1900s, as Jazz emerged to bring more rhythms and flavors imbued with old African American spirituals, our store of hymns increased further with great diversity. So hopefully that’s enough to go on for now. Oh I might have also mixed in some 80s metal in here too, because, I mean, why not. Even heathens go to church too.
MUSIC STYLE
So the recordings are really basic. Not a lot of technical wizardry so far. I know that some of them fancy churches have similar recordings with a full band or an orchestra. But nah, that’s not me. I keep it simple like a small one room church with wooden benches out in the country. Just a couple of mics on one piano. That’s it.
Also I play the songs pretty vanilla with a straight tempo. Not too many embellishments. I’ve been to many churches and I am going for a sound that is universal and common, which might mean a bit boring. Sorry folks. Of course, some times I will betray my Baptist roots and swing the songs just a little bit.
WORDS and LYRICS
Yeah so some hymnals to common songs have verses and words in different orders. So in those cases, as always I rely on a higher power to make the call. And of course, that higher power is Google. So yea, verily I say that if it comes up first in a Google search, that’ll be the lyrics I go with.