My friends at Resound Worship have just released a new book. Joel Payne and Sam Hargreaves host the wonderful Resound Worship Songwriting Podcast which every month offers thoughts on the songwriting process, interviews and other content including my favourite segment, ‘dissect a classic’ – which is pretty much what it says on the tin. There’s … More New Book for Worship Songwriters
“I like lists”, one prominent worship songwriter once told me in passing after glancing over my shoulder during a songwriting conference. (I’ll leave you to guess who.) Lists are great. Lists are options. Lists are brain dumps. Lists are low investment, high return. You can have a list for everything. I don’t just mean your … More Songwriting: The secret power of lists
Darkened sky,Barren hill –Bloody field,Deathly still.Circling cryRings the sky,High aboveThe scarecrow. Hanging head,Flapping wind,Tortured mouth –Weight of sin.All who passLaugh at him,Passing byThe scarecrow. Limp in limb.Heavy eyesDrooping, seeAll that lies.Not a word,Not a sound –MercifulThe scarecrow.
So, ironically, I’m beginning to draft this blog post at 6am after having been lying awake for a while unable to sleep. But, as it turns out, that’s a good thing. This TED talk all about sleep explains why – at the end of it, the advice given to someone who is lying in bed … More 4 ways I’ve learned to sleep better
My Nan and dementia Late last year, my Nan passed away. She was the last of my grandparents to go. First, her husband some 12 years previous, who was taken rather suddenly with pneumonia. Over the ensuing years my maternal grandparents both went by heart attack – my Grandad on the golf course; my Gran … More Fully Known – A reflection on dementia in the age of knowledge
Taken from the new album Spring Rain, this song explores the meaning of the cross – in all its horror, and its beauty. There were several things I deeply wanted to capture when writing this song. One was a sense of the ‘crucified God’ – the fact that we worship a God who gave his … More A song for Good Friday – new lyric video
While we try to deal with a few punctuation-related technical issues for online distribution of Spring Rain, the album is now available to stream, download or order as a hard copy from Bandcamp! I’m really pleased with the album and have been getting some great feedback from the Kickstarter supporters who have received their pre-release copies. … More Spring Rain: Hard copies and downloads now available from Bandcamp.com
I’ve had a copy of The Bible for Everyone for just over 24 hours now. These are my initial impressions. … More The Bible for Everyone – Immediate Impressions
Behind the scenes It might be erroneous to advertise that I can give a full behind-the-scenes tour of the writing of this song, as frankly it has been a couple of years since its genesis, and I can’t remember much of how it started. I don’t know which part was the first idea to come. … More Behind the songwriting process for ‘Spring Rain’ (with lyric video)
Continuing my attempted trend of blogging about the books I read each year (here’s 2017 . . . that’s it so far), here’s how 2018 shaped up – and it was a pretty good one. First of all, in 2017 I managed 10 books; this year I was somehow able to bring it up to … More The 15 books I read in 2018
