Finish Line

Thanks to all of you who attended the concert last Sunday night! Your support is overwhelming and very exciting! Thanks also if you've purchased a cd. I hope you enjoy the songs and are encouraged!

I'm so proud of the whole project from all of Jeremy's expertise to Mike Gerber's (Crash31) magic on the cover design. Thanks also to Derek Miles Taylor for some great Photos and Express Printing for their service on printing. Everyone's contribution has been 'top-shelf' and I'm so excited!

So here we are at a sort of finish line, release concert complete and pre-sale cd's being delivered! It's a mixture of relief and disbelief that we've come this far in only 8 months. While this is an ending it opens the doors to new things ahead; what all those are I have no clue! For now I'm ready to rest a bit and celebrate where we've been!

Thanks for your encouragement along the way,

Love to y'all

Sam

There will be childcare too!

CD (ep) Release Concert

It's a mix of nervous excitement as I look forward to the culmination of this years music efforts!

It all started with random email to Jeremy Casella about how to pick songs if I were thinking of putting together a collection of original tunes. So here we are 7 1/2 months later having dreamed, practiced, asked for support, practiced, worried, prayed, edited lyrics, rejoiced, recorded, met phil keaggy, listened, liked, asked for more support, thanked, received help, and so much more.... any way if you're still reading disc makers should have the discs back early October and we'll stuff the jackets number the pre-orders and tune and go! Its gonna be an awesome night!!! Jeremy is so hugely talented and just an awesome person!! Dave Smith will be joining with percussion and he rocks too! I'll post more details as we get closer. Email me If I'm missing some major details.

Love to you all!

Sam

Joy!!!

Yes! We're back home and were glad to sleep in our own beds last night! Friday was amazing recording at Phil's and watching him work! He's got parts on three songs and skillfully wove his signature all around while keeping the song in fine focus! It was such a joy to meet him; he is such a down to earth guy with a very generous heart. It was sweet to see his own joy as he played 'blistering' solo licks and then listened back to the track with a warm smile of appreciation for his work!

Upon arriving home last night I downloaded the rough mixes Jeremy had sent me and tears filled my eyes as I listened; the solo at the end of Who You Are captured perfectly the feel of that song and put the words of praise into music! Great job Phil! If I would summarize this project so far it would be something similar to me buying an expensive picture frame to put one of my kids crayon drawings into! I feel like my songs are a child's attempt to honor God with the gifts He's given and He's taken those efforts, valued them and placed them into a very decorative frame.

What a joy to see this project come this far! My prayer is that it will bring joy to your heart to when you get to hear it. We're still thinking it will be sometime this fall before duplication is done. Thanks for your prayers and walking this journey with me!!

Love to you all,

Sam

Practice: If I had it to do over I'd have practiced more intentionally and prepared my songs more also...well no regrets though! The week has shaped up nicely! Today we're heading to Phil Keaggy's house to let him put parts on three songs then maybe hang around his studio a bit to listen through final tweaks and add some final overdubs. I'm really trying to simply focus on the task at hand and not get overwhelmed by all the sharp talent roaming around. My goal is not to make a million dollars or get any song on the radio but to simply be faithful to these songs and true to the gifts I've been given! Thanks to God for his abundant favor and grace!!!!
As it turns out all my tracking will be finished this week but Jeremy will continue to lay a few parts in after we leave, including his friend on lap steel and possible someone for female vocals. It's all cool, I'll be able to offer my input a few more time before the final mix, but looking at a finished master around mid august.

I'll check in again soon, have a great day

Sam

Provision! July 7th Nel and I spent the day enjoying beautiful weather and Chain o Lakes State park! We we're amazed as we walked trails at the abundance of Black Raspberries (Nel's favorite!). She remembers them as a kid as they scoured the woods for elusive plants and the rare find of a few ripe berries. This day was different however as this handful shows it seemed everywhere we looked beautiful ripe berries were reaching out to us!
This provision reminds me of this weeks events as Jeremy and I plunge into this project! Monday we laid scratch vocal tracks and my acoustic guitar parts on 4 songs, and as I became more tired (this really is hard work!) Jeremy finished the scratch parts for the hymn. Tuesday found us at Ken Lewis's home studio for him to do his magic on perc and drums parts for each song. It was surreal to sit there and hear these nashville dudes drop names like 'Mike' Card, Sixpence, Christine Dente, and others the same way I would mention local business owners or work acquaintances. Every one I've met so far though has been very accommodating and great to work with! yesterday we worked at another studio where Jeremy's friend Jeff Irwin put Bass and upright bass parts on the songs! 'Who You Are' is one of my favorites so far Jeff played his upright with a bow! Super Cool! Each day has been about 9am to 6 or 7pm and I get back exhausted! Today is more vocal parts and some final guitar work. See ya soon. I'll check in again later.

Love to you all!

Sam

Thumbs up and a mouthful of Skyline Chili Cheese dog! Perfect pre recording diet! (just kidding this photo taken several weeks ago) but anyway we're all thumbs up because we've got the final payment in hand for this upcoming week of recording, (Just to clarify duplication and packaging will be an additional expense but for now we are celebrating that we've reached this milestone! Thumbs up for dreams!!!) The strings are new and ready to sing on the Gibson aj and the yamaha sg2000 (although it may not get used because this might be all acoustic) either way they are ready to go. Final song list 1 About Yesterday 2All the Good Things 3Companion 4Who You are and 5Jesus I My Cross Have Taken. Arranged by Bill Moore this old hymn has beautiful lyrics and the new arrangement seems made for this project. It's time start loading so i'll talk to again soon probably when I can steal some time at the hotel guest computer.

Thanks for all your care and prayers, love you all

Sam

Hey Batter, batter! Well it's 'batter up' excitement about this cd project! The working title is "The Orphan and the Stray" which sort of summarizes experiences of our family over the last few years. Future posts will unwrap details of some of the experiences and lessons that contributed to this project.

For now we've narrowed songs to five originals and possibly one hymn! The five include " Thinkin' about You"; a song about the battle for our minds, "About Yesterday"; a song about friendship and the strength of love even after loss, "All the Good Things"; a song about the Father's desire to redeem, "Companion"; a song for my wife!, and an instrumental!

Still waiting for more specifics about the weeks schedule but I think we'll be at Phil's studio on Friday afternoon!

I'm also looking for input on ways to make the pre-order cd unique. Some suggestions have included extra tracks or special packaging. I like both ideas but I'd like to hear yours! Also any hymn suggestions would be interesting to hear! Thanks for checking in!

I'm going to add updates every week or so or when we reach interesting milestones!!

Thanks again,

Sam

And away we go!!!!  

Well the date is set for July 20th to arrive in Nashville and begin recording scratch tracks at Jeremy's studio! I'm expecting a recording schedule this coming week which will lay out the agenda for that July week. Right now I am going over the song selection of the 16 or so songs we started listening through and trying to whittle that down to 5 or 6. My favorites have good 'hooks' musically and are concise lyrically. Several were written more recently as in the last year or two, some of the other contenders were written 15 years ago! I love them though because they capture a simplicity and an honesty that I can't get past. Thanks to you for taking an interest and joining me in this journey of discovery and faith! I will add more details when then final song selection and recording schedule are in my hands! If you would like to contact me feel free to email me at emailsamsteffen@gmail.com

Blessings to you,  Sam

The Cowboy.

This 8 year-old cow-boy longs to get in the ring and take his try at one of those dangerous bulls. All his life he's loved cowboy hats and chaps and watching bull riding! It must be the thrill of climbing on the back of something dangerous and living to tell about it! Or maybe it's the crowd of people applauding with their stopped breath as they wait to see if this is gonna be the one that has his courage stamped into the arena dirt by the seemingly uncaring hoof of a bovine. 

It never affected me so much as a father when it came to bull riding because I figured that by the time this little boy would grow up and be able to drive himself to an event he would have come to his senses. However now a year and a half later his bull has turned into a tank. Literally he has traded his chaps in for camo's and is now eager to take on rifle wielding enemies instead of mere cattle trying to escape the unwanted rider. I guess this is all an important season of childhood and I don't worry. 

It is interesting though how his own longing for danger and adventure fan into flame the latent desires in my own heart for something more than the everyday routine. I guess it's no surprise then that I quit my salary job and plan to take my family to Colorado in search of adventure and dreams and a different more healthy lifestyle for us all! This could all seem to be no big deal unless you consider I have no college degree and spattered experience in several unrelated fields from trades to ministry. Really the only reason I can honestly point to is the illogical, intangible faith in an invisible God.  I know that this quickly paints me into the corner of idiot or insane by the measurements of some, but I will gladly reside there waiting for the loose ends of intuition to come together someday. So here we go! Our chance to climb on the back of that crooked nose bull and stare down the rifles pointed our way and say 'yee haw' as we leave the realm of bleacher ballast spectators to fully embrace the thorough thrill and extreme experience of living and trusting in a loving God who has revealed himself in deep and quiet but profound ways.