All Things Praise

The album is here! Vintage21′s second album, “All Things Praise”, arrived from the plant last Friday. Finally having the album in hand is an amazing feeling, thinking of the process from God’s inspiration to songwriting to worship to rehearsal to tracking to mixing to mastering to now! There are many great memories, due to the amazing musicians we are blessed to have at @V21Church.

A few interesting things about “All Things Praise”…

All original
Each song was written by a musician at Vintage21, and members of V21 bands crafted all the parts. Songwriting has become a big part of our worship as musicians, and reflects the place we’re in as a church. Many of these songs were written in our 2006 Psalm Series, while others were written in the spring of 2007. All of these songs are based on passages of scripture- some simply inspired, while others contain passages of scripture as lyrics. Most of our music doesn’t have a “contemporary worship feel” to it, but instead reflects the culture of Raleigh and the surrounding areas.

Tracked
One downfall of the “worship team”mode; rotating musicians that volunteer in a church-wide music ministry – is that we lack cohesiveness needed to record live in the studio. We rehearsed ahead of time, but the album was tracked by everything but drum and bass. There were two pairs of drums and bass, and each of those pairs recorded their tracks together. The rest of the parts were added daily thereafter. It was a fun process- every day someone new joined @TaylorRobertsOK and I in the studio to lay down his or her parts. It was only by the generosity of people taking time off work that we could make this record! There is one exception: Drums, bass, piano and vocals on “I Will Sing To You” were recorded live.

Engineered, mixed and co-produced by Taylor Roberts
Taylor engineered the first V21 album “The Psalms”, and since then we have become close friends. This project was a privilege, and every day I couldn’t believe that it was part of my job to make music with my friend. He’s a workhorse and a perfectionist, but also highly values the performance, and most often chooses the passion over the perfect accuracy. Not only is Taylor responsible for engineering, mixing and co-producing, but he’s a great musician, vocalist, and songwriter, and his songs are key tracks on the album. Check out “Wood and String” and “You Made It All”, you’l see what I mean.

Design by Chris Boyette
@V21Church has a ridiculous amount of designers, all with amazing talent. Even so, the only person I considered for the album was Chris. He has great style and ability, and brings life to ideas. Check out his work at chrisboyette.com.

Photography by Geoff Wood
Any chance to work with @GeoffWoodPhoto is an honor, and his photography is my favorite. His official site is geoffwoodphotography.com, but also check out his visual blog. Anytime I share an idea from my head, Geoff’s interpretation and execution makes my imagination look like a stick-figure flip-book.

Fueled by Moe’s
Because people took off work to record, the least we could do was buy them lunch. Every day someone came in to record their parts, we let them pick, and almost every time it was Moe’s. Taylor and I thought we’d grow tired of it, but even in the weeks of mixing, where it was just the two of us, we ended up picking Moe’s ourselves. Not only is the food good, but they play an all-star mix of songs from the past forty years, and we were inspired each day by hearing amazing recordings and performances in our time off. I was also reminded what a great drummer Jon Farriss is, as almost every day we heard an INXS song.

…All in all, I’m ecstatic. The talent of the musicians was unique and astounding. Even after literally hundreds of listens, I am blown away by the performances and parts each person played. Their humility made every day enjoyable, and @V21Church truly doesn’t realize how blessed we are.

This album is all about Jesus and all for Jesus. Praise God.

Samples from the Vintage21 Album “All Things Praise”
01. All Things Praise (sample)
02. Wood and String (sample)
03. Glory To God (sample)
04. I Will Sing To You (sample)
05. Your Love (sample)
06. You Know My Way (sample)
07. Remain (sample)
08. Rescue Me (sample)
09. Heartsong (sample)
10. You Made It All (sample)
11. We’ll Praise You (sample)

To order the album “All Things Praise”, send a check for $13.00, made out to Vintage21 Church, to:

Vintage21 Church
Attn: Matt Stevens
133 Fayetteville Street
Suite 310
Raleigh NC 27601