Back in January, I wrote a couple string arrangements for an album my church, Midtown Fellowship, was recording featuring songs written by members of our music team. Besides arranging strings for two of the songs, I wrote three instrumental interludes, two based on the opening song by Chris Mason and one original, “In the Hoping.” When working on the two based on Chris’s melody, “Jesus, Your Love,” I decided to write one for string quartet and the other for string quartet and oboe. “In the Hoping” was written for strings, french horn, oboe, and violin solo.
Both of the tracks I arranged strings for feature Matthew Perryman Jones on vocals. “Kingdom Days” was written by Randall Goodgame, and “The Lord’s Prayer” was written by Randall, Matthew, and Billy Cervany. The band includes Winn Elliott on keys, Andrew Osenga (Caedmon’s Call / The Normals) on guitars, and Paul Eckberg on drums. The graphic design was done by Roy Roper.
Growing up, I loved reading the album credits to find out who played on the albums I was listening to, and when I started a three-and-a-half year stint working at a Christian radio station at the age of 16, I was afforded even more opportunities to read liner notes. So it was a thrill for me to be able to write for guys who have become friends of mine the last couple of years whose names I saw on countless albums, the Love Sponge String Quartet – David Davidson on 1st violin, David Angell on 2nd violin, Kris Wilkinson on viola, and John Catchings on cello.
Winn Elliott, who produced the record with Randall, told me the CDs should be arriving in the office the beginning of next week and will then be available for purchase from the website. Until then, you can listen to the entire record and buy it digitally at www.themidtownproject.com. You can also listen to a couple tracks on the myspace page.
That’s awesome, Stephen!
Geof, I know there are plans for a big release show at some point, so I’ll let you know when plans are finalized.
Hey there. I just got the midtown project record and wanted to say that the string pieces you wrote and arranged are really great. It must be awesome to hear your compositions played and recorded by such great sounding musicians!
Lee, glad you liked them. Yes, it is quite a thrill to be sitting in my office at 3 AM writing an arrangement (like I did for The Lord’s Prayer), coming up with parts in my head, and then later that day get to hear them played by players of that caliber.