One Name presents Bethany Home - a collection of songs for praise, adoration, intimacy, exultation, desperation, comfort, passion, devotion, and the hope of Jesus' return. What follows is a brief summary of the 11 songs included on the album with comments on their creation, development, and some of the interesting events that happened, signposts, along the way. MY SWEET LORD One of the most ground-breaking rock albums of all time is the late ex-Beatle George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass' (I still have the vinyl 4-record set!) with the hit single 'My Sweet Lord'. Our arrangement of this timeless classic is over 10 years old, waiting first for a 'release' from the Spirit. It has finally come. The usage of the Hebrew term 'hallelujah' makes this song particularly accessible to Christians. The term is actually a compound meaning: 'hallel' - to praise with exuberance; and 'Jah' - a shortened version of 'Jehovah'. This term literally means to express exuberant praise to the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not take issue with the composer's personal spiritual belief; rather, we believe that 'the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it.' (Psalm 24) We offer it in praise to Him. FOR THE BEAUTY Most church-goers will recognize this tune ('Dix' by Conrad Kocher) and wonderful text by Folliet Pierpoint. 'For The Beauty Of The Earth' has been a favorite hymn for over 150 years. The folksy, Appalachian-flavored arrangement with the fiddle really compliments the emphasis on nature, human love, brotherhood, and the church. MY OXYGEN On earth, we live at the bottom of an ocean... an ocean of air. It is always in contact with us, pressing in, ready to flow into our lungs when we inhale, which is really a function of higher air pressure rushing into lower air pressure. Air cannot help but to rush into our lungs, as 'nature abhors a vacuum'. God's eternal love is like this. Always present, pressing in, waiting for an opening. In 1996 my brother, Richard (formerly of the 80's pop-rock band Mr. Mister), released his first solo album called 'Shelter Me', which included this wonderfully intimate song originally written by British artist Nik Kershaw. Rich's contribution made the song more of a ballad, and it was covered in 2000 by the CCM group Avalon. WE ADORE This original song was first penned in 1996 while I was still cutting my teeth as a songwriter influenced by Hosanna!Integrity's keyboard-based pop styles of the day. I recorded a demo of it back then, had it copyrighted and submitted to CCLI, but then left it sitting largely ignored until summer 2011. In the meantime, my worship leading has taken me more into guitar, and I try to find interesting tonalities and voicings when I can. One evening at home, just messing around with a 'Drop-D' tuning (tune the low E string down a whole step) I stumbled onto what became the basic motif of this new arrangement. Then taking the tempo up considerably from the original laid-back recording made this song come alive in a way I never expected it to! Amazing what 15 years can do, and God is in no hurry. ONLY OUR GOD AND KING The Revelation passage 'Blessing and honor, and glory and power be unto Him who sits on the throne...' comes to us from an entirely 'other' place. The magnificence of this phrase of praise must not be minimized through over usage. Indeed, it can't be used enough! I wrote and demoed this song in 2002, but while preparing for a concert event here in Phoenix in May 2010, I decided to re-track the song as a demo for the band members to use for practice. I had rearranged the song to include a spot for a lead solo, and our guitarist, Phil Dockery, was over at the house to contribute some tracks. I had very little expectation for this and basically just told him to have fun. We tracked five or six different passes at the solo, each one gaining refinement and intensity, developing it together as we went. Far exceeding expectations, this talented and anointed artisan of music captured such passionate expressions of melodic praise, we were simply
