FredMcKinnon.Com

Artist:  Saint Lewis (Shannon and Cyle Lewis and friends)
Album:  Songs from the Hope Farm

Hey Everybody,

It’s with great excitement that I share the much-anticipated album, “Songs from the Hope Farm” by Saint Lewis is finally available on iTunes.  Shannon Lewis is the Associate Worship Leader at SSCC and I have the privilege of serving God’s Kingdom with he and his lovely wife, Cyle.  Shannon is also a blogger and contributer at TheWorshipComunity.Com

On a personal level, I am biased because I love Shannon, Cyle, and their family … so, I’m gonna be excited about this release regardless.  I’ve seen YEARS of sweat, prayer, toil, victory, and heartache poured into this project.  I was given the privilege of playing B3 organ on Track 3 and gave input into some of the mixes.

On a professional level, I’d highly recommend this project simply because of it’s diversity.  Lyrics are Kingdom-minded.  Melodies are diverse.  Style changes from song-to-song, yet maintains a signature “Saint Lewis” sound.

My favorites?
3.  Wandering Heart
4.  Quiet Your Heart
5.  Fly  (lyrics – I love this line, “there’s so much more to be seen from the sky …”)
8.  Never Cease to Sing (we did this at one of our Night of Worship events, love the pads and keyboard work of McKendree Augustas on this!)

So … if you’re a little bored with the status quo … with the same, pop-rock guitar sounds, pulsing 8th note bass lines, and predictable chord movements, click the iTunes graphic above or just head over to iTunes and pick this album up today.  You’re supporting an incredible artist, worship leader, and family.

We launched a new (and much-needed) series at SSCC this past week called “Worth Fighting For” – it’s about marriage and family.  Our creative team spent some time coming up with a set which includes a way-cool boxing ring on stage and tons of full-sized posters with various families from our church in “boxing robes and gloves” in the building.

With some help from friends, Chris Moncus shot this video at a local gym and Travis Paulding gave it his editing mojo.  So we could truly “own” this series and the creative elements, I was asked to compose an original musical soundtrack for the trailer.

So, I present this sermon trailer, featuring one of the founding families of this church (Larry and Beverly Wade) … no, they aren’t fighting each other … they are fighting WITH each other … for marriage … for family.

I tracked this in ProTools with several keyboards, samplers, and groove modules, and tweaked tempos and time-stretching to try and get the big horn motif to “match” the transitions in the video.

You like?

Hey Everyone,

We’ve been spreading the word this week about a great new song we’re featuring over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com and HighestPraise.Com called “Hallelujah!  I Am Free”.  You can download free leadsheets and chord charts to it here.

This morning the songwriter, Trent Smith, uploaded a great video showing how he plays the song.  Check it out.  Most importantly, share it with your friends.  I hope you’ll consider using this song in your personal times of worship and even in your corporate worship at your church.

Song:
Hallelujah! I Am Free (Trent Smith) by highestpraise

Video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFQtsO4LSGk[/youtube]

So yesterday I blogged about one of the most inspiring moments of my life – seeing “Gungor” live at re:create.  Their album released yesterday, and I hope you picked it up.  (get it here on iTunes) It’s awesome, though after seeing them live, even the album was a bit anti-climatic.

My friend Bobby (who I’ve known via blogworld and twitter for years and finally got to meet!) captured some cool footage from the conference.  So … enjoy!

(HT – Bobby Marchassault, MyWorshipRevolution)

I’m back from the re:create conference.  We hit the ground running wide open … what’s new.  I need to sit down and unpack everything that happened last week during re:create, but haven’t found a slow moment.  Do they exist?

Anyway, while I was there I experienced “Gungor” – formerly known as “The Michael Gungor Band”.  Folks, unless you’ve just offline, you’ve already seen the buzz on Twitter and blogs about this band.  I have witnessed some amazing performances in my life and this ranks as one of the most inspiring performances of my lifetime.  I’m not exaggerating.

Gungor’s CD (which he presented from start to end for us with the full band and multimedia experience) released today, Feb 15.  It’s called “Beautiful Things”.  I’d encourage you to spend the $10 and download it right away from iTunes.  It’s so worth it.

Here’s their “EPK” video.  Enjoy the heart of a husband/wife and band that show some of the most inspiring, creative, passionate worship I’ve encountered … ever.  Also, my friend Russ Hutto just published an amazing review of the album and the live experience we had with Gungor over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.  Go checkout that review after watching the EPK below.