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Martin (working title) Diary Randy flew in Monday night so we could kick around a few ideas before Mike came in Tuesday afternoon. It was Cherie’s Birthday on Monday and I had a special evening planned so Randy spent the night by the airport and I picked him up Tuesday morning. Jerry was busy completely revamping the studio and it was making me a little nervous. He took out all my gear and set up all his stuff as well as two HUGE racks of really expensive compressors and mic pre-amps that he’d borrowed from a friend. What a guy, huh? If you’re into how these records sound Jerry is your friend. He put every single mic on Mike’s kit through an Avalon or Neve unit (for you studio dogs) and it sounds great. I was getting a little nervous because to use all that stuff he had to MAKE a special snake of cables to go from his buddies stuff (XLR) to my Pro-tools unit (1/4 inch) to make it all work and he was still soldering at 4:00 in the afternoon. We were supposed to start at 6:00 and we still hadn’t started getting drum sounds yet. And we started setting up on Monday morning! This was a huge set up project. I had no idea how involved it was going to be. Jerry probably didn’t tell me on purpose ‘cause he knows I’d flip and say “forget it, let’s do it the same way we did before”. But Jerry’s always trying to make it sound BETTER. Bless his heart. So, while Jerry was making cables Randy and I started going over some music and, hallelujah, Randy had some good ideas already going in his mind. Around 5:00 they started getting drum sounds and by the time Mike arrived some time after 6:00 we were pretty close to being ready. It was good to see Mr. Bluebeard again but he seemed a little hungry and tired so we all ate and got started talking about the album around 7:00. Randy and Mike both liked the demos pretty well but had a few things they thought could be better. I said “That’s great, ‘cause that’s why you’re here!!” Mike said that he had been hoping that I would do an album with separate songs and a not a concept but after he listened for awhile he loved it. So, then we talked about the very beginning of the disc. The way I started it was with a quiet melody and then slamming into a heavy guitar riff. Both Randy and Mike didn’t like it and wanted to try something else which was fine with me. We kicked different possibilities around ‘til we settled on a short powerful bit leading straight to the heavy riff. I played it down to the computer to a click and by that time it was about 8:30. Mike, the night owl, was tired from the flight and we decided it would be best to start fresh Wednesday morning. So, we didn’t get hardly anything done, but the vibe was good. WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9, 2006 Mike showed up at the crack of noon, which for him is way early, and after a fabulous lunch we dove in head first to the beginning of the album. I never tire of hearing Mike play. His playing always thrills me and he knows the music so well. It took a little while to get the feel happening on the beginning instrumental but it wasn’t long ‘til we were up to the first vocal section (some four minutes in for those who are taking notes). Somewhere in the midst of that Mike did an interview and I perfected the click and piano on what was to be our new intro. When he came back we put drums on the new intro which was cut as a separate piece and edited in later. I can’t remember exactly where we were when we left off for dinner. I think we were right passed the “This is all I ask for” section where we cut from the original and added Randy’s idea of extending that section. I also felt that the second verse and chorus of that part was just too slow on the demo so we went ahead and cut that whole next section without a click! Living on the edge. Dinner was taco night and Cherie made authentic shredded beef tacos that were insane. If everything ever goes south in the music business we can always open a restaurant! With full stomachs we went back in and Mike worked really fast. He went all the way to the end of “Keep Silent” practically in one pass. It’s always like that with him. I’ll be thinking “Hmmm…we’re kind of behind here…are we gonna make it in time?” And then he’ll fly through 10 minutes in about that. BTW, the reason I’m so focused on Mike is that Randy fixes up his parts later. When we’re tracking with the 3 of us we are all focused on the arrangement and the drums and everything else is an after thought at that point. THURSDAY AUGUST 10, 2006 I think we finished part one and started part two at about 1:30. It took Mike a little while to get this heavy part where he wanted it. It’s so great to be able to give direction to someone like him. It’s like having the greatest painter in the world at your disposal and saying “Yeah, Michelangelo, can you put a little green over here?” A very cool mallet tom-tom overdub happened soon after that. I was glad Mike liked the idea there from the demo. It works nicely. Then into a majorly proggy instrumental passage that was pretty challenging. Randy and Mike were working together on it and they got it together in a short time. The next section we got to in the evening and I think they worked on the groove for a while ‘til it got late and we decided to start there the next morning. Yikes! That meant we had all of part three (about 16 minutes) and the rest of this groove part (about 6 minutes) plus I had a new song (about 5 minutes) that I’d just written that I felt we HAD to do. I couldn’t see how we would get all that done in time for me to go to church on Friday night. Mike was talking of taking a later flight on Saturday. FRIDAY AUGUST 11, 2006 We got started earlier, like around 12:00. Mike was really dragging. “I just CAN’T play this early!” I felt like a slave driver! When we got started I realized I wanted to add a jam section to the beginning of part three. Arg! Whenever you have to edit it takes time and the pressure was now on. Tempers began to flare a little. They did the jam thing and then Mike and Randy played along with the music and by 2:00 we were at the final exciting drum bits. That took some time, so it was then about 2:30. I was wondering how it was all going to turn out. “Lord, make it how you want it to be.” After that Mike played through the whole rest of the album in about 15 minutes! So, we started my new song at about 3:00. It’s pretty straight forward so we just charted it out and played it down in about an hour. Then we went back to the groove section in part 2 and we were done by about 5:30! Plenty of time for Thai food and church. Unbelievable! That night I went to church while the rest of the gang fixed parts and ran rough mixes. Hallelujah! What a great feeling to finish what we set out to do. TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 19, 2006 [ Join Neal's Inner Circle for month-by-month updates. ] Secret Project Diary (sort of) 
Europe tour diary (Part 2) 
Neal: Let's see, Saturday night, that first Saturday night in Ede, that was an incredible night I thought, that was the first one that I did with an interpreter. It is difficult to get into the spirit with an interpreter, when you get excited about a thought, you kind of have to stop and they interpret. Now I know how the Haitians feel at our meetings! Yeah, but wow, can we remember back what happened on that Saturday night?Cherie: You talked for over an hour. Neal: Yeah I talked a lot that night. That is what I felt to do. We had really great prayer, we had really great prayer in the dressing room beforehand. Cherie: There were about 500 people there. Neal: We had about 500 people and a lot of young people and I really felt the spirit of God when we prayed beforehand and it is really interesting because they don't pray like we pray at home, like where everybody prays out loud and, you know, stands up and claps their hands or does whatever they feel and so it is interesting to hear them and I felt like something was happening. So, what did I start out with there? I think it was Wind At My Back and We All Need Some Light. That was my standard opening for the first couple of ones and I think I went straight into talking because I felt to testify, that is what I felt, testify about healing. Cherie: You also talked about how to be a disciple. Neal: Well we will have to get the tapes. I think when I talked about discipleship was at the university, that is where I went through the discipleship thing and adoption and being washed clean and a bunch of things. This was the one that was kind of funny because there were a lot of big laughs, there was a lot of funny things. I told them the "I will be unable to play" story. Also, Mark's 'Chreaster' joke. It was a good feeling in there. Yeah, Bart was interpreting and I basically gave my testimony and played mostly songs from the Testimony album. I played Wasted Life. Basically as I was speaking, I would just play little bits of songs, so I think I played all of Wasted Life and I played a little bit of a few other things, but that was it. I basically just testified and sang "Sing It High" and "I Am Willing" and wasn't that pretty much it of the music? I didn't play that much. Cherie: You did "Look What the Lord Has Done". 
Neal: Yeah but that was later on I think. I still need to get those verses from Brother Mark but, um, the main thing I remember about that night was that I was really asking people to dig in. When was I really touched during that night? I remember at the first bookstore I was really touched during "Cradle to the Grave" and I could barely sing it but at Ede I think it was when the alarm went off. The alarm went off at one point I was really trying to get everybody to really praise God with me, wasn't I asking them to stand and praise the lord? Yes, I was singing I Bless Your Name. I was singing the part that says "some midnight hour, if you should find, you're in a prison in your mind, reach out and praise, defy those chains" and the fire alarm went off and it was really interesting, I didn't know what to do, so I was just praying and I felt like the Lord was saying "press in, press in, press in" so I kept going and I lifted my voice and I asked them to lift their voice and they seemed to really respond. I really felt the spirit moving and the spirit was doing something and this alarm was going off and I was singing, reaching higher and higher and I was saying "praise Him, praise Him, there is power in praising Him" and people began to respond. I talked a lot on being afraid, what are we afraid of?.... you know, "Perfect love cast out all fear" and how we are afraid because our identity is threatened, but God only wants what is good for you. Oh yes, another thing was when I went in there to start the thing they had it set up like a concert sort of, like you know the lights were bright on the stage and you couldn't see the people, so I asked them to dim the lights and bring up the congregation lights and that was good, I thought that that worked out nicely, but then sometimes I feel like when the spirit starts working, that maybe the lights should go off so people can fell less conspicuous. I thought the spirit really moved that night in a special way, I felt really good and then afterwards I didn't realize how grueling it was going to be just to put out all that energy, just to keep reaching out for people for such a long amount of time, to meet and greet with people afterwards and pray with them and talk with them. I wasn't done talking with people until about midnight and then this guy wanted to finish an interview and his deal was that basically he had a lot of controversial questions to ask, like what do you think about all the evangelists in the world that are really just about money and they drive away in their big Cadillacs. Anti-religion, anti-christianity questions, but it was great because he had been touched that night, I could see it in his eyes, water welled up in his eyes a little bit, and he said "Well, I'm an atheist but, you know, I had goose bumps tonight" and I said "That's the Lord, that's the Lord! Come on! What else could it be?" You know, what do people think? They thinks it's me (laughing). They think "Oh you did really great." I don't want to rebuke people but I don't want that, that is not what it is, you know, if they feel something, it is the Lord, it is not because I did something, you know, I am telling about what God has done for me, but it is the Lord that touches the heart. Oh, that is what I talked about, I talked about "Kicking against the pricks." (or goads in the amplified Bible ACTS 9:5 NOTE: The Dutch people couldn't find that scripture. I just found out why. It is not in the NIV or many new versions of the Bible. I'm not sure why, but that's why they couldn't find it)Cherie: And they had trouble translating it. They couldn't find it in their Bible. 
Neal: Yeah, apparently there is no word for that in Dutch. And they couldn't find the scripture, but I basically gave Brother McNeese's thought that he got from Brother Doc May, I guess, a long time ago, about that the meaning of "kicking against the pricks". It is the Lord trying to prick your conscience or prick your heart (ACTS 2:37) and we resist that and fight against it and I really feel like there are a lot of people doing that, you know, the Lord is trying to reach their hearts and they are fighting it. I know 'cause I was one! Sometimes I still am. Anyway, I was really glad and surprised that the Lord touched my mind with that thought because it is kind of an obscure scripture. I am just encouraging everybody to ask the Lord "what do you want me to do?" because it will be good. But that interview thing was killer. I said some pretty major stuff in that interview, I wound up talking about false religion, how the bible tells us about false religion and we were getting into some pretty deep things and I felt good about it, but it also could be controversial. But we will see, we will see what happens. Okay, so then we spent the night at Max and Yvonne's and that was really nice. They are such wonderful generous people. Praise God for sending great people to help us! The next day we went to the Indonesian church in the morning, wow, yeah, that was quite an experience. We got there really early; we didn't get very much sleep. We had to get up early and be out at 8:30, so I was up at 7 and I did go running in the freezing cold, and I felt from the Lord that day, "don't worry about it", whatever that means, "it is fine, it is handled" or something like that, like there wasn't much for me to do that day. So we went to this Indonesian church and wound up being there really early and then the pastor and his elder guys showed up and they were very, very nice and they asked me to come back in their office and I thought that they wanted to get acquainted. So I talked to the man, pastor Noah, and I felt a really sweet spirit from both of those men and I began to talk to them and began to tell them what was going on a little bit, I mentioned something about quitting my band and he said "let's not do this now, we will do it in the spirit, let's just pray now" and I was like "oh, okay". I think that I had the wrong impression, so we prayed and, man the spirit was moving, the spirit was really flying, it was like, wow, they stood up and were walking around that office and clapping and shouting and speaking in tongues, I mean they were really going at it and I was like okay then, come on, lets go! What a difference! Like the church the night before was very reserved and they wound up making some noise and you know praising the Lord a little bit and things and everybody has their own way of praying you know and that is okay, but it sure was different when these men marched around the room speaking in tongues and stuff, but I really did feel a great, wonderful move of the spirit. And then we went out for the service and before the service the pastor said "Okay, here is what we will do, we will worship the Lord and sing for awhile and then I will introduce you and then you say a few words, sing a few songs and then I will preach." What I was feeling from him was "don't take too much time, you know, I will give you a spot". Anyway, they started worshiping the Lord and they had great players doing some pretty funky music, it was almost like being at some sort of funk concert or something and very different from how we worship at home but they repeated stuff as much as we do and some of the songs we do like "Wonderful, Wonderful Jesus Is To Me, Counselor, Prince Of Peace, Mighty God is he" and then I felt in the spirit to go play with them and it went on for quite awhile and they had their worship team come up and they would stand there and sing, his wife was singing pretty hard and so they did that and then what happened? After awhile he introduced me and so I felt to play a few songs, the kids sang Lead Me Lord. He introduced me and then everyone in the place came to the front, so they all come up and lined up and I turned to Collin, the percussionist who has been helping us and asked him "what's going on? what am I supposed to do? He said "I think he wants you to play some music and sing some songs", and I said "oh, okay". The Pastor had talked about killing off the flesh and surrendering fully to God, so I started with "Jesus This Is Your Life Now", because I thought that was basically what he was saying to the people there and so I did that for a little while, but I really had no idea how long to go, I was really seeking the Lord, you know, cause I didn't want to overstep, so I played a little bit and then I testified a little bit and gave a little bit of my testimony and I testified about Jayda's healing, didn't I? Yeah, I testified about Jayda being healed, but I was trying to keep it really short, so I think I only spoke for 5 or 10 minutes, didn't speak very long, then I played God Won't Give Up 3 or 4 times and invited people to surrender their hearts to the Lord and then I basically stopped and said "okay" and pastor Noah was really worshiping the Lord when I was singing my songs and then he said "no, no preach!" like "you haven't even hit it yet" is what I was thinking he meant. The only thing I could think of to talk on was something I had mentioned when I was talking, something from Proverbs 9 about wisdom has builded her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars and so I talked on the virtuous woman and the whore. I basically just gave scriptures from Proverbs 8 and Proverbs 9 and basically the house that is built by wisdom (which is Christ) is the virtuous woman, is the Body of Christ, and then the whore is false religion and then I read different things out of, basically Revelation 17 about the whore and Revelation 22, I think, right at the end about The Bride, she hath made herself ready and I was really getting into it, I was really feeling it. So then we left the Indonesian church and we went and ate and I was really fried. I had felt that it would be wise because we were going on a 2 hour drive to another town, I think it was called Gose, anyway it was out by the coast, and I felt like the kids should go home and rest, we were all really tired, we hadn't had much rest, a little jet lag. By the time I got up to this place I was really gone; I just felt poured out, like poured out flesh or something. Then we got to this thing, it was like a really small youth group from this Dutch reformed church. It was going to be in their little caf้ and it was really awkward for me, mainly because I was so tired. I just walked in and Max said "okay, mingle with the people", and I was like, "hi - I'm dead", it was just pretty strange. But then when the actual thing started it was really neat, they moved it to a bigger room because there were more people there than they expected and so there was about 50 or 60 people I think. So they moved it in a different room and I just played a little guitar with a little amp and with no amplifier, it was a small enough room just to hear my voice, there was no microphone. That was one of my favorites, I really felt like the Lord.... I could barely sing, my nose had been running, I had a cold the first few days, it was hard, I was having a little trouble with my voice and we prayed before, Collin and Max and I prayed and Collin was praying that my nose would stop running. Somehow, I didn't realize it until later and I had been blowing my nose every couple of minutes, it was really running hard and then I realized after I had done the thing, it was 3 hours later that I hadn't blown my nose ONCE! Praise God! It was great, but I really felt like something special there, you know, it was really great, I played songs that I had never played before. I played "I Am Nothing" and gave some of my testimony, but it was very spontaneous and fresh. I gave the thoughts about the plumb line (AMOS 7:7, ZECH 2:1-5) and I played the beginning of The Light and talked about the standards of the house. That whole thought about the plumb line being the judgment or the standard of the house. How did Jesus judge the world? By establishing a higher standard. Or lower, like humility. How much of a servant can you be? These are the measurements of the Temple, of spiritual Jerusalem which is the bride of Christ. (REV 21:2) and that whole thought and then... what else did I do up there? It was very different. I did a lot of things I hadn't done before, I can't really remember now exactly, but I really felt like the Lord met some people. I was asking people to close their eyes and pray and I really felt like it was a successful evening, it was really kind of exciting because I just had nothing in me and I felt like God did the whole thing. I think also I talked on Mark 11 about that he is going to give good things to those who sacrifice for His sake. How He will bless you for sure. It's a promise. So we drove home late that night feeling great and Max gave me his testimony on the drive which I hadn't heard. Slept like a rock. All the way 'til 10:30 the next morning!Europe tour diary (Part 1) Wil: We are going to tell you a little bit about our trip so far. Neal: First of all I am going to start with the date, it's the fourth of February 2005. Wil: At 12 o'clock. 
Neal: We are on a train from Utrecht to Ede in Holland. We thought we would make a little documentary. We have been wanting to do a diary of this trip, but we haven't had much time.Wil: So the first thing that we did.... Neal: We took off from Nashville on a Wednesday, January 26th; I think it was. Wil: We went on this big huge plane. Neal: We flew into Memphis first. And then we flew from Memphis to Amsterdam. Wil was disappointed because the plane was old and didn't have any cool games or anything. Which was fine with me, I slept most of the way anyway. You slept some, didn't you Wil? Wil: Um, yeah a little bit over night. Neal: Then we arrived in Amsterdam. Wil: Yeah, cut out the details. Neal: (Laughing) You've got to have the details, don't ya?. Wil: I guess. Neal: We had a little trouble going through customs. Wil: Yeah, but it was pretty smooth. Neal: Then we met Max and Bart, remember? Wil: Max and Nana are really good friends. Neal: Yeah, Max and Nana got along right away, Nana went with Max and we all piled in Bart's car and I had a great conversation with Bart right away, we really hit it off great. And so we drove about an hour into Ede. Wil: Yeah, in Ede we went to Yvonne's house. Neal: Yes we went to Max and Yvonne's and we dumped off tons of stuff, like our 10 pieces of luggage with my ridiculously huge keyboard and everything. And then what did we do then? Neal: We went somewhere that afternoon... oh, we went downtown in Ede and saw the book store and shopped a little bit and then we ate with them and got a good night sleep. The next day I practiced a lot at their house, it felt really good to have a lot of time to read the Bible and pray and practice and that was really good, I really needed that time and then the bookstore in Ede was actually the first gathering that we did. Wil: Yeah, it was pretty weird, there were all these kids up against your gear and stuff and like part of it stopped working, but I thought that it was pretty good. Neal: I thought it was good too. I was really touched during Cradle to the Grave. Wil: Yeah, I saw you crying. Neal: I remember I could barely sing it. Wil: You did it 2 times. Neal: Yeah, I think that we should consider doing it more than once because if it is really touching people, I think that we should keep doing it, but anyway, one thing that was funny was right before I was going to play we went out to eat and the service here is generally really slow, a lot slower than in America, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing, it is just slow and so we were waiting and waiting for our food and finally we got our food and I got a Donor sandwich with a ton of garlic sauce on it and onions and I just like woofed it down really fast and Max and I dashed off to this thing that had people that wanted to talk to me, so I can imagine what my breath must have been like, but yeah, it was odd. Wil: And then I stepped in poop. Neal: (Laughing) Oh yeah, then Wil stepped in poop, so we thought some people were going to meet our family for the first time and we were going to stink to high heaven! (pause) I thought it went pretty well, it took me a little while to get comfortable. At most of these things it has taken me awhile to get comfortable and let the Lord work, except in England (Wales) where I felt the spirit immediately, but then it kind of seemed to go away a little bit in the middle and then come back in the end, but most of the time it seemed like at the beginning it was all about me trying to get comfortable....What did I play at the bookstore? I started off with Wind at my Back and then did We All Need Some Light and I think I went straight into the ONE stuff after that and.....oh no, I probably had the kids sing. What did you sing? Wil: Peace Like A River. 
Neal: Then I did most of the ONE and Wil sang Cradle To The Grave. And then that was pretty much it. I think that was one of the best sing-alongs of Make Us One that we had the whole time.Jayda: (Singing) Make us one.... Neal: And that was the first time we did it too. Wil: First my Dad did "One Heart, One Love"..... (Wil singing) "On our knees with open arms, we worship in one spirit." And then all the ladies in the audience sang "make us one, make us one." Neal: Yeah, didn't they sound good that night? And I talked a little bit; I didn't talk that much, gave them some of my testimony and quoted some scriptures. Wil: I think that time you did just right. Neal: Oh, he thinks I did just right (laughing). So I ended with The One stuff and I think I probably....... I don't know if I even did Sing It High that night, I don't remember, but I remember that at the end they gave us really nice presents. The man at the bookstore gave me a piece of crystal that says in Dutch "Your word is a light for my footsteps and a lamp for my pathway" and they gave the kids those candies and toys and flowers for Cherie and Sharon. (added later) I also remember some really great people telling me their testimonies that night about how the Lord had used different pieces of music to touch them or their family members. That was really great. This one girl (don't remember her name) told me about her brother being just like the man in CRADLE and that she and her friend had done a dance to it and it had really helped him. She had tears in her eyes when she told me and I was really touched too. That's the great thing about being with people...you can feel their hearts and know that those CDs your making in your little cocoon are actually doing something real out there. Praise God. Wil: Daddy, I don't think we are going to have enough room on the tape. Neal: (laughing) It's a pretty long tape, 90 minutes. Wil: We only have a half an hour on the train and we are not going to make it if you talk about (spoken slowly) every single thing. Neal: Your awesome man. 
Jayda: And Mommy bought me a baby doll.Neal: We have time. Jayda: I am going to make it cry. Neal: No, no don't make it cry! Then the next day we went to the castle, remember? We went to Loufestein or the house of stone of Louf and it was really cold that day. Wil: That was so cool! Neal: It was really cool, it was like a really ancient castle with all the full on... 
Wil: And we got swords from there.Neal: We had a really nice day and then that night we ate at Bart's house. We had Indonesian food at Bart's and got to know his family a little bit better and then went off to their church in Ede and had the first real service. That was an amazing evening. We had really good prayer beforehand with the youth group there and it was interesting because we pray so differently, you know. Wil: They even quote a scripture before they pray. Neal: Yeah, at Bart's house. Wil: Yeah. Neal: Isn't that good? Before they eat they quote a scripture and then they pray and I really liked that. Actually, he read an entire psalm which was really good, so we are learning things along the way that we can take into our homes. Yeah, interesting evening, there is a lot to tell about that Saturday night and I think that I will get into that later, over and out for now. 
Neal: We are now on the road to between Wirmerskirchen and Munster. Last night was our first night in Germany. It is now February 8th, 2005 and I am following Richard in the car on the Autobahn. Richard doesn't drive very fast.Cherie: Richard drives like an American. Neal: Some Americans drive really fast. To continue the diary, about last night, I played at a free evangelical church that has no pastor. I thought that was interesting. They seemed to have a lot of young people. It was a very nice, very beautiful facility and a lot of really sweet young people, prayed with the young people beforehand and then Richard and Calvin came and that was a little awkward because I didn't have time to even hardly say anything but Hello. This seems to happen a lot of times when Richard comes and I want to really be with him. Anyway, so I started off with a few psalms, psalm 134 and psalm 100 or 99 about playing loudly and skillfully. Then I played Open Wide The Flood Gates and, yeah, I went into a bunch of Snow things, I went from that into Love Beyond Words which I had never done before and then Wind At My Back. Then the kids came up and sang God Of Wonders and Peace Like A River. And that was feeling good. One thing I thought was funny was that I talked about starting with a prayer and then I started talking and we never prayed, I went right into the song. Oops. I realized that later on and said, oh, ya know, we were going to pray but I forgot. Cherie: It will be on the internet. Neal: Other people noticed that I am sure. Cherie: If you want to find out the set list.... Neal: Then I did Land Of Beginning I think. I had felt when I prayed about it that day, I felt to talk. Sometimes when I pray, when I go running in the morning, sometimes I feel to just sing or like for example that Saturday night in Ede, the first Saturday night there, the first real church service that I did, I felt to talk about healing and other times I felt to talk about love or other things. That first night in Ede was amazing. At one point I was singing "I Bless Your Name" and the fire alarm went off. It was really bizarre because nobody moved, and I wasn't sure what to do so I closed my eyes and felt to press in. The Holy Spirit really responded and the people did too. So there I was shouting "praise Him praise Him, there's power in praising Him" while this alarm was going off. Really interesting. I talked about adoption on another day (at the withdrawal center), So on different days I was feeling different things, but on this first night in Germany, I didn't really have a clear idea about what to talk about. So I think I said that, I really don't know what to say, so I think I will sing a few more songs, I don't remember exactly what I sang after that. I think I talked about two roads, and then I did Crossroads and I don't know, I was starting to feel that that was a lull there, I didn't feel in my heart like that was really received. It's hard to tell from where I am. I was starting to feel the vibes in the crowd that they were wanting more of an upbeat concert thing and you know, I want people to feel their need for God. What I'm about is trying to create hunger for more of God. That is why I make my albums so people will feel their need (singing) "feel their need to come back home". But I was feeling like there were a lot of young people there that were wanting to.....and there is nothing wrong with that, it is great to celebrate in the Lord as well, but I was feeling like maybe where I was at was not what they were wanting and so that could be a bit of a struggle because it is like, well, I don't want to just give people what they want, I didn't quit my bands and stuff just so I could do what man wants, you know, I am trying to please God, I am trying to be obedient to God and do what He wants which is not always what man wants. So I started to talk because I felt the Lord whispering in my ear, "you are not being obedient." So I talked on two roads, Deuteronomy 30...and then what did I talk about? Cherie: You talked about the roots of bitterness being cut out. Neal: I talked about the circumcision of the heart (the cleansing or cutting away of the dead skin around the heart) and I wanted to get into God being the God of now, but I don't think I ever did. No, I got into Ezekiel 33 I think it is, "a new heart and a new spirit will I place within you." And then I felt like the Lord helped me there, and led me into the garden because I was thinking I want to get into the ONE stuff, but I didn't know how I was going to get there. It didn't seem to flow at all. Yeah, Testimony and One are about two different things and they don't always flow together you know, but so, somehow from the new heart thing and the new flesh, I got into the perfect walk, you know that we can walk with God in the cool of the day, it just kind of flowed into it. Anyway, so then I played some songs from One, I did The Creation and then went right into The Man Is Gone and we did Cradle To The Grave and then I talked some more, I don't remember what about. I wanted to get into Jesus. I was starting to feel convicted because everything I was talking about was from the Old Testament, everything I was singing about didn't mention Jesus. I was really wanting to get into that, so I think I just kind of stopped and said here is the good news, you know, you who have been far off have been made near by the blood of Christ. By one spirit we have access. Like we know God is there, but we don't have access. I asked them how many of you believe in God and most of them raised their hands, most people did. But sometimes we feel like we don't have access. The spirit is the access! And then I talked about Jesus being the mediator and I also talked on Acts 1 about having the power, and John 1, they that believeth on him to them he gave the power to become the sons of God. Praise God, I am getting excited! Then what happened? Then I was feeling like everyone was really wanting to get excited, to hear a fast song. I think then I did Sing It High and went into Look What The Lord Has Done. And then I was thinking that would pretty much be it, then I felt like I should give, the Lord touched my mind to give the testimony about Jayda's healing and I did that and Oh To Feel Him and then I was done. But all in all, that was somehow about 2 hours long. Cherie: It was a long one. Neal: I must be saying a lot more than I think I am saying because I can't even remember the stuff that I said. (Laughing). I think part of it is the interpreter thing; it takes a lot longer to say stuff when you have to wait for the interpreter to say it after you say it, but I guess it is just part of the deal. When did we do Breathe and all that? Cherie: After that. Neal: Yeah, so after Oh To Feel Him, I went into Breathe. I sang Breathe, but to be honest I didn't feel much in the spirit. I was reaching and I was trying but, I don't know, I never felt like I really broke through to anything like I have at most of these other gatherings, I really felt like we have broken through, like something happened in the room. This one, I really didn't feel that way. Then Max asked if he could come up and speak a little bit and so he spoke a little bit and then basically set me up to do Sleeping Jesus, so I did Sleeping Jesus but I didn't really feel it or want to, because I really didn't think it fit at that point, but I did it. Then you know, right before I went back, Bart said the young people really want you to do some fast songs and I was like oh, okay, you know, but I don't feel really great about that. I wanted to let the spirit lead and I know that young people want fast songs, but I don't think that is necessarily going to change their lives or their hearts. Nothing against fast songs either. So it was a little bit of a struggle for me last night to be honest. And then we did Reunion, but I don't think that really did anything and that was it. So by the end I really felt like I had missed it, I missed God somehow. I don't know. I guess maybe that really wasn't it. I didn't feel like God was displeased, I just felt like that's what that was. Afterwards I spoke to a few people who felt like they received something and so I was really glad for the people that had received something from God, but for the most part, I left feeling a little unfulfilled spiritually. It was nothing about the church or the people, I guess sometimes you hit it and sometimes you don't. And since I had felt something special spiritually for Germany, I had felt that there was something for me with Germany in particular, frankly, I left a little disappointed from last night but I have shaken the dust off my feet this morning and we will see what the Lord has for us today. Neal's new diary 8/27/04 
I feel like I've been gone for a long time. I guess that's how you know you've REALLY been on vacation.
The family and I have been all over the place this month. It really has worked out great. I finished working on the tracks for the new record, shipped them off to Rich...it seemed endless...I thought we were going to be able to get it out on Monday....then there were problems, then Tuesday was the day and it looked like I was going to make it. The light at the end of the tunnel was in sight! What I was doing was going through each song, bouncing vocals, strings, and horns to stereo tracks and making sure what was there on the hard drive I was sending to Rich was what was supposed to be there. You see, when you're recording in a computer, you make a new file every time you're recording something new so we had tons of files. Like 'Epic 1 - full strings' or 'Epic 1 - vocal edits'..... I mean just tons of 'em. So I had to go through and make sure we had all the correct stuff. Plus Jerry (who actually KNOWS stuff about computers) was busy with another session which made things even harder.
I was pretty much on my own. Anyway, it looked like I was going to make it...it was 2:00 on Tuesday and the fedex cut off here is like 4:30, so I thought I might make it. Then I got to the last song which in the computer is called 'The End of it All' and it didn't have all the strings and vocals in it! Man, I really hit the wall. I'd been working from about 4:30 am to 12:00 am every day for a while trying to make this deadline and then...well...what can you do? I think I took a two hour nap or something.
Anyway, as you can guess, it all worked out fine. Jerry came that night and flew all the right stuff over from my computer to Rich's hard drive and we got it all sorted and shipped it the next day. What a bizarre feeling to be putting this little box that contains all your work over the last 8 months not to mention thousands of dollars worth of performances as well as your heart and soul into a fedex box on a hot summer day. Of course, we had a back up drive at home, but still, it's a strange new world. 
Then the next day we flew to L.A. and began our great Northwest adventure. From LA we flew to Portland and went on a week long cruise down the Columbia river with my parents and my sister and niece. It was amazing! The kids really loved it too. One of my favorite things about the trip was that I had a cell phone and would talk to Rich every now and again so I knew things were progressing there and there's nothing like sitting out on the deck of a boat looking at some beautiful mountains and knowing that you're album's being made. I kept turning to Cherie saying "I'm making a record right now!".
After the cruise we flew back to LA to spend some time with my brother Richard (which was really blessed) and then I spent some time at Rich's studio going over the mixes with him. It proved to be very valuable time as I got to listen and make notes and discuss a lot of ideas with him as we listened that you just can't do over the phone.
I left at 3:00 am Thursday morning feeling confident that Rich would be able to get things how I wanted them without me having to fly back out there. I returned my rental car at 3:45 at LAX, got the family up and went to the airport at 4:30 to catch a 6:00 am flight. We found out a while later the flight was cancelled!! After a certain amount of stress we made it alright. I pulled an all-nighter. I haven't done that in twenty years!!!
We did all kinds of other stuff that I don't need to go into and got home on the 22nd of August (after 2, count 'em, TWO cancelled flights!). Rich sent me some mixes that I didn't get 'til Wednesday (fedex sent them to Boston by mistake!) and they are incredible! I felt numb for a while after listening. What a blessing. Wow. I don't want to hype my own thing but I'll just say it's better than I expected.I should get the rest of the stuff from him today and then I'll do some sound samples for you all. More later...... Monday July 26 It was such a fun day with Phil Keaggy. We had a very nice time; he has such a sweet spirit. Basically Jerry just rolled the tape and he played all this amazing stuff. It was a real pleasure. The electric solo that he did sounds really, really cool. He also did an acoustic solo. He's just a master guitar player. He also sang the God section of 'Cradle to The Grave'. Man sings a verse then God sings a verse, there's some stuff from God's perspective. It's a kind of duet. We also sang a duet on one of the bonus tracks too. So he sang on two things and played on two things and it was a gas! Tuesday/Wednesday July 27/28 We started on strings. Chris Carmichael brought along Rachel from Bowling Green, (can't remember her last name right now) she plays in the Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra and has a classical music family. So I was like 'I need a French horn player, a cellist, and a string bass can you help me out Chris?' because my usual people weren't available, and we ended up with a bunch of people from her family! The other daughter is a cellist and the fathe,r Michael Thurman, is a French horn player so it was so cool when he was doing his French horn part his daughters were in the control room and would literally applaud when he was done, 'oh daddy you're so great', and both Chris and I were like 'I hope we can train our kids to be like that to cheer us on when we're older!' We all really had a nice time. We actually recorded string bass, cello and two violins all in the same room and tracked it over 2 or 3 times. It helps the real orchestra sound to have all the instruments mingling in the air that'll be nice. It was a long day the second day, we didn't finish until 7pm and the air conditioning had to be off to record sensitive strings (because of the low rumble from it). I was really wiped that was intense. A real couple of intense days of orchestra. Thursday July 29 I did background vocals with Aaron Marshall and Missy Hale they sang on Thursday morning for two hours and it was Aaron's birthday and she came in and sang for me anyway! That went great a few choir things. Chris Carmichael came in the afternoon and played electric violin and sang. I've never had him play electric violin or sing before! He was so awesome he can play electric violin and make it sound like it's going through some kind of wah wah or something! He was amazing and he knew the part which was a hard part and got it right away. He sang some stuff as I don't want it all to be my voice. On Thursday morning when I was running I thought to call Rick Altizer and have Rick come and do some things. He came over on Thursday night and did some of the coolest things. He tied the album together with just a few lines. He had the idea to sing something like a refrain from something from the beginning and put it at the end that just ties it all together. It was just so wonderful I was crying 'Thank you Lord... You know what we need even when we have no idea'. It was awesome, I had a really awesome experience in the Lord with that. Friday July 30 Jerry started transferring stuff. I wanted to sing some vocals on the bonus tracks but lost a day. So I rested, took a two and a half hour nap! Saturday July 31 I sat in here with my son Wil while I did vocals on the bonus tracks. It was really cool. I was singing on 'King Jesus' and it was really intense and at the end I was crying. Oh man, it was great. I did a few little keyboard pieces in the afternoon, some sampling, I also did some bass re-amping. The bass was all direct through a pod so I felt on some of the more rocking things it needed to be amped. Monday/Tuesday August 2/3 I finished off, going through all the stuff and making sure everything's there. It's incredible, the strings and everything has really just put everything over the top. So the material is off to Rich Mouser and the mixing will begin... CalProgDay Performance - July 3 CalProg really was a lot of fun. It went down almost as well as I would have hoped. I knew that I was going to make some mistakes using all that stuff. One thing that was really funny was that I didn't take any crew - it was just me - I didn't have anyone to check my stuff. So I went out to soundcheck and then Mike Kennealy did his soundcheck. I was sending the guy just a stereo pair. I went out to start my gig and there was no sound on the guitar and I couldn't figure out what was wrong! It was pretty embarrassing - I stood there for about two minutes trying to get sound on the guitar saying 'folks, I don't know what to tell you...' But someone had kicked a cable out of my box - it was a loose cable and I found it and then I started the gig. The things that stand out for me were 'Ain't Seen Nothing Like Me', it seemed that went really well with the looping and jamming to the loop. One thing that was funny was I had Jerry build me something to turn my mike on and off. I'd found when looping stuff on the Jam Man with rhythm or bass if my mike was on it was adding noise or feedback. So I had this thing to shut the mike off and, you know this would happen, because I had so many things to remember, of course it came the time to sing or talk and my mike was off! But somehow it was all really a gas anyway. I was really touched as well. I felt the Spirit in certain parts. I was really touched during 'Emma'. I haven't performed 'Emma' in years and years. I wrote that song over 20 years ago - a really old song and I was real touched by that song. It was fun to do 'It's Not Too Late' and 'Ain't Seen Nothing Like Me' - all those kind of solo things. I've done 'Bridge Across Forever' before only a couple of times and I've done 'Chatauqua' from 'Beware Of Darkness' but only a couple of times. It was just totally different taking something like 'Gibberish' and doing it by myself. That was a real challenge, I think it came out pretty well! One of the great things was to see Nick and Ryo there. Nick had e-mailed me a while back about playing but we wanted to keep it a secret. He'd said 'I'm going to be there, do you want to do some songs' and I was like 'Yeah, sure, that would be great'. When Ryo showed up - that was a total surprise! He showed up in the dressing room and I was like 'Hey! Wow!' It was great to see them and for our families to be together again. It was fun backstage practicing with them but when they came out on stage, we had major gear issues. Nick's guitar was messed up, we tried to get another but it was tuned to a different key, there was all this stuff going on while we were trying to play 'The Doorway'. I think I said at some point 'You know I always envisioned when we got back together to play it would be like this!' - a bit of sarcasm there - there were problems. But, all in all, it was still good to be with Nick and Ryo again and the audience was fab. Cal Prog was a lot of fun. It's something to consider, I've been considering, if the Lord would be in it and bless it, I would love to do a whole little tour possibly like that. I think a lot of people might enjoy it and it would be much simpler to do - a totally different thing than the Testimony show. I'm praying about it and seeing where the Lord might lead. The Amazing Story Of The DVD Fiasco This is just hilarious - the DVD wasn't actually supposed to be done before CalProg. I didn't get the check discs until Thursday morning and CalProg was on Saturday. But I just ran the idea by the manufacturing guy like, if I approve this immediately is it possible to have them make them on Thursday night, FedEx 100 discs from South Carolina overnight on Friday to Whittier on Saturday? And they said 'well I don't know, that's a little crazy but we'll try' - and they did it! We were thrilled... I already had the prints of the DVD sleeves at a plant about an hour from my house. So I sent Luke down to get the prints and the boxes from the plant and I thought 'Wow, we're going to make it - I hope everything arrives from FedEx!' So we load up all the stuff - we check in all the prints and the boxes with all my gear and the luggage on the flight and ... it doesn't come through! It's lost luggage ! So they FedEx 100 discs and I found out they have arrived at the hotel but we didn't have the prints and the boxes. So I'm calling them and they say they'll be on the next flight at 3pm - it's guaranteed to be there by 6 - and I'm like 'OK - we'll still have time to load some'. Then I call at 6 because it's not there and they say 'Well, no, it's guaranteed by 8'! So I said you better take them right to the venue, anyway, they showed up at 9! And I started playing at 8.30 - they showed up while I was half way through the set! So Cherie and Sharon and some other people that were kind enough to help loaded up a bunch of the DVDs and sold them! It was so funny. I was so glad it didn't end up being totally fruitless after all that effort. Vacation I then had a short vacation. I took my family and my friend Todd Morrell and his family came out with us. We had the greatest time at the beach. I got to be with my parents quite a bit. Then we came out and visited with Al and Kitty. Studio Diary - July 10 to 25 On Saturday 10th I did shakers and tambourines. I wanted them to be recorded ahead of Glen playing percussion on Tuesday. On Monday 12th I started singing. On Tuesday 13th Glen Caruba did percussion. I've used him a lot - he's great. He did a percussion loop on 'The Man's Gone' and on 'I'm In The Cage' - really cool stuff on that, and congas and percussion on 'Help Me'. From Wednesday 14th to Monday 19th I was re-doing vocals and playing organ. I try to do every other day doing singing so I'm not singing every day. I sang on Wednesday, Friday and Monday. I did organ on Thursday and Saturday and finished on Monday. On Tuesday 20th I helped a friend of mine, his dad was going to hospital and I spent most of the day down there at the hospital. On Wednesday 21st we did horns. We had to spend time preparing - a week before I was making tapes for the horn players and string players and doing all the arrangements. I can play the parts in MIDI and send the stuff to Chris Carmichael - he then writes it out on his computer. The horn section was trombone, sax and trumpet. We stacked them twice and on the second pass they did baritone sax and different parts - they're really very good. They played on a section called 'The End Of It All' but I think I'm changing the name to 'Reunion'. They also played on the song 'No Separation'. That week I also typed up the lyrics and the tracklisting and the thank yous for the album. On Thursday 22nd Gene Miller came in and sang on a lot of the higher parts, he replaced all my falsetto parts for the high vocals. Gene was great, it was great working with him. He's a Christian guy so we got into all kinds of really cool conversations about the Lord. We had a great day and he was so good as the day went on it was like, 'maybe you can sing on this, maybe you can sing on that...' On Friday 23rd I started running roughs. It took two and a half days! I just have the 32 tracks on my version of Pro-Tools. There was a keyboard session that has a zillion tracks and a percussion session with 12 tracks, vocal sessions with a bunch of tracks. So what I had to do was pick out what I needed, bounce to a stereo pair and then get everything in the session that I want to hear. It took me until Sunday morning - I wanted it to sound reasonably correct! Plans for July 26 to August 2 Today I'm recording with Phil Keaggy. I'm going to Phil's studio today (Monday 26th). I'm going to have him take an acoustic guitar solo on 'The D Jam', a big instrumental thing in D, and I might stretch it out - I might double it and give him more space because he's so amazing, he's incredible. And he has an incredible voice too! He's going to do an electric solo in 'Epic 1' and then he'll take a stab at singing some things too so we'll see! Then we have strings on Tuesday and Wednesday (27th and 28th) and on Thursday 29th I'm going to try Chris Carmichael singing! He's been telling me about his amazing voice and I have some vocals that I'd like to replace rather than just have my voice all over. We'll also be doing French horn with a friend of his. One thing that was really interesting was I spoke to Nick last week and he said they're cutting strings on Monday and Tuesday for their record. I said 'Well that's bizarre - I'm cutting strings on Tuesday and Wednesday!' It's weird we end up doing things at the same time and it's totally unplanned. On Friday 30th it will be final touching up - I may re-sing a few things - I like some of the original vocals I recorded but there's a few lines I may re-sing. I may also re-sing 'Father Forgiveness'. On Saturday 31st we should be done. Just final bits and pieces ready to send out to Rich Mouser next Monday or Tuesday. It's surprising how this thing keeps getting better. I keep thinking it's got as good as it can get and it keeps getting better! I hope that doesn't sound egotistical or anything; I'm just thrilled with how things are turning out. Praise God it's wonderful. I'm so grateful to have this time to be able to work on this thing. So many people in the world have visions of albums or things they'd like to make or do, but do not have or find the time. So I get to devote my time to it. It's awesome. Update On Christian 'Pop' Album I have decided I want to release my Christian 'pop' album after this prog album. My plan is after this one's done I will take up the Christian pop album again. So possibly looking for an early spring 2005 release. But my wife's really on me to do a Christmas album. So I might do that in September and in October work on the Christian pop album - a bit like 'It's Not Too Late' but only with Christian lyrics. More later....  Neal records with Phil Keaggy on the new album.
Hey everyone things are really busy in the Morse household today. So busy that I'm doing a diary entry with Paul on the phone while cooking (and eating) breakfast ! There's not a moment to lose today so here goes.... Thursday June 24 I got a lot of the main body of the record done on Thursday on guitars. I'm still using the borrowed gear but I'm still fond of my Strat because that has the whammy bar. I like to hold chords and put the whammy bar on it and a little vibrato is nice. Friday June 25 On Friday I finished up the guitars on the album tracks. I was going to start on the bonus tracks but I was too fried by the time I finished ! I worked in the order as it was on the album. I did the last part of 'Help Me' and 'Spirit and The Flesh'. Saturday June 26 I got up really early and did guitars on all the bonus tracks. I finished about 1pm. I remember because I was due to finish at noon because Eric Thibaut was going to pick up all his stuff then. I was supposed to be done at noon but I called him up and said 'hey I need a little bit of time', so he came a bit later. His amps sound killer and the Gibson ES-335 I borrowed from John Howerton is incredible as well. A big thanks to both those guys. I think you'll be thanking them too when you hear the record. It's funny, it took me 43 years to figure out that to get a good guitar sound you should get a great guitar and a great amp and just.....plug it in! That's pretty much it. Some of us are a bit slow. Eric picked up his gear at about 1pm then we set up for acoustic guitar. Sunday June 27 I started off acoustic guitar on the bonus tracks just to get comfortable on them as they're easy that's a little clue there ! I did one of the bonus tracks between 5.30am and 6.15, then I was done with the next one by 6.30, the next by 7.00, I think I was done with all the acoustic on those tracks by 8.00am ! They're not too difficult ! Monday June 28 I started the more difficult acoustic things for the main album and managed to finish that all in one day ! Tuesday / Thursday - June 29 / July 1 I set up and started working on the CalProg stuff on Tuesday. I've been practicing my solo thing for this Saturday's gig at CalProg and I think it's going to be pretty cool. I've got this new device called a Lexicon Jam Man that allows you to loop stuff and play to it.....man I'm having a good time! I was so excited about some of the things I'm able to do I tried to get my wife to get up and check it out but she wouldn't go for it so now I'm telling you. I don't want to say too much but I hope you're all coming! I haven't played solo in a few years and never for this kind of thing so....come on! (How's that for a plug Papa Jim?) Pray for me that I won't botch the whole thing ! I've also been going through the tracks from the new album and doing bounces. I wanted to leave town with reasonable copies. Working on Pro-Tools as you're going through tracks and punching in you really have to go back through everything and check all the punches and do cross fades it's very time consuming. I wanted to leave with some rough mixes so I can listen to everything while I'm away make lists of what's missing. I've also had vacation bible school at church that I've been accompanying the kids. As well as that I've been working a bit on an album for a friend at church. We did a choral session on Tuesday night and guitars for that on Thursday afternoon. After CalProg I'm going to have a vacation. We'll be staying at a beach house, my parents will be coming to see us and some friends too. After the vacation the album will have to be completed. I've got a percussion guy booked for July 13 and what's left will be vocals, organ, percussion, strings, brass and miscellaneous. All that in only two weeks as I want to deliver it to Rich Mouser. We're hoping for an early November release although at this stage that doesn't mean it will actually happen then. I'll give another update to you soon. neal Neal's Studio Diary |
|---|
| Long song #1 | 17 minutes | |
| The Man's Gone | 3 minutes | |
| Author Of Confusion | 10 minutes | |
| Long Song #2 | 17 minutes | |
| Cradle To The Grave | 5 minutes | |
| Spirit And The Flesh | 10 minutes | |
| Father Of Forgiveness | 5 minutes | |
| One Voice | 10 minutes |
It all comes out at about 79 minutes just short enough to fit on one CD praise God !
I did have to drop 'King Jesus', right after 'Spirit And The Flesh', but I think it's right to leave it for the bonus disc. But I might still change my mind at the last minute about the track listing so...you never know 'til the album comes out !
The album title is not decided yet I've read some of the things on the website, suggestions for the title, I enjoy reading that.
I'm thrilled about the whole thing thrilled what God has done bringing us together to do this thing. He knows I had no clue how this could possibly come together and work like it has that's the great adventure of it not knowing how it's going to turn out. It makes it so amazing when it turns out because in my own understanding I couldn't see how it was going to turn out at all ! It totally exceeds my expectations as God always does !There's plenty of footage of 'The Making Of' too, I hope you people aren't sick of 'The Making Ofs' ! This one should be particularly interesting as it was a unique process, totally different than any other process I've been through.
I'm going to be working on keyboards over the next couple of days, then I'm out of town later this week. Next week I'll be doing keyboards and guitars and then vocals the week after that.
Update on Recording of new prog album
Hey everyone, I thought I'd update you on what's been happening since Mike and Randy finished recording with me. So here's a diary entry to cover the last couple of weeks:
Monday June 14
I took Randy to the airport at 5:00 in the morning. Jerry was setting stuff up for me most of the day so I started on keyboards that evening.
Tuesday June 15
I spent all day long doing keyboards on the first long song. It has these mini-moog parts that are fast - almost like they should be done on a sequencer - rigid arpeggio things - so it took me quite a while to get those right and proceed through the tune. I was also having a really good time using my sampler which I got working again. I found really cool bells, a gong and other things that are in there. I love it! That spot where we transition from one part to the next that was a problem for me and we had to recut it a few times is now one of my favourite bits on the album. With the trons and gong and stuff it's incredible!
Wednesday / Thursday / Friday June 16-18
I was out of town at a church camp meeting. Twice a year everybody associated with this body of people from all over the world come to a meeting place on Shepherdsville Hill. It's on top of a hill and I feel there's something very spiritual and almost magical about going up there. It was really great.
Saturday June 19
I spent all day Saturday on keyboards.
I happened to have dinner with friends in the evening. We'd been meaning to see them for months and I didn't realize it but the husband of a sister of a good friend of mine is a rare guitar collector ! This is the way God works, I believe, because He loves to bless His children ( even as far as guitars go ! )
So I said I'm going to be doing guitars next week and he said to check it out. I'd been talking to various people about renting amps and stuff and he said 'well if you want to borrow some...'
He has a Gibson, I think a ES 335 - the big red one that Alvin Lee played at Woodstock with the big 'f' holes. I've never had one or played one. So I borrowed the guitar from him. Jerry has a Les Paul, I've been using a bit of that and my Strat. So far the big Gibson sounds so great and I've been playing that almost all the time.
The cool thing was I was trying to figure out how I was going to do this - we need to rent some amps or something - I called people to rent and it would be really expensive and also we need someone to dial in the sounds. I thought we need to find a dude who can do this and Jerry said why don't we call Justin Glasco, the drum tech who was on the Testimony tour. So I called Justin and he said 'oh my room-mate will probably be perfect - he has a bunch of guitar amps and guitar gear and he's a huge Spock's Beard fan !' So he came over and brought four different amp heads, an old Orange amp, a boogy rectifier which I guess a lot of the early Dream Theater was done through and a Fender Bassman for good clean tones. So I've got all these amp heads all set up - it's almost like I'm a professional ! And it sounds killer, it sounds great ! I never realised that all you really need to do to get really good guitar sounds is get a killer guitar and killer amp and you're in there ! And the sustain is incredible - I don't have to do a whole bunch of processing to get the sustain.
Monday June 21
I spent all day on grand piano. We went to a studio and I played a Steinway. They had a killer mike selection too. I was pretty fried after that - without hardly any breaks I must have played for about 7 hours straight ! I didn't realize it, it turned out there's more piano on this record than on any other prog record I've recorded. Previously I've been able to pick out the spots with piano, but on this record there's a lot of piano through whole songs - there was more than I was expecting !
Tuesday June 22
I finished keyboards on the rest of the record besides the organ. So I'm done with all the keyboards beside Hammond.
Wednesday June 23
I started on guitars. I'm having so much fun - I'm having a wonderful time. Those guys are so into it ! Eric and Jerry were setting up so I said I'll do e-mails and stuff until you guys get sound. That was at 10.30am and by 1pm they still hadn't come in ! They'd got 6 different mikes out and they were moving them around the room and listening and setting up different amps. So it was like 'when do I actually get to play?'. But now it's all set up so I can record myself whenever I want to. I got to play about 2 - 5 pm. So now I can get up at five in the morning and start in !
Thursday June 24
I've started early today and I'm almost through the first epic. I'm cranking it up really loud to get feedback and it's 7.30am now so I hope I'm not waking everyone up !
I'll keep you updated with progress.
June 3rd, 2004
New Prog Album
I'm starting recording a new prog album with Mike Portnoy and Randy George on Sunday. It kinda just came up. I really feel the hand of God because I knew Mike was booked up for the year, but I felt he was the right guy for this project. I'd put out some other feelers and thought about some other folks but nothing was panning out. The piece needed some work done on it and I felt Mike was the right guy to help sort it out as well as Randy.
Then suddenly Mike's schedule opened up ! Dream Theater are going to be opening for Yes, I think it starts in August, and before then they're taking some time off. Mike has other projects but he had a hole in his schedule this coming week (June 6-13) and if it wasn't then it would have to be the end of July. I prayed about it and thought, come on !
So say a prayer for us that God will be working his magic on this project !
I'm still considering using other musicians I've got a call out to Phil Keaggy and I'm thinking of others but I'll leave that as a surprise for now !
CCM Album Update
I'm writing out background vocal parts for my little Christian 'pop' album I originally recorded a couple of years ago. I'm not sure what to call it. I don't like calling it CCM or pop either. Oh well I'll keep thinking about that. I've hired a group of professional singers to sing like a church choir and they'll be recording today. They're going to be singing on 'The Crossroads', 'I Sing My Love', 'God Won't Give Up', 'His Mercy Endureth' and 'Save My Life'. We've also re-cut some drum tracks this week.
I'm letting Jerry Guidroz be in charge of it I did it two years ago now and have been listening to it for two years so it's hard for me to tell the original versions sound good to me but I'm not sure so I thought it was the right thing to turn it over to him.
CalProgDay - Update
It's going to be a solo performance for me at CalProgDay I haven't done that for a long while not since my pub and club days !
I'm working on what to play a certain amount of sing-along stuff as much of those things as I can it'll be difficult with only my voice but maybe the audience can be the rest of the voices !
I met a guitarist, a wonderful artist called Phil Keaggy recently he plays solo all the time and he has a 'loop box' so he can play a rhythm, then loop it, then play something over it. He also has an 'octaver' device that makes whatever he plays an octave lower for a bass line and then loop it. I'm thinking of getting one pretty soon and try to do some of the Spock's Beard and Transatlantic stuff using this loop thing. I was also thinking of even trying to loop my voice and doing some of the acapalla vocal things I don't know I haven't tried it yet ! But I'll probably be able to do something with it !
I think it's going to be a pretty unique gig really cool. I have good feelings about it and I'm looking forward to it. If it goes well maybe I'll be up to doing more solo things I'm certainly a lot more mobile on my own trying to mobilize the whole band is like trying to push a huge giant boulder and the cost goes through the roof of moving everyone around and all their gear. So if the solo thing goes well maybe I can do more like that come along to support me and see what you make of it !
Jim Harrell is the main organiser of the event and I thought it would be appropriate to include some comments from Jim in this diary entry:
"With regards to Neal and CalProg, many people (including HIM) don't really know how instrumental he was in making this show a reality. Neal has been a living inspiration for me, not only his incredibly wonderful music (which has touched the deepest reaches of my heart) but as a friend. His life is a living testimony, and speaks well of the balance and happiness that a grace filled life can have. Also, his faith in me, has helped ME to have faith in me, and has helped to invigorate my relationship with God.
But there is no one person that is making CalProg happen. At best, I am a conduit, a facilitator that is helping to focus the forces that are at work here. I have the highest regard for all of the musicians and the wonderful all-volunteer staff that are working with me to make this thing a success. We all are driven by the common belief that this wonderful music needs to be heard by more people. That if given the chance, there are many people who would be blessed by and would appreciate the quality of progressive rock.
The line-up for this event is very strong and diverse. Unlike many other festivals who have one or two strong acts, and then a bunch that you haven't heard of, each one of these performers have been around for a while and has a measure of success in their own right. Mike Keneally's credentials are legendary, and the band is one of the tightest prog/fusion/zany acts out there. They are in strong contrast to the more metal tendencies of Enchant. This hard driving bay area fixture has been around for many years, and has a strong and loyal following of their own. Izz is probably the least known of the groups, but they are an up and coming "art-rock" synth-oriented prog group who has scored incredibly high marks at all their performances, including the very recent ROSfest. Reports from that show say that the audience would not let them leave the stage, but for time constraints, they could've played another set to appease the crowd. And Erik Norlander, well he's also a prog "institution", and his keyboard talents are well known. Also, he's got some incredible surprises planned that I think are really going to make this event special. I can't say too much, but remember that he is married to Lana Lane, prog's premier diva!"
And as far as Neal's performance, it's funny that we both had the idea of him doing a solo-acoustic set separately. It just seemed like a perfect change of pace for the after dinner opening of the evening part of the show. Neal is one of the most talented song writers of our time, and this will give us a chance to focus on THAT. His "catalog" is deep and rich, and I can just see the whole crowd singing along during most of his set. This will be a chance for him to really connect almost one to one with the audience, and it has been my experience that prog rock fans just adore him, not to mention the whole new set of fans that are just discovering him since the Testimony CD. I know it will be a wonderfully warm and emotional hour of music. I can't wait!
Testimony DVD
I'm not sure if the European release date has been put back from 28 June but the American release is now July 13.
A lot of people are probably wondering why the PAL versions of DVDs are usually released earlier than the American versions.
One reason is the Europeans (in my case) are the ones actually producing the master (Inside Out Europe) so they get it first, and make the master first.
Secondly, Europe can seem to manufacture with a lot quicker turnarounds than America many manufacturers will take three weeks to turn around a DVD in the States but in Europe it seems it can be done in a few days.
Keep checking for updates to Neal's diary I'll let you know how the studio recording is going next week.
May 20th, 2004
White House Park - Charity Concert - May 14
Well I'm sorry to everyone who came to see us last Friday - it got rained out at the park !
They ended up having the event at the Community Center. Originally the event was planned to be all night long - a marathon fund raising for the cancer charity. But the city said that at the Community Center everyone had to be out by 12.30am, so it was really crazy, a madhouse of everyone trying to get the gear into this little place.
I felt bad because the band from my church were meant to play for half an hour after me. My friend Mark Leniger had prepared some songs too. I spent a little too much time and although I only did four songs (Wind At My Back, The Crossroads, Sing It High and I Am Willing) I didn't realize what time it was, I cut 'Sleeping Jesus' but the church band only got to play two songs and Mark didn't get to do any - so I felt really bad about that - let me make my public apology !
The church band is big, too, they all came up there, about 25 of them, with wind, brass including tubas and everything - the whole works ! We played a song called 'Church Triumphant' and I also sing in a men's trio - we sang a Bill Gaither song called 'Sinner Saved By Grace'. By that time the sheriff had come and I think they were going to shut us down ! We were over time. So that was hilarious - the last time the cops had come in to try to stop me playing I must have been a teenager at a party or something ! I thought it was pretty funny to have the cops threatening to shut you down while the church band is playing 'Sinner Saved By Grace' !
It was a very different gig but it was good. They had the lights on in the Community Center in the house and on the stage the whole time. Everything I've been doing recently has been in unusual settings somehow - like the bookstore, then this Community Center - I feel it's good - I'm learning how to get comfortable with people and with the music and to praise God in all kinds of different environments.
More later....
May 20th, 2004
Work in the Studio
I've started working on another prog epic - I've been working on it for months now - I hadn't been sure whether I would go through with it or not.
It's a concept piece - It's about God and man being in unity in the beginning in the garden, becoming separated, and then man building himself up and then coming to realize he needs God after all. Then God sending His son to be the mediator between God and man and coming back into unity again. That's the Reader's Digest version !
I've just put all the demo pieces together and then realized they wouldn't fit on one cd - it was 86 minutes or something - so I think I'll have to do some cutting. I really don't want to do another double. That would be insane!
It's quite a bit like Testimony musically - a lot of instrumental passages and a lot of song bits. One thing I've found fascinating is I've felt in my spirit from the beginning that I needed help with this one. I had been seeking help from different people and it didn't originally seem that it was really happening - we couldn't find the time or it didn't really gel.
But when Randy George was with me to do the gigs recently I ran some of the stuff with by him. He also sat in with me while I was doing some scratch vocals. I'd come up to a part and might say 'I'm not really happy with this line here' and he would just cock his head back and say something wonderful. He has great lyric ideas! - I'd felt him more as a music guy I didn't realize he was such an amazing lyricist. He also knows exactly what I'm talking about in this piece and what I'm writing about. He came up with some lines that are things I would never have thought of - it was really cool.
There's a song called 'Help Me' where the man is realizing he's in trouble and one of the verses goes:
'Help me I'm in trouble' and Randy says
'I can hear the lions roar
Being drawn ever closer
To the threshing-floor'
I think that's totally cool - the threshing-floor is a biblical concept.
Another line of his was:
'What I thought was freedom
Has now chained me like a slave' - some really cool things !
So things are now working out with that - I've sent some demos to Randy now and what I'm planning to do is get a group of musicians together and thrash it out and work on it - change it where it needs to be changed - that's what I'm hoping !
I'm also going to be taking a look at my Contemporary Christian Music album again that I originally recorded before Testimony. ('The Crossroads' and 'King of Love' are from that album). I'm considering re-cutting the drums and starting to work on that a little bit more.
So there's a lot going on ! More later....
May 3rd, 2004
3 May 2004 - Thoughts on Gospel Music Association and In-Store at Bowling Green
Hey everyone - what a busy week it was! Paul asked me about the two gigs last week and here's some of my thoughts on them....
I thought both Bowling Green and GMA went well - I felt particularly good about GMA - I really felt the Lord, I felt an especially good Spirit. I felt the Spirit in different places in different times. Always in 'I Am Willing' - that hits the place emotionally most for me. At Bowling Green I felt touched and moved in 'Sing It High' - I'd never felt that before - when I started singing about the love of the people so strong and many of my friends from church came to that one - I was really touched by that. It was a bit of a surprise - those are the kind of surprises I like!
The band really played well. The tempos were all really in the pocket and it felt good playing a lot of electric guitar. I actually played very little keyboards which is kind of new. Many thanks to Mark, Randy and Steve for putting in a ton of work for a few small gigs.
The GMA gig was, for me, a little more somber than I had anticipated. I mean I was a little more serious than I thought I'd be. You pray for God's will to be done and whatever comes up will come up - for me GMA was a little more serious than I expected it to be.
Even so, one thing happened that was really funny, although I didn't mean it to be. There were a lot of people from my church there. We were singing 'Sing It High' when I say 'Can somebody shout hallelujah' and the crowd shouted hallelujah or Amen and then I kinda said 'Oh I'd like to hear more of that in church !' and I think I said 'was that a rebuke?' - I wasn't expecting that to fly out of my mouth! I don't think anyone took it in the wrong way - it was in the spirit of humor and fun - I wasn't rebuking everybody but it was funny the things that will just fly out of your mouth sometimes !
I ended giving my testimony about Jayda. For me having never done a Christian performance like that I got to meet a lot of people that I've either e-mailed or talked to on the phone. I got to connect with a lot of those people in a way that surprised me. Several of them hugged me and said 'hey man, I really felt your heart - that was awesome', and I could see in their eyes that they were moved. So now there's a connection between us - when you're moved by the same thing there's a connection that happens. You can talk about loving God or being brothers in Christ but when you are face to face with someone you can really see the love that they have. That was the thing that touched my heart and changed my mind.
There was a young band that did a sound check at the same time and they gave me a hug after our set and said 'man, we really felt that' - and that's the goal for me. That people have an emotional connection to it.
The whole GMA event lasted a few days - I went down and hung out with the guys from Christian Musician Magazine one afternoon - we chatted and played some guitars. I also had dinner with some friends in the industry.
The opening act was really cool ! There was this bass player named Bernard Harris who played the coolest funky lead bass. He plays bass upside down like Jimmy Hendrix played guitar. He played like George Benson on the bass with this funk band and it was totally cool !
I want to thank Bill Evans for all his work and all his help with the GMA event and everything he's doing - he's great ! Also, Jamie Warden from Central South for setting everything up.
In-Store Performance At Bowling Green
We played at the Family Christian Book Store. They didn't really have any places to sit and we played longer than at GMA so I felt bad about that. That people had to stand for so long. Me, I'm lazy man, I gotta have a chair! It was a strange setting - with the material about worshipping God it can be a little bit hard to get in that frame of mind in just any environment. You're used to church for that so it's a bit of a challenge to get in that 'space' wherever I am. That's something I'm going to need to learn how to do. But...I did feel something there. I was really touched at that in-store. I hope other people were too. I was uncomfortable some of the time and touched some of the time.My son and daughter opened with a song called 'God of Wonders' - a song we learned in the car a year or so ago - they played at their piano recital recently. I thought it would be a nice way to start the day and put everyone in a good mood.
Unlike the GMA gig, we did two songs from my unreleased contemporary Christian type album I had recorded before Snow; we did 'The Crossroads' - A song I wrote when I was in the valley of decision about whether or not to quit Spock's Beard. We also did a song called 'King of Love' - A foot stomping piano song. That was really fun - that was one of my favorite things.
I really enjoyed doing the Transatlantic and Spock's songs too; we did 'We All Need Some Light' and ended with 'June'.
I was really grateful to Steve Morley - we only practiced June once that morning right before we went to do it and he really did his homework and it was really cool - he made it so that we could do that song.
There were people that had