PHOTO Blog: Good Friday CD Release: Sojourn’s “The Water And The Blood

Last Friday, 1500 Sojourners, friends and music lovers gathered in Louisville’s Memorial Auditorium for a Good Friday Hymn Sing like no other — the CD release for The Water And The Blood: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume Two.

The Water And The Blood releases nationally today (download or order the physical CD or double-LP vinyl at this link). It’s the culmination of a project that began in 2008, when our songwriting group delved into the hymn texts of Isaac Watts, the “Father Of English Hymnody.” New melodies, new arrangements, and in some cases new lyrics adapted from or inspired by Watts’s original lyrics (just as Watts had written metrical hymns based on the psalms). We’ve lived with these texts for three years — examining them, learning theology and poetry from them, wrestling with them, trying melodies on them, adapting them, expanding them, updating them with imagery for our time and place, and falling in love with them. It’s a remarkable pleasure to present the end result of that to you.

In 2009 we released the first-fruits of that writing project: Over The Grave: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume One. In the photo below, Jamie Barnes and Rebecca Dennison kick off last Friday’s release party with an acoustic version of a song from that album: “Only Your Blood Is Enough,” written by Neil Robins (who also produced Over The Grave).

Below, Worship Pastor Mike Cosper addresses the crowd publicly, as he’d addressed the Sojourn songwriters privately at the close of 2007 regarding the idea to bring new awareness and vitality to the hymns of Watts:

Then Rebecca Elliott, co-writer on songs like “In The Shadow Of The Glorious Cross” and “All I Have Is Yours” sang the first Watts 2 song of the night, “Early My God Without Delay,” written by Charlie Richardson (who had previously written songs like “There Is A Peace” and “Where Your Praise Never Ends.”)

Brooks Ritter and Kristen Gilles teamed up a couple times on this night: first, belting out the driving, energetic “From Deep Distress” written by Justin Shaffer and Mike Cosper. Later in the evening Kristen provided backing vocals to Brooks as he sang “The World Will Know,” which he wrote with Mike Cosper.

David LaChance is one of those musicians who adds so much to any song he’s a part of. He was an integral part of the record, as well as this hymn-sing:

The same can be said for Justin Shaffer and Dony Erwin, in the photo below (playing, respectively, guitar and upright bass):

Speaking of Shaffers, Justin’s wife Megan brought the house down with “Death Has Lost Its Sting,” and contributed vocals to “Absent From Flesh” and several other new songs:

Pastor Mike played a variety of instruments — here, the steel guitar:

And that’s Phillip Miller on lap steel (he also played electric guitar this night):

The crowd was on their feet almost the entire time — here, while singing along with “Let Your Blood Plead For Me,” a song led by Rebecca Dennison (with cool piano work by David LaChance) written by me, Jeremy Quillo and Mike Cosper:

Chad Watson is our J-Town Campus Worship Director. Here, he rattles the walls with powerful vocals on “Deep In Our Hearts,” written by Joel Gerdis, Brooks Ritter and Mike Cosper:

Miguel Monroy kept everyone in line with precision drum work:

And Emily Vaughn was spot-on with smooth harmony vocals, just as she is on the album:

Everyone on stage, jamming out to “Absent From Flesh,” written by Jamie Barnes and led on the album by Brooks Ritter:

I’m pretty sure we’ll never grow tired of that song:

In the photo below, Dave Moisan closes out the event by leading everyone in “Warrior,” the song he recorded for Over The Grave, written by himself, Neil Robins and me.

Funny note: Dave had texted me right before the event, asking me to have my wife Kristen send him the song set list, so he’d know when to come on stage for “Warrior.” I didn’t see his text until after the night had ended. Oops. But from this photo, you can see that he made it on stage in time:

Lead Pastor Daniel Montgomery thanked the singers and musicians for their part in this special night, and for bringing the Isaac Watts Project to completion on CD, mp3 and vinyl:

Next, he thanked Pastor Mike for his leadership on the project:

Following the Benediction, people lined up to buy the CD:

Memorial Auditorium is a beautiful building with stunning acoustics. We thank them for hosting us.

All photos above courtesy Chuck Heeke. See his whole set at this link.
But wait! There’s more! Also check out the pics by Brad Weir. Here, he captures Jamie Barnes and Rebecca Dennison as they sing their co-written bluegrass romp, “Blest Be The Lamb.” Let’s call this “Watt-grass”:

Brooks and Kristen, along with David, Justin and Dony:

And everyone on “Warrior”:

Wait! There’s still more! Check out Ryan Harvey’s pics. Here, he captures one of the “unsung heroes” of the night, Eddy Morris. Eddy ran the sound, along with Paul Mahern (who produced The Water And The Blood). Eddy has engineered many Sojourn recordings and live events. He’s also a gifted musician and good friend:

Meg and Phillip — two groovy cats:

And one happy person who just bought a copy of The Water And The Blood: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume Two, which you can also buy right now, at this link. This guy says you should: