Well, first let me catch you-all up. Bobby Cruz and I have started a new CD of Contemporary versions of classic Hymns from days of old. Bobby and first met back in November to pick songs and discuss the CD. I ended up putting the project on a back burner while dealing with a frustrating negotiation for a Church job I hold. Once that was done and the dust settled, I contacted Bobby about getting back to work on the CD.

We both got the new version of Reason and started the first of March working on the software and then picked a song each to learn with. I chose I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.

My First song was handed off to Bobby 2 days ago with basic tracks and arrangement done. Bobby will add his keyboard expertise to the tracks and then I will have to take a fresh look and see if it needs anymore tweaking or orchestration. Lastly I will add the sax to the track and it will be complete.

Bobby is almost done with his first track but I don’t remember the name of the song right now.

With Easter around the corner and a recent funeral I played that included this song, I decided to start The Old Rugged Cross yesterday. The basic arrangement was done this morning and Bobby and I met to talk, walk and show him the track. It feels a lot better than I thought and I really like the rough so far.

I hope to get it handed to Bobby by Monday for B3 and whatever else he might want to add. This is shaping up to be a real nice CD so far.

One cool thing about it is the option of being able to make the tracks available for sale to sax players wanting to cover these songs. I read the forums and see lots of guys needing tracks or fresh new arrangements of hymns for church all the time. We are trying to arrange this CD so it works well for track use too and the tracks will be worked on after the CD is done, for a release in July of this year.

So far now, I’m signing off. Got to finish this gig I’m on and get home to work on it for a few hours. Peace out…