Listen to the Angels: The Story of A Song

It is now going on three years since Seasons came out with their first album, "Eventide Lullaby."  

Three years is a fairly significant amount of time, in which alot can happen (just think of all Jesus got done in three years of public ministry) and it seems to be about time that we share some of our stories from creating our first album.  

In addition to sharing these stories, I am also going to have certain songs available for live streaming in the "my band" application on facebook (don't worry, I shall provide a link).

This way, you shall be able to read the story of the song, and then listen to the song!  

Or you can listen to the song, and then read the story.

Or you can do neither (which I do not suggest).

The first song I would like to share about is "Listen to the Angels."  

 

This song was originally not going to be on Eventide Lullaby at all, for an important reason: it had not been written yet.  It was the Summer of 2006, and we had cemented our final song list for the CD (or so we thought) and were read to head off to Tybee Island on vacation before returning home to record.  

Two nights before leaving, however, as I noodled away at the harp, I hit on the descending chords with the riff that you hear at the beginning of the song. 

 "Huh," I thought, "That sounds kind of Christmasish." 

Thoughtfully, I pulled out a scrap of lined paper and scribbled down some lines.  

Then I tried singing them to the tune I'd come up with.  Not bad.

Going along with the emotions felt in the verse, I slowly pieced together a chorus.  

"Hey, that's a nice melody," My dad said, stopping in the midst of Tybee preparations.

"Thanks," I replied.

"Does it have a name?" My dad asked (I am pretty sure at this point my dad knew, with his infinite dad wisdom, that this song was somehow going to end up on the CD)

"Yes," I replied "Christmas in St. Louis." 

What???

Few people (other than my dad and Peter, who never let me forget it) know that "Listen to the Angels" was in danger of remaining "Christmas in St. Louie," a song about a boy in the great Depression whose dad has become a hobo.

I don't know why this seemed like a good and poignant idea at the time (it was the third song I ever worked on, okay?) but I hope this hammers home to all writers and musicians the importance of good writing partners and friends who will tell you the truth, because at some point in your life you will have an idea that is absolutely, breathtakingly terrible, but you will believe it is the best thing since sliced bread.

Luckily, my dad retreated, and then returned with a legal pad on which he had written down some of his own, and much better lyrics, including the line "listen to the angels."  What first caught my eye, however, was his opening lines "One boy, one girl, one road that leads to far away."  I liked it because it seemed both and contemporary and timeless at the same time, which seems to be the magic combination that holds so many of our favorite Christmas songs together.

Okay, honestly I first inwardly griped because I had not come up with those words and was sort of married to my first historical Christmas idea, until Peter (sensing we were working on a song that was possibly about to interrupt the delicate balance of our CD list) came down and badgered me to sever all connections.  Then I started appreciating Dad's words.

While Dad kept the lyrics coming, Peter and I started trying to select certain lines to piece together the song.  Peter has a well-refined bad lyric detector and would simply look at me or dad if we offered an even remotely lyric idea and reply simply, "No."

Putting together the chorus with Peter was especially cool, since we were sitting by our instruments, trying to finish the line "Listen to the Angels, even when their words seem far away" and Peter suddenly, out of the blue, came up with "You gotta trust that God will lead the way."

Another nice thing about working with Peter on a song is that he stays firm about getting things right when I feel firm about packing things up and going to bed.

So at 1:00 a.m. (after Dad had gone to bed) Peter announced to me that after the instrumental we needed a bridge.  However, working under pressure will sometimes make you produce faster than normal (just look at term papers) and the bridge did not take long to come up with (I suspect our guardian angels had a hand in this too).  Once again Peter had the critical words when my brain ceased working, such as "was born a humble babe to people who believed."

After finishing up the song we went to bed, and after vacation assembled our team of singers, Mary Callaghan (who had no idea she would be coming in to sing two original songs for our CD) Seth Bird (who never got to actually sing the song with Mary until the day he recorded it) and Katie Bird (who said she would just try a couple things, but as usual, knows just the sort of harmony that is needed to fill out a song) and Rebekah Callaghan (who also usually insists she doesn't know what she's doing, but sounded amazing on this song.  I think we actually might have sprung this one on her in the studio).

Since then Listen to the Angels has been performed with a variety of different people and has actually been heard on the radio a couple times around Christmas.  When we played it at Warm Hearts in Mechanicsburg (our favorite coffeehouse ever) someone actually came up to me to ask for the words (and in response I took the music off my stand and handed it to them. I'm not even sure if it had my name on it...).  We also have been requested to play this song a couple time when it is not Christmas, which has led to some interesting lyrical alterations when we are trying to remember and play the song at the same time.  It also has a tendency to become "Listen to the Angles" when we are trying to retype the words too quickly!

So now, Listen to the Angels (not the angles)!

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Our Show With Scythian!

Last Friday night we opened for Scythian!

This has been a dream for Seasons that goes back many years...(by many, I mean like, four...)

As of so far our contact with Scythian has consisted of going to their shows, standing (or jumping around and dancing) in awe, taking lots of pictures, and then perseverating on how cool it would be to open for them (though then Peter would look at us like we were crazy and say "we're not worthy!")

Repeat cycle for four years (with two exceptions):

Me running into Scythian randomly at Heavenly Grounds Coffeehouse in Steubenville, stammering hi, then running away (I am not proud of my reaction, but at least I said something).

Peter and I having conversation with Lex at the Renaissance Faire in August '09 when we were playing in the same Shire (we saw this as getting closer to our dream). We also gave him a copy of "Which Way to Dublin Town" (this will become important later in the story).

Then, a call comes in September from One Heart Ministries, our good friends who run Fortress 1230 am and the Warm Hearts Coffeehouse. They said they were having a fundraiser for the radio station and that Scythian had agreed to be the main act, and they would like to have bands Gravel and Grace and Seasons as opening shows!

At first this seemed like an instant dream come true, until we heard the date of the show, and realized Peter would still be away in Austria.

After breaking the news that we were going to open for Scythian to Peter (who was elated until he heard the date) we decided to get our act together and put together a fantastic set.

Here was our initial line up:

Grace--Dulcimer

Clare--Violin

MT--Lots of things

Mary-Kate: harp and vocals

We practiced and practiced (this is what we usually are doing when we have to bow out of social events) and just when I started feeling like we might just have a band (even without Peter of the blazing hammers) everyone in my house gets the flu. Except me.

Fast-forward to the day of the concert. Contrary to our hopes, Teresa is the only Season besides me who feels up to playing. Upon returning home from work and and begging Grace to not be sick and play the show (until mom told me I had to reorganize my priorities), I start desperately trying to brush up on the hammered dulcimer.

Honestly, there was a point where I looked up from our scribbled set list to the ticking clock and said, "I don't think I want to do this." Everything was going wrong: people were sick, music was misplaced, and none of the instruments were staying in tune.

Even though we came really close to calling to bow out of the concert, we decided to push through.

Finally, Teresa and I (with our drummer Sean) showed up at the Community Center in Mechanicsburg (after getting stuck in traffic) and who do we see sitting in the third row of chairs while their soundcheck was going on but Scythian.

I made Teresa go through their names for the millionth time while we unloaded our stuff.

Now, when I had pictured our dream of opening for Scythian coming true, I had never gotten to the point where we actually got to talk to them, but as we were standing to the side of the stage waiting for our sound check, who comes up to me but Dan Fedorkya of Scythian.

He introduces himself and says "I've been listening to your CD alot on the bus and I really like it. Especially the Song of Saint Patrick. You wrote that, right? The words are really beautiful."

How should one respond when someone from one's favorite band pays you a compliment?

If you are me, you try something really humorous and witty like "Oh. Really? Thanks."

Dan Fedorkya talked to us a little longer before going to get ready. Later I heard that he sat in on our set (luckily I didn't notice this at the time because I was too busy making faces at the Delps in the front row) and listening quite attentively.

The set (miraculously) went well, despite our diminished size (having Diane Bird and Sean Davis was a Godsend) and one of the most well-received numbers was the cover that we did of Peter's "River Song," which we decided to add at the 11th hour.

After us Gravel and Grace took the stage, playing two of my favorite Nickel Creek songs in their set. They were followed by you know who (no, not Lord Voldemort).

Scythian gave a shout-out to us at the beginning of their show, saying they'd almost worn out our CD from listening to it. Later, when they were playing "Si Bheag and Si Mhor" medlied into "The Snowy Path" Dan got this quizzical expression on his face. Once they finished the song he looks at MT and I and asks, "Don't you guys play that on your CD too?"

To which I once again replied, with my usual humor and wit, "Um, yeah."

MT and I took this comment as an excellent sign since "The Snowy Path" appears in the final third of our CD, suggesting that Dan did in fact listen to all 17 tracks! Whoo-hoo!

Afterward the show I got a chance to talk with Lex (I was able to redeem myself a little because we talked about books). We also picked up a copy of Scythian's new live album, which is fantastic and ties with "Dance at the Crossroads" as my favorite.

I said that we hoped we could open for them again sometime (hopefully with our full band) and Lex thought that it would work out well if we opened for them during parent's weekend at Steubenville next year.

So hopefully I will see many of you at Homecoming at Franciscan University of Steubenville next October if this indeed comes to fruition. And then our dream can come true all over again!

Rewinding "Flash Forward"

I can see the future. Or at least flashes of it. I know that every Thursday from 8:00-9:00 p.m., I will be curled up on the couch with a cup of tea absorbing every absorbing minute of Flash Forward, ABC's new drama.

The thing is, in Flash Forward every person in the world blacked out at the same time and actually received a glimpse of his or her future six months or so from that moment: two minutes and seventeen seconds of it, to be exact.

Whoah.

So, in a way, everyone knows how this series is going to end. Well, not really.

The characters are still struggling with what these visions mean. As Scrooge puts it in a Christmas Carol are these visions "things that will come to pass" or simply things that "might come to pass?"

Is Agent Mark Benford, the recovering alcoholic, destined to fall again to his addiction (and also solve the mystery of the blackout)?

Is Olivia Benford, Mark's wife, destined to cheat on him with the British Lloyd Simcoe (as in most T.V. shows, Simcoe's accent is a large part of his character on the show)?

Can Agent Dimitri Noh prevent himself being murdered on March 15, 2010?

No one knows.

The show is not overtly religious, unless you count the appearance of the priest who turns out to be %100 unhelpful and unsympathetic to the Benford's babysitter Nicole Kirby, who comes to the church looking for counsel and comfort (thanks for that insightful statement on organized religion, ABC...).

However, this show, while packaging it in a flashier format than usual, is grappling with that age old question of destiny. Is the future constantly shifting or is it pre-determined, or some strange combination of the two? From Oedipus Rex to Star Wars, humanity has been exploring the idea of destiny in art, and, from the great response that ABC has received from Flash Forward, it looks like this theme has yet to get old (and it is well over 2,000 years old).

Actress Sonya Walger (Olivia Benford) says about Flash Forward "You're dealing with very human ripple effects, how people deal with it and how they come to terms with it (FlashForward Fanatic.com)."

The characters in Flashforward are dealing with their glimpses of the "future" in different ways.

"Even if this future stuff is real, maybe it's a blessing in disguise," says Mark's A.A. sponsor and close friend Aaron.

Bryce Varley, a medical intern on the point of suicide before the Blackout, agrees that the flashes were a gift.

Olivia Beford fears the future coming true. However, it seems no matter how much she tries to avoid Mr. Simcoe, he keeps popping up in her life.

This show is also repeatedly brings up the importance of faith, and how sometimes one has to believe in things that one can't prove are true (watch Episode Three for a great conversation about faith and belief between Mark Benford and another Agent Janice Hawk).

There is also a running theme of trust versus secrecy, between many of the characters, and how secrecy (even in order to protect someone you love) puts a strain on the relationship and will come out in the end.

Right now, the characters who seem most content in Flash Forward are the ones who are living in the present, despite their flashes of the Future, and I think this is an important life lesson for all of us.

While we can't know the future, sometimes you would think we do with the amount of worry we put into it. We worry about our jobs (or lack of), our relationships (or lack of) and where we are ultimately headed in life. Those in Flash Forward don't know if their two minutes and seventeen seconds of the future will come to pass or not, and we also cannot say with certainty where any of us will be in the next ten years (let alone the next ten days).

So make today the best today you can make it, and let tomorrow take care of itself.

And on Thursday, watch Flash Forward. Here is a link so you can catch up: http://abc.go.com

P.S. Dominic Monaghan is also a cast member!