What An Adventure
This song was born out of the reality that living life with God, with his son Jesus & the Holy Spirit should be ‘exciting’, but that can only happen when we fully engage with him in faith & walk closely with him, with his values & priorities & not our own; that’s when the ‘adventure’ begins!
Let the Love
When I first wrote this I was almost embarrassed by its simplicity. But after people started jumping up and down to it on a Sunday night back in 2002, my confidence grew, later it appeared on the album “Another Meeting Another Shirt” (Kingsland Music, 2004) and here it is again! This time the rhythm is more tight and attacking… probably because I’m not playing on it.
Smile
Perhaps my first honest attempt to write an ‘in your face jump up and down’ kid’s song… and in church and non-church settings alike the kids love it and spontaneous creative actions come easily.
I Wanna Be a Tree
When we were in the process of writing songs for the album we had started with a theme of the ‘Fruits of the Spirit’. I don’t know about you, but I have never been able to remember them all…….until now!
If you can cope with the words bananas & pyjamas being in a song about God, then I hope you will enjoy it ‘where it is at, a wee bit tongue in cheek’…….oh, an of course..…end up learning all the fruits of the Spirit ‘almost in the right order’, that can’t be a bad thing can it!!
Good To Be Good
The danger with this song was to over produce it for the album thus leading people to think we were taking it seriously! As with many of the songs on the album, the inspiration came from the Fruits of the Spirit (goodness and kindness), a simple replacing of Johnny B Good for Good To Be Good and the rest is straight ‘in your face jump up and down’, but with a more meaningful and challenging bridge. Ooops! Have I taken it all too seriously?
He’s The One
I love the fact that God’s presence in our lives is not dependant on how much we can feel him, and that when he makes a promise he keeps it! ‘All the promises of God are ‘YES’ in Christ Jesus’. I love that verse & also the fact that Jesus said ‘I call you friends’ when he could have justifiably called us ‘subjects’. That’s ‘amazing’ & what this song is all about – there’s no one safer to follow!
I Need You
Sometimes when we come to God it is simply practical ‘hard work’; lets be honest! The best we can say is ‘I need you’; then maybe as we push in we can say ‘I want you’; ulimtely as we get near to a God who loves us so much & persevere we can’t help but say ‘I love you’. The rest of the song is about the balance between needing to ‘shine for his glory’ here on earth, yet always remebering our true destination.......Heaven with Jesus!
The Prayer Room Song
The title alludes to the Prayer Room we use with our children to encourage them to connect with God. The opening lines are more a comment on the continuous atmosphere of noise we can so easily live within. This is the only song Chris and I wrote together, a wonderful experience: I had the opening lines and melody, Chris built on them developing the theme and we both (with some trial and error) attempted to capture the awe of our Great Amazing God talking and listening to us – Wow! The final sound on the album is very much the creative work of Simon Eavery interpreting our words and music. Thanks Simon.
Hold On
A chord sequence I’d played around with for years, but without ever agreeing a particular structure or melody. Again, inspired by the ‘Fruits of the Spirit’ – this time ‘faithfulness’, but how can you ever get away with using such a word in an all age song? So I simply chose to define it, over and over again.
When I’m On My Feet
I just love the energy of this song and the image of a family having a sing-a-long in the car… you know you love to! The idea of jumping up to Jesus was taken from the story of Jesus healing the blind man who first persisted in shouting at Jesus and then jumped up upon receiving his healing.
Awesome
Commissioned for a kid’s Easter Holiday Club titled “Awesome”. The lines of the verses reflect the Jesus stories the children looked at each day: turning water into wine, healing the blind man, the resurrection, Mary in the garden and the disciples on the beach. Simple.
Lord Of Lords
Hallelujah, he is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings!
At The Cross
I have heard so many times how God the Father turned away from the Cross because ‘he couldn’t look at sin’. It was only when I became a father myself that another equally profound truth hit me. I realised that there was another reason why a loving father could not look at the death of his own son, for unworthy people, many of whom would abuse & reject him…. It was also ‘because he loved him so much & could not abide to see his pain & unjust suffering’. That really hit me and I have tried to reflect that in the song. Also, the truth that Jesus ‘didn’t have to die, but he really did choose to do it, even to the point of sweating drops of blood because of the trauma. (Now I wish I’d put that in!). The last line reflects the fact that the decision for Jesus to die for you & me was an ‘agreement’ between the Father & the Son’; they thought you & me were worth the price!
Nothing Can Separate Us
I found myself singing this biblical truth over and over again for about three days before I eventually tried to make it into a song. This was the first time I’d written a final tune in my head. Later the language for the verses came in pretty much one take, though they quite surprised me for being a little surreal and then suddenly very real! The simplicity of this song meant that it nearly ended up in the waste paper bin, but thanks to Chris for establishing its speed and rhythm, it ends up being a great album finisher… “Nothing can separate us from God!”
Described as "worship for everyone", What An Adventure is the latest release from Kingsland Music featuring 14 tracks 'inspired by following Jesus' and 'sung in praise to Jesus'.
The album is the product of Rob Buckingham (engineer, producer, arranger, critic and muscian) and the song-writers: Simon Rennie and Chris Willis. PLUS a host of skilled musicians who gave themselves selflessly and generously to the project, without whom, the album could never have been recorded. THANK YOU.
