"Worthy Is The Lamb"
Melody & Lyrics by Jessica Cole
Music & choral arrangement by Kirsten & Edward Jerlin
© 2006 Jessica Cole/Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved
"He Is Risen"
Written by Rev. James Martin, Edward Jerlin & Mark Polak
© 1997 Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved
Our April offering features a couple of songs for the Easter season.
Beginning this month & continuing for the next four months,
we'll be putting the spotlight on a few very talented singer/songwriters
we've had the privilege of making music with over the years...
This is a photograph of the cross which resided at the
World Trade Center site in the aftermath of Sept 11, 2001.
The photo was taken by my good friend & fellow prog-rockin'
Christian Peter Jorgensen of Vertical Alignment.
Both Jessica Cole (see below) & Edward Jerlin are featured on
VA's "Signposts" CD release on the track "The Towers".
Jessica Cole has been the worship leader at our church for the past three years & is also the wife of our pastor, Rev. C. Eddie Cole. Making music with Jessica & serving with her on the worship team the past three years has been a joy & a privilege for Kirsten & me, both because of Jessica's heart for the Lord, & because of her formidable musical talent, which you'll get a taste of this month.
"Worthy Is The Lamb" is a song that Jessica wrote based on Hebrews Chapter 2, I Thessalonians 4 & Revelation 19:11-17. She brought this beautiful melody to Kirsten & me to help arrange it for Salem's choir. Our choir has performed it the past two years on Palm Sunday & may be reprising it at our annual Spring Concert in June. On the recording, Jessica is singing the lead vocal, Kirsten is singing the choir parts, & I'm playing the instruments.
Choir arrangements & kerioke tracks are available upon request.
Jessica is also a recording artist & has released 3 CDs.
Her music is available on her website.
You can also sample it on her myspace page.
From the liner notes of Jessica's 2nd CD release, "Requested" :
"I would like to thank every one of you that have heard these songs and allowed them to minister to you as they've ministered to me. I've recorded this for you. I hope these songs continue to bring you closer to Jesus and the reality of His presence around us and in us. This project is designed to only exalt the name of Jesus. I pray He draws you closer to Him through these songs."
Enjoy!
"He Is Risen" is the 4th track on our debut release, "Everlasting Arms". We've had a small sample of it on the web site since the site's inception. This month, we're offering the track in its entirety on the web for the first time, just in time for Easter.
"He Is Risen" is an example of two people who never met writing music together... Part of the melody was written by Mark Polak, the lead singer in an original band he & I were in during the early '90s called "Grin & Bare It". He had an idea for a song called "Join In The Dance." His original idea was to try to inspire someone to stop watching life pass him by, and "join in." Mark & I were working on ideas for the song but we never finished it before the band broke up. I really liked the melody, though...
A few years later, I was putting a tape together of music I had written for Pastor Jim to put lyrics to; I put a version of this song on the tape. I had reworked and added to the music quite a bit since the "Grin & Bare It" days. Jim liked it and thought it would work well as an Easter song and we worked together on the lyrics & melodies.
As the song developed, I felt it needed an instrumental section that would express the turmoil, confusion, and eventual triumph that surrounded the circumstances of Christ's resurrection, kind of from the disciple's point of view. The musical passage in the middle was a piece I had written a long time ago that was still waiting for a home. After writing a few linking sections, it worked really well in this setting & conveyed what I was going for. At the end of the piece, I was thrilled when many of the musical themes were able to weave in and around each other simultaneously over the chorus. Having Kirsten sing the descant at the end put a punctuation mark on the whole song and brought it home. The rest of the instruments & vocals are by me.
This was recorded in 1997 using an 8-track reel-to-reel. While it is probably among the best of our recordings from that time period, if I were doing it now, I'd be able to use real drums, bass & guitar instead of their keyboard-generated counterparts, which would help it to "breathe" a little more & give it some more punch. I may revisit this recording someday & do that, time permitting.
Thanks to Mark who was gracious enough to let us use part of his melody. He's currently living in Germany. In a couple of months, we'll be featuring some songs he & I did together.
Enjoy!
Thank you, God bless, & a very happy Easter to you & yours.
& Jessica
To download the music, RIGHT CLICK and choose "Save Target As":
"Worthy Is The Lamb" MUSIC 4:29
"He Is Risen" MUSIC 7:49
To download the lyrics, RIGHT CLICK: and choose "Save Target As":
"Worthy Is The Lamb" LYRICS
"He Is Risen" LYRICS
