December 2020 Offering Of The Month:
"God Will Change Us"
Written by Rev. James Martin and Edward Jerlin
© 2020 Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved


Nativity

"Wait, is this really a new Everlasting Arms song?"

Indeed it is, and a Christmas song at that...

Every year on Christmas Eve, the late Pastor Jim -- usually accompanied by his wife Meredith on guitar or banjo and harmonies -- would share a Christmas song that he wrote as a "Christmas gift" for the church they served during the candlelight Christmas Eve service. It became a "tradition" of sorts for them.

Back in the day, when Jim and I were working on music for our CDs, we set all of the Christmas-related songs aside to work on in the future for a possible Christmas CD. During one of the sessions, we recorded quick one-take piano/voice demos of handful of them so I could get a feel for Jim's melodies and work out the musical arrangements and chords at a later date. Ordinarily, since we lived far apart, during these "demo" sessions when Jim introduced a song to me, we would do a couple of practice runs, Jim would sing them for me as I fumbled through them, then once I got a rough "feel" for the song, we'd record a quick take of Jim singing with me playing piano. Then I'd spend time recording a real backing track to which Jim would sing at a subsequent recording session.

Every year, I've been meaning to do an "archaeological dig" on these Christmas demos, but being King Procrastinator means that by the time it's Christmas season in December, it's always too late to get any of them in shape for release, and I end up saying, "next year".

This year, I finally determined to focus on one song in November.

As I listened to them, it seemed to me that "God Will Change Us" would be a beautiful appropriate piece for this challenging year. And as an added bonus, it was a song that Meredith had recorded some background vocals on. The demo wasn't without its challenges, and was a bit of a reclamation project with a number of timing issues and odd hesitations because I was fumbling for chords, not to mention that it was just a single rough demo take. After some thought, I figured out a "game plan" that took some pre-planning and a lot of editing to get it all in sync, but it worked. It isn't perfect, but it's very nice. I sang a lower part to add a 3rd harmony to Jim and Meredith. My wife Kirsten hasn't had time to add another vocal part above yet, but this will suffice for now. Other than adding Kirsten, I think this recording is complete.

It's hard to believe it's been 12 years since Jim's passing on Christmas Eve 2008. I can't wrap my brain around that. But I'm thankful that I still got to have some extra time with Jim again via the music. As it turns out, on the recording, just as I begin playing the piano, Jim says,

" It's a lullaby. It's a lullaby to God.
That's what it's supposed to be. My 'Brahms'".

I probably did too much with it to truly keep it as a lullaby, but it begins and ends that way at least.

"God will change us, change our hearts..."

"I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts;
And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." -Jeremiah 31:33

Cheers, Blessings, a Happy Christmas, and a Merry New Year to you and yours!

-EJ, Christmas 2020