The Heavenly Backyard

I don’t really know very much about heaven. Go ahead and quote me all those scriptures. I know them. I like them. But they don’t tell me exactly what it looks like there. Or how it smells. Or tastes. Even in all the songs I write that talk about God, there’s a lot more of earth in them than there is of heaven, because I can only write what I know. But tonight I might have heard a sliver of what heaven sounds like. I got to sing with some really amazing musicians who are a part of a project called “The Lower Lights”. It is a collection of hymns recorded completely live, with dozens of musicians playing together all at the same time and in the same room. In five days time, something like 42 hymns were recorded.  I was only there for three hours of those five days.

Last fall I spent three solid weeks in the recording studio working on my most recent record, “Grace”. My kids had a lot of daddy-daughter time that month, which is certainly a wonderful thing in and of itself. But after the project was done, I knew they needed more of me back again. So I was heartbroken when I learned that Scott Wiley and friends (we’re talking dozens and dozens of friends) were going to spend five days in the studio the very following week to record as many hymns as they possibly could. It sounded like a blast. If only it could have been a month later! I might have tried to make it work anyway, but it also ended up being a week when Joe was on the road. So I sat that one out. When I couldn’t stand it any longer I got a babysitter for three hours and I showed up at the studio in time to sing on one song: “This Little Light of Mine”. It was amazing.  I think there were at least 20 people playing and singing all in the same room. The musical and spiritual energy was off the charts. When it was over, I went back home and gave extra big kisses to my little girls for lending me out to the singing place for a few more hours.

As the months passed I started hearing more and more about this five day recording extravaganza. I started hearing rough mixes of what they did there. I saw clips of the documentary that was filmed. My mind was already being blown by the amazingness.

Here we are months later, and since the album and documentary will be out soon, everyone has been talking about doing the live shows.  With such a small contribution I made to the album, I’m amazed at this, but it seems I have the amazing honor of being allowed to sing at these live shows. Our first one was tonight, at a little family party. If you’re into the blogging scene, you might be interested to know that it was for the family of Stephanie Nielson. What an honor it was to play for such amazing people. I watched my friends play and sing with real smiles on their faces and some real tears in their eyes. It was a party, but also in it’s own way, quite a holy place. We didn’t sing with harps or an orchestra. More like banjos, guitars, and mandolins. Our organ wasn’t built into a giant tabernacle. It was a tiny little wooden thing. We weren’t in a cathedral with stained glass. We were in a backyard.

At church we hear about our “mansions above” all the time. But maybe what I really want is not so much a mansion. Maybe all I need is a backyard in heaven. I’m certain that heaven will ring and shake with the sounds of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir when the moments are right. I love the Choir and I’m excited for that. But there will also be music in my backyard. Music performed and listened to by all of the people I love.

When I got home from the gig, I told Joe all about it. I also told him about our future heavenly neighborhood. I told him that on an ordinary heavenly day when people walk down our street, there would be speakers somehow installed that would play “The Lower Lights”.  He smiled about all of that stuff. Then he said, “Those will be some very good speakers.”

Visit www.thelowerlights.com or http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Lower-Lights/116842291671855 to hear a little of the Lower Lights for yourself.