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I’m posting this before our set this morning. Got up a little earlier than normal. I kind of like it.

1. All Because of Jesus (Fee): Key A. We kind of do our own hybrid version of this song. I guess you could call it closest to the Casting Crowns arrangement.
2. Shackles (Mary, Mary): Key Em. One word. Beatbox. Yeah, we’ve been doing this song a lot lately. And it had gotten a little stale. So we added beatbox to the rap that we normally do in the middle of the song. I do the beatboxin’ and one of our young female leads does the rap part. Then at the end we revisit the beatbox feel with the chorus on top of it. Fun stuff.
3. I Know Who I Am (Houghton): Key A. Pretty standard arrangement.

We’re starting to infuse our repertoire with new music. Next week we introduce With Long Life (Houghton) and the week after that We Shine (Fee).

I wrote a new song last night as part of my 1 song per week commitment for 09.

Part of Sunday Setlists. Join other worship leaders from all over as we share setlists, ideas, and experiences from our own gatherings.

Hey I thought I’d share a glimpse into what I get to take part in every Sunday. This is the “Us” that I talk about each week in Sunday Setlists. This is most of the team at House of Joy in Valdosta, GA. This is taken from our “We Worship” gathering that we held on December 28th.

We had most of our musicians playing (normally we have a smaller band – rotating members in and out). We even used 2 drum sets. You can’t see one of the drummers, but if you listen you can definitely hear both of them. Especially on the break in the middle, they kind of go back and forth. It was fun.

I’m on keys.

Your Love Is Beautiful – HOJ VERSION from Russ Hutto on Vimeo.

Definitely gives you a peek into the energy and “style” of our musical worship times here. I love leading worship with these guys and gals.

Sorry it’s not a pro recording, but this is all we’ve got at the moment! Enjoy.

The song is “Your Love is Beautiful” by the Hillsong crew. CCLI #3375583.

Saturday Songwriting: Check out a song I wrote for worship (free download and charts).

Today I played keys. Big fun. I actually let go of some of the lead vocal parts that I normall do just so I could have some fun on keys. That and I’ve got a physical issue going on right now that is keeping me from being able to be 100% when it comes to singing.  Have another doctor’s appointment about that tomorrow. Prayers appreciated.

Today we had all Lady-led worship. It was kind of like ladies night. Except it wasn’t night. And we stayed in our theater. The girls rocked it today!

1. You Are Good (Houghton): Key E. This has been one of our golden stand-bys in the past few years. We tweaked the arrangement to add a bit of freshness to it. We added a huge break on the “People from every nation and tongue” – we hit a hard break right on tongue which leaves 1 MEGA beat of rest before hitting “From generation to generation.” It’s not anything tha changes the chords or even the structure, but adds one of those “Wow, that was interesting” moments. Team did well on this one today.
2. He Reigns (Newsboys): Key D. Love this one. I’ll have to post audio of it sometime. We do a pretty rocking arrangement. I used some cool sweeping synths on this one, while the rhythm section laid down a tight groove. Went over well.
3. Not Forgotten (Houghton): Key E. I always forget how much I really enjoy this song. It’s so fun to sing and play. We based our arrangement on the Israel version, but dropped out a lot of the “stuff” that his band tears up, and knocked it down to a real meaty dance hall reggae kind of feel…Boom Boom Cha…Boom Boom Cha. Pretty Sweet. I used a fat sliding analog lead to fill in some of the gaps. Kind of had a weird (yet cool) dance hall meets techno feel to it. In the middle part, I switch over to the strings (I am not forgotten, Never forsaken)…and lay down a kind of bittersweet symphony vibe. Kind of. Nice groove.
4. I Am Free (Egan): Key D. End of Service. We’ve almost run this one into the ground. Until we freshened it up this week. Changed up the lead vocalist on it. Shifted to a more coldplay meets u2 sound. Worked like a charm. We actually rolled right into this one after showing a video of one of our members talking about their freedom from addiction. I edited a nice fat pad into the video in the same key so that as it faded out I could just start rocking on the intro. Worked well. People really joined in celebration.

Tonight we have a Leadership Communion. Probably not the best name for it, because every time we have one people think it’s only for the leadership of HOJ. But, it’s basically just a time where the WHOLE church is invited to come and share in communion and we have on eof our staff members share a little teaching (kind of leadership oriented). Here’s my set for that:

1. Everything Glorious (Crowder)
2. I Will Not Forget You (Pasley, aka “Joyful Romp”)
3. You Are So Good to Me (Waterdeep/Third Day has an arr. too)
4. Nothing But The Blood (Redman)

Join me and many other worship leaders as we network and share songlists, inspiration, and ideas for leading worship at Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlists.

Update: Tonight we weren’t able to use the venue we had originally planned to meet in. The owner’s never showed up to let us in. BAD FORM. Anyways one of the crowd that had gathered outside in the cold waiting to go in, owns a country club here in town and offered the clubhouse. We ended up meeting out there. Real nice.

I led worship from one of those digital player pianos. It had a good sound to it. Keys felt really good. It’s been a while since I’ve played on weighted keys. We ended up singing:

1. You Are Good
2. You Are So Good To Me
3. Revelation Song
4. Amazing Grace (and a little of My Chains Are Gone)

It was awesome to be in a smaller room with about 60 people singing their guts out. We had no sound system, no mics, no speakers, etc. So it was basically a little digital piano and a bunch individuals raising their voices. What an awesome sound!

Billy Chia is 30. Wish him a good one.

Need inspiration to get motivated to really love people like God does? Here’s a story of people stepping outside of their self to make an impact on people that society would deem unlovables. (ht: Mike)

Last night we remixed 2 of our “regular” worship tunes for this Sunday. Ya know the kind of song I’m talking about. Everyone in the congregation loves it, but the worship team is getting a little tired of the same ol, same ol.

We’ve been doing Not Forgotten (Houghton/Lindsey) for over 2 years (at least) and it’s getting kind of stale. We made some minor adjustments to the way we play it (keeping the same overall style) and it just seems a whole lot more fresh. We took the original “I am not forgotten, Never forsaken” bridge and turned it into a funky, string oriented Bittersweet Symphony-esque groove that builds to the “Whoah-oh-oh-oooh” part before getting back in to the chorus again.

We’ve also been doing I Am Free (Egan) for a while similar to the newsboys arrangement. Last night we decided to take it more into the U2/Coldplay realm and it ws the hottness. The team loved it, and I think the arrangement (though structurally the same) will be a breath of fresh air for the congregation.

I’ll post how it goes on Sunday.

Today we had a special time of worship in music for our entire service. Our regular service goes for an hour and usually includes a 3 song set list some sort of video elements/transitions, a message, a closing song, and announcements. Today we spread out music, video, art, and a brief encouragement across the entire hour.

1. Today is the Day (Lincoln Brewster): Key B. Arrangement very similar to recorded version.
2. Video “It”: Video about what worship is.
3. Say So (Israel Houghton): Key E. Arrangement very similar to recorded version.
4. I Know Who I Am (Israel Houghton): Key A. Arrangement very similar to recorded version.
5. Rhythm (Russ Hutto): Key Bm/D. Song I wrote this past year.
6. Your Love is Beautiful (Hillsong): Key Cm. Our own arrangement. We used 2 full drum sets on this one. And both drummers stayed on until the last song. Big percussion break in the middle. Goes into a keys/organ solo then back to pre-chorus. Fun song to play. We decided to play it in Cm instead of C#m because it’s a whole lot easier to play for the keys players and not much of a change for the guitar players to shift it down a half step. This was probably one of my favorites to rock out today!
7. Video “Be Still”: Video about the noise of life and being still to hear God who is there and speaking to us through out. All the lights go down and and I’m playing Word of God Speak (on keys) and we have an artist on stage doing a chalk drawing through the next 3 songs. The drawing goes from a small little earth to a huge burst of light (like God) as we move through Word of God Speak, Every Creature, then into Revelation Song.
8. Word of God Speak (Mercy Me): Key C. Me on keys. Simple. Lights almost totally off. Spotlight on the artist drawing, and me singing.
9. Every Creature (Russ Hutto): Key E. I wrote this back in 03. It’s a simple worship song about joining in as all creation calls out the name of Jesus. The band gradually “slides” in on this one. It went over well.
10. Revelation Song (Riddle): Short video  intro with a reading from Job. Our office admin read/recorded this for me. She’s from England so it’s really cool sounding as we go into the song. It’s a “loop” that stops as she’s finishing the last phrase then our live drummers bring us in with a massive fill and our vocals are doing some nice “Ahs” and then verse 1. We do this a bit faster and defniitely more rocked out than the Gateway Worship version. For most of the song our guitars are playing a chunk chunk style in 16ths with emphasis on the first and 3rd 16ths (DdDd-dddd-dddd-dddd and so on). Works well.
11. Video “Psalm 104″: Upbeat worship video of Psalm 104.
12. Short encouragement about worship outside the four walls. We’ve listened to God through the noise. We’ve joined in all creation praising Jesus. We’ve praised Him in a big way with the Revelation Song. Let’s live worship in our community. Challenge our people if this resonates with them to stand and sing their guts out during God of This City.
13. God of This City (Tomlin Arr.): Key A. We rock this one up just a hair, but play it pretty close to the Tomlin arrangement.
14. My Savior Lives (New Life Worship): Key B. Pretty standard arrangement.

It went over very well today. This was a huge departure from our “typical” Sunday morning gathering and as far as I could tell we had a bunch of positive feedback.

Join me and other worship leaders posting their set lists at Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlists.