RussHutto.com

Another late nighter on this one. My wife is out of town working and I’m home alone so I might churn out a few songs this week.

Anyways, this is a hip hop/rap tune based on Psalm 23, Psalm 27, and Isaiah 9:2 (which is quoted in the gospels as well). I played with the autotune a bit more. I liked what I had done with Nothing But The Blood and carried some of that over into this original.

All of the sounds/beats/grooves are from garageband except for the vocals and trumpet stuff. My challenge is to take stuff that exists and to use it in a unique way. I think the end result is a funky, cool groove.

If you listen closely I even stuck some harmonica in the last 4 bars of each rap. Nice.

Anyways, the idea of the song is basically built around this scripture:

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

If you don’t mind please take a listen through this link. (twt.fm) It’s a way to share music through twitter. And if you like it and/or want to show me some love go ahead and retweet it! And send some @reply love back my way!

Then if you want to download it and rock it on your own player grab it here.

Lyrics:

Keep On Believing

I keep believing
I keep believing
I keep believing
Keep on believing

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
where the dark closes in, and I can’t catch my breath
And I can’t seem to see the sunlight
And I can’t feel the warmth of the daylight
The troubles that surround me keep multiplying
I’m not flying, No matter how hard I keep trying
So many dark nights I’m finding myself crying
And the enemy of my soul keeps on lying

It’s like the twilight, then the deep night
Then the dawn comes shining with the bright light
On the shadow of death a light shines bright
It’s like a new day, bursting from the night

I keep believing
I keep believing
I keep believing
Keep on believing

When I look around me, an army surrounds me
But in the midst of this battle Your love astounds me
It never, ever ceases to amaze me
How in the light of Your mercy You save me
And when I hear the war drums keep on drumming
And when I see the soldiers of darkness keep coming
And when the enemies of goodness attack
I’m confident in this, God, You’ve got my back

It’s like the twilight, then the deep night
Then the dawn comes shining with the bright light
On the shadow of death a light shines bright
It’s like a new day, bursting from the night

I keep believing
I keep believing
I keep believing
Keep on believing

I will not fear You are here

I keep believing
I keep believing
I keep believing
Keep on believing

Every Creature: Written back in 2003. Simple. Catchy. Every congregation I’ve ever shared it with loves it, especially the “Jesus” part. I shared a recorded version of it here on the blog a little earlier this year. Well, here’s a live version from this past Sunday. Just me on the keys and some vocals joining in. A little pitchy in places, but I like it because it reminds me that I’m not perfect and that perfect worship has nothing to do with my perfection but everything to do with God’s perfection.

Hope you enjoy. If you’d like to use this song, feel free to and share with us how it goes over.

Every Creature from Jimmy Linville on Vimeo.

Ok, so here’s our first attempt at this old school rock meets hip hop meets modern worship mashup of “One Way” a song from Hillsongs.

I first encountered it about a month ago in the form of a recorded live performance at Soul Survivor 2008 that I saw online. It’s Tim Hughes and 29th Chapter rockin it. I was sold. We’re doing this at HOJ for sure, I told myself.

As always, we don’t mix for video, so what you get is a very rough mix, but you can imagine what this might sound like live.

We intro’d it with our regular kind of retro surfy western vibe to kind of trick our folks into thinking we were doing it the regular way, and then smack right into the Crazy Train lick. good stuff!

Our vocals rocked it awesome!

We had a few rough spots. I completely goofed up the rap towards the end. And was kind of “off my game” with the rap anyways because my lyric reference monitor actually fell over. Lesson to be learned? Do a better job at memorizing lyrics.

Overall, our people LOVED this and I can’t wait to do it again soon. Good stuff.

One Way from Jimmy Linville on Vimeo.

Recorded Sunday 8.03.09

To The Sky from Jimmy Linville on Vimeo.

Go here to enter and win!!