2 New Albums
God's Lyrics
Featuring scriptures set to hip, singable music by Kim McLean, and featuring Drumkid Will McLean Johnston on drums and percussion. A great way to learn scripture, especially for kids!
The Songwriter Gospels
Km McLean, her guitar, and classic Gospel hits, just the way she wrote them. Produced by Kim and Joe.
Order from www.cdbaby.com.
MIX magazine
UP AND RUNNING
Jul 1, 2006 12:00 PM
Kim McLean recording vocals, while Joe Johnston (above) checks out the tracks
Joe Johnston's recently remodeled Rhythm Rascal Studios (Crieve Hall, Tenn., www.rhythmrascalstudio.com) hosted Kim McLean, founder of Hippie Chick Twang Records, who is in recording her song “Come to the Fire,” which was chosen for the International Women Alive conference theme song.
Rhythm Rascal Studios has been upgraded to include Paris Version 3, the ability to import and export files with Pro Tools and other systems, a Studio Projects TB1 mic, pitch correction, automated mixing and tons of new effects.
Today’s Creative Devotion – I got an email from an old friend I haven’t seen or heard from in over a year. She found herself in need of a little spiritual uplift, and wanted to read something inspiring. Being without a Bible, but with the internet handy, she turned to these humble Creative Devotions. Her email simply said thanks.
In fact, her thanks belongs to the Creator. And the blessing in all this was not hers alone, nor mine, but was for everyone who has ever read these little Creations. It reminds us all that we’re family. We’re together, ministering to one another.
In the beginning was the word, the Bible tells us. That was all the way back in the time of Creation before Creation. In the beginning of the beginning.
Now, we may have different ideas about what the word was, or is, but whatever it is, it’s still pouring out, constantly, ready to be the wellspring of everything we Create.
That’s in the Bible too, in Isaiah 55. It says the word pours out like rain and does not return to the Creator void. Not “void?” What does that mean? It means that the Creator’s word always accomplishes its intent, one way or another. Like the rain, it never returns to the sky without nourishing something on the earth.
So the lesson is that we must always listen for the word. Always let the word flow through us. Always let it be our inspiration. Always yearn to let the Creator speak in our words.
Because you see, when we let ourselves be used in that way, it’s not our will, but the Creator’s will that is done. We never, ever know the complete effects of what we think and say, our attitudes, and actions. They may touch someone way down the line. Someone we don’t know, in ways of which we never dreamed. And we’re promised that when our words are guided by the word, they provide nourishment and will yield fruit.
So we have faith that even when we can’t see it, Creation goes on, and it flows through us.
The U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America has released Celebrate The Season, their christmas album featuring our song "Go Tell."
RHYTHM RASCAL STUDIO IS BETTER THAN EVER
Sunshine and windows everywhere...
art, dogs and a good cup of coffee...
Rhythm Rascal Studio is a home studio in the convenient Crieve Hall area of Nashville, that makes you feel at home, yet offers a winning sound that has been heard on West Wing, Hope & Faith, J*A*G, and spawned demo recordings that resulted in countless cuts. From hip rootsy master sessions to the soundtracks in the Rump-A-Bump toys, Rhythm Rascal Studio works to capture 'real' music, spoken word, and the essence of art in every take. Owned and operated by Joe Johnston.
So with a candle lit, and a vibe set...music starts, and the quest to capture truth and beauty begins at Rhythm Rascal Studio, by calling 615-333-7500.
Recent Upgrades include:
Paris version 3 - still the best-sounding digitial recording platform
Import and export files with Pro-Tools and other systems (for example, you can do basic tracks here and finish in another studio - or do a rhythm section in a big studio, come here for 14 tracks of overdubs, and go back there to mix)
Studio Projects TB1 mic
Pitch correction
Automated mixing
Tons of new effects
To book a session at Rhythm Rascal or to discuss rates for engineering, production of projects, or creative, email Joe Johnston at joe@joejohnstonarts.com
AVAILABLE AT BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO, MARCH 1! (If your local store doesn't have it, they can order it for you.)
We're thrilled to announce the appearance of our song, "The Still, Small Voice," in the closing credits of "The Perfect Stranger" a new independent film that tells the story of a troubled attorney who accepts a dinner invitation from a man claiming to be Jesus Christ. It is based on the novel, 'Dinner With a Perfect Stranger,' a New York Times bestseller.
Find our more about the movie, and order online, here:
http://www.perfectstrangermovie.com/pages/1/index.htm
View the movie previews here:
http://www.perfectstrangermovie.com/images/WEBtrail.mov
"I found a charming little film that managed to capture, almost line for line, the book's wit, intimacy, and desire to enlighten. ...Definitely a thinking person's movie...a platter of thought-provoking entrees for persons on both sides of the 'faith' aisle. I recommend it for fans of the book and anyone up for a good debate on religion." - New York Times, December 2005
We hope you'll check out the movie for family viewing and for your church. It's a thought-provoking focal point for group study and discussion, and it is our prayer that your faith will be deepened and strengthened by sharing in this film.
LOVIN' OUT LOUD ON THE RADIO!
The sensational trio Paid In Full is releasing the first single from its new album on Song Garden Records, and it's our rockin' testament to joyous living, LOVIN' OUT LOUD. By the way, that's also the title of the album.
You can't find better Gospel singing than these guys who were childhood friends and even became Eagle Scouts together. They've recorded our songs before, and it's all been produced by our friend Woody Wright. We pray that our shared ministry continue to bless everyone who hears our music.
Check them out at www.paidinfull.net, and start calling your local Gospel station to request LOVIN' OUT LOUD.
OH THE CROSS
2005 Theme of Nazarene Missions International
http://www.othecross.com/pages/1/index.htm
This beautiful song by Kim McLean is now available for download in choral arrangment, and for sale as a piano arrangement.
Reviewing Gospel Songs
I'll be hosting one of the breakout sessions for the Nashville Songwriters' Assoc. Gospel Retreat on July 22. If you're a Gospel writer, don't miss this opportunity.
We are all urgently needed in the fight to save our precious mother earth. She is crying. She is under attack from many sides, and one of the worst enemies she has is our own American government. I urge you to visit this site and consider joining Biogems: http://www.savebiogems.org/
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - The news contains another warning about the quality of our air. Now, how much sense does it make that our government doesn't move that issue to the top its priorities. It would make perfect sense to see our leaders stop everything and focus all our attention on cleaning up the air for us and our children. How can we as individuals, as cities, as nations, as a species, go about our lives as if nothing's wrong? What is more vital than the air we breathe?
The answer to "how can we" is that we are out of touch with life. Most of us find it easy to be in touch with money, competition, achieving, buying, consuming, bragging, drinking, drugging, sexing, cheating...but out of touch with the totality of life. It's been said that every decision we make affects seven generations. And so did the decisions of our ancestors affect us.
Life, including the quality of our air, is a huge, unfolding panorama, and we are so tiny. Yet, each of us is a glorious, powerful creation, making our mark on all of creation. We are creating every moment of every day, and one of the things we can create is pollution in its many forms. We can also create solutions.
Today we make a difference. We are contributing to the quality of all life.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - After church, a member stood on the steps, smoked a cigarette, and told me about the emergency hernia surgery she had this week. Then she mentioned that her mother had to stop smoking and eat a very strict diet because a blood clot moved through her heart.
This isn't about smoking. But it is amazing to hear that woman's words and to imagine the thinking...or not thinking...behind them. These women are blessed, like all of us, with the great and ultimately personal gift of our bodies. We are all born miracles of creation. And we treat the gift with disdain and abuse. All of us do it from time to time. But some people do it to a great degree on a daily basis. There is no way to abuse our bodies and be in constant communion with the Creator.
Everything we do to harm ourselves is harming our gift. Everything we do to care for ourselves is an act of creation.
The Bible says the body is a temple. A place where the Creator lives. We are the Creator's own flesh in this earthly walk. What a joy it is to honor that. To listen to the Creator's whispered instructions for caring for our bodies. To let creation live through us as we eat and drink the best things for us. It is in that way that we grow closer and know the Creator more intimately. It is in that way that we gain strength to grow, serve and live abundantly.
Today dawned with the gift of life. In everything we do we can choose to honor that gift and use it for the glory of creation.
TODAY’S CREATIVE DEVOTION – My water heater has to be replaced. The engine block in a friend’s truck cracked, and of course, that requires a whole new engine. Another friend, a professional artist, had to have surgery on her right hand, and it ended her career.
And here we are on the cusp of spring. Daffodils have been up for a few days, the forsythia are blooming out, the birds are in their crazy annual mating rituals. We watch life going on in big cycles and little cycles of birth and death. That’s what life does…it goes on.
And so nothing we create will last forever. Yet nothing that dies is the end. If I start a business, it will feed families until it closes, they will create new families, and so on. If I grow a potato and feed it to my child and it’s gone, he will be nourished so he can play, and so on. If I write in my journal and no one sees it but me, it will keep me centered in my journey, which will reflect on everyone I meet, and so on.
Nothing lasts forever. Yet we live and create in the marrow of unending creation.
TODAY’S CREATIVE DEVOTION – Some of us have a committee that meets in our head. The committee tells us it can solve all our problems, while supplying all our inspiration, ideas, fortitude, and knowledge. Of course at various time it also tells us we are all-powerful and infinitely talents, and that we have no talent, and will never have any personal worth, much less create anything of value.
But the committee did not open our eyes this morning. The committee did not fill the world with the wondrous energy of life. The committee is a lie.
Fortunately, there is another Voice, that of the Creator, reminding us that the committee is a lie. When we ignore the committee its power over us begins to dwindle. In time, it may beg for attention, but it will be only a memory. In its place we listen to the one Voice that is many. It’s to that Voice we answer. Then every thought, every word, every action, every creation becomes a prayer.
The apostle Paul said to pray without ceasing. What a great idea. Only in that way can the Creator speak through us.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - Every act of creation is a surrender to the Creator. Or if we're uncomfortable with the word "surrender," maybe "acceptance," or "reliance," or "listening." But it's always an act of faith. When we're at our best, our faith is strong, and we can lean into the unknown, unseen mystery without thinking about it...letting our deepest soul do what it knows so well...living, moving and being in the Creator. But when our faith eludes us, the gift of life and energy and being and creativity is still there. In those times, acceptance it is enough, and the results can be amazing. Even when our best thought is that we're not good enough, we're alone, we're afraid, we have nothing to offer...in those times, the Creator is still creating. If we lose our faith, all we have to do is accept, and the gift is ours.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - There was an article in the newspaper about a young man who quit high school in his senior year to go to work in a streetcorner food stand. He has a wife and a baby on the way. His story was not tragic or even sad. It was simply a story about him doing what he needs to do for his family. It ended with his quote, "I think I've got a good life ahead. I don't know why, but I do." Couldn't we all use that kind of faith? What a testimony to the fountain of creative goodness the Creator put inside all of us. What a song about the joy of life.
Our troubles are a matter of what we see. So are our blessings. None of us is cursed, and all of us spring from the same river of love.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - The book of Eclesiates tells us there's a time for everything. Life ebbs and flows in energy, growth, desire, passion, productivity, sharing...in everything. Whatever we want, whatever we don't want, may each have its time. We're repeatedly reminded that we sometimes have inspiration, and sometimes not. We have abundance and we have scarcity. We create and we don't. We share love and we don't. It is in the Creator's hands to determine the time for every thing. We may say, "I live to create." Or "I live to be a parent." Or "I live to teach." But the bigger truth is that we live simply to live. What a glorious, ever-changing gift.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - A friend was waiting for repairmen to come to his house. They were very late, which made him late for a meeting. When they got there, they didn't have the right parts, so the job had to be rescheduled. My friend could have ranted about it, but instead, he remarked that it reminded him that he doesn't want to work that way. He wants to respect other people's time, and he wants to get his work done right, on schedule, the first time. So he found a creative lesson in his trouble.
We all have reasons to complain and feel victimized. But there's a bigger picture we can't see. The Bible tells us to lean not to our own understanding. That means we not only are not in control of very much in our lives, but we don't even know what might be good and bad for us. The best we can do is be led. Then whatever and whomever the Creator sends our way can become our next creation. It's not good or bad. It's just life, and life is creation.
One of the most remarkable things I've ever heard was from a woman who has battled cancer for several years, along with other very serious diseases. On her less sick days, she's active, alert, smiling, working and caring. Her infirmities have intensified her whole life. And she said, "I thank God every day for giving me cancer."
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - Turning back the clock to this date four years ago, what were we worried about? Maybe a health? A lost job? There may be something large we can recall. But moving the date through the years, and thinking beyond what seemed like the big things that felt like immovable mountains in our lives, there's little we can recall. Cars that don't run, home maintenance, twisted ankles, harsh weather...those are the stuff of life...the same today and tomorrow as they were then. The Apostle Paul tells us God did not give us the spirit of worry. Indeed, we cannot create by worry. We create by letting the Creator express creation through us. Big things and little things pass under the bridge, whether we worry about them or not. Might as well not worry, and rather be absorbed in the joy of creation. We can do that every day. What a joy to know I can choose that for my life every day.
NSAI SPRING SYMPOSIUM -
Songwriters and students, plan to attend the Nashville Songwriters Association International spring symposium at the Millineum Maxwell House Hotel, Nashville. On April 3, I'll be speaking from my book, "How To Fail In The Music Business." Contact NSAI for details at www.nashvillesongwriters.com. Hope to see you there.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - Creative people tend to give a great deal of thought to what other people think about them. It appears to be at the heart of creating...making things for other people to enjoy, experience and consume. Things that people pay money for. Almost everyone wants to be accepted and liked, and some of us have a big dose of that desire. We put our work out there and say, "There, do ya love me now?" Then we may use sales and income to measure how much we're loved. It can be painful. But there's another way, and that is to simply let the creative product be its own reason for being. Gifts of the Creator are valuable because they're part of creation. Some will be valued by our "public," and some will not. But as creative people, we have to trust our gifts. Serve our gifts. Serve the Creator. Public opinion and money will ebb and flow. The Source is a river that never runs dry.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - I read a quote by the wise Native American Fools Crow, which was loosely, "Once they begin to believe our ways, our ways start to work for them." It seems huge, and so simple at the same time. For those who scoff at Native American ways, the idea of a sweat lodge, for example, may seem silly. For those who believe, it is the essence of daily empowerment. Not everyone prays the rosary, but those who do have seen its miracles. People without a belief system flounder and cast about for guidance and divine help. Those who are firmly anchored in a belief system find help there. Those who change belief systems will eventually find the one that fits their path. And there, the "anchoring" is what's important...the complete devotion and acceptance of what that way has to offer. And that includes our creative life. It is when we give over our creations to the Creator, through our personal system of beliefs, that we experience the awesome power of the unknowable.
TODAY’S CREATIVE DEVOTION – The other day I heard someone talk about “moving past salvation and into relationship with Jesus.” Now, that’s a subject unto itself, but this morning I was reminded of that at devotion time. For some of us, our lives are so stressed that a few minutes with a devotional book or other spiritual reading, and a quick prayer, is the only peace we know...our only salvation. It can be like any other addiction…a positive addiction, of course, but giving us the feeling we would fall apart without that fix. That in itself can be stressful. But we can move into a new way of living with the Creator, and our devotional time actually becomes less frantic, less critical to our happiness, peace, success and joy. That’s when we move past our 15 minutes of salvation and into all-the-time relationship. When every step, every breath, every thought, every word is in acceptance of our gifts from the Creator. It puts everything, including our devotional time, in its place.
The apostle Paul said to pray without ceasing. What a great idea.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - In the book of Matthew this outsider woman asks Jesus to heal her sick daughter. Jesus blows her off, saying he only came for the Jews. She persists, he reconsiders, and her daughter gets healed.
Creative people can get tunnel vision, so focused on our plans, that we miss opportunities that come knocking. For the truly creative, plans and goals require harmony, balance and fluidity. If we're open and listening, receiving what creation has to give us, plans and goals are servants to opportunity. Native peoples know that hawk reminds us to listen...there are messages for us. The Creator is speaking, singing, dancing, painting, building, providing, creating everything we need. The Creator is sending the people we need.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - News flash: forest fires, floods, tornadoes and other "natural disasters" have always been, and always will be. We just live here, like everything else. All around us we see people act and talk as if our creations have a right to stand forever, and when they fall, it's an injustice. But time and energy we spend battling the Creator's hand is damaging to our own creative spirit. That doesn't mean we shouldn't build things. It just means as soon as we pour a concrete driveway, grass seeds, blowing dust and freezing rain start tearing it apart. It means if a storm takes my fence, neither was in the wrong place...they were just in the same place.
Right now I'm making some rather fragile gifts that may one day be broken. They won't last forever, and that's part of the joy they hold for me and the ones who receive them. It's a matter of the spirit in which we build and in which we experience all of creation. Will we create against creation, or will we be always aware that we are part of one creation?
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - Have you noticed that to all television weathercasters there's only one kind of good weather? That's sunny, with mild temperatures. Where would an idea like this come from, and why do these people perpetuate it? Weather is weather. It's not good or bad. It's a gift from the Creator, and we need all the weather to create the world in which we live. Heat and cold, storms, wind and gentle rains all are part of the circle of life, just as we are. The other things in the circle don't exist to serve us, but to serve the life of all creation. To question or be critical of the weather is not our place. Instead, we can all embrace the joy of all kinds of weather. What a blessing to use our energy celebrating what is, and creating with the gifts we're given.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - I was reading something about self discipline. I suppose we all have to call upon it at one time or another. But there's an energy shift that can happen, allowing us to receive solutions, rather than forcing solutions. Our society teaches us to suffer in pursuit of our goals. But the truth is that we all give and receive all the time. When we see how abundantly the Creator provides for us, the price begins to disappear.
I create a painting not by self-discipline, but by receiving. If I want to eat a little more pizza, which I often do, I once had to fight a battle of self discipline over desire. Now, it's only a matter of receiving the gift of eating less pizza. I feel better, I don't feel guilty, and I don't have to worry about what I eat in the future to make up for it. I'm receiving that positive flow from the Creator.
Pushing a boulder up a hill doesn't have to require a struggle. Everything we need is contained in the pull of creative energy and the impending joy of getting it to the top and watching it roll down the other side. In fact, maybe there is no hill.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - Jesus said we have to die to live. What a gift that is. It's one of the things that happens in the sweat lodge. We get reborn. We can even experience that in smaller ways with our creativity. Our best gifts from the Creator can't posssibly come forth when we're tied to money, achievement, appearances, control and other people's opinions...the things of this world. It's only when we die to all that when we become alive in the Creator, receiving creation.
Creator, play my musical instrument. Paint my painting. Write this letter. Clean this house. Play this game. Dance this dance.
We may have one or more landmark rebirths. But the creative life is one of continually dying to this world and coming alive to live in the real one.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - "TREASURES" - Several of us went hunting for Civil War relics last week, and my son went along. We didn't find what we were searching for, but there was no complaining. The cheerful attitudes of my friends turned out to be a treasure. It was so good to spend time with them. We were embraced by the mystery of a grey, drizzly day. We were on historic ground. And my little one came home with pockets stuffed with amazing muddy treasures...a piece of a blue plate, a broken horse shoe, a golf ball, a pig bone and two very special rocks. Treasures are being created all the time, and all we have to do is receive them.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - THEN AND NOW - - It's ironic about our creativity...we tend to jump back and forth between the joy of creating and the worry of everything else...between right now and the rest of our lives. Our last creation - and the next - are both just touchstones that help us learn and grow for what's right here in this moment. Sins of the past are forgiven, and triumphs are now steppingstones. Future events are not for us to know. Worry, regret, resentment and fear do not serve us or the Creator. Still we dip in those poison pools from time to time and have to remind ourselves that we only create...ONLY create in this moment, right now. That's what serves the Creator. Our spirit, the thriving spirit of all creation is living and flowing through us now and only now. What a blessing to know that.
TODAY'S CREATIVE DEVOTION - INSTINCTS - I had a feeling that this year I needed to have my chimney cleaned. That creosote builds up. Back when I used to have it cleaned regularly, the chimny sweep always said it wasn't very dirty, because I burn a hot fire, and it's a metal chimney, which stays cleaner than stone.
But this year, even though the chimney still looked pretty clean, I had a feeling. Sure enough, I built my first fire of the season and it started a fire in the chimney. Pretty scary.
Somewhere inside, I knew it was going to happen. I had a feeling.
I'm getting better, but it hasn't been easy for me to trust my instincts. We live in a mental world. Figure it out. Set goals. Progress. But the voice is always there. The Creator is always speaking about life and growth, harmony, balance and creation.
It's not about creosote...it's about peace and harmony, balance, freedom and joy. Our gut feelings, will lead us if we let them. Our instincts will save us. They are the voice.
I want to live in the way my heart already knows.
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