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A Sense of Place was recorded and compiled during the Spring and Summer of 2006.
The following are some basic thoughts to help you get some direction on where the songs came from and, for the most part, what I was thinking about when I wrote them.
I want to offer a special thanks to my friend James Jordan whose wonderful photography is sprinkled throughout this site. Please visit his photo blog www.pointsoflight.blogspot.com if you get the chance.
Steve
August, 2007
Aurora, IL
I've had a lot of good response to "Train Song" from my first recording, Incidents of Travel. The movement, the imagery. I relate this piece to that one in style and feel. I am drawn to the concept of traveling. Time I spend reading, I mostly devote to travel narratives and the history of world exploration. Strange new places, the sights and sounds of a locale someone else calls home. The strangeness of breathing the air of unfamiliarity. And then there are the common things, like the wind, clouds and stars that do remain constant and bind us all together no matter where we are in the world. Destination A is about the journey. Every destination stop requires a trip to get there. This piece is meant to be a picture of the movement and effort--the rhythm of the ground going by in anticipation of arriving.
I love Autumn. Balmy days and cooling nights. The fading colors and the smoky smells of burning wood and leaves. It also signals a transition, the change of the Artist's canvas. A whole new color palette and creative direction for the senses.
One of the places I enjoy being during this seasonal switch is Door County, Wisconsin. Door County is the finger of land that juts into western Lake Michigan. The combination of choppy blue water, steady cool winds and its north-woods shores make for a great stage in which to welcome in the end of the year. This tune is yet another toast to the tilting of the earth and the subsequent beautiful results.
There have been many folks who have encouraged me personally to pursue this recording. Don Scharbert is one of them. Don goes to my church and, among other things, is to many "all things technical". If it has a volume knob, shines light or spits smoke Don has operated it and maintained it at some point. He also ran our sound system for a number of years until his eyesight got so bad he had to quit.
Every once in a while I play my guitar at church and Don always comments on it. He says I should go in and do another recording. His son Warren tells me the same and adds that he would be the first to buy a copy.
Don's wife died in 1996 of cancer. Since then he has been living alone in the farmhouse on their 160-acre piece of farmland. In that time he has rented out the land to various local growers to keep the land going. Like a lot of farms outside major cities these days, his property is slowly succumbing to the encroaching pressure of subdivision developers. Endless rolling cornfields or soybean vistas and windmill lookouts turning into tightly packed squares of cramped, over-priced, carbon copy single-family homes. It's just a matter of time now before his place will no longer resemble the peaceful pasture and welcoming waving cornstalks. The barns still stand for now. This piece is not meant to be a political statement (it's an ambiguous instrumental!). But it is dedicated to Don and his consistent and encouraging ways. Much like the old weathered barns that hold memories and welcome you home.
This piece is the first song I recorded on A Sense of Place. I came up with the tuning and chord structure shortly after Incidents came out, which is why there's a
similarity in style, sound and dreamy ambience. My Larrivee actually lived with this "alternate tuning" exclusively for 3+ years as it was so inspiring to play and explore.
I've always been interested in Astronomy. Ever since my father took me to the Adler Planetarium to meet an Apollo astronaut as a kid; I was hooked. It was over the years that followed that I slowly started to realize the enormous depth of the universe and some of the amazing things it contained.
Did you know little Pluto (apparently no longer considered our 9th planet in the Solar System) takes 249 earth years to revolve around the sun? It will only go a quarter of the way around in an average human lifetime. It is that far away. Did you know there is a star so massive in size that if it replaced our sun its surface would engulf Earth and extend beyond our 6th planet Saturn? And consider the Andromeda Galaxy. It's over 2.2 million light years away and holds over 1 trillion stars.You can actually see it with your unaided eye as a small smudge of light in the autumn southwest sky on a clear night. Think about the fact that there are billions of galaxies like it in the universe. Awesome.
We have a (very small) front row seat for these amazing sights and thousands of others. All we have to do is...look up.
I originally wrote this piece as a one-minute arrangement of background music for my business website. I've since removed it from the site, but I always liked the basic turns and nylon guitar lead voice, which is a different approach from Incidents (note: It's the same string tuning as "Just Look Up"). I always thought I should work it out into a full-length song. So I did. If you're interested, check out my work site: www.resonanceaudio.com
This is simply a melancholy melody that aims to reflect on how places change over time. Not good, not bad. Just movin' onward and forward.
I've been fortunate to have grown up in basically the same area of the country: Northeast Illinois and Northwest Indiana. My family moved several times, but not more than an hour or so away from our previous home.
This gives one an interesting perspective on place as time goes by. The house I lived in when I was in kindergarten and 1st grade was in a peaceful, non-threatening neighborhood where my friends and I could play carefree on the cul-de-sac. I've been by it several times since and it is now a bit run-down and the town has declined considerably. It's strange to park the car there after all these years and sit and remember the families that occupied that space so many years ago. All going about their daily routines at that particular spot in time, once together, now scattered. The gang of us kids now all grown up with families of our own. Things change.
Hopefully, as we visit the meaningful places we occupied in the past we can look back and recognize the map we've traversed, the many landmarks and milestones along the way and just...remember.
Originally recorded in 2003, the song as it appears here is an instrumental arrangement of a vocal tune that was included on a children's praise and worship recording entitled, Great Is the Lord. It was a project created for Awana Clubs International. Of the dozens of songs I've been a part of with Awana, this one is one of my favorites. It communicates where I want to be with my life in a very simple way. I also love the guitar tuning and the way the mysterious chords turn hopeful and peaceful and then back to ethereal. My cousin (in law) Beth Massey sang the lead and background vocals on the original. She is one of the most talented, young singers I know who has a fantastic ear for hearing melody and harmony (lucky for me!). I left the background bit on the track's bridge section because I couldn't re-create effectively the blend of notes with a synth in the same way she did with voice overdubs. It just felt right to keep them in there the way it was. So I guess it's not a totally "instrumental" recording after all!
Teach me Your way, O Lord
And let me walk in Your truth
Let all I say and all I do
Be pleasing, Lord, to You
Teach me Your way, O Lord
Change my heart with Your truth
So that I can be like you
Godly in all I do.
Teach me You way, O Lord
Help me grow in Your truth
I will rest upon Your Word
Because I know it's true
-words by Jim Jordan
Though I named this song Pilot Island, it could really represent any coast or shoreline. There really is a Pilot Island though. The 3.5-acre island exists just off the shore of Gills Rock in Door County, Wisconsin. I've never actually stepped foot on it, though I did snap a photo as we passed by on a passenger ferry going to Washington Isle. It's just a small overgrown isolated mound of a place out in the middle of Lake Michigan. If you look closely, it does have a lighthouse on it. A tortuous place to call home, though for several years many did as government employed light keepers. I couldn't imagine spending a winter there. It'd be kind of like living in space or walking on the moon. Though a part of me would love the challenge of the solitary existence, if only for a short while.
In March '06 I had the privilege to be a part of a very special ceremony. It was a memorial service for the members of the Alamo Defenders Descendants Association. It took place inside the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. The service takes place every year and is a time where the descendants of those men who died defending the Alamo in 1836 can reflect and remember their family members. I myself have a direct relative who died there as a defender. With about a hundred and fifty of those descendants present, there was a keynote speaker, a flag and candle lighting ceremony and solemn reading of the defenders names. The families stood when their relative's name was read. My father and I wrote a song for the occasion and got to perform it with my two daughters and some other children. It was an amazing sensation to be standing in a national landmark playing my guitar in a tribute to my great (4x) grandfather and others who were so heroic at such a transitional time in Texas' and our country's history. When the program was finished and everyone moved onto the reception, I snuck back over to where the event had taken place before the marshals could lock the doors. In the middle of the empty and quite shrine of the Alamo, I stood and listened. Standing there by myself in the center of that room, at the very spot that so many brave men gave their lives, I felt the gravity of what took place. I felt the emptiness of the families who lost their husbands and fathers. I felt the pride of those who live today and hold the name of their ancestor high in a place of honor. It hung in the air like a fog. It was almost as if the ground was speaking.
This ambient instrumental is in honor of the heroic Gonzales Ranging Company of Mounted Volunteers of whom my great-grandfather was a part and all of those today who maintain and champion this special memory and place.
Written in 2004, this is an arrangement of one of the songs composed for the kid’s praise and worship recording, Livin’ In God’s House for Awana Clubs International. Based on the text of Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5-6, it is one of my favorite biblical writings.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
Don’t depend on your own understanding
Remember Him in all you do
And He will show His way to you
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
Do not be wise in your own sight
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil
Impress His words upon your heart
Place Him first be set a part
Do not be wise in your own sight
The Lord brings strength and healing
To those who seek him with heart and mind
His wisdom is more precious
Than all the gold and silver you can find
Never forget God’s words to you
Never cease to follow His instruction
For it will become life to you
And be a guide in all you do
Never forget God’s words to you
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
-Words written and arranged by Jim Jordan
Back in the day I used to play guitar and write songs for a band called Thomas’ Wanderings. We toured around the Chicago area and occasionally made road trips up into Wisconsin and Michigan and over in Indiana performing our unique brand of “denim” acoustic/rock music--at least that’s how we termed it to the masses. (Our lead singer 10 years later actually named his son Denim!) Those were fun and exciting days. Nothing beats the camaraderie of a bunch of young nutty creative types on a musical mission. We had our ups and downs with each other, but at the center of what we wanted to communicate was this concept of True North and how it applied to a spiritual viewpoint of living as a Christ follower.
Basically there is a true “mapped” north pole and a “magnetic” north pole. They are different. If you followed the magnetic one you’d end up being way off mark when you thought you’d actually arrived. The only way to get to the “true” north-pole is to follow the map, not the compass.
It’s the same with God and His Word, the Bible. The place we think is the right place (without God) may look right, but it’s not. Only with God’s instructions (the Bible) can we navigate a right path through a confusing life.
My father-in-law, Ken Weddle, died in November ’05 of complications from cancer that had been diagnosed in August. It was a total shock to us all. He was also the pastor of our church. Ken was instrumental to me in understanding the concept of walking straight. One of his key phrases that he always repeated was “stay straight with the Lord!” He encouraged us to always look to God for direction in life, using His Word. Ken was a compass to me in that he had a gentle way of bringing the life “direction needle” back pointing in the right direction. One of the things Ken and his wife Linda did shortly after being given the terrible news was to write a “letter” or message to others concerning their situation. He wanted to stress that only a dependence on God’s Word will bring calmness in the midst of chaos. It’s a great testimony to his (our) faith and a good encouragement to others who may be searching for meaning or dealing with situations beyond their control.
(I Have Cancer PDF)
It’s interesting in looking back that we (Thomas’ Wanderings) never did actually write a song called True North. It’s also interesting that that’s not what I had in mind when I wrote this arrangement. This particular musical idea came out of a group of themes I composed for an unrelated book-on-tape project. One of the others was eventually chosen for the book theme, though I always thought this was the best of the lot. From there I filed it away and made a note to one day come back to it and develop it out some more. I like the double-plucked nylon rhythm framework that supports this tune, but all in all it’s just a very simple melody.
I devote this to all of those searching for “True North” in their spiritual lives.
This song is a meditation on the concept or picture of pursuing and understanding where you are. Sometimes it can take a long time to get a “feel” or “vibe” for a place. Sometimes it doesn’t take long at all. It depends on who is around to show you the ropes and highlights or how good you are at asking questions. It does help to read up before visiting, but if you’re brave it can be exciting to just show up, explore and figure it out as you go. Walking in the local’s shoes for a while. Ultimately, if you remain for a period of time it begins to turn from just a “place” to a “home”.
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