During my five hour drive home last night from Chicago to Carlinville, IL, I had a Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir marathon. One of my iTunes playlists contains almost every recording the Tab has ever recorded. As I listened to song after song, it brought back some great memories of singing some of these wonderful songs with choirs that I have directed over the years. And it made me wonder about how the repertoire might have changed if the Brooklyn Tab choir had been recording music a lot earlier. For instance, one of the largest choirs I directed was in Albany, Oregon in the mid 80s. That choir grew and grew until I was buying 90+ copies of music for everyone. We kept adding extensions and chairs to our choir loft. We sang some wonderful music, but I wonder what Total Praise might have sounded like from this great choir. At Heritage Village Church in Ft. Mill, South Carolina, I still remember the day we ordered 120 choir robes. That choir had the opportunity to sing on television and between our Sunday music and special productions, we sang some great music. I wonder, though, what they could have done with Father We Adore Thee or Days of Elijah.
It was at Abundant Life Christian Center in the Denver area when we first started singing Brooklyn Tab music. I will never forget LR singing the solo on I Bowed On My Knees and Cried Holy. We sang this song at a district service one year and the glory of God descended on that service. At First Assembly in Grand Junction, Colorado (now Victory Life Church), we loved Brooklyn Tab music. It really fit the personality of the church. It was an incredible experience to hear KR sing the solo on Rain On Us. If I could have, I would have set the DC player in our sound booth to "repeat" and sing the song until someone found the stop button. One of the choirs I directed had several wonderful vocalists in it. This Oklahoma City church had never done any "from the heart" music before, and our first presentations of Brooklyn Tab and similar music really changed the way this church appreciated the ministry of the choir, and the worship experience that it ushered in. Kristy Starling, before she was married, was one of our soloists and a member of the choir. Wow...
The finest combination of choir and orchestra that I was blessed to work with was at West County Assembly of God in the St. Louis area. The opportunity to present a lot of our music "live" was tremendous. On the weekend that we were there to interview, look at the church, and meet with leaders, I conducted Total Praise. Almost nine years later, on our final Sunday, I chose Total Praise again. Another one of our favorites was Thou, O Lord. In reality, there were too many to list. One of the highest moments at this church, however, was one Christmas when we performed Josh Grobin's version of Silent Night. Our son, Jason, did the orchestration for it and CY sang the solo. The combination of the orchestra, a classic carol, an exquisite tenor solo and the choir, all combined for a memorable experience I will never forget.
As I got close to home, had listened to many songs, and had traveled down memory lane, I realized again how blessed I have been. In all of the churches that Kathy and I served, there were many times that I played the accompaniment, and she would conduct the choir. We were a seamless team. Our lives have changed a lot in the last three years. I haven't conducted a choir or led worship consistently since June of 2011. A few days ago I celebrated a milestone birthday, and it probably had something to do with my trip down memory lane last night. The bottom line, however, is that musically, I had a great run, with some great music, and even greater people. I have been blessed, blessed, blessed...
