The Journey, Part 1

My life in the past two years has changed. Never in my wildest imagination (and it can be pretty wild at times) did I ever think that God would take me on such a life changing journey. But He did and now I want to share as much of that journey as I can remember. Why you ask? Because what God did and is doing for me, He can do for you.
In late 2007 God put into motion a dream that I had been having for quite some time. People over the years have asked, "When are you going to record?" and of course my answer was when God told me it was time.
It was mid October when the first person approached me and early November when the second person asked, "When are you going to record a CD? I can't tell you how I knew but I knew God was speaking and it was time to take action. I have a good friend Thomas Harrison (who is my publicist) who had guided me through ministerial licensing and we had developed a close relationship. Knowing Thomas had a background in TV and producing I gave him a call and arranged to have dinner with him to reveal my dream and plan. After spending two hours spilling my heart out and listening to feedback and direction I knew that I was on the right track. The late Larry Dalton (who I have previously written about, "The Investment," Feb 2010) was the person I looked up to and admired for his skills at the piano and writing arrangements. Larry once told me, "If there's anything I can ever do for you, just give me a call." Well I decided to make that call. Larry lived in Nashville at the time and I knew he knew everybody and he had been in the studio over and over again. So I knew Larry would know the right people and what to do. I called Larry two weeks before his annual Christmas Concert in Tulsa and made arrangements to have lunch together. I walked into that meeting wanting to find out from Larry everything he knew about recording and possible contacts I could make. We talked theme, song list, budget, recording studios and production. Let me insert about budget. I thought in my mind I could do something for about 15k. Larry told me a good budget would be around 30-40k. Top artist spend 100's of thousands of dollars producing projects. WOW! I was brain dead and blown away by everything he was telling me. I recorded our meeting because I knew I couldn't remember everything. I think now that God was laughing at me the whole time. Late into the meeting something happened that I never imagined in my mind. It was as if Larry was talking like he wanted to produce me. We continued on and it was everything I could do not to jump out of my seat and start dancing. I finally just stopped the conversation and said, "Larry, it sounds to me like you are considering producing this project for me." and Larry said, "well you know I've produced several people but never another pianist and I think I'd like to do that." I can't tell you the joy I was feeling when I left that meeting. It was all I could do for the next several days to not cry as I told people what was about to happen. Now the real work began. My budget worked out to about 22k and it was time to start writing lead sheets...

mike