One of the best things about Reckless is that it is not just our CD.

The vision (presented here in slick photo-rich PDF) was born in late 2009. A few days before Christmas, Tim dialed Aaron Strumpel from a Target parking lot in Dallas while Laurie was inside.

“Hey, do you want to make a worship album together?”

Aaron agreed to partner with us to make what is now Reckless, and since that moment many of our ministry partners and fans have also made this project their own by taking it personally and investing in it. They’ve given their prayers, time, talent, and dollars to share in it as a ministry endeavor.

The only thing standing in our way now is a mere $1600, which we need to finish the post-production and manufacturing of the physical CDs. We have committed to producing the CD debt-free.

That’s where preorders come in. There are two ways you can join the community that will link arms with us and get this puppy out in June. Fortunately there are some lovely rewards involved.

1. Preemptive Viral Strike.

This way is so easy we’re calling on every single person who likes our music to do it. You are now obligated.

Spread the word. We hope you’ll recommend the album to many of your friends anyway, so we’re asking you to do a preemptive strike:

Use word of mouth, Facebook, Twitter, etc, to say something personal about what TBP’s music is worth. Post a link to music.theblackthornproject.com. Click that link and then click “share” for an easy way to embed a snippet of “Mud Song” into your blog, Facbeook page, etc. Ask your friends to preorder along with you. Preorder one for a friend or family member! Your personal recommendation is priceless.

Nice job. Now, there are two levels of preorder.

2-A. Casual Level: Pre-order the CD now for a $15 donation and get a free download of a rough-mixed “Mud Song” (listen to a snippet here).

OR, if you want to put a larger (tax-deductable) amount toward the completion of the album,

2-Q. Stellar Level: Pre-order the CD now for a donation of $25 or more and receive the free download of the rough-mix of “Mud Song” as well as a hipster Reckless button and our personal thanks on an autographed poster of the original, yet-to-be-revealed, album art. Shwanky.

No matter which option you choose, you will undoubtedly be the first to receive your copy of Reckless upon it’s release. Yes, we’re that close to being able to hold our new CD, Reckless, in our hands (hopefully be by the end of June). When that happens we will immediately tell our hands to stopping hogging it and get to work shipping it straight to your ears.

Follow any of the links above or click here to pre-order your copy of Reckless today!

PS, thank you!

Anyway, here’s a new video for your viewing enjoyment. I’m off to record some lead vocals at Aaron’s house.

Making this video made me want to play this song more often. It’s an old one, but I love it. Enjoy!

Also, mark your calendars for Worship@8500, June 25-27, in Divide Colorado. Bring your instruments, your hacky-sacks, your tents and sleeping bags and join me (Laurie), Tim, Aaron, and many more of our Worship Circle friends for an entire weekend of worship jams, encouraging talks, and Colorado mountain hang time.

Don’t be bashful–tell us what you think. You can even share it on facebook and twitter if you want.

By the way, if you’re interested in lyrics, you can find them on peartreemommy.com –’member, this is part of Good Song Sunday.

Warning: This video was orginally made for peartreemommy.com, so I wasn’t afraid to show off my chaos a little bit more than I usually would. So…bear that in mind.

PS I post a video every Sunday on peartreemommy.com –it’s Good Song Sunday!

Our great friend Aaron Strumpel (writer of the songs Twenty-Three, Centuries, and co-writer with us on Trouble Won’t Go, Too Proud, and Sweep Me Away) agreed to co-produce the project with us, and we love the flavor that he brings to our work. Aaron challenges us in the best ways to stretch the boundaries of our music, to really push ourselves creatively, and to fully understand our vision for the album. And we do know this for sure: this is an album of songs of worship.

We’ve tried not to put many limits on ourselves and on the work–and the work has been so fun as a result. Tim has been living out quite a few of his secret dreams, in fact. The latin percussionist, the Bruce Springsteen, and the crazy goat-hoof shaker guy all thrive within him.  And with this project, they finally have their outlet!

And I get to pursue some secret dreams of my own.  No, I haven’t gotten a Shakira moment yet, but yesterday I put a string section on Whisper Your Love that involved “Sugar-Plum Fairy” strings. High, flitty, and super fun to play. That’s almost as good, right? I also get to continue my foray into the wonderful and frustrating world of the cello. Most of the time, if I keep it simple, the cello does what I tell it to.  Yesterday, however, it almost got itself thrown off the back deck because of its disobedience.

We’re recording in Aaron’s house here in Woodland Park–here’s the view heading up–

and we’re thinking about splitting the studio to be in our house, too, so that we can continue recording when the babies are in bed. It’s a completely different thing than our last album; we’re working around our kids, we’re recording in a home studio, and we’re having so much fun experimenting, drinking coffee, making pancakes, and then experimenting some more.

I’m not sure when the new CD will be available for you to hear and enjoy. I know we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll be done tracking our vocals and instruments by the end of this month, but with our chaotic family life, we just have to hold everything loosely. Rest assured, though, you’ll have it before Christmas for sure!

There are lots of ways you can keep up with our recording process. The best way is to be a fan of us on Facebook. It is so easy to upload pictures and one-liner status updates, so we do that often.

You can also follow us on Twitter, which also has some one-liner updates.

I am also updating my new blog for mommies with reflections about how this process fits in with my life as a mom of two small kids. Those posts that are less about motherhood and more about the process will also be posted here, I think.

So there you have it! We’ll try to be updating often, but until the next one, we’ll see you on Facebook or Twitter!

We’re introducing a new service for indie musicians and producers. Follow the link or type StringOverdubs.com into your browser to find out more! We’ll be adding more and more audio samples and photos.

If you’re an artist or know one, why not tweet this, forward it, or share it on facebook?

Inspired by Psalm 139, this is the first song I wrote after the birth of our first daughter, Elizabeth Caroline, whose name means “Beautiful woman consecrated to God.”

I wrote it for her as a mother’s blessing, that she would know her place in the Father’s heart and trust in his goodness.

I wanted to post this as the next song as we are inside 3 weeks until the birth of our second daughter, and my heart is full of joy and anticipation.

–Laurie

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If you like this song why not leave a comment? Please share it with friends; feature it on your facebook, blog, or what-not; and put it on your next mix. If you wish to sow into our ministry or join our partners community, that would be great. If you don’t want to right now, then keep on rockin’ in the free world.

“Too Wonderful” by Laura Elizabeth Thornton & Timothy Floyd Thornton, copyright Bricklayer Music Publishing (ASCAP) 2009, registered with CCLI.

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
- Romans 8:20-21 (New American Standard Bible)

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
- Galatians 2:20 (New International Version)

“The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”

“For you must not think that I am putting forward any heathen fancy of being absorbed into Nature. Nature is mortal; we shall outlive her. When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of you will still be alive. Nature is only the image, the symbol; but it is the symbol Scripture invites me to use. We are summoned to pass in through Nature, beyond her, into that splendour which she fitfully reflects.”

“In speaking of this desire for our own far-off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence; the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter.”
- C. S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”