Here is some great camping info:  do you need to rent sleeping bags, or tents?  REI in the Springs rents all kinds of camping gear: Tents, pads, stoves, etc. They just don’t rent out sleeping bags. For a 3 man tent it’s around $20 for members of REI from Friday to Sunday and $25 for non members. Their phone number is (719) 260-1455.

1. Visit http://music.theblackthornproject.com

2. Preorder Reckless by entering enter your email, shipping address, and electronic payment. You’ll be among the first to get the new album when it comes out.

3. Check your email to start immediate download of the “Mud Song” rough mix

3-b. Fun notes on this version of “Mud Song”: In the Reckless session, the recording of “Mud Song” takes on a bit of Andean influence since the Simple Series release. This is a result of Tim’s recent trips to Peru where he was given a charango. The song features Steve Holley on upright bass, Karla Adolphe, Aaron Strumpel (also producer of Reckless), and Ben and Robin Pasley from Enter the Worship Circle: Fourth Circle on group party vocals! Tim and Aaron do the lo-fi percussion.

4. Realize you are a part of something very special. Many things, actually. Be thankful you are on the earth. It needs you.

House Concert at the Wiltons’ | Lafayette, CO
When: Fri, Apr 9, 2010 7:00 PM
Where: Old Town Lafayette, CO
Open to the public. Please email St.Ida@me.com to RSVP and for directions.

The Loft | Colorado Springs, CO
When: Thu, Apr 22, 2010 7:00 PM
Where: 2502 W Colorado Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80904
$8 advance ($2 service fee), $11 at the door
The Loft is Colorado Spring’s great new intimate listening room. We do expect the show to fill up fast so advance tickets are encouraged–check “upcoming events” on theblackthornpoject.com for a ticket link soon.

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.

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!

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

–

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.

Click the poster for more information! The full day of worship music featuring Karla Adolphe, Aaron Strumpel, Ben and Robin Pasley, and more TBA. The gathering is going to be casual and packed with value. You might never get a better chance to revel with and engage us in our hometown…er home mountain…pass…area.

Our good buddy Aaron Strumpel has a new album called Elephants. We played with him on it and it stretched us musically beyond what we knew before. It was magnificent and is now available for you and very worth hearing. It’s not light listening (hence the name) but is full of deep, pungent layers and unhindered expression of every kind, all soaked in the scriptures.

Aaron is having a CD release concert on Friday night in Fort Collins, CO at Everyday Joe’s. Laurie and I will be joining many crazy (and I think crazily dressed) friends who will bow, pluck, pound, shake, yell, dance, and sweetly whisper into the microphone as Aaron’s band of supporting pachyderms. Come on out if you’re ready for some crazy Jesus love for the courageously faint of heart.

You can buy a CD at the show, but if you live far away, you can listen and order a first edition on Aaron’s website. Click the image or links above. Here are the show details:

Aaron Strumpel Album Release w/ Listener & Fienix,
Friday, May 1st
Everyday Joe’s
144 S. Mason St.
Fort Collins, CO
7:00pm- 10:00pm
$5

One final note: Gary Adolphe is playing in the band. Wowza.

“Nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one.”

So said C. S. Lewis, as if he was from the Rocky Mountains.

Thousands of years before, the ancient poet looked up and wrote what we know as the nineteenth song in the book of psalms. He had no trouble gasping at the beauty of the changing sky in one phrase, then in the next contemplating that there is something eternal and pure and beyond those skies–and realizing that his own heart and life needed to reflect it.

Not to be outdone, I wrote this song a fishing season or so back, while waiting to be picked up for a day on the river in Eleven Mile Canyon. It is a true Colorado boy’s song to the Creator. It was inspired by Psalm 19, so I thought I’d include part of that text below so you can see how I used it as a way to enter into my own song of worship.

In the next post/podcast, we’ll talk more about the ancient psalmists’ sun, wind and clouds, and their harmony with my Colorado’s quaking aspen trees and rainbow trout.

Meantime, if this song gets to you, make it a prelude to an hour on the porch with a nice beverage and a copy of “The Weight of Glory” by C. S. Lewis. If the nearest porch looks to a place where created things have been suppressed, a potted plant will do. But don’t just look at creation. Listen to her song, for as Lewis observed, “we are summoned to pass in through Nature, beyond her, into that splendour which she fitfully reflects.”

from Psalm 19:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,

which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

Who can discern his errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.

Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then will I be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.

and from Psalm 135:

The LORD does whatever pleases him,
in the heavens and on the earth,
in the seas and all their depths.

He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth;
he sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

–

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 make a donation 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.

“Your Glory Falls” by Timothy Floyd Thornton copyright Bricklayer Music Publishing (ASCAP) 2009, registered with CCLI.

One of our goals in 2009 is to eliminate barriers between you and the music we make. There’s lots of good new stuff to come too: we’re working on a full string-section version of the new song “Speak to Me” as we, um, speak. It sounds awesome. But I can’t wait until it’s mixed (hopefully just a few days though) to start giving you those free downloads we’ve been promising.

We just returned form Winter Park where we encountered a worshiping community at Timberline Lodge that got really fired up about music worship. It was so fun to be with folks who began to understand the value of each part of the body, and that when we apply that to worship, we get to be creative and free!

We’re so glad to know the folks at Timberline, and are grateful for Dan and Sarah putting us up in their house. Mary took this photo for us. I think I see Stefan and Spencer back there. I’m not sure who the lovely socks belong to.

In keeping with that theme (creative and free, not lovely socks), we thought we’d give away one of our original songs for worship together, “Spirit of Heaven,” from The Bluing of the Sky. Anyone can download it by clicking on the widget above, and you can pass the files along to your friends.

If you have any issues with downloading, unzipping, or if you experience anything weird or life-changing (like a surge of new worship-leader super-powers), please let us know with a comment on this post and we’ll fix it. Or be happy with you if it’s good.