Interview with Lenny Smith

posted in: Articles, July 2017 | 0

Your new album You Are My Hiding Place features songs you wrote between 1971 and 2000. Why did you think it was important to put those songs out now?

My wife, Marian, picked some of her favorites from my 200 plus songs. I have two previously recorded albums, Deep Calls to Deep, and Who is, Who Was, and Who is to Come, containing about 25 songs. We told her to choose songs other than those. I think we will let her choose the songs for our next album of mine, out in 2017:). She and my 5 kids (a band known as the Danielson Famile, aka Danielson) say they like lots of my old songs even better than my new ones, so we decided to mix them, old and new together.

The album is great and these songs have been stuck in my head since the first listen. Besides catchy songs, what do you think this record offers that is different than the tons of Praise and Worship music out there?

I try to make my songs melodious, as if they were written with one finger on the piano, although I play guitar. The juice is first and foremost in the melody. Look at “Happy Birthday To You” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Our God Reigns” and “Three Blind Mice.” All have real melodies that can be hummed and remembered. Very many songs being used today are not memorable. The church has been flooded with throwaway songs. The good news is that the people in the pews know what blesses their socks off and makes them laugh and cry, even if the praise and worship gospel industry doesn’t. Great songs often are like plays. They have three acts and a honest to God climax. We might call it a hook. Everyone who sings “Happy Birthday To You” wants to sing the third “birth—day” as long as possible, because it satisfies….it’s the climax. Many of today’s praise and worship songs are like courting with no honey-moon:).

Your back up band is really great, maybe they should do something on their own. 🙂 Can you tell us about them?

My “back-up” band is an actual band. They are my 5 kids, the Danielson Famile aka Danielson. They have released 7 or 8 albums already with a new one coming-out in 2017 on my son’s own label, Sounds Familyre Records. All my grandkids joined us or we told them they wouldn’t eat for a week :). Since 1972, starting with Daniel, my children have listened to me playing my Gibson and singing and writing songs. Somehow it got into their blood and they formed their own band without me saying a word to encourage it.

This record is out on “Great Comfort”, a family label that you run. In our earlier correspondence I appreciated your passion for your new record and for this label. Can you tell us a bit about what “Great Comfort” is all about?

I started Great Comfort Records because we needed a label to release my albums and the albums of our friends and family members. This label is devoted to songs of praise and worship because that is just where my heart is. I tried so hard for so many years to get labels interested in my songs, but they just didn’t care for my style or voice or vibe or theology or something. I also insisted on owning my own copyrights and that might not have been part of their business plan. Now I am delighted they didn’t want me and my songs because we get to try it ourselves. I deeply respect what these other labels have done…it is a monumental task!

You are well known for writing the classic “Our God Reigns,” a song I can’t remember not singing. It was part of every church experience I’ve had. This album is full of other songs you’ve written a while ago. Is it hard to keep these songs as fresh expressions of Praise?

For us here, none of my songs have been used, so they all seem fresh to us. Even my own church does not use any of my songs, but that is fine because they have their own style preferences. I have to credit my son Daniel with making my songs each have a different personality. Daniel, as you may know, has produced albums for Sufjan Stevens (SEVEN SWANS), Mewithoutyou, The Welcome Wagon, Danielson, Jad Fair, Half-Japanese, Steve Taylor, and lots of others. He has done the cover art on all three of my albums. He is a wonderful artist, as well as a musician and producer. If it weren’t for his productions, all my songs would sound like a guy sitting with friends around a campfire in the woods:). His studio is only a half mile from my house!

Praise and Worship music is sometimes the cause of disagreement in the Church. Do you think there is a better way we can approach it where everyone can participate and actually enjoy it?

For me the main issue with music is melody. It is very easy to determine if a song has a real, interesting, anointed melody…..just hum it with no beat and no lyrics. If it has a blessing or the juice, it will bless the one humming and the one listening. The people who squeeze bits of a melody into chord patterns are squeezing the life out of the tune. Almost always they are guitar players! Hum “O, Lord, My God” and see what I mean. Hum “Amazing Grace” and hear what I mean. The very best songs have simple, yet inspired melodies! Now, we can talk about lyrics, but that must always be a separate discussion. The river is not the kayak.

Do you intentionally write Praise and Worship music or is that just what comes out? Have you written love songs or about other life experiences?

I have written about 9-10 love songs and I really love them. However, I have no outlet for them, so there has been nothing to draw them out of me, so we have few of them. Since I was a young boy, I have loved singing to God. After high school, I spent 7 years in the seminary. We had chapel every day and sang our hearts out in both Latin and English. That is where I started writing songs….on a four-string guitar. I took-off the bass strings so I could learn and then much later added them back when I finally had the courage to try all six strings.

Have you been able to play any of these songs live?

I have always had a bit of an opportunity, now and then, to lead worship with my songs in churches over the years. I dreamed of leading worship for hundreds of people but the opportunities never came to me. That is really why I started a label….to bring my songs to the people as albums. The gate-keepers would not embrace me, but the regular people seemed to like what we did. Now I am grateful the gate-keepers did not embrace me. If they had, I would have been on someone else’s label…and gotten dropped when the sales fell :). Great Comfort Records is NOT going to drop me:).

What’s next for you?

What is next for me? 2017 will find GCR releasing my next album of 12-13 more of my songs. For this one I would LOVE to include a couple of my love songs. Now, all I have to do is talk my kids into the idea. They see me as the praise and worship guy, not the Frank Sinatra or Perry Como guy. GCR will also be releasing another album from my daughter Rachel. Her first is a gem. We are talking with our friend Chris Falson about releasing his next album. Also, the founder of Bifrost Arts is talking with us about releasing his album.

Thanks for the great music and sharing your time with us. Do you have any parting words?

Song selection is a very important issue. But a more important issue is the focus of our worship and the fact that putting worship leaders and musicians on a stage works against focusing on our Father. Worship leaders and bands should be positioned on the floor in front or to the side of the stage. This will help them and others focus on God. Certainly something will have to be on the stage for people to look at while they are singing to God. Perhaps a screen with lyrics would be enough. Perhaps pictures of nature or the heavens. Moving the worship team off the stage will let all the air out of the entertaining style that now has crept in unawares.

How can people get a hold of the new record and find out more about what you are doing?

People can listen to and purchase this album on iTunes under the category of Christian & Gospel. Perhaps they will want to do a review. If they love what we are doing, why not say so. If they do not like it at all, it is also o.k. to say so. Some people like fish and some people like steak. One can also purchase this album at Great Comfort Records. Let me put in a plug for my son, Daniel. One can purchase all the Danielson albums the Sounds Familyre website, as well as other great releases from his label, Sounds Familyre. Yes, I AM the proud father 🙂

 

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