Hey friends, I've finally finished the mix for my Galatians 4:1-6 song, "When the Right Time Came," featuring Jamie Hiscox! Jamie has a raw, kind of rock-and-roll style voice, and it's quite a contrast with my more mellow sounding voice.
I'll be excited to hear what you and other listeners think. If you're a patron or a supporter on YouTube, you can head over there now to hear the final recording before it's released to Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and other music platforms.
Thanks to Jamie for agreeing to sing with me. I love the opportunity I've had of virtually connecting with these other Canadian Christian musicians.
As some of you may know, lately I've been struggling to find people to sing with me on my Galatians series. It's been a challenge to find people who are interested and capable, who already have been putting music online, and so have a following themselves.
I've been able to use 17 people so far, which I think is really cool, and not a small deal. But as I've faced a real struggle finding more lately, I've sensed God telling me that it's time to move away from this endeavour and instead to return to my first calling. I'm able to keep up a schedule of regular releases when I don't have to depend on the cooperation of others, and it has the added benefit of relieving a fair bit of stress.
So moving forward there will no longer be featured artists joining me. There may be a song or two for which it occurs, either because it's already been set up, or because it happens organically, but in general I'm going to try to get back to bi-weekly releases.
Thanks for being patient with me while I attempted to complete this project. I'm sorry it has taken so long.
I thought you might be interested in hearing a bit about some of the artists I've been involving in my Galatians music project! This is the first in the series.
Londa Lamond is featured in my Galatians 3:23-29 song, and I asked her recently to tell me a bit about her walk of faith. She has a beautiful testimony of God's faithfulness.
Londa Lamond's journey with faith began early in her life. Born into a church-going family, she accepted Christ at the tender age of six or seven. Since then, her life has been intertwined with her faith, particularly through music. She found herself at the forefront of her church's praise and worship team by the age of 14, using her voice as a vessel for spiritual expression.
However, like many, Londa's walk with God has not been without its trials. She openly shares her struggles with depression, which she describes as having become almost a companion throughout her life. These struggles were compounded by traumatic experiences; she was sexually assaulted multiple times during her youth, an ordeal that tested her faith and self-worth.
The courtroom's harsh judgment further deepened her battle with depression when, in her late teens, a judge labeled her a liar during a trial related to her assault. This rejection led Londa to a dark place, where she attempted suicide twice. Through this profound darkness, she experienced what she describes as God's direct intervention, saving her from her despair.
Londa's road to recovery included battling low self-esteem, particularly about her appearance. She once despised her smile because of a noticeable gap in her teeth, something she has since learned to embrace as part of her uniqueness. Her journey towards self-acceptance was another testament to her faith, acknowledging God's role in helping her through her personal struggles.
As a single mother of two boys, Londa credits her faith for the provision and strength needed to raise her children. Her narrative is one of divine providence, where God has consistently made a way "out of no way" for her family. Her faith has not only been a personal anchor but has also influenced her sons, who decided of their own accord to be baptized last year, a moment of joy and affirmation for Londa that her faith was being passed down.
In her testimony, Londa speaks of God's grace, mercy, loving-kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, describing herself as "more than a conqueror" through these experiences. Her life is a profound narrative of overcoming adversity through faith, serving as an inspiration to others. Her story is not just one of survival but of thriving in the love of God, with a commitment to serve Him, come what may.
I encourage you to visit Londa's social media profiles and stream her music on whichever platform you prefer. Let's encourage this sister-in-Christ as she uses her gifts for God's glory!
My website has not been ranking well in search results, and part of the reason for that is because I use a custom coded, dynamic way of loading pages. When you click links on this site, music can keep playing in the sidebar, and the page doesn't need to completely reload each time.
Web search engines don't really know how to index this dynamic content because it makes use of a lot of JavaScript. JavaScript is a client-side (your side, in the browser) coding language. I've played around with a lot of potential solutions over the years, but with no success. In fact, I found out yesterday that one of those "solutions" was actually making things worse!
But this week I've done a lot of changes to my website so that it behaves in a way search engines like, and yet very little is different in the actual operation for you, the user! I couldn't have done it on my own, I kept a tab open to talk with Grok through out the process. (Grok is Elon Musk's AI on X.com)
Whatever you think about artificial intelligence, it has been a very helpful tool for me in solving problems I don't really understand! In this case, AI has helped me in my mission: ultimately, I want scripture to be more accessible to more people, such that God is more glorified!
There may be aspects of my website which aren't quite right, and I'd love to hear from you if you encounter a bug or error. Shoot me an email using this site's contact form if you find anything broken misbehaving.
Thanks for your support and interest in this ministry!
~Jason
Great news, I have a new Canadian vocalist who is joining me on my next Galatians song! Jamie is a singer/songwriter from Southwestern Ontario, so not too far away compared to some, but not close either.
Jamie's style is a lot more raw and rockin' than mine, so I'm surprised he's agreed to join me. I look forward to hear how it will all work out.
He says he "writes Music for those who don’t have it all together." I think that's a beautiful sentiment which all Christians could aspire to. We're so used to making our walk with Christ look glossy and perfect, but the reality is always far from pretty.
Although Jamie was raised in a Christian home, he says he walked away, to choose a different direction as a teen. He chose a lifestyle which included drugs and alcohol, and quickly got out of control. It was only after his brother died in a motorcycle accident in 2007 that Jamie returned to the faith of his childhood.
“I was in a dark hole, that not only was I addicted to every drug you could think of and drinking, but I just lost my best friend. A lot of guilt and shame from how I acted and how I treated him and other family members.”
I'm pumped to have him part of this project! Please be sure to follow him on social media, and stream his music on your favourite platform!
Summary: in the near future, my music may not be everywhere it used to be. Have you hearted one of my songs? Have you put my music in a playlist? It might disappear.
I got some bad news yesterday. I hate it when this kind of thing happens, but it's just become a regular occurrence lately in technology so I guess I have to accept it.
I received notice yesterday that the distribution company I use, named "Amuse.io" are increasing the amount they deduct from my streaming royalties. Instead of zero, they're now keeping twenty-five percent each month for themselves.
I use two companies to get my music on iTunes, Spotify, and the rest: DistroKid and Amuse. (Actually I also have used CDBaby, but that was when people were still riding horses everywhere, and making their own butter). I started using Amuse because it was free, and they promised to never take my music down, even after I die. This is in contrast to DistroKid who charges me each year to keep my music on the various platforms.
I would like my music to be a blessing to future generations, and so I jumped onboard!
Now, I don't make very much money through Amuse—it's usually about $40.00 a month—so maybe you're thinking $10 a month is no big deal. But it's the principle of the thing that bothers me. When I signed up seven or eight years ago, they promised to be free forever. I suppose that wasn't a very good business model, and I should have suspected it wouldn't last. “If it seems to be too good to be true...”
As a result, I've decided to take all my music down, to leave them as my distributor, and instead upload everything through DistroKid. At least Distrokid doesn't keep any of my royalties.
Have you ever noticed how many companies build their business by taking advantage of musicians?
So please, find my new releases. As an example, a psalm-song will now be titled, “The Two Ways (Psalm 1)” instead of simply “Psalm 1.” Put the ones you love in playlists, share them with people, add them to your library, heart them, leave comments - all the things required to let algorithms know what's what.
The answer to that question should probably be no, unless you really love the Bee Gees. Today I've shared an mp3 with the gang over on Patreon.com/jasonsilver. I'm singing the part which Londa will be doing so that she can learn it. This means I'm singing both parts, high and low!
Unfortunately, Londa has been unwell, and additionally, couldn't get an earlier booking at the studio near her location, so the song will be delayed even more. But hopefully this taste of things to come will give you encouragement that Galatians 3:23-29 is actually going to be done eventually!
I also have some exciting news for the next three songs to be released, but you'll have to wait until next week to hear more!
Hello my friends. I don't have a lot to report on this week.
Well, actually, as I typed that I thought to myself, "Yes, you do!"
Alright, there are some updates, I guess. My birthday was on January one, so I turned 56. How can I be 56?
I mentioned over on X.com the presents which I received. My wife bought me some amazing birthday presents this year! I received two books, one a daily devotional using writings by the church fathers, another entitled Early Christian Writings by Penguin Classics.
She bought me a very fancy pipe lighter with an integrated pipe rest and pipe tools. It's very cool.
She also got me a neat leather strap style bookmark with a Franciscan medallion on one end and a cross on the other. Right now it's keeping my place in the Early Christian Writings book.
Oh, she also bought me two cool tee shirts, and a pair of wool long-johns. I also got breakfast in bed!
My daughter Rose got me four pairs of super-warm socks and 3 bags of Pork Rinds. My son Lucas got me a book entitled Foxe's Book of Martyrs (along with a 3D printer pen which I couldn't get to work). Grace got me three bags of flavoured pork-rinds!
I'm the most fortunate man in the world!
For New Years Eve we hung out with my sister and her husband, my mom, and a mutual friend. We didn't make it to midnight.
As for the rest of the holiday week, I've been taking it pretty easy. There have been a few crises, like computers not working, software that wouldn't install, client websites going down, this site not processing PayPal transactions correctly, stuff like that. Ugh, technology.
Oh, and I also taught music just one day this week.
By the way, a very kind person has decided to cover the studio fees for the artist who is singing on my next track. I've got a raw version recorded and sent to her, but I haven't received anything back yet. Soon, I hope!
Thanks for your prayers and your friendship. I'd love to hear from you!
