now available

(the new record from red mountain church)

TBMHOS

this breaks my heart of stone, the new record from red mountain church, is complete. the mastered and final copy is sitting on my desk right next to me, and now all we need to do is wrap up the artwork. expect ordering info, sound clips, etc., to hit our website within a few days...

why should I fear

new song, one of our favorites from the new record, is up on our myspace. you can listen here. this song features ellie holcomb. ellie and her husband, drew, are excellent musicians, songwriters, etc., and it was an honor to have each of them contribute (somewhat heavily) to this new record. hope you like it. I find this song particularly hopeful.

Why Should I Fear?
text: William Williams
music: Benj Pocta and Brian T. Murphy, 2006.

My soul, thou art immerg'd in sin,
So deep that none can trace;
Look to the ransom GOD decreed
To clear the guilty race.

The atonement once made on the tree,
Can balance many more
Than all the sins of Adam's race,
If number'd o'er and o'er.

He paid the mighty sum and died
For sinners yet unborn;
From men, the works of his own hands,
He suffer'd shame and scorn.

Had I the guilt of all the world,
He's able to forgive:
Why should I fear? The debt is paid.
If only I believe.

Ellie Holcomb - vocals
Benj pocta - vocals, acoustic guitar
Brian T. Murphy - piano
Clint wells - acoustic and electric guitars
Tripp Ethridge - drums
Jeff Irwin - bass

© 2006 Benj Pocta Music and Brian T. Murphy Music. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

mix one is done

after a week of editing, a final push on tracking, and basic mixing, we have our first rough mix of the pocta sessions / "this breaks my heart of stone" record. I started listening back to it at around 3am last night, and then I started falling asleep in the middle of songs.

we're taking a break. I'm headed to san francisco. Paul is headed to Nashville. Clint is getting settled in a new house.

we're going to reconvene early next week and continue on. we might have final mixes for this record as early as next week. which would of course be totally awesome.

-Brian T. Murphy

clint's guitars are done.

post production is underway

with the british boys

from left to right, my sister katie, btm, tom slinger, dan hames, josh (sister's husband).

dan and tom were visiting from england. and this photo is from my last night with them, in atlanta, at my sister's house.

we wrote some really cool songs with dan and tom while they were in town. hopefully we'll share them soon.

meanwhile, post-production is underway, and the new recording from red mountain should be fully mixed and mastered by the end of october. updates soon...

3hree things.

we've got a ton going on. life seems to be blurring by. here's 3hree things you may be interested in:

Albuquerque

First of September, we flew out to Albuquerque, New Mexico and shared our music with the wonderfully gracious people at Heritage Christian fellowship. We never know what to expect on these trips, but our experiences are consistently positive and encouraging. Special thanks to Shaan for helping set everything up. It was great to meet you, to hear your story, to share in the life of your family and your church for a few days. It’s always surprising to remember how beautiful these old songs are, and how much they bring people together. Thank you.

Pocta Sessions

We start post-production on the pocta sessions this week! Paul is driving to Birmingham in two days, and then we begin the long, exciting process of digging through mixes and edits, and exploring where the mixes on these songs need to end up. So far the response on these songs has been incredibly positive. We are very eager to get them out for everyone to hear. Also – we are working with the title “this breaks my heart of stone” for the pocta sessions record. Not settled on that for sure yet, but so far it seems to be a title we are comfortable with. Look for more updates in the coming days. We’ll be drinking a lot of coffee and working late into the night in the coming weeks…

The British

Dan Hames and Tom Slinger are in the states, on vacation, and have been staying with me the past few days, and during their time I’ve been immersing them in red mountain culture, feeding them Alabama food, taking them to spots concerts, staying up late talking, and of course, writing and recording music. so far we’ve written three songs together out of the gadsby, and I’m going to be honest – they’re pretty good. Dan and Tom sat in with us at red mountain last night and shared one of the songs during communion. tonight is their final night in Birmingham, and we’ve got a lot of work to do finishing up some of the songs we’ve been working on, and seeing what else we can come up with. it’s been a great visit, and it’s been wonderful to bring dan and tom into the fold here at red mountain. Be on the lookout for some great new hymn arrangements from dan and tom…

-Brian T. Murphy

we're still here

I hate when blogs start with "...so I know I haven't been good at updating this thing..." but the thing is, the new blogger format kept us from updating. finally got around to getting up-to-date with blogger. and now it is time for an update. there is so much going on right now...

1. moved into a new studio - red mountain church moved into a new building a few months ago, a building which was formerly a sound stage and film / television production house. So...I begged and pleaded with them to save me a room, and they generously did. the result is that we now have some AMAZING space to record in. uneven walls, great acoustics, an isolation booth, uneven floors, a good mix of carpet, hardwood floors, and exposed brick. believe me - after 4 years of working and recording in very makeshift space (read: janitorial closet), we are truly thankful to have comfortable, inspiring, efficient recording space. we spend so much time in the studio, and we really are thankful. (in these photos, frank is helping me install acoustic panels, which were given to me by creative wall solutions, in the iso booth) (thanks frank you are awesome).

2. progress on the new record is amazing - we have been working like crazy on the new record - what we're calling "the pocta sessions". we've got at least 11 songs that we feel really good about - and just last week spent two very late nights working on bass and drums with our friends jeff irwin and tripp etheridge. matthew smith was in town as well, and he spent some time hanging out with us in the studio as well. in this photo, we're packing out, finishing up two nights of very encouraging tracking. clint is the one in focus, talking to matthew. clint and I plan to be hitting the studio very hard in the coming weeks finishing out guitar and piano parts, as well as getting together with vocalists and other musicians for final tracks. our plan is to begin post-production by late-september, and have the record out by early december. things are looking good, and so far we are on schedule. maybe soon I'll post some demos / rough mixes. these songs are really exciting.

3. new spots material - I go back and forth on whether or not we should mention the spots when it comes to red mountain - but the truth is - the spots is a band that formed very much out of the music at red mountain. especially our instrumental music, which is found on all of our records, as well as every night at our church, during communion. this band grew out of some requests from friends to play instrumental music at parties and private events, and has grown to be a pretty cool band, getting regular play in birmingham. we've been getting great press, radio interviews, and have a monthly gig at a downtown bar where we routinely pack it out with 150 - 200 people. I'm always surprised when people show up because, well, we just play. no specific songs. just music. but to be honest - it's the most creatively satisfying band I've ever been in, and for some mysterious reason, people really connect with the music. it's been a great outlet, and the band is mostly made up of red mountain musicians, and carries a strong red mountain vibe, so the world should definitely know about it.

oh, and at our last gig, we made a live recording (over 2.5 hours of incredible live music that I'm still sorting through, when I'm not working on pocta...), and paul scodova (our mix guy for the red mountain stuff) came down to record everything for us. and as is paul's custom when visiting birmingham, he changed a flat tire. last time - clint's flat on the interstate in sub-zero weather. this time - my flat in my driveway in 110 degree alabama heat. thanks paul!

- Brian T. Murphy

Update

Events
We've had quite a bit of activity lately, and have a good bit coming up. we traveled to ridgehaven a couple of weeks ago to play music for a conference of high schoolers. it was interesting being back in youth group land (a scary place for many reasons) but overall it was a really great trip. we met some amazing people, particularly enjoyed meeting some high-schoolers, and the kids seemed to resonate with our music, which was really, really cool.

I always feel a certain degree of tension when we play places because we don't talk much. like, we really don't talk much. I think I'm over-sensitive about the musician who talks way more than he sings songs (it seems like only christian musicians do that...), so I think we compensate by seriously saying nothing when we play places. the one bit of negative feedback we got from ridgehaven was that we could have perhaps talked a little bit. so I get that. but at the same time I look at the hymn text and I think, what do you want me to say?

Looking forward to traveling to huntsville, senoia, augusta, albuquerque, and possibly raleigh and ontario, canada in the coming months. thanks to everyone who has had us out, is having us out, and has come out to support us and listen to our songs. it truly is an honor to share these songs with you.

Pocta Sessions
Underway and making progress. we've got rough mixes of 8 songs, which means that we have 8 songs that still seem to need a lot of work, but we're plugging away as best we can. still deciding what this record will look like. we're thinking about going more digital (it's all digital these days) and maybe pressing less cds, and pushing people towards itunes, or downloads off our site, rather than mailing out so many cds. who knows.

Overall, I think the songs are coming together really well, and we're branching out of gadsby (gasp!) with two hymns by william williams (thanks phil, thanks rhys, for introducing us to the world of pantycelyn).

And perhaps the best part of working on the pocta sessions has been getting to work with and know benj pocta, our favorite texan. this is our first record where all the songs are based around one person's writing (all the songs on this record have either been written or co-written by benj) and it's been a good exercise in songwriting, gotten us out of our mold a little bit, and created some really great songs that would have never existed otherwise.

I guess that's it for now.

Brian T. Murphy

the texan is coming

this friday, benj is returning to our fair city to help us continue on with our next project, currently being called "the pocta sessions".

benj is also the person on the far right in this photograph. this photograph is also quite blurry. I did not take this photograph.

progress is already underway on several songs. I'll update after the weekend.

I look forward to another productive weekend with benj. plus, he said he has a new tattoo of the word "texas" across the front of his neck, in cursive, and that's neat.

Brian T. Murphy