Go to Rise Up and Walk Home Page
Go to Endurance Home Page
Written July 3, 2004
Inspiration for lyrics:
1. First and foremost, the Word of God - Even though I use the King James Version of the Bible in the notes pages, my inspiration comes from as close to the original Word of God as is capable. By comparing King James Version to the Amplified Bible (available on Amazon.com), interlinear Bibles, and other great research works on the Word of God, we can get incredibly close to the Scriptures as written by those who originally penned them down.
2. The Way International - This is a great, worldwide, nondenominational Christian ministry. The teachings, fellowships, and way of life associated with this ministry all focus on the word of God as the true and only standard. When Jesus Christ said in John 14:6 that he "was the way, the truth, and the life" and that "no man can come unto the Father but by [Jesus Christ]", that is the standard we base our lives on.
Through the Way International, I have been able to learn and claim so many of the great truths and promises that God had made available to me. Not only have I learned it from them, I have studied the Word of God for myself as well. But I had so much help from this ministry. To name a few, there is The Way of Abundance and Power Class Series, the Sunday Teaching Services, and the Way Magazine.
With all these avenues of teaching and enrichment, the major inspiration, encouragement, and edification I received came from my parents and the households located in South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. None of these albums or songs would have ever been made if not for the teachings, love, and believing of the people I knew within those fellowships. Thanks to all of you!
Album Technical Credits (Rise Up and Walk; Endurance):
1. Cakewalk Sonar 1.0 Software - Ever since I started using MIDI with Cakewalk Home Studio 1997, I have been a great fan of Cakewalk products (See the Cakewalk website here). They have some of the most state of the art audio recording software out there, and for a fraction of the cost of most of the software sold by ProTools designer, DigiDesign (See the DigiDesign website here). The current version of Sonar provided by Cakewalk is Sonar 3.0. I haven't bought it yet since it would require a more powerful computer than the 2000 model that I currently have, but I'm sure it would be a great tool for anyone who is serious about audio recording.
About a year ago, I wrote a review on Epinions.com that details the pros and cons of the Sonar 1.0 software package. If you would like to read it, then click here.
2. Casio CTK-611 Keyboard - The Casio CTK-611 was the first MIDI keyboard I ever owned. (The first keyboard I ever owned was a Yamaha PSR-79). Since I traded the Casio for the Yamaha in December 2003, I have reworked most of the songs to either the Yamaha keyboard or the soft-synths that came with the Sonar 1.0 package. You can still hear the original Casio CTK-611 in the songs "Rise Up and Walk 2000" and "Members In Particular". (<--Click the title of the song link to hear the MP3s).
About a year ago, I wrote a review on Epinons.com that details the pros and cons of the Casio CTK-611 keyboard. If you would like to read it, then click here.
3. Yamaha DGX-300 Portable Grand Piano - The Yamaha DGX-300 is a 76-key, 22 pound keyboard with over 600 different tones. It also has a 'Live Grand Piano' feature which makes it sound exactly like a concert piano.I got it from Zzounds.com (which is one of the best websites to go to buy musical equipment) and it is hooked up to my computer through a MIDI cable and a stereo gold-plated audio line cable.
If you would like to see the Yamaha DGX-300 Portable Grand Piano on ZZounds.com, you can do so by clicking here.
4. Squier Stratocaster by Fender and the Vox Pathfinder Amplifier - Most of the music that I write is done using MIDI, but I do have some guitar-vocal songs as well, using a mix of my Squier Strat electric guitar, the features on the Vox Pathfinder amp, and the features on the Sonar 1.0 software package. For these songs, I have made guitar tabs for each of them as well as lyrics, notes pages, and MP3s:
Gods Too Big To Limit - Lyrics, Notes, MP3, Tabs
Be Ye Kind One To Another - Lyrics, Notes, MP3, Tabs
Benefits of Speaking In Tongues - Lyrics, Notes, MP3, Tabs
I'll Pray For You - Lyrics, Notes, MP3, Tabs
Now - Lyrics, Notes, MP3, Tabs
5. IBM Digital Microphone - Though I really need to get a better microphone, for what it's worth this mic has been pretty good. My dad got it along with an IBM Aptiva computer he got back in 1996, and when I got my own computer, I kept 'borrowing' it until it pretty much became mine.
Website Technical Credits
1. Yahoo! Geocities - This is my first (and, as of now, only) experience with a website host and they have mostly been very easy to work with. Their HTML and Yahoo! Help sections have been a wonderful tool in getting started with this. In addition to this, I love their easy to use, beginner program "Yahoo PageBuilder", through which this whole website has been designed from. When I get more practice with HTML and uploading files to the Internet, I will upgrade to something else, but, for now, this is a good program to use.
(Besides, it's because of Geocities that I was able to find those funny deer pictures at the top of this page!)
2. C for C ministries - Though I know nothing of this ministry, I do appreciate their online version of the King James Bible, which I use throughout my website. They had the easiest website to link to and to browse through and the accuracy of their online bible, from what I've seen, is very good.