This one is me (Laurie) and our great friend Amanda Steed, who some of you might have met at Worship@8500 this year. Our husbands are out on the river with fly rods and their man spirits, and we are sitting at the kitchen table enjoying the morning. The song that the morning called for? Nothing Can Stop You, off of Enter the Worship Circle: Fourth Circle, written by our beautiful friends Karla Adolphe and Ben Pasley.

Nothing Can Stop You (Psalm 45)

Great are you Lord
I do not have words to explain
All you have done for me
Generations have come
In their wisdom they call you their God
Your love has no limits at all
so now I sing

Lord, You are perfect
In all of Your ways
Your not easily angered
You make no mistakes
No, nothing can stop You
Nothing can stand in Your way

You hear my cry
You will catch every tear from my eyes
And you watch over my life
And you’re building a city
Not made with the power of men
I know that I’m safe and sound
now i sing

Lord, You are perfect
In all of Your ways
Your not easily angered
You make no mistakes
No, nothing can stop You
Nothing can stand in Your way

Lord, You are perfect
In all of Your ways
Your not easily angered
You make no mistakes
No, nothing can stop You
Nothing can stand in Your way

This song was written by Karla Adolphe and Ben Pasley. You should buy every ounce of music you can from Karla; she is one of the most gifted songwriters out there.

In fact, we’ve heard that quite a few of you are using the videos for your own personal worship or corporately in small groups and Bible studies, and that is such an honor for us!

So, I’m excited to announce that Tim and I are widening the scope of Good Song Sunday so that we can introduce you to more of our songwriting friends and bring you more new and original worship songs. So the videos will not always be of the two of us; they will often be our friends and their beautiful faces and songs.

So, meet Julie Presley, one of the most fabulous women I know. Julie has an enormous heart for worship and is full of love and tenderness. I wish I could point you to an album to buy, but, alas, it is still in the works and not available for purchase yet. However, you can keep up with her and her adventures in mommy-hood on her blog, and you can listen to one of her songs on this cd of worship music put out by her fellowship.

Here is what she has to say about this song:
Sometimes when I come to the Father, I feel like the only thing I have of value to offer him are my tears, because they speak of something that runs so deep within me, I can’t vocalize it. Those tears can come from so many different places, and for this song, they came out of a place where I was acting out as an abandoned, abused child, and that is contrary to who the Father says I am! This song is a journey from that place, to the cross where he uses my tears to water the soil of my life, and continually accepts me as his daughter.

You Come
Sometimes all I have
are the tears that fall
from the corner of my eyes
I turn my face to you
tell you I’ve come unglued
can you fix me one more time?

Oh you come
And you heal
And you whisper in my heart

I know you’ve never left
And that you’ll never change
But sometimes it’s hard to hear the truth
But in your words I find
it’s easier to believe
That you can make me more like you

Oh you come
and you heal
and you whisper in my heart

So I cling to you
And see that you hold
every tear I’ve cried
I watch as you pour them out
At the foot of a blood stained cross
Where my life began

Walk with me
Hold my hand
I know I’ll fall again
But now I’m trusting in your voice
So now I fight to see
The way that you see me
I’m not an orphan I’m your child

Clicketh thou the link that rocketh or on the beautiful artwork (done by the amazing Kyle Steed) to hear the entire Reckless album now and get your copy for $9.99.

If you’re more of a physical CD kind of person, pre-orders of the actual disc are still available, and you can order one for $15 and receive an immediate download of the whole album as well. Your physical copy will ship free as soon as it comes in from manufacturing.

Kyle is finishing up the artwork as we speak, and we expect to have the package in had mid-August. Thanks to all who pre-ordered and donated to the cause. Because of you it is all being done debt-free!

If you have already pre-ordered your copy of Reckless but you either didn’t give us your email address or you haven’t heard from us regarding your free download of the album please email us at us@theblackthornproject.com and we’ll send you your free download code!

If you were at Worship@8500 or have been to another of our house concerts, worship leading times, or teachings, this evening would be a great opportunity to reconnect with one another, look one another in the eyes, and then sit together as we listen to Katie’s beautiful music.

Katie Herzig w/The Blackthorn Project and Megan Burtt

The Loft

2502 West Colorado Ave. #301

July 10

8:00pm

$15

Anyway, I could go on…but I’d rather you just come and experience it with us. You can join us for just the Saturday and/or Sunday evening worship events if you’d like. Doors open at 6:30. Cost is $10 at the door. For more information, like directions, click here.

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.

One of the best things about Reckless is that it is not just our CD.

The vision (presented here in slick photo-rich PDF) was born in late 2009. A few days before Christmas, Tim dialed Aaron Strumpel from a Target parking lot in Dallas while Laurie was inside.

“Hey, do you want to make a worship album together?”

Aaron agreed to partner with us to make what is now Reckless, and since that moment many of our ministry partners and fans have also made this project their own by taking it personally and investing in it. They’ve given their prayers, time, talent, and dollars to share in it as a ministry endeavor.

The only thing standing in our way now is a mere $1600, which we need to finish the post-production and manufacturing of the physical CDs. We have committed to producing the CD debt-free.

That’s where preorders come in. There are two ways you can join the community that will link arms with us and get this puppy out in June. Fortunately there are some lovely rewards involved.

1. Preemptive Viral Strike.

This way is so easy we’re calling on every single person who likes our music to do it. You are now obligated.

Spread the word. We hope you’ll recommend the album to many of your friends anyway, so we’re asking you to do a preemptive strike:

Use word of mouth, Facebook, Twitter, etc, to say something personal about what TBP’s music is worth. Post a link to music.theblackthornproject.com. Click that link and then click “share” for an easy way to embed a snippet of “Mud Song” into your blog, Facbeook page, etc. Ask your friends to preorder along with you. Preorder one for a friend or family member! Your personal recommendation is priceless.

Nice job. Now, there are two levels of preorder.

2-A. Casual Level: Pre-order the CD now for a $15 donation and get a free download of a rough-mixed “Mud Song” (listen to a snippet here).

OR, if you want to put a larger (tax-deductable) amount toward the completion of the album,

2-Q. Stellar Level: Pre-order the CD now for a donation of $25 or more and receive the free download of the rough-mix of “Mud Song” as well as a hipster Reckless button and our personal thanks on an autographed poster of the original, yet-to-be-revealed, album art. Shwanky.

No matter which option you choose, you will undoubtedly be the first to receive your copy of Reckless upon it’s release. Yes, we’re that close to being able to hold our new CD, Reckless, in our hands (hopefully be by the end of June). When that happens we will immediately tell our hands to stopping hogging it and get to work shipping it straight to your ears.

Follow any of the links above or click here to pre-order your copy of Reckless today!

PS, thank you!

Woohoo! We are entering the mixing, mastering, artwork-making, packing, and celebrating phases soon.

Here’s a quick video from a session when Ben Pasley secretly filmed the Fourth Circle crew as they did the “gang vocals,” a term we’ve come to use instead of choir, for “Mud Song.”