As we finished the recording of this project,  I watched my new born son lie in his crib and experience his first few days of breath.  I watched him take new breath into new lungs.  I watched him uncontrollably flailing new arms.  He is wonderfully new,  and at the same time,  in his goodness newness,  he has a lot of growing to do.  II Corinthians 5:17 tells us that if we are in Christ,  we are new creations.  Just like my son,  we are made "brand new,"  and we have to grow into our new skin.  We have to learn to use our hands for healing rather than harm,  our tongues for building up instead of tearing down,  and our eyes for seeing the good in others instead of for pointing out their faults.  For years I’ve struggled with believing the idea that I’m this new creation,  because I thought that being new meant being perfect,  and my constant sin struggles prove that I am surely not perfect.  I haven’t exactly got all this figured out,  but I have recently become convinced that in order for me to be fully alive and truly fruitful for the Kingdom,  I must trust the fact that God sees me as good,  completely restored,  and as a brand new creation.  Just like my newborn son,  however,  I still have a lot of growing to do.

The themes of restoration and being made new in Christ seemed to ring out in the songs that I wrote for this project,  as well as the other songs that we chose to include.  It’s also important to note that this is our first project designed to be used for private and corporate praise and worship.  With the idea of God restoring us as the focal point of this project and the understanding of the fact that the act of restoration required God to offer His son as a sacrifice,  praise and worship was our natural response.

This project is a celebration of the fact that we are made brand new in Christ,  and it is a declaration of hope,  light,  and restoration to our world.  Sing with us.  Know that in Christ you are in good standing with God.  Believe that you are made "brand new."

Points of interest regarding our new release: "Brand New"

• Matt made Jim do about a thousand takes on the chorus of Because of You,  because Jim kept singing flat.
• Nathan Lewis re-arranged the classic hymn I Stand Amazed in the Presence.
• Presley Archer,  age 2 at the time,  sang This Little Light of Mine.
• The prize offered during this track was an Ice Age II Pez dispenser.
• Presley nailed it on her first take,  something her father has never done.
Presley ate all of the Pez in one sitting that night,  and subsequently she was so hyper that she would not go to bed until several hours past her bedtime.
• Shondra Wideman joined with the members of Shepherd Blind to record the hand claps and shouts of celebration at the beginning of The Light Has Come.
• On Those Who Trust,  Nathan Spencer nailed the lead electric guitar solo on the first take.  This is the same solo that he did the very first time that we ever played this song five years ago.
• Matt originally asked Jim to demo the song There Is a Place to him while he used the restroom.  Hesitantly,  Jim played the song directly outside of Matt’s bathroom stall,  and Matt heckled the song by asking the question,  "Are we a country band now?"  Six months later Jim played it while leading worship.  Matt contacted him the next day and begged for the chords and lyrics.  This just goes to prove that sometimes everything just stinks when it’s played in a bathroom.
• Nathan Lewis,  SB’s bass player,  provides the sweet slide guitar solo on There Is a Place.  He also doubled the electric guitar on several other tracks.
• Nathan Lewis also played the synth which is used on Amaze Me Again and Tell the World.
• Matt used his mouth to suck air close to the microphone,  and our recording engineer,  Bryan,  slowed these sucking noises down to create the wind sounds heard in the transition/intro into My Glorious.  It was disgusting.
• For the record,  Matt does not like Nathan’s song Every Time I Fall,  but the rest of SB does.  What do you think?
• Every Time I Fall was originally recorded with the full band,  however,  we decided to make it just vocals,  guitar,  and harmonica for the overall dynamics of the entire project.
• On Tell the World,  Jim issues a heroic yell that is slightly off-pitch,  however,  he decides to keep it because he thought it sounded "raw."
• Jim had to buy a new harmonica after attempting to record Meet with Me.  The reed was shot.
• Matt,  SB’s drummer,  played the keys on Certain,  and for the record,  it is not his favorite song on the project.
• Matt originally did not like the song Stay with Us.  In fact, he would not commit to recording it until the last 5 minutes of our final session.  The song barely made it onto this project.  It is now one of SB’s favorite songs on the project.
• Matt also played keys for Stay with Us.
• Right before sending the finished project to be duplicated,  SB listened to all of the tracks and realized that the sound engineer had accidentally edited out all of the "S" sounds in Stay with Us.  If SB had not discovered this mistake,  you would have heard "Tay with Uh" and been very confused.
• Nathan Spencer did not originally like the song,  Who Shall I Fear,  however,  after performing it live recently,  he said,  "Man,  I hate to say it,  but that Who Shall I Fear song is growing on me."
• During the vocal spoof of Who Shall I Fear,  Jim,  Matt,  and Nathan decided to dim the lights in the studio and record while only wearing their boxers.  When you hear Nathan Lewis say,  "I’m not comfortable with that," he is not referring to recording the song.  Rather,  he is referring to fact that he is in a small,  dimly lit recording bay surrounded by the rest of the band who are just wearing boxers.  Tubbs was fully clothed.
• Jim’s son,  Grayson Jack Archer,  was born on April 13th while SB was in the final stages of finishing this project.