Project Together

Project Together - featuring Keb’ Mo’ & Lauren Lucas

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Project Together

Project Together

Keb’ Mo’, Lauren Lucas, Bob DiPiero, Pat McMakin

I don’t always know when my music is truly making a difference in someone’s life. We write and record songs with the intent of moving people, but after we throw these creations out into the world, we rarely know whose ears they’re hitting or if they’re moving anyone at all.

From time to time, I’ll get an email or direct message on my socials saying, “I played your song at my wedding.” Or there was that one time I was invited to sing a song live as a proposal (true story! And she said, “yes!”). Those are moments when I know, without a doubt, that something I was a part of hit home.

I got to experience a life-changing musical moment recently. I want to tell you about it.

A few months ago, I was asked to record a duet for an international marketing campaign for Canadian National (CN) Railway Company. This was a dream gig in so many ways. For starters, my duet partner was one of my musical heroes: multi-Grammy award winning blues/Americana artist, Keb’ Mo’.

I’ve been a fan of Keb’s music since college and even performed one of his songs for my senior project to graduate from Belmont University. I’ve heard it said you shouldn’t meet your heroes. Meeting Keb’ Mo’ did not disappoint. He was as kind and authentic as I expected him to be. I loved getting a bird’s eye view of his recording process, but most of all, I enjoyed our conversations in between takes.

Ocean Way Studio A

Lauren Lucas, Keb’ Mo’ & CN Employees

Getting to record a song written by hit-makers, Bob DiPiero and David Kalmusky, in historic Ocean Way Studio A wasn’t a bad deal, either. Pat McMakin, along with David, manned the ship in the producer seat, with Mills Logan engineering.

Here’s where the real magic starts to happen: CN, a company with over 23,000 employees spanning across North America, held auditions to find 14 musicians to help us record the song. Most of these folks had never met each other. Very few had ever been to Nashville, and even fewer had stepped foot into a recording studio.

Given the bad press lately about derailments and spills, it’s easy to forget how integral trains are to our every day lives. I learned that one triple-stacked train car replaces 10,000 eighteen wheelers on the road. I also learned that more women work in the railway company than I expected, including the CEO and many of it’s engineers. Two women train engineers joined us for this recording.

It was heartwarming to see these 14 strangers connecting over 2 commonalities: a love for music, and pride in a company where their jobs are demanding, isolating and often times dangerous. They bravely sang or played their solo for each other while being amplified (some for the first time), and with video cameras up in their faces!

Taillight TV documented the entire studio experience. They even traveled to all 14 employees’ hometowns to get B roll footage.

What you are about to see in this video is stunning scenery of Canadian countryside, footage from our studio process recording the song called, “Together,” behind-the-scenes interviews from employees and Keb’ Mo’, and the huge hearts that guide the spirit of CN.

Just a few weeks ago, several of these CN employees had to evacuate their homes due to wildfires. These 14 people, once strangers, now see each other as brothers and sisters because of their shared bond in Nashville. They sprang into action, sending train loads of supplies and doing anything they could to help.

The CN employees saw first hand that no matter where you are, or how autonomous the working conditions, business and life mean more when we do it together.

Heck, Pat, David, Keb’ and I could have recorded this song and sent it to CN to enjoy. But it wouldn’t have touched them the way this experience did.

It only matter because we did it together. Push play below to enjoy the song and video of Project Together.

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Credits:

Recording Team

Mills Logan, Pat McMakin, David Kalmusky, Lauren Lucas

Executive Producer: Pat McMakin

Song Producers: Pat McMakin, David Kalmusky

Guest Artists: Keb' Mo', Lauren Lucas

Production Coordinator: Bridgette Slater

Audio Team Engineer: Mills Logan

Asst Eng: Katelyn Prieboy, Wolf Robinson

Mixed by: David Kalmusky

Songwriters: Bob Dipiero, David Kalmusky, Marc Pavlica

SESSION MUSICIANS Leader and Drums: Chad Cromwell

Keyboards: Jeff Roach

Bass: Marc Rogers

Electric Guitar: Sol Littlefield

Acoustic Guitar: Bryan Sutton

Electric Guitar: David Kalmusky

Video Team —

Video Producer: Matt Houser

Video Director: Justin Key

Production Coordinator: Taylor Campbell

Director of Photography: Tyler Oaks

Camera – Steadicam: Trent Millspaugh

Camera – Broll: Maria Valetta

1st Assistant Camera: Kenny Herron

2nd Assistant Camera: Quentin Lesser

Camera Utility: Sheila Dunaway

Gaffer: Barrett Depeis

Key Grip: Kitt Fresa

Swing: Luke Lamar

Audio -

Doc Crew: Hunter Vickers

Production Assistant: Patrick Tyler

Production Assistant: Kristen Herbert

CN TALENT:

Anuoluwapo (Anu) Adeola Brian Chojnacki Claire Levesque Eugenia Kefallinos James (Jimmy) Mitchell Jeffrey Aitchison Jonathan Moorman Mariah Lambertus Mark Girgis Rick Laboucan Ryan Whittle Sneha Cherian Timothy Evans PROJECT TEAM: Mark Seland Bridgette Slater Sunny McKechnie Marc Pavlica Alessia Longo Cathy Stojak Sheila Bourque

Recorded at: Ocean Way Nashville, Addiction Studios, Curb Studios

Back to the Basics

Almost four weeks ago, I participated in a three-day intensive creative writing workshop with one of my musical heroes: Jonatha Brooke. Jonatha is a folk/rock singer-songwriter and now playwright whose career began in Boston with the duo, The Story. I was introduced to her through her solo work back in college. I took a songwriting class at Belmont and one of the guys in the class kept going on and on about Jonatha Brooke. I took a listen and immediately fell in love with her lyrics, the musicianship on the record, and her vocal delivery. 

Soon after my discovery, the local indie radio station in Nashville, Lightning 100, started playing her single, "Linger," on heavy rotation. I performed that song for my senior recital in order to graduate. So, you see, my love affair with Jonatha Brooke goes waaaay back. 

When I was signed to Warner Bros., I got the chance to meet her at an afterparty for the ACM's or CMA's... I honestly can't remember which. This was around 2004 or 2005. I had just performed a set with my band at the party, got off the stage, and saw her in the crowd. I totally fan-girled her (can I use fan-girl as a verb?). Anyway, she was so kind and she was even gracious enough to snap the picture that's at the top of the page.  

Earlier this winter, I was listening to a playlist on Spotify and the app populated a tour date for Jonatha in Nashville in May. I haven't seen her perform in years. No way was I missing this show! So, I clicked on the link, surfed her tour page, and discovered she was also leading a creative writing workshop in Nashville the days leading up to her show. What is life?! How can this be?!

So, I took myself back to school. Jonatha School. 20 other participants from all over the world and I bared our souls by sharing unfinished seedlings of song ideas. We walked around Vanderbilt in tempo like crazy people to shake loose new song ideas. We played instruments we'd never played before and tried tunings we never could have dreamed up on our own. We even sat in front of the room and (gulp!) got a song critiqued in front of the whole class. We went back to the basics. 

Going back to the basics can be frustrating and hard. I'm impatient. That weekend, I learned that the basics were exactly what I needed. The experience was exciting, hard, emotional, inspiring and even spiritual. Actually, it was mostly spiritual. For me, anyway. It's opened up my writing in the most exciting ways! I was groomed on co-writing. It's the Nashville way (at least since the mid-90's). A few years ago, a songwriting friend encourage me to write more on my own. It felt scary. I'd get stuck and not know how to finish it. So, I'd use the beginning I'd created as an idea to present to a co-writer at my next appointment. On one hand, I felt accomplished that I had contributed an idea. On the other, I let myself down time and time again by not sticking with the song when it got tough. I needed to learn how to do the work. How to dig in, dig deeper, and where to even start excavating!  

Now, I'm at least beginning to better understand how to do the work. I got to crawl inside the brain of one of my biggest inspirations to learn, to improve, and to understand how she teases out lyric ideas, creates interesting melodies and gets herself unstuck. It was exactly what I needed to reinvigorate my own creativity. I also received major impact from the other 20 creative souls participating in this workshop and getting to hear the inspiring and important things they had to say through their art. 

Based on my recent experience, I encourage you to stretch yourself, no matter what your career or passion. Don't be afraid to get schooled. Get uncomfortable. Play. Go back to the basics. I promise you'll surprise yourself. 

Vintage

Earlier this week, I received a text from my friend, John, telling me that New Country Brew is featuring Farewell Angelina's recording of, "Vintage!" New Country Brew is a radio show syndicated in 43 stations around the country and in the UK on CMR Nashville. How cool is that?! 

Many of you know that Farewell Angelina is a sisterhood I'm so proud to be a part of. Once an Angelina, always an Angelina. And I'm thrilled to have written three of the songs on their current EP. These women have worked so hard and are kicking butt on the road!

Vintage is one of my personal favorites that I've written with FA. Nic, Andrea, Lisa and I penned this tune with long-time friend and musical badass, Joe West. It was inspired by one word that Joe threw out as an idea: vintage. 

We wrote this tune at Joe's gorgeous home studio out in the country. His studio is built inside of an old barn with platinum records hanging on the walls and the random Grammy award sitting on the studio console. No big deal. 

The acoustics, lighting, and entire vibe of this place is conducive for songwriting magic. It took a while to wrestle the lyric down, but finding the lyrical angle is probably the most fun for me. Once we got a handle on it and a sweet guitar riff, it flowed like wine. I even got to squeeze a line in the chorus about my husband's '68 Camaro. I won some major bonus points for that one on the home front. 

Here's an acoustic songwriter take of the tune from yours truly. See if New Country Brew is syndicated in your area and crank it up! And, for sure, check out Farewell Angelina's studio recording of, "Vintage" off of their new EP.

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Up to Somethin'

About two weeks ago, I received a voice message from my friend, Marjorie. "Hey, Lauren, I'm in town tomorrow and curious if you can grab lunch? I'm up to somethin'," she giggled.  

We sat at an outdoor table at Taqueria del Sol in 12th South over fish tacos and margaritas (because Sunday Funday) when she told me she was about to make her Grand Ole Opry debut! 

Marjorie Eastman is not a musician. No. Marjorie Eastman is a retired post-9/11 United States Army intelligence officer and combat commander, a wife to a retired post-9/11 Army helicopter pilot, and a mother to a beautiful little boy who survived pediatric cancer. The entire family are warriors in the most literal sense of the word. She's also an award-winning author, an entrepreneur, a champion of veterans, and many more things, I'm sure.  

Oh yeah... and she's not even 40 years old. What have you done with your life? 

Most recently, Marjorie wrote a column highlighting 52 businesses and charities launched in the U.S. by the military community. She collaborated with Bicycle Playing Cards to transform that column of 52 into the Most Wanted Frontline Leaders collectable deck and partnered with the Grand Ole Opry for the official release! Big & Rich (former label mates!) performed that night and held up the deck from stage and promoted it to the crowd.

Earlier that morning, the 52 honorees saw the deck -- and their specific playing card -- for the first time in a private ceremony at Mission BBQ. Marjorie asked me to join her in her mission, and I was honored to sing our National Anthem for a room full of veterans. Listen, I've sung our Anthem a lot of times over the years and for some incredible crowds (can we say 2016 NFL Chiefs vs. Raiders game?!), but to lead a room full of women and men who made the choice to protect our country -- and to hear them singing back -- was incredibly powerful.  

I'll tell you something else that's powerful: witnessing how these 52 leaders lift up others through their businesses. I met owners of a non-profit who help veterans learn to code at no cost. I met a veteran who travels the world to find retired K-9's and helps match them to their original soldiers. One man creates lighting technology that helps keep fire fighters safe. I watched Marjorie start with a seed of an idea to follow her passion for writing and grew it into a full-blown love fest to highlight other people's hard work, sacrifice and success.  

I recently read this opinion article by David Brooks about two kinds of people: one-mountain people and two-mountain people. The article explained that we're typically all one-mountain people in our early adulthood -- climbing to get the best education that we can, clawing to the top of our profession, striving to win accolades and merit. Some people become two-mountain type people when they realize, either by force or by choice, that the first mountain leaves them feeling unfulfilled; like there's a higher purpose and a different definition of success. Two-mountain kind of people often find greater meaning in community, service to others, and family. 

There’s no doubt Marjorie and her 52 Most Wanted Leaders are two-mountain kind of people. Makes me curious about what mountain I’ve been climbing. How ‘bout you? It also makes me think if we find our second mountain, I wonder what we might get up to?

To read Marjorie's inspirational, award-winning book, The Frontline Generation, and to get a Bicycle collectable Most Wanted Leaders playing card deck all for yourself, click here or swing by her Facebook page and say hello!