After a recent concert performance with Nancy Scimone, a listener confessed, "I could listen to you all day."
"You Are the Potter" (Track 10 on 'the quiet place')
All the broken dreams of mine
are fallen stars that will not shine.
You pick them up like stones on the road
and give them back like drops of gold.
You hold me as one grain of sand
and with the patience of Your gentle hand
You bring me 'round to the light again
and build a castle from just what I am.
Chorus:
And when I lift my eyes to You
all is beautiful and all is new
I let go and fall your way
You are the Potter, I am the clay.
You heard a lost and ancient cry
echo through mountains of years gone by
and from the earth you carried the song
to the soul where it once belonged.
Trust is the bridge that brings me home
I drop down my fears like an old heavy load
and when I give to You my flesh and bone
You bring me life from the ashes alone.
Chorus:
And when I lift my eyes to you
all is beautiful and all is new
I let go and fall Your way
You are the Potter, I am the clay.
(Words & Music copyright Nancy Scimone, Track 10 on 'the quiet place' CD)
All Is Beautiful & All Is New . . . .
'the quiet place' is a collection of favorite psalms arranged for voice and orchestra in a gentle jazz style. Nancy worked with producer Bob Dawson in creating something beautiful and new. Although she could have chosen any producer with a laundry-list of inspirational albums to their credit, Scimone was after something different, and she was drawn to Dawson's natural, clear-as-the-sky, honest production style, which she had admired in other recordings from this Grammy-award winning producer. In a recent interview, Nancy spoke about the recording....
"Bob Dawson was the perfect producer for "the quiet place," says Scimone. His goal in the recording studio is absolute honesty of performance, nothing artificial, nothing ambiguous. Bob's gift for revealing the most potent message from the music, is like drawing artesian water from the well. Although Bob has worked with world-class country, blues, and jazz artists, he was so at home with these gentle Psalms, and he uncovered a far deeper meaning in these songs than I saw in them at first. As a result, "the quiet place" is a very satisfying CD of right down-to-the earth music, with a taste of Heaven.
Mike Crotty's orchestral arrangements weave my melodies into colorful tapestries; you can listen to them over and over, and still they sound so new. His arrangements are a like a contemporary house based on a classical design, and a little 'gently jazz' or 'jazzical.' You can hear this immediately on the first track, "I Will Sing Your Strength," with a luscious horn solo and strings. The vocals sort of float on the orchestra like a bird on the crest of a wave.
We invited pianist Jon Carroll (who plays regularly for Mary Chapin Carpenter) to arrange and play the last tune, "You Are the Potter," which is a very personal song for me. It's about redemption, Mercy with a capital M, and how we can make all the wrong turns in life, break our own hearts, and die, and God will build us up again if we just let go and fall His way. Here are the lyrics to the refrain: "And when I lift my eyes to you, all is beautiful and all is new. I let go and fall your way, you are the Potter, I am the clay."
The messages of peace, mercy, new beginnings - these are truths for souls of all ages, all faiths, and all backgrounds. My touring takes me over this great land, from New York to Kansas and beyond, and people everywhere share a universal, soulful common denominator; I think that essentially, people today are seeking goodness, peace, honesty, and hope -- and a reason to trust. I think that the music on 'the quiet place' offers this. These wisdom-words of the psalms strike a chord with folks of all faiths, too.
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Here are some lyrics from the title song, "The Quiet Place."
The Painter of the soul, the Poet of the Heart
The Master of all Beauty, all destiny His Art
He weaves within the silence the sacred threads that bind
the breath of every moment with the promises of Time.
And I believe
faith and love will lead us to the quiet place
on a road that we can't see.
Faith and love will lead us to the quiet place
where we will find abundant peace.
(From 'the quiet place,' words and music by Nancy Scimone, Copyright 2003, music@nancyscimone.com
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