Start of a New Season

I signed a publishing deal with Essential Publishing yesterday and I am grateful to continue to be able to be using the gift God gave me to encourage people with music. I have grown so much as a writer at Brentwood Benson. I am so blessed that they took a chance on me seven years ago. I want to thank some of the people who have gone out of their way to help me in my journey. Marty Wheeler signed me to Brentwood Benson Music Publishing when I started. His belief in me was so foundational. Holly Zabka has some of the best instincts for songs and has been patient with me as I have grown. I am a better writer because of her. I could list over a hundred writers that have added tools to my songwriting "toolbox". Some of the ones that stick out are Tony Wood, Sue Smith, Brandon Heath, Joel Lindsey, Kyle Matthews, Jess Cates, Laurianne Cates, Ricky and Randy Jackson, Craig Monday, and Steve Dean. And for all the others over the past seven years that I've been in the room with chasing ideas, I am so thankful for you as well.

For all the songs behind and for all the ones to come, I am grateful.

Re-Decorating the Christmas tree

Sarah has a co-worker at work named Julie. She has travelled with us to New York City and Los Angeles for our trips for Belmont East and Belmont West. Several times on those trips we would have funny conversations at the end of the day that would involve a high point and low point.

Okay...so cleaning up after having your drywall repaired is not as easy as it might sound...especially at Christmas. I have never had to un-decorate a Christmas tree to take it out of the stand and drag it outside so we could shake the dust out of it...Low Point.

We were trying to clean because my brother and his family are staying with us over the holidays. They called us from the airport here in Nashville to tell us they were on their way. When I answered the phone I was hanging lights like Clark Griswald on my front porch. By the time they got to the house, everything was ready...yesssss...definitely the High Point.

So we have started the transition into the family part of holidays and it has been wonderful.

I hope this Christmas is so meaningful for all of you this year. Go out of your way to serve your family. There is so much life that comes out of it.

GREAT worship song...

Check this song out. It's a guy named Chris Quilala. It's called Your Love Never Fails.

Christmas Craziness

Merry Christmas to you all...

I can imagine talking to Santa Clause right now and him asking me what I would like for Christmas. I honestly don't know what I would tell him but if I was being self-indulgent, I might ask for a Wii for Christmas. And Santa's next question would be, "Have you been a good little blogger?" I would hang my head and with a pouting face say "No Santa, I have not". And then Santa would laugh like a bowlful of jelly in his red suit, his big black belt, his white beard, his nose like a cherry, and with a voice like the Soup Nazi would say, "No Wii for You!!!"

Sarah and I have had an eventful past few days and worthy of a blog...

Tuesday night Sarah and I met at the mall after work to eat dinner together. She wanted to do some Christmas shopping and I was headed over to Christ Community to see Jeremy Cowart do a presentation about his life as a photographer. Jeremy did a GREAT job. On my way home, it was raining like cats and dogs and I called Sarah who had been home for a few minutes. You never want to hear a person on the other end of the phone say "Honey, I don't want you to get stressed out but..."

The back half of the conjunction "but" made me drive a whole lot faster trying not to hydroplane on my way home. So, again it was raining hard and had been for two days. I think they said that some areas got 6 inches. I walked in the front door and Sarah was wiping the water off of the hardwood floors and trying to grab pots and pans to collect the water coming from the first floor ceiling. Because of the amount of water, we ended up placing the big containers that held our Christmas decorations to catch it. For the next hour we were walking around the house like Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew trying to figure out if it was the roof leaking or if it was the plumbing.

So the last few days have been spent watching a whole get cut in our ceiling by a plumber so he could get to the water line that fed one of the toilets upstairs. And as I am writing this morning, this is my view as I look up from my computer screen. The guy in the pictures is Francisco and he is fixing our drywall. Thank You Francisco!!!

It snowed last night here and also because of the white drywall dust, it's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas.

Hope you guys have a Merry Christmas.

Santa, is this post enough for a Wii?...and maybe Tiger Woods '09?
:)

Happy Thanksgiving

I love a good rollercoaster. There's something about the anticipation of clicking up the first incline that is such a rush. The feeling that you are going to scream like a little girl for the next minute because you will may lose your stomach(and maybe a funnel cake) at any moment.

This blessing and the curse of the creative brain is much like a rollercoaster. One moment, you can be so high and the next moment, it is almost like you just want to lay down and suck your thumb and cry. I was talking about one of my low moments with a friend recently and he had wise council. He said that whenever he has one of these low moments, he always tries to remember to be grateful. I am trying to live this out. There is so much to be grateful for. The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful wife, a loving family, and provided more than I need. I am so thankful.

It's making me realize that gratitude really is good for the soul.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

To: Ross

From: Chad

Okay...just typing that made me think of Christmas but that is not the subject of this entry. I just received an email from my friend Ross. He had this to say...

"Dude. I am sick of checking in at your blog and seeing the same thing...write something else...today please"

I have said this same kind of thing to a friend of mine named Randy Williams. When he started his blog, there was a few days in a row that he didn't post anything. I really enjoy the way that he writes. I saw him out somewhere and said...dude, what's the deal with your blog. He laughed and said "I can't think of anything funny to write about!"

So Ross...I know where your coming from. I've been there too. Just hold your horses. I haven't been inspired to blog. Plus, I've just been a little lazy.

Merry Christmas Ross.

This one's for you.

The Shack

I just got done reading The Shack. I start two nights ago but read the bulk of it through the better part of today. I have never wept so many times reading a book. I feel like I should communicate that I am a crier. There. I admit it. I own it. It only takes a moment in a movie, a story told with redemption, or a well written song that shines a light on a place inside of me I have never seen. I cry.

This book takes some liberties with painting the trinity with the father as a black woman and the Spirit as a super interesting Asian woman. Jesus kind of played himself in this story as a Middle Eastern Jewish Man. Don't let the liberties scare you. The story of redemption that gets played out in this book is simply beautiful and the truth and love behind the character of God resonated so deeply with me.

It is such a worthy read.

Write About Jesus

I got back this last Saturday night from a weekend retreat called Write About Jesus. Sue Smith, the woman I wrote "Everything to Me" with started this retreat about 8 years ago up in St Louis and I have been up there as a "Clinician"(teacher) 3 out of the past 8 years. It is a weekend for people who love songwriting to gather together and connect with each other and learn about the craft of songwriting and some of the life-stuff that goes along with being creative. There is a competition during the weekend and the 120 or so registrants enter it and there is one winner at the end of the weekend. I kind of feel like it's purpose is less about winning and more about asking each person to write the best song they know how and to come and learn how to make it better and themselves better in the process. The way that gets played out is that people submit the song and then everyone gets split up into groups of about ten. Then two of us teachers will listen and critique each song in front of the group so that everyone can learn from each other's critique.

I was talking to someone before this trip about not caring so much about the song they were handing me to critique but more so about how it would affect the next 30 songs that would come out of them. When I mentioned this to Sue she liked the idea of communicating about expectations. She came up with a title of a class for me to teach called Holy Tension: Your Ambition and God's Sovereignty. When she sent me that title, I thought, "what a great name" and then the next thought was, "oh crap...how do I teach that??!!".

Sue had the wisdom to pair me up with Dave Clark, a guy I have so much respect for. He has been writing songs professionally for over 30 years and is truly gifted at it. The lens that God has given him to look through is really inspiring.

When the class came along, the room we were having it in filled quickly and fit more people than I thought it would. When we started, I told the class that I was scared to death because of that title and was nervous about what to say but once we settled in, truth started coming out in a really organic way.

We talked about the good and bad sides of ambition and that God truly has a plan for each of us and for our songs. Looking back, the hour seemed Holy to me. Truth was communicated in love. The Lord guided what we said in an organic way that seemed to be encouraging even to me. Dave told stories about the faithfulness of God that brought tears to my eyes.

If you love God and are an aspiring writer, Write About Jesus is a great weekend to put on your calendar.

Great job Sue!

Apologies...

I know this is so cliche but...sorry about the lack of posts recently. I've honestly been uncommitted to this for a while. I kind of knew this would happen when I started but because I was excited about it, I had no idea when the apathy would officially kick in. I don't want to lead you on as a reader but from the writer, all I want to ask is...Can we hug?

The Fixer

As a kid, I used to love to watch Super Friends on Saturday mornings. Even as I am typing this, I am hearing in my head, "Meanwhile, back at the hall of justice". I always thought it would be pretty amazing to be Superman just for the ability to be able to fly but I am reconsidering that power.

I was talking with my Sarah on the way home from church today about what Super-Hero power we would like to have. She said she would like to have the power to know how people need to be loved. Given the last few days with there being a strain on a relationship, I told he that I would love to be "The Fixer". I love the idea of fixing things but I am horrible at it. I love the idea of being able to fix the problem with my car's front wheel(making some strange noise). I love the idea of being able to fix a hole in the drywall. I just have no idea of where to start.

This mentality of wanting to fix things crosses over into relationships. When someone has a problem, I want to fix it and move on. Sometimes I feel equipped to fix whatever problem someone has and sometimes I have no idea. When I feel like I can help, I usually just pragmatically give my thoughts on how to fix it and step in to try to control it's outcome. I am starting to see the value in patience in instances where I start to put on the "Fixer" cape.

Maturity is slowly setting in and I am fighting it ever step of the way. Maturity is telling me that God is in control and I am not. Maturity is telling me to let things play out and allow people to make mistakes. It's messy but it allows God to fix things in His time and the way He wants to. I am continually needing to be reminded of the eternal value of staying present to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to guide me in conversations. It's not my responsibility to fix. It's my responsibility to Love and allow Him to show me what that looks like in any given situation.

Love is telling me to put the cape down.

Greatness

Sarah and I took some Belmont Students backstage at the Opry for a show on Saturday night. It was a great evening. It was Marty Stuart's birthday and Keith Urban sang a few songs and then joined Marty for a few songs. Dierks Bentley showed up as a surprise guest and played with him as well. Because of Sarah's job at Belmont, she has gotten to know Ricky Skaggs through various events. Ricky played the show and after, we ended up talking with him for about 30 minutes. This guy loves Jesus. First of all, it consumes his conversation and he is excited to talk about what the Lord is doing in his life. It was inspiring. One thing about some of the successful people that we have spent time with(again, sometimes through Sarah's job) is that there is an ease about them. They make you feel good about yourself. I don't know where I heard this quote or who said it but it goes something like this: "Those who are truly great make you feel like you too can become great." I hope that with any level of success, people will feel like that around me.

USC/Oregon State

I'm not a die-hard football guy. I love a good game but don't spend my entire Saturday in front of the TV. Tonight, there was a great game on. A kid who graduated high school only 4 months ago played running back for Oregon State against USC. Coming into the game, USC was ranked #1 and Oregon State was unranked. All of that changed when Jacquizz Rogers ran for 186 yards with 2 touchdowns. He is a small guy and it was almost like he was David running around and through 11 giants at a time. It was spectacular. In the last 4 minutes, all of the student section jumped over the wall and stood behind the team. Oregon State won the game 27-21. The crowd rushed the field when the game ended. There's nothing like a huge upset.

The Magic of the Dinner Table

There is something truly beautiful that happens when you connect with close friends around a meal...when authenticity meets a ribeye and a bottle of wine. Sarah and I had such an evening tonight with another couple. Laughter, struggles, gratitude, and tears all found it's way out so organically. Nothing forced...No agendas except to just know each other and to be known. The couple were a few more years down the road age-wise and carried the wisdom of walking with the Lord and often pointed things to scripture. It felt like a glimpse of the Wedding Feast to come when we will join around the table as the grateful beloved and share a meal together. We may find ourselves sitting at a grand table wanting to share bites of each other's food because everything is so exquisite. We may drop a fork on a white shirt(which I did tonight) and just laugh about it. I have no doubt that that Feast will be about true relationship and food.

Two things I love...

Matt Wertz at the Ryman

Sarah and I went last night to hear Matt Wertz open for O.A.R. and he did an amazing job. I haven't seen him more polished and ready to entertain. He was gracious to the audience and you could tell that he was loving playing the Ryman for the first time. His CD, Under Summer Sun, releases today. I wrote two songs with him for his record...the title cut "Summer Sun" and "5:19", his current single. He played both of them last night and they were both received really well by the audience. Yessssss!

Side thought...the opening act is a strange gig. You really have to be on your game to sell an audience that is there to see the headliner. They really don't care. If people are there early it seems that they are there to find their seat and chat it up with friends. Matt did make a good move by playing the Bob Marley song "No Woman, No Cry" and as soon as he started I could see about a hundred beers being lifted into the air because all the O.A.R. fans started cheering.

The song-list was great. The endings were nailed. The songs were hooky.

Great Job last night Matt. Proud of You.

Want to Laugh?

This is just ridiculous. Give it a few minutes. It gets hilarious. I laughed for probably 10 minutes.

Getting my toenails did

I've never had a manicure. Because I play guitar, I do have long nails on my right hand to be able to finger pick when I'm playing. I'm kind of particular about my nails. Being long, they are creepy enough but if I let them grow past the time that I would normally cut them, they just look and feel really weird. I have however had a pedicure. Sarah's mom drove into town one day and wanted to take Sarah to go get a Pedicure and somehow I got roped in to go with them. I was super skeptical about the idea of a man going into a nail salon(a lot like my trip to the show "The View" but that's for another blog). I don't think that I would go back and have it done again. Sarah and I are hosting a friend from Seattle this week who we met in Italy and she showed us this video. I have spent a total of probably 27 minutes in a nail salon in my life but it was enough to make me laugh at this video. Check it out:

Follow-up to "I think I might be a geek..."

Last night I came home and blogged about not having a good capacity for paying attention to details. We went though Financial Peace with our church right before Sarah and I got married and as a result, we decided to withdraw money every week for our food budget. We went to Outback last night and both ordered the Outback Special and when the waiter brought the check, we put the cash in the envelope and just walked out making sure to wave to our waiter as if to say, "We're all square". Because of the bill and remembering how much it was, I knew kind of where we were financially going into this weekend. I woke up this morning and walked downstairs and saw more money on the table than we were supposed to have given our night out. I kind of panicked for a moment and tried to replay counting out the tip for our waiter last night and realized that I didn't pay for our meal. Horrified, I called the manager this morning and replayed my fear to him over the phone and he said he would follow up with our waiter from last night. He called me this afternoon and laughed and graciously said that our waiter was really confused after we left because it seemed so out of character. He thanked me for being honest and I told him we'd come by and pay for our meal

Talk about overlooking details...I'd lose my nose if it wasn't attached...but not my iphone:)

I think I might be a geek...

Not the kind that actually remembers important things like numbers, dates, schedules, lyrics, or anything else with any sort of detail...I'm kind of a geek about Apple. Don't ask me to remember what I did today or what I'm supposed to do tomorrow...but start talking about what Apple is coming out with this next Tuesday at the September "event", I can tell you what everyone is speculating. I'm the guy who will ask you if you have this new app for the iphone that allows you to stream your home itunes library on your iphone while your away from home. I'm the guy that will ask you if you have seen this trick that the mac can do(hit Command+Option+Control+8). If you have the new iphone, my first questions will be, "How is your battery life, is the network holding up, and are you dropping calls?" sidenote...my brother and his wife both got the new iphone out in Los Angeles and they said they are dropping calls all over the place. My friends here in Nashville don't seem to be having the same problems with it but the jury is still out.

Cirque De Soleil

So I went to Pigeon Forge with Sarah's family over the Labor Day weekend. We went to Dollywood and went to a few shows and had a great time. Sunday night, we were driving around trying to find a show to go to. We had several tourist pamphlets in the car advertising various shows in the area. We called a few shows to see what time they started and because we hadn't eaten dinner, we settled on a show called "Hoot N' Holler". Here is an excerpt from the description of the show:

The two-hour production showcases the Hoot N' Holler Players, a traveling troop of dancers and singers who collide with the comedic antics of "Scraps," the would-be chef and emcee of the evening's entertainment. The show is highlighted by audience participation segments which place unsuspecting guests in the spotlight of this uproarious comedy.

Before the show started, we were laughing about the idea of being called up on stage. We sat down and started eating salad and the character "Scraps" came by our table. We started goofing off together and just laughing about stuff. Knowing what I know now, I should have ignored him and stared at my plate when he approached us. Early in show, he asked for 4 people to come up to the stage. He pointed at me and asked me to come up there as one of the 4. He also made sure to ask if our knees and back were okay. I have had numerous knee surgeries and don't have the strongest back but the prideful man in me stood up and walked down to the stage. What he asked us to do seemed like I needed training with the cast of Cirque De Soleil. I've found a video of same show on another night. This is what I had to go through:

For the rest of the show, I felt like I needed a chiropractor, a masseuse, a counselor, and a gun. I'm hoping that no one shot a video of Sunday night. It was not pretty and I want no evidence of my collapse.

Lars and the Real Girl

My brother told me that Sarah and I needed to see Lars and the Real Girl. We rented it on Itunes and planned to watch it in the next few nights but the Olympics came along and all of the sudden, we were glued to Swimming, Gymnastics, Volleyball, and Track and Field. On our flight back home from New York this last Sunday, we watched part of the movie and then finished it at home that night. It is so worth seeing. It is an amazing picture of a community helping someone bear a burden in such a loving way.

This guy makes me laugh...

My buddy Randy Williams posted a link about this guy a few weeks ago. His name is Joel Berry and he plays a character called Tavin Dillard. He's a filmmaker out in California. Check it out.

Waterfalls

I've always enjoyed being around waterfalls...hiking to them, jumping
off them, swimming under them. I was unable to do any of this around
this waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge.

NYC

Sorry I haven't been posting...in the Big Apple

Pinkberry

I didn't get why people loved this at first but oh do I get it now

Drawing Near

I've been reading a great book my brother recommended called Drawing Near by John Bevere. He is talking about his life in ministry on a church staff and traveling and speaking at churches and conferences when he says, "Over this time I've discovered two major groups within the church, and the gap of their differing thoughts seems to be widening as the Lords coming draws closer. The first are those who seek God for what He can do; while the second seek Him for who he is."

Convicting...I have noticed recently how much I ask the Lord for things and let that kind of prayer dominate my prayer life. I want to be a man who chases after who God is. I want intimacy with Jesus...to really know Him.

On the way to the best Gelato...

Sarah and I went to Italy in May of this last year. I'm no Jeremy Cowart but I was proud of this picture. We were in Florence and had just eaten at this great restaurant. At dinner we met these two girls and one of them was an art student at the Accademia in Florence. Earlier that day, Sarah and I had gone to see the statue of Michelangelo's David and was amazed at how perfect it looked. The student we talked to later that evening said that so many of the students at the Accademia hated that statue because the school put so much pressure on them and it represented something so unattainable. After dinner, the four of us walked several blocks to get some gelato. The route we took to get there took us over the Arno river and I asked if we could stop in the middle of the bridge and take some pictures for a few minutes. This is the best picture of the bunch that I took that evening. The lit up bridge in the background is the Ponte Vecchio.

Story Behind the Song: London

This one is unique in that it is a story behind a song that is not released yet. London is a song that is cut by Brandon Heath on his new record "What If We" that will release this next Tuesday, August 19th. You can preview the song here.
Update: You can now buy London here.

In June of 2005, my sister Laurianne and I drove up to Kentucky for orientation for a trip we were taking to Europe. We were asked by a guy named Martin Allen to help facilitate teaching on a trip called Songwriter's Journey. The purpose of the trip was to study some of the influential writer's in Christianity and to go to the places where they lived and wrote. The hope was to be inspired in the places to write songs based on their teaching. We flew into Rome and went south and studied Benedict, a man who lived in the fourth century and wrote a book called "The Rule". From there, we took a train to Wittenburg, Germany where Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Castle Church and sparked the Protestant Reformation. There were 6 of us on the trip and our last destination was Oxford, England to study C.S. Lewis. I was dating Sarah and had found time to call her and talk a few times while I was on the trip. We went through London to get to Oxford and when the train pulled into Waterloo Station in London, I was thinking about Sarah and I started singing these lines:

My train pulled into Waterloo
I found myself wishing you
Were here with me in London

We all sat in the middle of Waterloo Station and ate McDonalds and I got out the Minidisc player that I had with me and just sang the idea and the melody into the mic to get the idea down. We toured London and saw all the double-decker buses, Big Ben, and Parliament but I was missing Sarah so much that I couldn't enjoy it all as much as I wanted to. We went on to Oxford and finished the trip well. Laurianne and I were supposed to stay in London for several days after the trip but I was ready to go home. She graciously allowed me to change our tickets to leave the next day.

When I got home, I had a day down on my calendar to write with Brandon. I don't know that we had good direction for what we were going to write that day but he was in the season of writing for his record so we were trying to write for that. I think we were stumped for ideas so I sang the lines for him that I had written in Waterloo Station in London. I told him about how I felt about missing Sarah while I was there. Brandon is so creative that the song didn't take long to write. It was almost one of those that just fell out of us. Here's the lyric we came up with:

London
written by Brandon Heath and Chad Cates

My train pulled in to Waterloo
I found myself wishing you
Were here with me in London
Standing on the river Thames
Taking photographs Parliament
And old Big Ben was ringing
It’s everything that I imagined it would be
I had no idea that it would feel this empty

Chorus:
Where are you tonight
While I stand here and cry
Watching double-decker buses pass me by
And to tell the truth
It’s all that I can do
To keep from jumping a plane that’s headed home
To you

I took a stroll down abbey road
Tried to peak inside the studio’s
And somewhere along the way I bought you flowers
And I bought a map of the underground
Cause You and I both know I get turned around
I’m so lost without you
It’s everything that I imagined it would be
I had no idea that it would feel this empty

Bridge:
6 long nights and seven days I’ll cross the pond back to the states
I can’t wait

We did a demo for the song and the head of Brandon's record label really loved it and wanted him to cut it. It turned out that the timing just wasn't right for it to go on his first record. I was really excited when he told me that he was cutting it for this new record and when I heard it, I loved it. I hope you love it too.

When we connected to write again for this record that's about to come out, we wrote several new songs together that he has cut. You can check those out as well. They are called "Love Never Fails" and "Trust You".

Rocky Mountain Low

My buddy Craig Monday is a great country writer here in town. Check out one of his songs here. He told me this ridiculous story:

Several months ago, he planned on taking a road trip without really knowing where he was going. He rented a car and drove out of Nashville and he ended up in St Louis. The way he tells the story is that when he got there he met several people and they found out that he was a writer. They asked him to drive up to where they live and do a concert for them in Northwestern Missouri. He said the concert went well and that he sold some CD's but after the show he got in his car and decided to keep driving down to Kansas City. When he got there, he thought to himself, "I've never seen the Rocky Mountains". So....from Kansas City he makes the turn on Interstate 70 for the 600 mile overnight jaunt over to Denver. In the middle of Kansas, he started talking with his girlfriend on the phone. They got into an argument over something and had a heated conversation for a few hours and then an hour and a half into Colorado, his phone died and he didn't have his charger with him.

Picture this...It's 4:30 in the morning. He pulls off on an exit from the interstate gripping the steering wheel tightly because he's angry. He is probably 30 minutes away from the sun coming up behind him and shining it's glorious light on the majestic Rocky Mountains and what does he do?

He says, "I'm not seeing the Rocky Mountains mad". He gets back on the interstate going the opposite way and drives 1100 miles all the way home.

...and never looked back.

Crush

My brother, Jess has the #1 song overall on itunes. It is a new David Archuleta single called Crush. Check it out here.

My Sarah

My wife had a hard day today...so this one is for her.

Sarah Dawn Cates is amazing. She loves the Lord. She is beautiful. As a wife, she loves me so deeply and believes in me. She is a loving daughter, sister, and aunt. She does her job so professionally with purpose and love and has been recognized by the leadership at Belmont in the responsibility she has been given. She is becoming a great golfer and can throw a softball like a bullet...

And I love her.

Story Behind the Song: Disappear

Cut by Bebo Norman on his record "Try". Download from itunes here.

This is my first blog about how a song came into being. Hopefully, it will give perspective and a little more meaning to the song as you listen. My good friend, Tony Wood says that every cut is a miracle and I would agree. I am grateful to be doing this for a living and am trying to make the very most out of the opportunity that's been given to me.

I have been writing for a publishing company called Brentwood Benson for almost 7 years. In the second year of my deal, I asked my publisher if I he would fly my out to Los Angeles to write with my brother Jess. Jess had been signed to Brentwood Benson for 3 years prior to me signing a publishing deal. When his deal was up, he felt called out to California to write pop music. He moved out there knowing very few people. He lived in a room in Santa Monica that felt like it was the size of a shoe box. I think it was a converted one-car garage with a bathroom added on. If you know my brother, he is a people person. He loves people so well. This was true of that season but I remember him being really lonely and down when I flew out there. I went with the expectation that we would take several days and try to write together. It turned into a trip that would only produce one song. It became more about loving my brother in the place where he was than about working. The one afternoon that we did write, we wrote this lyric:

Disappear
written by Jess Cates and Chad Cates

On a day like this
I want to crawl beneath a rock
A million miles from the world
The noise the commotion
That never seems to stop
On a day like this
I want to run from the routine
Away from the daily grind
That can suck the life
Right out of me
I only know of one place
I can run to

Chorus:
I want to hide in You
The Way, The Life, The Truth
And I can disappear
And love is all there is to see
Coming out of me
And You become clear
As I disappear

I don’t want to care
About earthly things
Be caught up in all the lies
That trick my eyes
That say its all about me
I’m so tired of it being about me

Bridge:
I would rather be a castaway
Separated from the Human Race
If I don’t bring you Glory
©2004 New Spring Publishing, Inc/ASCAP, Right Bank Music Inc./My Getaway Driver Music/ASCAP

Looking back, it has always been interesting to me that this song is a great picture of what was going on with Jess out there during that trip. When I got back to Nashville, I was almost apologetic to my publisher because they had paid for the trip and I only had one song to turn in and honestly, I didn't know how commercial it was. We ended up doing a demo in a female key and my sister, Laurianne sang the demo(and sang it great I might add). It may have been pitched to other artists around the time that the demo got done but I am not really sure.

I played the song for my good friend, Brandon Heath and he loved it. This was during the season that he was mainly doing Young Life Camps. He is good friends with Bebo and was the one that played it for him for the first time. It was so encouraging to get a song on songwriter's record and even more encouraging for him to single the song to radio. It went #1 during October of 2004.

Sounds Game

Enjoying a Sounds Game from the Judge Beans skybox. We are celebrating
Mike Bannon's graduation from graduate school.

Friday Fun with the Tooth Fairy

This made me laugh...check this out.

A Father's heart and a Child's joy

This is my brother Jess and my niece Lily. They sent this picture to us over email and when I opened it, I started tearing up. It feels like such a great metaphor for Jesus love for us.

Don't Look Down

I was sitting at breakfast this morning with one of the community group pastors from my church. We talked about life for a little while and then he transitioned into a conversation about our community group. Sarah and I lead a group at Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood, TN. A few months ago, we were asked to give the members of our group a survey about the strengths and weaknesses of our group as a whole. We gave the survey one night at our gathering and told them to fill it out and then put it in an envelope all while Sarah and I stood awkwardly out on the back porch while they filled them out. I neglected to tell them that we wouldn't be reading the surveys so they filled them out and gave the strengths and weaknesses but also including funny trivial things like "we should have different chips with Taco salad" or "not enough Goat Cheese salads". As you can tell, we eat a lot of salads in our group. This morning was the first time that I heard this feedback. Doug, the community group pastor did a great job of setting it up by asking me what I thought we did well on in community and what I felt like we could do better. After I communicated those things, he reached for a folder and pulled out the results of the survey. I was a little nervous when he started reading the results but everything was, for the most part really encouraging.

Doug started talking about a book that he had read called "Walking the small group tightrope" and this was something that really stuck out to me this morning. The premise is that there is this tightrope between truth and caring. This gets played out in relationships in that to care without truth isn't really caring and that truth without care is legalism. I have spent time on either end of this line and looking back, it seems that the gospel of love gets played out the most effectively somewhere out there in the middle. It can be a scary step but love calls you onto the tightrope.

The Force is Strong

In the past few days since I have started this blog, there have been several times Sarah has suggested some things for me to write about. We were talking last night before we went to sleep and she started rattling off some great ideas. At the end of her list, I said "That's some good fodder". There was this pause and then in a low voice I said...

"Luke, I am Your Fodder"

Down with the Critic

This is going to sound so stupid and obvious but I absolutely LOVE music and more specifically I LOVE a great song. The only reason I say this is because for the past few years I have made the statement “I hate music” and a part of me really mourns when I say it.

Back Story:
My mom and dad traveled while I was growing up doing concerts in churches and at conferences. Dad was and is a great writer and mom still has a mesmerizing voice. Their ability to weave the story of struggle and redemption in their songs was a gift that truly connected with people. Even as a little boy, I watched people approach my mom and dad after concerts with a sense of gratitude and joy as if they had truly been ministered to. We all listened to a lot of music growing up. I remember getting a “jam box” for Christmas when I was 9 and I could record Casey Kasem’s top 40 on cassette tapes. It felt like a whole new world was opened up. I started buying cassettes when my brother and I got into breakdancing…yes…breakdancing. We bought the soundtrack to “Breakin”, a Whodini record called "Escape" and for some reason as I am typing this, “Basketball” by Curtis Blow popped into my head. We even had our own vinyl breakdance mat that we could lay in the floor next to our bunk-beds so we could do back spins and keep trying to do the windmill like Turbo and Ozone(characters in Breakin’). So music in our house growing up ranged from Hip Hop to Kenny Rogers to REO Speedwagon. I Loved music. We had a Grand Piano in the house and I would always hop up on the bench beside my dad and try to just hit all the keys I could while he was playing. Music was always encouraged and was simply a way of life growing up in the Cates household. I could tell a lot more family musical stories but I’ll save those for later.

I have spent the past 7 years writing songs professionally and feel really blessed by doing what I love for a living. However, this occupation has at times turned me into someone I don’t like: A critic. While being a critic can help you find the better song when you are chasing it down in the room, it can also steal your joy when listening to music. It makes you less inspired when a song feels bailed out. It makes you mad when a writer(often me) misses something so obvious in a lyric or a melody. Sometimes it keeps you from engaging the Lord on a Sunday morning during the singing part of worship because you are critiquing a song. The critic makes you feel prideful and ugly and can steal your love for music.

So...down with the critic…I Love Music.

Directions...

I’m throwing around some ideas for this blog. I think I am somewhat interested in telling some of the stories behind some of my songs that have been cut. I may get to a few of these soon.

Rooftop

I may be the most blessed guy on the planet. After my birthday party tonight(which was amazing), my wife and I were sitting around with some friends. We hadn’t cleaned up everything yet from the party but we were just sitting there enjoying one another’s company. There were 8 of us on the roof of this studio down on music row. The temperature outside was the kind of temperature you don’t notice. Perfect. My amazing wife proceeds to ask me some questions in front of everyone about my hopes and fears for this next year and then she asked everyone in the circle to say what they loved about me. They all went around the circle and blessed me by saying the good things they saw in me and what they hoped for me during this next year. I say all this to encourage you to find time to speak words of life over the people around you. From my own experience this evening, it is so life giving and meaningful.

Good Morning Halfway to 70

I am grateful this morning...grateful for this life and for the next...grateful for a church that I love...grateful to be writing songs for a living...grateful for good health...grateful for my wife baking me a cake before church for my birthday party tonight.

Grateful for you.

Chad

My wife

This is my wife Sarah. She's beautiful, brilliant, and so talented.
And she loves me. I AM the luckiest.

The last day of 34...

So here it begins...I'm turning 35 tomorrow and this is my first blog.  With growing older comes the desire to leave something important behind...a legacy so to speak.  If I could flash forward to the last day of my life and look back on this season and the time in between, it would make me smile knowing that it had been about LOVE...loving my wife, loving my family, loving the people around me with the LOVE that Jesus has given to me...because on the day after my last day, LOVE will be the only thing that mattered, the only thing worth chasing.

I look forward to seeing some of you tomorrow.  

Love,

Chad