Several weeks ago I mentioned my life’s work Timothy – a musical according to revelations. No, not the book of ‘Revelation’, but the many revelations from the Lord about Himself that have greatly influenced my walk with Him. It’s been a solitary work with occasional help from unlikely sources. For example, several songs feature instrumental parts played by friends who are not believers. When asked why help me, they simply said “because we love you, Jack”. I was stunned. It was Matthew 25:31-46 in action – unbelievers showing themselves to be sheep by helping a son of God.

The bigger obstacle in recording and mixing music has always been hearing impairment. Where my chief complaint is tinnitus, hearing tests were dismissed with the recommendation “learn to live with it”. Thus my hearing has never been tested. Recently I hired a professional studio engineer to teach me through mixing and mastering the song Resurrection Power, which is the finale of Timothy.

Listening to my young friend’s remix of Resurrection Power, I was unable to hear the subtle changes he would make to affect the sound, nor the cymbals he recorded on the new drum track. In the end, I simply had to trust that he’d delivered a better sounding mix than I can do myself. After our session, I remembered an earlier conversation where he recommended an app that would test a listener’s hearing and plot an equalization curve to correct for any hearing deficiencies. Once installed, I ran the calibration routine, applied the correction curve and replayed the song. The difference was astounding.

Listen to the new mix of Resurrection Power below or click the 3 vertical dots to download the Mp3:

Of course, that means every song will need to be remixed again with the hearing correction app engaged. It’s also time to make an appointment with the audiologist.

In other Timothy news, the script is done, but for minor tweaks needed to improve intelligibility – mostly edits on the fly when reading the script aloud flushes out an awkward phrase. Elsewhere, a professional keyboardist is scoring all the songs in proper notation for piano. Cover art in the style of the Spinners ‘Happiness is being with the Spinners’ LP turned out nicely with caricatures of the main characters and supporting cast. (Their song Rubberband Man is a personal favorite.)

If I were to name a prayer need, it would be for volunteers to read Timothy. Most of the roles are small and easily cast by friends and family. However the role of Timothy is a challenge. In the musical, Timothy plays the role of my grandson, at age 12, 15 and 18 (Acts 1, 2 and 3, respectively). I hope to find a young man who loves the Lord and sounds like a kid, not a polished voice actor recording a commercial for cologne or energy drinks.

My plan is to release a conceptual (audio-only) version of Timothy by the end of the year. It’s unlikely to be produced by a man’s church, because it lampoons several grievous sins against Christ and His body. Accordingly, I plan to release the script, lyric overheads, guitar chord charts, piano scores and recorded music, for free. That said, my greatest need is for wisdom and clear vision to do carry out the Lord’s will for Timothy and not be possessive or controlling about it.

On the home front, Karen continues to recover from complex spine surgery and is doing well. The good days now outnumber the bad and she is able to do the things she loves once again, specifically, walking, machine embroidery, reading and baking, albeit taking it slow. I’m fully recovered from my Easter Sunday trip to the ER following a round of antibiotics.

Thank you for your prayers. I hope you enjoy listening to the new Resurrection Power, linked above.