Help of the Helpless - The Story Behind My Latest Album
It’s kind of a dirty word, especially for us Americans.
We live in the land of pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-and-make-a-name-for-yourself. A land of opportunity.
We’re not helpless. We’re the opposite of helpless. We’re the ones the helpless people look to for help.
But as Christians, most of us stroll into church on Sundays, and the whole thing gets turned on its head. We hear about sin and grace, failure and redemption, idols and worship.
It reminds us that maybe we’re not as invinsible as the motivational speaker said we were.
Maybe we’re not really as “put together” as we think.
Maybe we’re needier than we like to admit.
Maybe all the success we’ve had leaves us empty and constantly longing for more.
Maybe the shame from past sins and failures keeps rearing its ugly, crippling head.
Maybe we’re a bunch of broken sinners, desperately needing grace.
In With the Old
I grew up in a traditional Presbyterian church, complete with pipe organ, piano, and choir loft. While a typical Sunday nowadays involves drums, guitar amps, and lights, those early years of singing hymns out of the red Trinity Hymnal left a big impression on me.
These “old” hymns may be repetitive. The music may not illicit the same emotional response as the latest Hillsong worship tune, but the lyrical content of these hymns is second to none.
They reflect the truth of the Gospel in a simple yet profound way. You may have heard a particular hymn literally hundreds of times and still discover something you never considered before.
I’m a songwriter. Heck, I love all kinds of writing. (I even write a daily newsletter for my business.) When I was deciding what I wanted to do for my next album, I contemplated writing some new songs, but there was a soft, slightly nagging voice in my head.
It kept saying, “You’re sitting on a gold mine of fantastic lyrics and melodies. These deceased hymn writers can say it better than you ever could.”
These old hymns are so rich, so full of truth, so beautiful.
In With the New
That’s where my creative wheels started turning.
How can I take these fairly well-known hymns and re-work them into something refreshing and new without losing the essence of the hymns themselves?
How can I breathe new life into these dusty old hymns?
How can I frame these hymns in a way that draws the listener in and reintroduces her to the life-changing concepts of the Gospel of Jesus?
Years in the Making
My brother-in-law Chris has been hounding me to make a hymns album for as long as I can remember. I still have a yellow index card from years ago, where he wrote down the hymns he’d like me to record.
Over the years I’ve sung in lots of weddings and funerals. Oftentimes I was asked to sing a favorite hymn, so I’d set to work trying to wrestle that hymn away from the pipe organ and into my guitar.
Next thing I knew, I had written arrangements for a whole bunch of hymns…just ready to be polished and recorded.
So I compiled a list of my favorites, worked out fresh arrangements, and booked musicians.
Full Band Hymns
The lazy part of me wanted to go the easy route and record an acoustic album. But the adventurous part of me (and the recording engineer inside me) wanted to do something bigger, something challenging, something that could potentially fall flat on its face.
So I decided to do full-band arrangements of these hymns. While the acoustic guitar (my primary instrument) was still going to hold a prominant place on the album, I enlisted the help of drummer Tim Horsley and bassist Joel Bezaire to lay down the rockin’ foundation for the album.
Add in a bunch of guitar tracks and vocals, along with a few other goodies, and these songs started to take on a life of their own. It was amazing to watch them unfold before me. I had a rough direction I wanted them to go, but the end result was far different (and I think far better) than anything I had envisioned.
Help of the Helpless was taking form.
Unexpected Side Effects
One of the best things about recording this album was being forced to hear and sing these hymns over and over and over. It was good for my soul to have songs like “There Is a Fountain” and “Jesus Paid it All” placed on repeat in my head.
That’s what I’m hoping this album will be for you, too. I hope the songs get stuck in your head. I hope you can’t stop singing “if ever I loved Thee, my Jesus tis now.” And I hope the truth buried in these hymns reminds you that…
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
To listen to Help of the Helpless and/or buy yourself a copy, head over to www.joegildermusic.com.
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