Now And Then

Hello one and all. Bruce here. It has been a little while since I posted anything new about my where-a-bout’s, so I thought I’d let anyone who cares know what’s up these days. I have been doing some traveling the last month. Went to Iowa, (twice) Florida, (twice) and back and forth to Nashville a couple of times to boot. I have finished 10 of the 14 songs on VOL I of the new project. The title is “Now and Then VOL I”. It’s going to have 11 previously released songs, completely redone for this project. It has been so much fun going into my back catalogue and picking songs that hit a chord with my fan base as well as songs that meant a lot to me personally. Most of these songs were # 1 radio songs. But there will also be some songs that were more obscure that I have always wanted to redo because I don’t think we totally captured them the first time around.

I am so stoked to be working with Monroe Jones again. He has taken all these songs thus far and brought them into a wonderfully current condition. There will be 3 brand new songs on VOL I that will make up the 14 songs. I’m planning on a VOL II to be released sometime next year.

On the home front, all is pretty quiet for now. I’m always hesitant to say that but things are kind of smooth. My wife Nikki is doing pretty good health wise. She is also about to finish her new book. It is going to blow you away I promise. Stay tuned. We had to deal with the passing of her Mom last month. That was hard. My Mom is in an assisted living situation and has had some serious health issues as of late. She is 86 and is hanging in there but I see the end of her life making its way to meet her. I was raised by the best single Mom in the world so as you can imagine, I’m very close to her and very sad to see her in this condition. I lost my Dad a few years ago and my oldest brother 2 years ago. I am acquainted with having to deal with death and it is a weird thing. Probably because we were never meant to have to deal with it. Only when the fall came did death enter in. We simply were not wired to handle it well. But it is SO encouraging to know death has no sting for us, who are in Christ, and I believe all of the aforementioned loved ones knew Jesus and we will see them again.

My son Austin is doing well and gearing back up to get into the studio. He writes for Kara DeoGuardi’s (The new 4th judge on American Idol) company in L.A, and he is an amazing vocalist My younger son, Taylor, has been drumming for the group After Edmund as they have been hitting the road. He brought me a couple new songs he wrote, sang, played all the instruments on and produced a demo on, himself, and I was totally knocked out. He had never even sung for me and I had no idea he could write like that. I had no idea he was as good of a singer either. My daughter Sarah and her husband Craig are expecting their third child. AWESOME. My younger daughter Amber is married to a great guy named John Ed and doing great too.

Hope church, where I lead worship most weekends is thriving. Check out the website. The academy and label are doing great as well. Check them out too. Keep the prayers up as I schedule the completion of this new project in the coming weeks. I can’t wait for all of you to hear it. I’m very proud of the songs and I’m so humbled to work with Monroe and the great line up of players. I’m planning some dates in October and November. Stay tuned as I will be posting them real soon. Well, that’s good for now. I’ll be back soon. Please write. God bless all of you……..

Working with Monroe Jones and Regie Hamm

Well hello everyone. As you can see, I’m not very good at staying current with what’s going on in my crazy life. Here’s what’s been going on for the last couple of months. I finished all of my lead and background vocals that we had tracks completed for with my wonderful producer, Monroe Jones, in Nashville and we have been “tweaking” the mixes of the first half of this new project. We need to track 2 or 3 more songs for Volume I and then release it sometime in late summer. We are going to release this project in 2 stages. We will end up with possibly 24 songs when both Volumes are done. I’m not sure when we are going back in to start and finish Volume II. But I am so excited about what this record is sounding like. I can’t wait for you to hear it. Monroe is a very gifted producer. Working with him has been a joy.


I have included a couple of shots of Regie Hamm. We were writing for this project at his studio in Nashville. We have written several songs with each other over the years and he is one of my songwriter hero’s. He is also an amazing artist. He did a record a few years back called American Dreams. Find that record as fast as you can. You can purchase it off his website: www.regiehamm.com. It is amazing. He is such a great writer and singer and this is one of my favorite records of all time. We finished a great song I plan on recording for this project. I have already recorded another one that we have written. By the way, Regie wrote the final song for American Idol that David Cook sang on the final night. It’s getting a lot of airplay too and looks like it might be a big song for Regie. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. I’m putting together a fall tour that I have been keeping quiet to make sure the pieces were going to fall into place but it looks like it’s going to happen. Stay tuned. I might be coming to your town. I’m so looking forward to hitting the road again. I will have a small band too.

The Hymns of Hope DVD/CD is finally here. You can purchase here if you like. We recorded it here at Hope and I think it turned out real well. The four of us also took it on the road and performed all the same songs live at Greg Allen’s huge church in Louisville, KY. We are trying to put together a little mini tour of this thing as well. That would be a blast for all. We took the same instrumentation and everyone really seemed to dig it. We are talking about the four of us going into the studio to record a CD of all new material. I’ll let you know.

Well that’s all for now. Keep stopping by from time to time. I will try to do better at keeping current.

In The Studio

I spent another productive week in Nashville with my friend and producer extraordinaire Monroe Jones. We concentrated on finishing the acoustic guitars, lead vocals and background vocals. I always enjoy doing my vocals with Monroe because he is so laid back and it makes it so much less painful. As a rule, I hate singing lead vocals. Getting that one performance that will be played and heard forever is daunting so you want it to be your best. I have to put myself in a zone and it usually takes awhile to get there. A place where I am interpreting the song in an emotionally powerful way, while staying on pitch and in the groove of the track. For anyone who has ever had to do lead vocals on a record, you understand. For me, brutal. Monroe does make it very tolerable somehow. Check the photos page for some photos from the session.

I got to play a couple of my good friend George Cocchini’s 1960’s Gibson J45’s. They are truly amazing guitars that really fit with the songs we were laying down. We are trying to finish Vol. 1 of the new record soon so stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted.

Moody mens weekends and the cruise

Hello friends to my new site. Just a quick note to bring you up to speed on what has been happening. I did two mens conferences sponsered by Moody Bible Collage in Chicago. The first was in Cleveland, the second in Chicago on consecutive weeekends. It was a wonderful conference with over 2000 men at each. I have been doing these now for aprox 8 years and it is the highlight of my year. I traveled with a band and heard some great teaching.

In between I did a cruise with Kathy Trocolli & Phillips Craig and Dean. It was a blast. There is nothing like sailing the seas in a warm climate with good friends. I'm about to head into the studio again with my esteemed producer, Monroe Jones to finish my double CD for release sometime this summer. It's so great to work with Monroe again. He produced my Boomerang CD from 1997. The best CD I ever did that no one heard. Anyway, alot going on here. Stay tuned and stay in touch.

Bruce

Welcome to my new blog!

Hi everyone. Welcome to my new revamped web site. I am going to try to stay current with what’s going on in my life for anyone who would want to know. I am a pretty busy guy these days. I’m a full time worship leader at a big honkin church outside of Memphis Tn. It’s great to be home on the weekends and to be able to lead between 6000-7000 faithful in worship. They still let me out to write, make records and do concerts when I want to so it’s really a great situation. But for anyone who has ever been on staff of a church you know how crazy it can get.

My kids are growing up fast. Austin is out in LA. He was on a reality show on ABC called The One back in the summer. The show was cancelled but it opened up some cool stuff for Austin. He is songwriting and getting cuts and is doing the starving artist thing in LA. I have no doubt he will be fine. He already has a cut on Katherine McPhee’s new CD that is about to come out. She was runner up to Taylor Hicks on that oh so talent loaded pop icon show American Idol. I just hope he makes enough money off of it to eat on. I’m proud of him for going for it.

Taylor is a killer drummer and a killer guitar player and is in a hardcore band called So She Sang. They are currently working with producer Malcolm Springer on a new CD that I feel certain will be picked up as soon as it’s finished. He plays with me on the road sometimes, records with me, (he is on my latest CD Big World) as well as writes a lot with another young wonderful artist named John Conklin. They are doing an acoustic duo thing on the side and some of the songs I am hearing are GREAT! I’m certain Taylor will make a way for himself in music.

Sarah is a beautiful Mother married to a great husband named Craig. They have one slammin son named Ryan and one on the way. Craig is a marine and a real Godly guy who loves my daughter and grandson. We are blessed to have him in our family. They are building a beautiful house in Franklin Tn that I plan on spending lots of time in while in Nashville to write.

Amber is cutting and coloring hair in Germantown TN. In a high falootin hair salon. She really has a gift. (Her Mother did that for years) She is dating a really nice fella named Mike who is a sportscaster. He is really good. I tune him in sometimes. He really loves my girl and they seem pretty serious. Stay tuned.

Nikki is still as beautiful as the day I married her. She has been through so much health wise but has handled everything thrown at her with strength and dignity. To say she is amazing would be an understatement. She is still the love of my life and the holder of my heart. She is an amazing interior decorator and should probably be in that business. But for now I reap the benefits of living in the house she has made a home. God has truly blessed us with each other for over 25 years.

I’ll check in again real soon. Please check back. Thanks for being a fan or friend or just a curiosity seeker. Later