Jesus Since the Day- The Story

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  Jesus Since the Day Remote Session

  I had a great remote recording session, cleaning up some parts on my song: “Jesus Since the Day” with the marvelous Chris Rosser on guitar and piano and the magnificent Neal Merrick Blackwood as producer/ engineer.

  For those of you who have known me a long time, you may remember that “Jesus Since the Day” was originally composed for my old a ‘cappella Gospel Jazz group: Faith in Action. We recorded an a cappella version of it on our live CD released in 2006. It can still be downloaded from my BandCamp: https://juliekinscheck.bandcamp.com/album/faith-in-action-live

It is also available for listening on Spotify, Apple Music etc… Faith in Action Spotify Link

But that is not where the story ends!

Over the years Ralph Ralphykeys and I started playing the song live at church services from Chicago to Portland, ME. It seemed to fit especially well before communion.

Note the lyrics from the first verse:

“Jesus Since the day
You washed my sins away
I’ve forgotten you too many times to count
When I’ve let the world
Like Peter pull me down
And I’ve done some things I’d promised not to do
And I’ve fallen on my knees to pray to you”

And then the relief and joy comes in the chorus:

“Jesus, oh my Jesus
I’m so grateful for your mercy and your love
Jesus, Loving Jesus
Because of you
There’ll be a day
I’ll see heaven up above!”

But that’s not where it ends! The next verse shows the wonder and joy of walking with God.

“Jesus since the day
you washed my sins away
You have blessed me in too many ways to count
With love and friends
and future with a crown
And I’ve done some things I’ve always dreamed I’d do
And I’ve fallen on my knees to worship you!”

Taking it Deeper: 

These words mean so much to me. Like most of us, my walk with God has been far from perfect. Old patterns can lead us back into old sins even after we have made our profession that Jesus is Lord!  I am no different. I am ashamed of some choices I made and how I’ve let Satan influence me early in my Christian walk. But God showed His grace and we grew closer still!

Digging into the inspiration for the second verse: But so often God has answered my prayers and so many dreams have come true, from my marriage to Ralph, the birth of my twins, the great chances I have had to sing for thousands of people at huge Christian conferences, the release of my previous CDs, healing my husband from sickness… God is so good!

So God kept on nudging me to do more with this song! In the summer of 2019, Ralph, my brothers Gary Gibbons  (Drums) and Chris Gibbons (Bass) recorded basics for “Jesus Since the Day” along with a bunch of other songs and some jazz tunes in our Billerica home studio with Ralph Ralphykeys engineering.  But before we got very far on the tracks the Pandemic hit and the world shut down. … Like everyone else, it took us a while to get on our feet and moving forward as musicians, doing livestreams and teaching online etc… the album got set aside, we thought temporarily…

Long story short, during that time at home I started building a connection with Neal Merrick Blackwood though my friend and wonderful composer, songwriter, singer, pianist, Rebecca Harold. (who was also my fellow singer in Faith in Action!). After the lock down ended, we arranged for me to travel to Black Mountain, NC to record and co-write a few songs with Neal and see how this might work.

After that first session I was definitely convinced I wanted to complete an album with Neal and have since travelled to Black Mountain two more times to record and had a bunch of remote sessions. -And one of the tunes I decided to put forward was – you guessed it: “Jesus Since the Day”!

This album version will bring together some of the elements of several parts of this song’s journey: Similar to the original vision for the song- it has returned to being a ballad. Like the communion performances along the way- it will be guitar focussed and a bit folky, but more contemporary sounding with the piano and harmonies.

I love what Neal said on this last session, he said “It should sound almost like a prayer.”

I can’t wait for you all to hear it. I pray you feel God’s presence in the words, the music, the heart behind it.

“May they sing of the ways of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord is great.” – Psalms‬ ‭138‬:‭5‬ ‭NIV‬