Hear A New Sojourn mp3: “Warrior,” A Most Unusual Worship Song

Today is the day!  We officially ship all of your pre-ordered CDs for Over The Grave: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume One, as we look forward to our big release party this Friday, 7 p.m. at a brand new, state-of-the-art building called “The Block,” in the main campus of Louisville’s largest church, Southeast Christian Church.

Over the last month we’ve shared three new songs from Over The Grave with you, telling you the stories behind the songs here at sojournmusic.com and sharing the mp3s at Myspace.com/sojournrecords and Facebook.com/sojournmusic. So now comes the fourth, which happens to be track #1 on the CD, “Warrior,” written by Dave Moisan, Neil Robins (who produced the album) and me, Bobby Gilles. Our inspiration for “Warrior” was Isaac Watts’s metrical version of Psalm 21, a psalm of David that anticipated the coming of Messiah.

Hear “Warrior” on Sojourn Music’s Facebook page

Hear “Warrior” on Myspace.com/sojournrecords

Dave and I drafted “Warrior” a few days before song demos were due from Sojourn songwriters for this project.  We’d just wrapped up a songwriting session for a song that didn’t make inclusion on Over The Grave.  As we wrapped up, Dave said “What do you think of this,” and strummed a really cool groove.  We worked on the lyrics some and submitted it.  We knew the lyrics weren’t quite what we wanted, but time was up.

Pastor Mike and producer Neil liked it, though — enough to include it on the tentative list of songs for the project.  They knew we could improve the lyrics in the meanwhile.  Over the next few months Dave and I talked back and forth about a few minor changes, and most importantly, he changed the entire rhyme scheme (AABB instead of ABAB, for you poets).  It helped the flow quite a bit.

When the time came to lay down tracks for “Warrior” in the studio, it still wasn’t quite what we knew it could be.  Dave had done some great work with it since I’d seen it last, but there were still some parts he wasn’t happy with. So while he, Neil and the musicians laid down some instrumental tracks, I feverishly worked on lyrics.  During breaks in the recording process Dave, Neil and I looked at what I’d done.  They’d either say, “Great” or “What about this …” and, in this fashion, we finished the song.

Except for the bridge. That came last.  Dave and I were stuck, so Super Man Neil Robins re-worked the bridge.  It’s become my favorite part of the song:

Earth and sea will give up their dead — the nations gather before Him

A day of glory, a day of dread — no one dares now ignore Him

This is a most unusual song, with lyrics that “go places” in Christian theology that few songs touch.  Thanks to Isaac Watts for that, and even more so, the Bible. We hope the song challenges you and inspires you to remember that the only true Warrior has defeated Satan.  Victory is certain and our eternal destiny is secure.

Neil sits with Dave at the piano and works out a section of the song with him:

In this video, Neil uses his headset to instruct drummer Ryan Harvey (in a downstairs recording room, off camera) on the percussion part for “Warrior”