Best Bithday Present Ever!

About a month ago, my wonderful mom told me what she was getting me for my birthday this year.  Since I'm headed to Korea in a couple of weeks, she wanted to have a recording of my voice to listen to while I'm gone.  Most people reading this know that I am constantly singing, especially when I forget that others are around!  But I have always been completely comfortable singing at the top of my lungs in front of my mom, and she has said many times that she will miss it. 

On this past Tuesday morning, we drove together into Portland to find the "Magic Closet," a small recording studio run by an incredibly nice and easygoing guy named Ian.  He set me up in the sound stage, turned on his HUGE board that resembled an airplane's cockpit, and was basically ready to go right away.  Imagine something similar to the scene from the movie "Once" and you will have a pretty good idea of what it looked like.  I had the background instrumental tracks to a bunch of songs, which he input on to his computer.  From there, I basically stood in the other room, with a window into where he and mom were, and sang through the first song. 

After I was done, I could listen to the whole song out with them or through my headphones in the recording room.  Then we went back and recorded whatever parts I wanted to fix over the previous track - so by the end there were several takes of some sections and one take of others, put together like pieces to a long and straight puzzle.  After the songs were done being recorded, Ian would clean up each track so it was a complete and finished product.

The process went by really fast - we recorded a total of 9 songs in about 4.5 hours.  I was pretty nervous the first two, and then became much more steady and confident.  The middle tracks definitely came out the best.  The last two I was less practiced on and more tired, so they were also not my favorites.  But all in all, I am really happy with all of them and my mom is so happy to have them for while I'm gone!

Seven of the songs are some of my favorite worship songs, by some of my favorite Christian artists.  Two are songs by country/pop artists that I have really liked.  Here's the playlist in the order we recorded them:

Hope Now by Addison Road
Gratitude by Nichole Nordeman
Crazier by Taylor Swift
Hallelujah by Bethany Dillon
Set the World on Fire by Britt Nicole
Make You Feel My Love by Garth Brooks
Blessings by Laura Story
Listen to Our Hearts by Steven Curtis Chapman
Your Hands by JJ Heller

If you want to hear them, I can get you a copy.  My favorite one is Blessings. :)
Thanks Mom for an absolutely wonderful birthday present!!