Since the mission is to make a strong invitation toward intimate conversation with Jesus, the first priority was to make sure that the songs which carried that invitation in English actually carried the same message in Spanish. There were 35 songs on our list that over the years have been fruitful, in English, toward this mission. At first we didn’t want to overload the Gutierrez Brothers with that many songs and tried to give half to someone else. That didn’t work, so they ended up with all of them and what a blessing that was! They almost immediately were able to get to work on thinking through which songs could say the same thing in Spanish. Within a couple of months, even with busy road schedules for all of us, by cell phone we had determined which were real candidates and in a few more days had isolated the 10 songs that would be on the album.
The songs weren’t the ones we expected. The “obvious” picks were ruled out quickly in the process. Songs like Let’s Worship and Thank You Jesus just didn’t pass, the language is too American English and did not convey within the recognizable structure and melody.
Once the songs were picked, Jeff Lams who produced this first for all of us, started working out new arrangements and laying out the plans and schedule for the studio time and players. He would do all the piano and keyboards, including his new acquisition, a classic Hammond B3. Dave Owens would play drums and percussion. David Coy on bass and Bob Somma playing guitars completed the best basic tracking team anyone could dream up.
That basic track recording had to be done while we were on the road. Just the week before we had done the final mix and mastering for WE’VE COME TO WORSHIP – LIVE. But everything worked like clockwork and it was obvious God was orchestrating every detail and schedule.
Tuyo Soy, even in it’s raw recorded version confirmed that Jeff Lams was the perfect producer and arranger for this project. It was mind-blowing, beautiful! Those tracks would have been so wonderful to sing to in our vocal sessions, except for the little detail of having to sing in Spanish! We are so grateful that Jose Luis and Arturo were in the studio with us every minute. The agreement was that this couldn’t just sound like some gringos doing their best. The distractions from the message of the songs had to be cut to the minimum. Cut is a good word. It was one of the hardest things we’ve ever done and that goes for the Gutierrez Brothers too, but worth every impossible challenge.
Now, I want to share something extremely important to understand. Our motivation for this project is not to become the new Spanish music artist. We believe Jesus wants to penetrate the hearts of the Spanish-speaking people with the powerful drawing of His Spirit and we believe Tuyo Soy is a resource for those ministering in those communities. If you hear that foundational element when you hear these songs, please pray about how you can help get them in those hands that God means them for. That means that the Hispanic and Latino ministries need to have boxes of these in their tool box. As the Gospel is preached, they can send the hearer on their way with a CD that will become a personal tool of the Holy Spirit to start or continue talking to Jesus and surrendering to Him.
If you know a ministry like that and you want to help supply them with this tool, make an order today. There are special prices for volume orders. Believe me, the Clark Brothers are not finished doing our part, and neither are the Gutierrez Brothers, but it will be great to link arms and see what God will do! God’s incredible expedition!!