Change is in the air

How do you start in on a topic like this without just coming out and saying it. Over the course of the next couple months Kaci and I are going to be taking on a new identity. When the new year roles around we will put Wur'ship Project aside and begin to be known as NEELY.

This is an exciting time yet emotions run the gamut. For nearly a decade now we've been known as Wur'ship Project and that is a comfortable place to find oneself. However, there are opportunities that are constantly being presented to us that we cannot fulfill with the name of Wur'ship Project.

So in the coming year check out http://www.neelymusic.com for updates and join our myspace and facebook pages. Right now that address points to a half finished MySpace page, but in the coming months we hope to have that redesigned and further yet have a full blown website.

You all have been so instrumental in the success we've had and we hope that you'll continue to partner with us in this endeavor to reach even more people with our music.

Thanks again for all you do!

The Zod Archives EP dropcards ship out Tuesday...

Are you digging the new tracks? If so, we are offering them digitally via drop cards. How this works:

- Go to http://www.wurship.com
- Click on Merchandise
- Click on Digital Music
- Click on The Zod Archives EP
- Add it to cart
- The card ships out to you.

Once you have the card:

- Go to http://www.wurship.com
- Click on Media
- Enter the code on the back of your card
- Enter your email address
- Download the tracks

These cards are not just good for the digital downloads, but they are also a $5 coupon towards the coming album.

Thanks for your continued support!

Jeremy & Kaci
Wur'ship Project

Sampler of new tracks from Nashville

We've got a sample track that has clips from "I'm Alive", "Don't Tell Me It's Over", and "Falling Down" up on our band page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wurship-Project/8273086394 or you can listen at our myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/wurshipproject

These are the new tracks we recorded at Zodlounge in Nashville, TN and we are chomping at the bit to get the final tracks up so you can listen. Until then, enjoy this little taste of what's to come!

Thanks for your part in making this happen!!

Jeremy & Kaci
Wur'ship Project

Newspaper article, Revolution, and Main Street Cafe...

You know, I'll try to explain how this weekend went to the best of my ability but all-in-all it would be so much easier if Kaci and I could just remember to 1.) take our camera, and 2.) use it!

This post isn't totally devoid of props. We have a link to a newspaper article ran on Friday, May 16th in the Encore section of the Salina Journal. Here's the link to that article: http://www.saljournal.com/rdencore/story/encoremain051608

The interview for this article, done by Gary Demuth, was a blast. Gary is very gifted in what he does and he did a great job at keeping us on task. He was taking down notes like mad as Kaci and I were dumping information on him. As you will see from the article, he did a masterful job of putting it all together.

Saturday night we filled in for the worship team at Revolution. For a quick bit of history: Kaci and I were in the home group that founded Revolution. Because of our constant travel and busy life with Wur'ship Project, we were unable to be involved in this project. So Saturday night they had us come in and it was a fun time. Leading worship is definitely NOT what we do, so it was a tad awkward for us, but we made a joyful noise none-the-less.

Sunday we made a whirlwind trip to KC to play at The Main Street Cafe. What an awesome venue! Denise and Laura (both board members who pour their lives into this place) are dear people that love the Lord and love people. If they ever call...we'd go back in a heartbeat!

Through it all as we sing and speak at these places, I keep learning more about myself and who I need to become. We've been blessed to meet such amazing people!

Digital Distribution changes

We are in the process of changing our Digital Distributors. What this means is there is a time here when you won't find our music on iTunes, Rhapsody, AmazonMP3, and all the other places to download our music.

We'll throw up another post when our music is available online again.

Jeremy & Kaci

What no one is saying about sex - concert\speaking series

We are beginning to book a concert\speaking series we've titled "What no one is saying about sex". Here's a little insight into this new series:

Kaci and I have many regrets in life. Yes, in a world where people try to tell themselves over and over that "things happen for a reason" and "I have no regrets"...we have regrets. Our major regret is having pre-marital sex.

If we could go back in time and change how we handled ourselves, we would do it in a heartbeat. Many have said, "but events like these make us who we are". In that case, we can honestly say we don't want to be who we are.

While there are great purity ministries out there that tell people not to have sex before marriage, they don't tell them why. That's where we come in. We can tell a person why not to engage in this activity. There are real consequences that will follow a person all their lives. Here's just a few:

- Men do not like to live in the shadows of other men.
- Women have insecurities when living in the shadows of other women.
- Severe depression in both men and women.
- Men internalize and become angry, retreat into their work, abandoning family.
- There are severe trust issues with your future husband\wife.

These are just a few of the MANY consequences. How do we know? As I stated earlier Kaci and I were both sexually active. In Kaci's defense, she was verbally, emotionally, and physically pushed\forced into all her encounters. Not to mention that alcohol was nearly always involved. For myself, I was the pushy young man that would tell a young woman anything just to get the defenses down.

We are living out these consequences. Even after 12 years of marriage there is still hurt and it is real. The amazing thing is, the more we speak about this in concerts the more men and women that come to us and tell us of deteriorating marriages due to these same feelings.

We plan to blog more about this topic in the future as it is an important one. As Solomon says in the Proverbs (paraphrased) 'once a man goes the way of the harlot it will follow him to the grave'. Pre-marital sex is like taking out a debt that can NEVER be repaid...think.

12 years and still going strong!

Today Kaci and I are celebrating our 12 year anniversary! The amazing part is that she's put up with me this long...hahaha!

So what are we doing on our special day? Band rehearsal!! Are you kidding me? This is what we're wired for!

Saturday - I left my heart in Nashville!

We made it home! Honestly though, I wish I was in Nashville still. I absolutely love it!! The fact that we bonded with the guys from Zodlounge makes it harder.

I don't know if I ever gave them credit, but I really must say it. The guys at Zodlounge are the real deal! I really don't have the words to describe them, but to try would have me write words like: kind, caring, loving, fun, creative to the max, men of integrity, vulnerable, and a slew of other words that I could only wish someone would use to describe me.

Today was just a continuation of Friday as Kaci and I were longing to see our 4 daughters so much that we couldn't sleep much. Consequently we are EXHAUSTED! The flight back was good, but we landed in 40 degree weather verse 70 - 80 degree weather.

We decided to make the drive back from St. Joseph, MO (where we left our girls) to Bennington so we could have a full day of rest tomorrow before I go back to work.

We will try to keep you posted on what is going on in the life of Wur'ship Project. In the coming weeks perhaps we will introduce you to our mission field: our 4 daughters.

Now it's back to raising funds for the rest of the CD project. We have 6 more songs to record at $1,600.00 per song. If any feel led to sponsor a song or even a portion just click on this link.

Friday - Bitter Sweet

Sorry that this post for Friday is being done Saturday evening. We just didn't have access to Internet late Friday evening and so I had to write this and save it to a Text file to post when I had a chance.

Friday was our last day at Zodlounge. The day was a busy but productive one. I had to get in the vocal booth and drop the vocals for "Don't Tell Me It's Over" as well as a few filler parts on "Peace Be Still" that I wrote to go in the second verse per Thom's suggestion.

Here's me putting the first verse "in the can" on "Don't Tell Me It's Over". I'm not talking to myself...Thom is on the other end listening and talking back through the monitors.


Kaci rocked on "Peace Be Still" and was adding some really cool yet spooky high harmonies on all the songs. We can't wait for you to hear them, they are really rocking!

After we finished all the vocals, Thom began the process of running vocal tracks through a program called Melodyne. It's a program that allows the engineer to fine tune the pitch on vocals and\or to create higher or lower harmonies with a particular vocal track. Here's a video of Thom using Melodyne and interestingly talking to himself.


Then came the bitter time. We had to leave our friends at Zodlounge. This was pretty tough for Kaci and I as we really formed a bond with Brett, Thom, and Todd. So much so that in one short week they've become almost family to us. Here's a picture of us with the crew. From left to right: Tom Michael (yeah, I call him Thom), Brett Vargason, Kaci, myself, and Todd Shay.


After we left, we went to the hotel to clean up and then to downtown Nashville once again. This time we were on a mission: Kaci was to get her nose pierced at Billy Joe's. It looks stinking SWEET!

Guess who we ran into while at Billy Joe's? Stinking Josh Brown! You know, the lead singer of Day of Fire. He works at Billy Joe's as a tattoo artist when not on tour. Josh is the real deal. You can just tell from the way he interacts with people that the guy lives and breaths Jesus! Here's a picture of Kaci and I with Josh (check out Kaci's piercing).


After the piercing it was back to the hotel to pack up and get ready to get up at 5:00AM to head to the airport. Neither one of us are really morning people...so this really stinks!

Thursday - "Falling Down", "Peace Be Still", and the Hard Rock Cafe

Today was a day spent in the Vocal Booth. We have the lead and background vocals completely done on "Falling Down". Thom "comped" (which I don't know what that means other than an initial mix or compilation) "Falling Down" and let me tell you...AWESOME!! We can't wait for you to hear it!

We played around with the lead vocal melodies on "Peace Be Still" but at the end of it all we went back to the way Kaci has sung it in the past. Don't get me wrong, there will be tweaks that some of the old faithful (those that have followed us from the beginning) may or may not like...but all-in-all the melodic foundation of the song remains. We still have all the background vocals to lay down for "Peace Be Still" tomorrow as well as all the vocals for "Don't Tell Me It's Over".

Tonight we went back to downtown Nashville. We were just walking around looking at all the novelty shops and looking for a neat, out of the ordinary place to eat. So what did we end up doing? We took the safe route and went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Funny thing happened while there. Our waiter was the ex-guitarist for Fusebox. So we had a little in common as Christian Artists.


The thing that has been so lasting for us on this trip is the friendships that we've forged. Brett, Todd, and Thom are quickly becoming what we would consider as friends. Something we do not take lightly, but also something that speaks volumes about these men and how they do business.

Now for the weird thing. These guys have done work with Tim McGraw (actually Brett had a wrestling match with Tim), Mercy Me, Michael W. Smith, Point of Grace, and Watermark to name a few. What makes this so weird is the nonchalant way these guys address these people that seem so untouchable to us and how they view them as they are...as people like you and I.

Still weird? Yeah, kind of...but day by day I'm getting used to it. What I'm reminded of now is that all-in-all it doesn't matter if it is Tim, Taylor, "Smitty" (that's Michael W's nick name), or just Jeremy and Kaci...death is the great equalizer and it doesn't matter what awards or what stage we've played on. In the end it depends on our hearts, our motives, and if we are living the life that Jesus showed us to live. Bottom line is I'm reminded of the choice of name...Wur'ship Project...that's what life is.

Wednesday - Vocal tracks on "I'm Alive" and a trip to Alabama

Sorry Wednesday's update is coming on Thursday morning, but yesterday was grueling! We left Zodlounge at 4:00 and headed to Florence, AL to lead worship and share a few of our songs with a 737 (a college group) at First Southern Baptist Church. We didn't get in until 1:00AM, so blogging wasn't a priority then.

OK, so the Wednesday scoop...here's how it went down. First we started off by having me (Jeremy) go into the vocal booth to lay down the vocal tracks for "I'm Alive". This process took around an hour as they want 5 solid takes of each part. Each part meaning Verse, Chorus 1, Verse 2, Chorus 2, etc...so you can see why it took so long. Here's a quick video tour of the vocal booth:


Here's a picture of Kaci in the vocal booth:



Here is a video of Kaci warming up and going over some background vocals for "I'm Alive":


And here is a video of Thom adding my vocals to the other tracks while Todd is looking on admiring the killer guitar tracks he put down at 6:00AM that morning, and of course Kaci playing air guitar in the back:


It seems that Brett is quite the dancer and has some great impersonations. Here's a glimpse into the world of Brett Vargason:


Getting the vocal tracks for "I'm Alive" took the whole day and we left at 4:00PM to go down to Florence, Alabama. We were invited to lead worship and share a couple of our songs for a College Group at the First Southern Baptist Church called 737. It was really cool as there was a very eclectic group of students there. Students athletes, international students, married students, and a student that was from Wichita KS!

On our way we ran by something that we've only seen in movies...a Piggly Wiggly! Since there was an accident that stopped traffic on I-65, we were a little behind schedule, so we had to get a picture of it on our way back home. That's why the picture is a little dark. Anyhow, this Piggly Wiggly is in Athens, Alabama:


And last but not least, here's a picture of us with Kevin Johnson (yellow shirt), the leader of Student Ministries at First Southern Baptist, and our friend Derrek Fikes (blue shirt). Derrek was instrumental in setting us up with Kevin so we could share with the students at 737. Just a side note: we met Derrek at a camp we played for last summer in KS called Super Summer. Since then we've kept in contact and that's how it all came together.

Tuesday - Acoustic guitar, Scratch Vocals, and Bass track

Today was a busy day in the studio. As soon as we got in Todd and Thom began hooking up the microphones in the booth to begin tracking acoustic guitar. We'd end up using the same setup to lay down the scratch vocals as well. If we haven't explained that one before, "scratch" tracks are tracks that will be thrown away. They are just thrown out there for a point of reference.

Although today was one where we sat around a lot, it went very quickly and it was totally cool because the songs really began to come to life. Here's a video of Thom laying down a Bass track on "Don't Tell Me It's Over". One thing to note, you can tell the vocals are scratch vocals because there are points in this video that you can't even hear the vocals as we did not do any microphone placement.



We did notice that Kaci has been doing all the photography and hasn't been in many pictures (none in the studio yet), so we plan on changing that tomorrow. Nothing much to say, so we're just going to show you a few rooms of the studio (more pictures of the guitar\vocal booth to come tomorrow).

Here's the console where the mixing and overdubs are controlled. From here, Thom can have a conversation to whomever is in the booth.


Here's a picture of the couch that Kaci and I park it on while checking messages and working on songs. To the left of the couch is only one of the many racks of guitars and racks of effects. It's located at the opposite end of the room from the console.


Here's the drum room where Brett lays down the FOUNDATION of ROCK!


That's it for today!

Our first day in the studio!!

First, I have to tell you the third guys name (see the previous post). His name is Thom. So there is Brett (drums), Todd (guitar), and Thom (bass).

So back to what all of y'all are asking: How was it? AWESOME! We learned so many things today it is unbelievable. The production level, the musicianship...just the whole package is something that we've never experienced anywhere else. So where to start...hmmm.

First we report to Zodlounge at 10:00AM and the guys sit us down and get to know us some. Then we head down to the control room and we begin to dissect "Don't Tell Me It's Over". During this time we are brainstorming flow, some alternate chords to spice things up and create good "tension" in the song. Here's a picture of that process:


In the picture above you see myself (Jeremy), Brett, Thom, and Todd.

An added bonus during setup and some of the "song flow" process was that a guest stopped by to drop off a project. He actually sat in and helped the guys dial in some of the equipment and gave some good feedback on the song. After he left the guys excitedly told us that this guy was John "Roush" (can't spell his name I'll try to fix it tomorrow). John is a Grammy Award winning engineer/producer/mixer and he was digging our stuff! You'll see John in this video as we are running the flow against some initial drum tracks Brett laid down (video is 33MB, so be patient).


Once we had the flow set and everyone was digging the new direction of the song, Brett laid down the "scratch" drum tracks. Basically that means he laid down drum tracks that probably won't survive the final mix, but are there to serve as a foundation for all the other scratch tracks laid on top. Brett's amazing...he went into the drum room and nailed the song with no more than a piece of paper telling him how many bars are in each section, a click track, and the memory of what we all just covered.

After the scratch drum tracks for "Don't Tell Me It's Over" were laid down, we started working on "Falling Down". The nuts and bolts of "Falling Down" will remain the same, but the song will flow so much more smoothly. In "Don't Tell Me" I learned about alternate chords and alternate voicing for chords. In the process of creating the flow for "Falling Down" I learned a tried and true Nashville trick: Don't bore us, get to the Chorus! Again, once we were done Brett went and nailed the scratch drum tracks.

About 12:30 we broke for lunch (we ate at Pei Wei's which is a less expensive chain in the PF Chang restaurant group) then got back to work, this time on "I'm Alive". We really didn't change any of the flow on this song nor did we change any of the structure.

During this process we had some more visitors. Chris (a fellow Kansan who used to play for Nameless Faces) and his friend Shawn who is the Tour Manager for Watermark and Selah. These guys hung out while we finished up the flow of "I'm Alive" all the way up to the drum tracking on "Peace Be Still". Amazing guys...I know we'll stay in touch.

At this point Todd will begin to lay down some guitar tracks tomorrow and we may begin to lay some vocals down. If not tomorrow, definitely Wednesday before we leave to play for a group in Florence, AL.

At 5:00 we rushed out of Zodlounge and headed to the legendary Blue Bird Cafe. You should have seen the line of people waiting to get in, most of them wanting to play. Fortunately an acquaintance of ours from Church gave us his ticket which ensured us that we would get to play. We were drawn as the 21st songwriter(s) to play and we only were able to play one song as there were so many songwriters there.

We played "I'm Alive" and received a very encouraging reception from the crowd. It was amazing to play in a place so rich with musical history. Artists such as Garth Brooks, Brooks and Dunn, and Kenny Chesney started the same way on the same stage...just the weight of that made me shake!

Today was an amazing day. We learned SOOOO much and look forward to another day in the studio!!

P.S. - we have a video that we took at The Blue Bird, but it's 200MB. We'll see if we can make it smaller and post it at a later time.

Sunday - Church and site seeing

We landed safe and sound last evening (Saturday) and made our way to Jodi and Julee Cobb's house. They were gracious enough to let us stay with them for most of our trip. This was a huge break for us by the way and is one of the main reasons we can record 4 songs this trip (verse 3...this freed up some major cash for us!).

So this morning we headed to The Peoples Church in Franklin followed by lunch at Pucket's in downtown Franklin. Here's a picture from Pucket's with Jodi, Julee, and Nick.


After Pucket's we tried to walk around downtown Franklin, but it was raining like crazy so we took a ride to drop Nick off at his house. On the way we drove by a housing development called "The Govenor's Club". Basically it's where Toby Keith, Carrie Underwood, and all those cats live. Those houses are MONSTROUS!!!

Then it was off to see downtown Nashville, or affectionately called "Nash-Vegas". We started out on Broadway which is where all the Honky Tonk's are. Here's a section of Broadway.


Even on a Sunday afternoon there was live music in every bar on Broadway and they were packed full of people checking out the "next Big thing". Seems that everyone is a musician here and everyone has dreams of "making it big".

Didn't take us long to have enough of Broadway, then it was around th corner to see the Ryman Auditorium.


Then there were visits to Starbuck's and a few Boutique's that we won't bore you with. Other than that, we are meeting some cool people and just hanging out before we report to the Studio tomorrow morning at 10:00AM

Nashville or bust!

Have you ever had the feeling of being "on the verge"? Standing at the edge of all that God has created us to be is an overwhelming place. We're going through a gamut of emotions on the eve of our trip to Nashville to begin recording.

Neither Kaci or myself can remember a time in our lives that we didn't dream of this. Granted, it wasn't until I was 21 years old that I began to take guitar lessons. Shoot, up to that point I didn't even have a guitar that was worth a hoot. For Kaci, she may have been in High School Choir, but she never sang solo until 2003 when she stepped out to begin singing "Peace Be Still".

In the coming week we are going to do our best to give you the inside scoop as we record 4 songs in Nashville. We will be working with Brett Vargason, Todd Shay, and one other fellow (we'll post his name later...sorry!) at their studio production company called Zodlounge. Hopefully we'll be faithful to taking pictures and videos to post on the blog as well.

Thanks to all of you that have made this possible! We'll work hard to make you all proud!

Jeremy & Kaci

Drained!

The last few months has been one of the toughest times for me. This region we are in is dead. I struggle with the words because I don't want to come off too sharply or even sound like I'm "Holier than thou". It is as if people in the Church here are in a comatose state and what's worse is they are in this incapacitated state and going out telling people "you gotta have what I have...this Jesus is so cool". Why would anyone want what we are showing on a daily basis? We are living no differently!

To get groups to work together for the Kingdom is like pulling teeth. Even within those groups (Churches) we are fragmented. We have all these rules and regulations to "strain a gnat" but we are empty and comatose.

If we are the body, then something is wrong. It's as if the body is working to destroy itself! The limbs are flailing around wildly and helplessly. We look nothing like the Jesus that is historically portrayed in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matter of fact, we look more like the religious elite that killed Him and persecuted the Disciples.

My encouragement in this is that I've been blessed to be able to meet with a few others who have seen this (and I mean few!). Not only that, but they are ready to dig down deep to live out a life of worship, a life imitating Jesus. Though this journey seems daunting and seemingly impossible, they have a fight in them that has encouraged me.

Will we stand with these warriors as well? Will we lay down our lives, our wants, our passions for the glory of God? We must realize what we were truly created to be. This is the only way this world will change, and at that it will only happen one person at a time. And that person is the person sitting right beside us! Welcome to the mission field!

We must fight our passions and take on the life of Jesus Christ!

Sponsor a song...

Sponsor a song:

We are going to record in Nashville at the Zod Lounge! We've been working with Brett Vargason at Zod Lounge to set this up. You may not recognize Brett by name, but you might recognize the group he toured the world with, Sonic Flood. The schedule is for us to be in Nashville on April 27th and begin tracking bright and early on April 28th.

Recording costs a lot. There's no way around it. In our current scenario we are blessed because Zod Lounge charges per song, which is kind of unheard of but helps us know how to budget. Through this we are seeking people, businesses, or organizations that will sponsor specific songs. For instance, we've already had sponsors step forward to sponsor us for "I'm Alive" as well as a new song that we've yet to name.

To record one song, the cost for us is $1,500.00. However, we know that not everyone has that kind of cash lying around. We've set up a page on our online store called "Sponsor a Song" where you can purchase a portion or all of a sponsorship slot on a song. We've tried to make this reasonable with sponsorship options from $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $750, $1,000, and $1,500. If you are interested in sponsoring a song to be recorded in Nashville, click on this link: http://www.wurship.com/index.cfm?action=products.categories.category_detail&category_id=62

Why are we doing this? Christian music in general is not a money making proposition. In 2006, only 17 of the top Nashville acts made a profit. Most of those people are operating in debt to bring you good music. Scale that back to a small regional band like Wur'ship Project...we do this because we want to see lives changed for the glory of Christ, but we cannot accomplish this without financial support!

Devotion

This is an article written by Jeremy Neely for a magazine in Australia called "Unite!"

Devotion
by Jeremy Neely

A few months back, I was forced to look deep into my life and analyze my devotion. The questions began to arise. First, to what extent am I devoted to my wife? My answer was that I would go to the ends of the earth for her and would even die for her. Then the second question hit me, to what extent am I devoted to God?

Here I am willing to go to the ends of the earth for my wife, even going to the grave for her, yet my devotion to my Creator is wrapped up in a 15 - 30 minute devotion time from a book with some touching story tied to a single verse. It began to appear to me that we have created a double standard and devotion has come to mean one thing in our relationship with our friends, family, husbands, wives, etc, but yet it means something completely different when it comes to God.

A quick search to look up the definition of the word devotion on Dictionary.com netted me similar findings. here are the definitions from that search:
1. profound dedication; consecration
2. earnest attachment to a cause, person, etc.
3. an assignment or appropriation to any purpose, cause, etc.: the devotion of one's wealth and time to scientific advancement.
4. Often, devotions. Ecclesiastical. Religious observance of worship; a form of prayer or worship for special use.
It seems that the dictionary has a double standard of devotion as well. The first three sound like the devotion I give to my wife, yet the fourth pounds off on "religious observance".

This obviously set off more thoughts and questions in my heart and mind. God is not an idea or a philosophy, He is a real person. We are created in the image of Him, so why do we treat Him differently then we treat one another? Many of us experience or have experienced His presence in our daily lives, so we cannot cast Him off as being distant or just an idea.

Now let's look at devotion in the life of Jesus. Specifically I'm looking at stories from Matthew. Jesus many times over showed us, as well as told us, that our devotion to God (the Person, no the idea) should be so strong that we would be obedient unto death. Ouch! Not only did Jesus (God with us) demonstrate this lifestyle of devotion to the Father, but so did His Disciples and those that came to faith through them.

Needless to say, this has disrupted my pattern of setting aside 15 - 30 minutes a day to sit down to read a book titled "Daily Devotion". Those of you familiar with the music ministry my wife and I have called Wur'ship Project (http://www.wurship.com) will know that our drive is to encourage others to live a life of worship. This lifestyle of worship will only spring forth from us if we truly give God our devotion. No matter which way one tries to look at it, the end result is that we must become imitators of the life of Jesus Christ.