God and My Girlfriends Women's Retreat
Crosspoint Church, Niceville, FL
More info TBA
THE STORY:
Out of the the Ashes was written about a month after the Gatlinburg Fire took our beloved mountain home. If you’ve been reading these stories, you know what happened. If not, you can read the story for “Go to the Mountain”, or you can read my blog detailing the stories: Pt.1: The Kids Escape and Pt. 2: Mike’s Discovery. Needless to say, it was a traumatic event for our family.
My good friend Britt Savage, was sweetly suggesting that I write a song about it, but for some reason I was a bit reluctant. I guess I didn’t want to be one of “those” songwriters. You know, the kind who seem to use traumatic events as a way to bring the spotlight on their careers. I know sometimes it comes from a real place, but more often than not, it can appear a little self-serving. I certainly didn’t want it to come across like, “Hey guys, my life is falling apart, so I wrote a song about it. And you can buy it on iTunes tomorrow!” LoL Again, I don’t mean to sound like I’m judging… because I know that writing can truly be cathartic for us creative types, and this was definitely healing for me to write this one.
Like I said, Britt was nudging me and I was hesitating.. and then she called and sang this chorus to me over the phone. It touched me so much that I immediately said, “Get over to our house NOW and let’s finish this!”. I think she came over the next day and she sat down with me and Mike in our living room. Mike and I had gone up to the area twice with our cameras to document the damage. We drove all around the area and in the process met so many folks who had lost SO MUCH MORE than we did. However, the spirit of the East Tennessee people is STRONG. And you could tell that they weren’t going to let those fires take their town! They were praising God for what was left and trusting God to help them rebuilding what was lost. It was truly inspiring, and those images were in our heads as we finished “Out of the Ashes”.
So, this song is dedicated to all the people in East TN who truly suffered loss on Nov. 28th, 2016… yet came through it with grace, forgiveness and strength of spirit. I am so proud of my fellow Tennesseans, who bonded together and got through such a life-changing event…..and I can’t wait to be back up in the mountains again with you soon!
THE LYRICS:
Out of the Ashes
Writers: Marcia Ramirez/Britt Savage/Mike Waldron
CH: Out of the ashes — your name will rise
With hearts that are broken
With tears in our eyes
We raise you up with a song of your praise
Trusting in you Lord, all of our days
Dark days have come Lord
to our sweet mountain town
Dreams have been shattered
Memories burned down
But we’ll stand together
And hold on to our faith
Believing you’re here, ever so near
Right here in this place
CHORUS
Everything may seem different
But you never change
We know that you hear us
When we cry out your name
Dear Jesus these hard times
have brought us down to our knees
Make new life appear, when all the smoke clears
We pray and believe — that
CHORUS
CREDITS:
Drums-Tim Grogan
Upright Bass-Rod Lewis
Bouzouki-Mike Waldron
Electric Guitar-Greg Foresman, Mike Waldron
Keyboards-Dane Bryant
BGV’s-Britt Savage, Mike Waldron
Recorded at Studio 515, Nashville, TN