New Song - You Are There

I'm excited to annouce the unveiling of my latest recording. The song is called You Are There and has been described as a worship song by others. It represents quite a change in more than one area of my life.

First, it represents a new journey on my knowledge of recording techniques. Without going into boring detail I managed to utilize specialist features of a programme called Magix to create what I think is the best quality recording I've done to date.

Second, it has helped me to realise that sometimes it's good to wait instead of being so impatient. The song was birthed back in September/October and I've been picking at since then. Fotunatel I have a wonderful and patient wife who allowed me the space and time to complete the recording during the Christmas Holidays.

Finally, it marks a change in attitude, once again, regarding my faith and how I share it. I'm still not going to drum my beliefs into everybodys ears, but I'm not going to shy away from the fact that I am overjoyed to proclaim that I believe Jesus has rescued me from the sting of death. Every part of my life has been mapped out for me and I sometimes can't quite believe how every step is so wonderfully choreographed through thick and thin. Even to the point where the rough times have prepared me for each next step. It's easy to say this as I walk in a time of bounty, but right now I see a purpose for my life as a servant of God.

I hope you enjoy the song as much as I've enjoyed making it.

Many blessings
Steve

Music Specialist Status at William Lovell CofE School

Since beginning my new job at William Lovell Church of England School Stickney Lincolnshire I haven't the opportunity to stand still. Shortly after beginning the job I discovered that we were seeking specialist status in music. As the head of music this clearly meant an awful lot to me both as a challenge and an opportunity for the school. I can now confirm that we have been successful in our bid, praise God. As a church school there was a huge amount of prayer went into this project and now we seek to find Gods will through it all, especially with the need to appoint a new member to the department. I pray that God will bring us a candidate who is not only a skilled music teacher, but also has a heart for worship and a desire to share Gods world with our students, many of whom are unbelievers.

God is so good.

New website

Having successfully moved my webhost to twoedgemedia I am pleased to announce that I'm pretty close to a total revamp on my website. Some of you may have seen the red version for a short which I struggled with to set up the template. Finally I decided enough is enough and decided to adopt a template from free css templates. My thanks go to Robin and Helen of Living Hope to drawing my attention to these templates. Check out their website too locustmusic
I truly hope you enjoy the new website and welcome any suggestions you may have.

Anyone near Hull, UK?

Shameless plug I know, but you don't get anything if you don't try

After a long period of no activity I seem to have been thrust into the frontline again much to my delight. Saturday 19th April 2008 is my next 'gig' at Manna Coffee, in Hull. Manna Coffee is a chiristian coffee house that has recently set up n outreach 'church' that is based around the Alpha model and is aiming to break down the preconceptions tha many people have about what church is about. The series of Saturday night concerts is one the attempts draw people from the in to experience the love of Jesus in action. I feel quite honoured to be the first artist in the series. In the gig I will performing acoustic versions of a selection of the songs I have written. It seems the last few gigs have been just me and the guitar with some help form my good friend Nigel Halliday playing the Bodhran and guitar and singing backing vocals.

So if you're nearby why not drop in and support MannaLife in their new venture. The evening will begin with an open mic if you're interested.

19 Apr 2008, 19:30
Manna Coffee
76 & 80 King Street, Cottingham
Kingston Upon Hull, HULL
United Kingdom

A live acoustic gig which will feature music from the album Design for Life by Steve along with some newer material. Relaxing folk/pop music with challenging anecdotes. There will also be a period of open mic before Steve performs.

I WIll Praise You, Lord, Live at Willoughby

Here's one of the live recordings I managed to salvage from the evening. The song is called I Will Praise You, Lord from the Design For Life CD. I hope it works ok. Just click on the arrow.

Willoughby acoustic gig report

It's great to be back.

I've been gigging again. I was invited by Nigel to perform for a small villiage parish church in Willoughby, nr Alford, Lincs. That gig was last night and really gave me confidence to perform again. Once more Nigel joined me in singing some of my favourites of the songs I've written. A modest audience of 20 turned up the first in this series of concerts for outreach in Willoughby hosted by Rev Daffyd Thomas for what turned out to be, as billed, a relaxing evening of song in an intimate setting. I had some fabulous feedback including the words every performer needs to hear. "That was exactly what I'd been needing to hear." It always reminds of a song by Paul Field called Reader to Writer, "If a song can touch just one heart then I know that it's alll been worthwhile." What made the evening even more special for me was to see five good friends there, three of which I haven't seen in a long time. The Lord truly is good.

Today I received a call for another booking and in addition I've been invited to share with Spilsby Pentecostal church (lincs). So I am happy to confirm that I'll be performing in the Manna Coffee House, Cottingham , Hull 7:30pm 19th April 2008.

That's it in brief. Please drop me a line if only to say hi. BTW I'll be seeing what the live recording came out like and may add a song to the playlist here. Pictures to follow

I Will Dance

This hasn't happened to me for quite a while, but God gave me a new song on Tuesday. Unusually, it came almost complete in ajust a few minutes. That was always the way I composed in the past but mre recently my songs have come with considerably more birth pains and a long labour.

I will dance began Tuesday morning as I played the piano before my class arrived for registration. After school I once more sat down at the piano and played this nice musical pattern and then the words flowed. I took them home determined to edit them and work hard on perfecting them. However they were already written minus one line and a bridge. So today the song was finished. My worship group at school learnt the song with me and the bridge was written. The recording you hear is a one take after the kids had gone. I can't wait to record it properly.


I Will Dance
by Steve Lowndes

Verse 1:
You hold my heart
You hold my dreams
You catch me when I fall

When days are dark
You are my light
My shelter from the storm

Chorus:
And I will run to you
Into your open arms
And I will sing to you
With all the love in my heart
And I will give to you
My dreams my every desire
And I will dance, I will dance
. . . with you.

Verse 2:
You give me hope
You give me joy
When all I see is pain

You are my strength
When I am weak
You make me new again

Chorus:

Bridge:
And I will thank you
And I will praise you
‘Cause you’re my Lord, Jesus

Chorus:

Copyright Steve Lowndes 2008

New year - New site

I felt like a change so I decided to revisit the website I created back in 2005. I'd had a few comments that some of the features weren't working on the last site, noticeably the journal and guestbook. I also felt that the forum was getting any traffic and was too centered on me and that was never why I originally created my website. So I've gone back to blue. I think it looks calming yet bright. What do you think?
Some of the old pages are currently missing and some new ones are replacing them. One difference you may notice immediately, is that the videos page has changed completely. Instead of posting a set of videos mini players that take ages to initiate, I chose to simply use my home page from youtube. You can access any of te videos that were on the last videos page from there. I also forgot to add a photos gallery, so I'm working on that one right away.
About the forum! The Prayer and Praise forum was an idea way back in 2005. The idea behind it was to create a place where people could share thoughts, ideas, stories, news, but most importantly, prayers. If it only helps one person then it has been worth the time taken to create it. If you feel you want to join the forum please don't hesitate.
So, finally, I welcome you to the new site. I invite you to explore it's pages. I encourage you to make suggestions about how to make it better. I truly hope you enjoy the site.

Blessings
Steve

Going Live Again

It's been quite a while since I last did a live gig. May 2006 to be exact. That was when I went to Chicago to sing at Sanctuary AG church Batavia, IL. It was a difficult time with the knowledge that my sister-in-law was in the final stages of her cancer, also the first time I'd been away from home on my own since I got married 16 years ago. Also whilst I loved the church and especially being with my host I really got a shock when it came to my perception of ME as a performer. You see I always believed that wa what I was called to do. Since I was 14 to exact. The rude awaking was that having achieved my first international performance it felt completely wrong.

So the step to get out and perform again has been a difficult decision both personally and spiritually. However the timing seemed right so I decided to go for it. I still find myself asking why did I take the gig over and over again especially considering the huge volume of work I'm currently experiencing. But I will remain positive and faithful to my role as a performer this time and see what happens. I will learn from lessons gained in America and prepare for the performance in a different way.

So about the music. A number of years ago I was comissioned to write a set of contemporary Christmas songs and so was born the project "Incarnate God". It's basically my exploration of the most amazing gift that God ever gave us and the reason why we celebrate Christmas. With only 43 days left til Christmas I thought I'd post the following link to my Soundclick where you can listen to the entire set plus one extra. The recording was used on Christmas day a few years ago on Radio Linconshire with the Washingborough Singers led by Greg Wright and me singing the lead and playing double bass.

http://members.soundclick.com/station/603940

I hope you get chance to have a listen and maybe even feed back on the music.

Rock and Pop Academy

Ever had an idea that exceeded your expectations. In the search for funding of various types to upgrade my new music department I stumbled upon Musical Futures and some fantastic ideas for personalised learning in relation to the extended curriculum. So I decided to persue the idea in my new school having had moderate success with it in my former post. Basically students get the opportunity to develop group performance skills and the potential of performing to a large audience at a county based event. During the eight week programme students will gain basic knowledge of a new instrument to them and meet industry professionals from time to time to assist in their development.

So having broadcast the information to students who I thought would benefit from the experience the first week was a disaster. Two students attended and I ended up leading them in a workshop about playing the blues, they were both capable guitarists. As a result I decided to advertise the program to the whole school on two seperate occassions and to my astonishment the second session happened and I had 24 students attending whch created a whole new problem. That equates to 6-7% of the school population.

I now had a new set of opportunities to play with and have unwittingly created sustainabilit to the course by making two maybe three cohorts rather than one cohort of two bands that would eventually potentially lose interest. It just goes to show that we never fully appreciate the enthusiasm of our students until you stick your neck out and run an activity like this. As a foot note the program successfully won a bid of £2000 for tuition fees, instruments and transport costs to the events.

End of week one

Even though it's officially only been a three day week I'm exhausted. It's been a great start. I'm beginning to find my way around. William Lovell has such a feeling of peace about it. The year 7 students were great fun yesterday when we learnt two classic worship songs for assembly (How Wonderful and I want to serve the purpose of God). They sang their little hearts out.

Today I met the percussion teacher, Barry Kerr, who was inspirational with some excellent suggestions that will benefit a lrage group of students. There may be a Samba group starting soon.

I still seem to spend most of my time sorting out old files and filing new stuff, but I'm sure it will all end (by the time I retire )

I'm looking forward to next week now for two reasons. Mostly because it's Jack's first day at school (that feels weird). He's so excited. He said he more excited about his first day at school than he was for his birthday on 15th Sept. He's such an adorable little man.

The second reason because I'll finally get to meet all of the students of William Lovell.

New Demo - Out Of My Dreams

It's been a while since I've written a song even though I've been working on two or three songs for some time now. (Hopefully they'll get recorded soon). It was while I sat at the piano wainting for Pro Tools to wake up in preparation to record one of these said songs when Out of my dreams dropped into my life. Strangely enough that's how I used to always write my songs. Await inspiration then go with the flow allowing the song to write itself. Aftr some useful and constructive comments on some of those songs I've recently spent more time 'perfecting' lyrics and honing melodic ideas. So this trip back to this old style took me by surprise, BUT .... I didn't allow the song to direct in the same way and spent some time on the lyrics after the initial melody appeared. I even collaborated on the lyrics with my good friend J. Brian Hill.

The result is this demo which needs virtually every track recording again, but I'm so excited about the song I wanted to share it with you all. I intend to record the piano, voice and bass again and add strings and possibly acoustic guitar. Some slight modifications to the arrangement as well nd if I feel inspired maybe a guitar solo So watch this space and expect an update in the next decade. I hope you enjoy this love song which I dedicate to my beautiful wife Tamara.

Listen to it by clicking here.

stevelowndes.com Site Upgrade

I've been planning a shift in focus to my site so you may see some changes happening over the next few weeks. I've made a decision that this site should reflect what I do more than what I'd like to do. I still have the heart of a performer but recent events have nailed home the fact that my current role is a teacher of music. There are so many exciting opportunities at William Lovell CE school and I intend to embrace them with all my energy.

So what's going to be new.

First you will notice that my school website sccmusic.com will be integrated into this website . Two reasons really: one I can't get rid of the domain name sccmusic until December and I no longer work at St Clement's College anymore. The other remains that I wish to make my role as a teacher a more prominent aspect of my ministry. Something that has taken me a a long time to realise.

Secondly, my own music will take a lower profile on the website as the focus becomes my role as an educator who serves the Lord.
I intend to make the site as interactive as possible and will encourage feedback from my readers and pupils alike.

So that's what to expect so - watch this space!