New album: Mars Hill Christmas / Silent Night

By Pastor Tim Smith

I am pleased to announce the first Mars Hill Worship studio recording project in over 3 years: Mars Hill Christmas | Silent Night. Although we have begun to release a series of “live” recordings containing material gleaned from Sunday worship services it’s been a while since we’ve spent any time in the studio. There are two simple reasons for this: time and money.

Some years back Mars Hill operated a small recording studio out of the Paradox venue in the University District. During that time it was easier to slip into the studio for a day here and there to work on a project with less financial burden. Since we closed that venue to consolidate church services at our new church building, organizing new recording projects has gotten much more complicated.

We’d discussed the possibility of future recording projects when out of the blue I got a call from a friend who runs an amazing studio in northern California. There had been a cancellation and we were invited to make use of the studio during a two week period. I almost said no to the invitation because I had a tremendous amount of work to do but nevertheless I found myself in California with Joel Brown and Kris Rosentrater a few short days later.

This Christmas album began in that California studio and was finished here in Seattle at a local studio this last summer. The making of this record was one of the more inspiring musical experiences of my life and it was a great time with some good brothers. There is a lot more to the story to tell but we will save that for another post in the coming weeks.

This CD is made up exclusively of old Christmas Carols such as Joy to the World, O Holy Night, Silent Night, O Come O Come Emmanuel and others. When it comes to Christmas music standards you have to leave the melody in tact-and rest assured we have. However, in keeping with Mars Hill’s philosophy of hymn arrangement we have done our best to frame these beautiful old melodies into a modern, musical context.
Historically speaking, many of the old hymns we sing have a separate author for the tune and the text. Over the years these texts have been put to a number of different tunes to fit with a particular people in a particular place and time. We see ourselves as a part of that continuum of people seeking to bring glory to Jesus in a way that resonates with the people of our culture.

In many ways this is how we are to live as Christians: we share an ancient message (the truth of Jesus) and we articulate that message in the current language and culture of our time.

The arrangements came primarily from Joel Brown and myself and we are very proud of the end result. You can pick up the CD at a Mars Hill resource center at any campus on Sundays or download it from iTunes beginning the first week of September. We will have a direct link to the record in iTunes as soon as it hits.
It is my sincere hope that this album blesses you in a season that has seemingly become less than the advent of Jesus.

Merry Christmas!!!

Tim Smith is the Worship Pastor for Mars Hill Church and leads Mars Hill band “The Parsons”. You can hear his band Sundays at all the campuses on any given Sunday.