WordNews.org starts New Artist Profile, featuring emerging Christian artists before they make it big

WordNews.org is looking to profile Christian artists before they make it big and are featured in the big Christian magazines. Send a CD, MP3 or link and press release to info@wordnews.org to suggest an artist.
The first artist featured is Jeannie Singleton of ButterflySongs Music in Colonie, N.Y.

Jeannie's songs hit such a chord with the everyday Christian.

You may wonder after listening to one of her songs who told her your story. If you asked Jean — Jeannie to her friends and family — she'd tell you she's lived much of what she's written.

"God has allowed me to be the voice for a whole lot of wounded people," she said.

Below is a WordNews.org exclusive Q&A with Jeannie about how she writes and what's coming up. And remember, turn the volume up on your computer to hear a short clip from her latest project.

WORD NEWS: When did you start writing music?

Jeannie: I started writing when I was about 10 years old. I've forgotten much of what I wrote back then, although the first complete song I wrote that other people sang was "Living, Loving and Laughing," and that one is still around.

WN: How do you write your songs? Where do you get your ideas?

Jeannie: The "writing moments" happen a little differently for each song. Generally the ideas come from things that occur in my life, or in the lives of those I love. Sometimes songs come from great sermons my pastors preached. I also really enjoy when I'm asked to write about a "theme" or Bible verse that just "clicks" in me. I often get a small piece of a song - usually a chorus - and I'll play that over and over until the rest adds on. Often Ceaser, my husband, will look at the words and "tighten it up" a bit for me when I get too wordy. Then I play it so many times that my neighbors probably start closing their windows. Each new song kind of becomes a "friend." I spend a lot of time with each one - finding out its highs and lows, and all the little nuances. This is God's doing. I really take no credit - I'm just a vessel. I've heard a lot of musicians say that. Maybe it sounds a little "hokey" to people, or artificially humble. I stand before God and say "I'm just the vessel." He opens my head and plops the song in. I frequently will listen back to a song that "I've" just written, and be amazed at how the phrasing flows, or how the first word from each verse links, or how the verse spoken by a businessman uses businessman language, and the verse spoken by the child, uses child language. I'm telling you I didn't plan it that way. People often point things like that out - and I'm just as surprised by it as they are. This isn't to say that I think the songs are "perfect." This vessel is made of clay, not gold. And it has a few cracks in it - so some things may be lost in the translation.

WN: What's the vision for ButterflySongs Music?

Jeannie: The vision for ButterflySongs Music is many-faceted. Right now, the main goal is to complete the first album, "Wounded Heart." It's filled with songs where God has allowed me to be the voice for a whole lot of wounded people: children of neglect and abuse, recovering addicts, children of inmates, etc., and "lukewarm Christians" who know their walk is not what it ought to be. It is an album that speaks frankly about the pains involved in many of life's situations - but its purpose is to give hope - and to point to Jesus, the only true Healer of the wounded heart. The eventual goal is to donate copies of this album (I love that nice old-fashioned word — album) to shelters, rehabs, city missions, jails and prisons. I would like Wounded Heart someday to be distributed as a two-album unit, so there is always one to give away. I’m working with an amazing couple of guys at Pinewoods Studio in Melrose, N.Y. The first time I walked out of that studio I felt that Gary Tash and Nate Kohrs had taken my little "paint-by-numbers" song and turned it into a work of art.

The second album project - still yet in the concept phase - is a praise and worship album - "Prince of Peace." Hopefully it won't have as many heart-wrenching songs - but I'm not guaranteeing that.

WN: Is this your life's dream?
Go to http://www.wordnews.org to read the rest of Jeannie's answers and to offer suggestions for future profiles.