SMASH Hits - Monday, August 8

“Ah, Mercy. This is the name of God.”
                                              Pope Francis

The Beginning
 

In December of 2015, Father Chris challenged Mark, Tim, and me to write a song commemorating Pope Francis’s declaration of 2016 as “The Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy”.

The Year of Mercy is an invitation to love, kindness, and unbounded generosity and Pope Francis is offering us the opportunity to encounter the incredible mercy of God.

The next day after Father Chris’s challenge, I received a voice mail message from him. He had already come up with the refrain to the song when he woke up that morning and proceeded to sing the “hook” (musician speak for “refrain”), melody and lyrics included, in the voice message (you all know the melody by now!);

Open wide the Doors of Mercy,
Open wide the gates of Love,
We are sinners, always seeking
Mercy from our God above

He said, “I don’t know if you guys can do anything with that or if it’s any good but maybe that’s something.”

I called Mark and Tim and we all agreed it was a great foundation for the new tune.

The three of us got together that Sunday before the Life Teen service, and a song was born using Father Chris’s refrain. Mark came up with the bulk of the rest of the song - lyrics, melody, and chord changes for the verses - with some input from Tim on lyrics for the bridge (“Kairos, Mercy…”) and then Tim and I chimed in with a few suggestions for the bridge, chord changes, and the arrangement. Steve then jumped in with the drumbeat, and a song was born!

Father Chris loved it and suggested we record it immediately so we could have it in time for World Youth Day in Poland, as well as a gift to Cardinal O’Malley and the Archdiocese of Boston.

The band jumped at the chance and went to our favorite place to record, Jeff Briggette’s “Sonic Disorder” recording studios in Weymouth. Jeff is a great guy and a master recording engineer and producer. Jeff and all of us in the band have a ton of experience in studios, together and individually, recording CDs, commercial spots, and film scores, so we knew this would be great adventure.

Once the band was done recording, we had Father Chris, Mrs. McDonough, Mike Habeeb, Tim Habeeb, and Mike “Key of C” Callahan come in and add some background vocals (some we kept and… well... some not so much…) and made sure Father Chris took a solo on the bridge of the song. He nailed his “4 words, 2 notes” (“The time is todaaaay!”). A recording was now born and completed at the end of February.

During the process Fr. Chris decided the song should have a video featuring the band and the Life Teen members, so Tim H. shot some video at the recording studio. Christopher Mutkoski, a long-time parishioner at St. Mary’s and an expert photographer and videographer (and founder/CEO of Axon Communications), volunteered his company’s services and facilities to create the finished video for a professional quality result.

We gathered the teens on Sunday, April 17 after a Life Teen Mass and shot the remainder of the video and included clips from the April 16 Spring Retreat. After some editing and hard work on Chris Mutkoski’s part, the video is something we are all very proud of and are happy to say it is on constant rotation on Catholic TV...
 

That all brings us to today! After the success and joy we all had creating the “Doors of Mercy” song, recording, and video, Father Chris gave us his blessings to move forward with a professionally recorded full length CD which is scheduled to be available on Sunday, November 27 (the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the First Day of Lent). A great Christmas gift (hint hint…)!

And that is where this blog of the process till then begins…
Stay tuned!