There's a Bluebird on my shoulder...

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I played the Bluebird Cafe on Thursday night with some GREAT writers.  John Lemonis invited Tony Wood, Dave Clark and myself to play.  Dave Clark has had 25 #1's in Christian Music and Tony Wood has had 18 #1's.  If your doing the math, that is 43 #1's between them.  They have held the Bluebird cafe in such high esteem and it was both their first time to play.  I was so honored to be playing with them for their first time there.  It was a wonderful evening!  Thank you John for the invitation!

The Central Park Sabbatical

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I have written songs professionally for the past 9 years. I try to work really hard and treat it as a job and show up every day. In March, I really started feeling like an empty well and as the month progressed it began to feel overwhelming. I just wasn't enjoying it.

There was a day in March when I began talking about taking some time off. I started asking the people who this would affect(my wife Sarah, my publisher Holly, and several co-writers) what they thought of the idea. To my surprise, everyone resoundingly told me to take time off.

I met with several people that last week in March to wrestle with how to rest well. One of the guys who was really gracious with his time was Jeromy Diebler. We had several days down to write and he so willingly switched gears and helped dream with me about my time off. I'm in a marriage mentoring community group led by Greg Ham. I told our group that I was taking the month off and that I wanted to take a two-day silent retreat to begin my month. Greg had done this in the past and recommended that I meet with a counselor named Al Andrews. I took Al to lunch at Puckett's Grocery in downtown Franklin. I had heard a lot about Al as he is a counselor to many artist's and musicians. Our time together was wonderful and one of the things that he said stood out to me. He said, "I want you to consider finding your Central Park." It's like my spirit smiled when he said that and I nodded for him to continue. "Your life is like the busy-ness of New York City and the planners of the city carved out a huge space in the middle of that city that seemed to communicate rest."

I left for my two day retreat and went to a place called Deer Run. I stayed in Lodge in the Treehouse Suite. The first morning and early afternoon was great. I read, prayed, journaled, hiked, and listened. In the late afternoon, it started being really hard and lonely and I had another day to go! Looking back, I'm so glad I took that retreat...for margin, for rest, for wrestling. I will continue to look back on the things I journaled about. This is one of the entries...

Central Park Metaphor

The City is extremely busy. Tourists, people dressed in suits. Sidewalks packed, walking, waiting at red lights.

The forethought of city planners to carve out a HUGE chunk of the city and make it a place of relaxation and renewal. They could bring machines in and dig up the trees, rocks for climbing, ponds, bridges, places for running and riding bikes. It would have been seemingly easy to build more city blocks of skyscrapers, money-making structures. Instead it seems, they valued margin, space, something green amidst something gray.

Yes, the beauty of NYC is the sum of it's parts but the sum of it's parts includes the vast oasis that is Central Park. The city wouldn't be nearly as magical without it.

You can see the city from a long way off. In the same way, I want to be a sort of City on a Hill. I want to love the Lord and love people well with His love. Living well seemingly means I need to value margin...not just value margin that exists in a Redbox, a racquetball game, or 18 holes but margin that listens, that prays, that memorizes scripture, that takes time to love people in need.


I have one more week of time off. It has been good for my soul. It has been really interesting to see how the Lord has already blessed this time off. I keep hearing good news this month about songs being cut or singled to radio. I'm excited to get back in the room with friends and start creating again. As I have started to schedule May, the temptation is to pack my schedule and start building "skyscrapers"...but I am mindful to leave space...a Central Park for my soul.

Miracle on East 45th Street

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Sarah and I got back from New York City this last week.  Part of Sarah's job at Belmont University is to coordinate an extension program in New York and Los Angeles.  A Belmont student was receiving an award from the ASCAP Foundation in NYC and we were there to support her and Belmont.  It was our first time to be in the city during Christmas.  We loved it!  The lights, the window displays, the decorations, and the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center all gave such a different experience to our trip. We had a day off and we went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and had a great time.

We usually fly home in the late afternoon so we can spend a good part of the last day shopping and taking in the city.  Sarah and I slept in a bit on the day we were leaving.  We were staying at the Roosevelt Hotel on East 45th Street.  We were in the process of getting ready and packing so we could check out the when I decided to call ASCAP about an upcoming check amount.  I left a voicemail with a lady at ASCAP and within 5 minutes she had called me back.  This bulk of this check was going to represent a song that I had on the radio this last year called My Deliverer by Mandisa.  I typically try not to get my hopes up for a check amount to guard myself from disappointment.  I had a really conservative amount in my head and was setting myself up for it to be even less.  When my friend from ASCAP called me back and told me the amount, it was substantially higher than I anticipated.  I got off the phone and played the game with Sarah, "Guess how much?".  She started with my conservative amount and I kept saying "higher...higher...higher".  When I told her the amount she started jumping on the bed.  She started hugging me and said, "The Lord is using your gift to provide for us."  As if this moment wasn't holy enough, this is where story takes off.  Sarah and I are still hugging when we hear a voice in the hallway(the walls of the Roosevelt are not the most sound proof) say, "The Bible says that the Lord will prosper you."  You've got to remember that this is New York and you don't hear people talking like this. Sarah and I went to the door immediately to see who had said this.  There in the hallway was one of the housekeeping staff on the phone.  She looked a little startled because we were looking surprised at her.  She held the phone away from her ear and Sarah asked her if she had said what we had heard and she smiled and nodded.  Because she was on the phone, we didn't say anything else but I put my fist in the air and she smiled a little bigger.  We went back into the hotel room and a minute later she was knocking on our door.  Her name was Monica.  We invited her into the hotel room and I told her the story of My Deliverer and about my phone call and that the Lord is providing for us to get out of debt.  I played her a bit of the song on my iphone.  She started smiling and praising the Lord and said, "You know...people are so busy these days that they don't take time to read...but they WILL listen to songs...bless you."  I asked her how we could pray for her and you could all of the sudden see the yearning on her face.  She said, "My husband is not a believer and I desperately want him to be."  She told us his name is Eric.  They are both from Ghana in Africa.  We prayed together there in room 385 of the Roosevelt Hotel for Eric's salvation.  Monica seemed SO blessed by our exchange when she said goodbye.  When the door closed, Sarah and I just praised the Lord for making a moment of blessing for us into a moment of blessing for someone else.  The Lord is SO good!

This past fall, there have been moments during football games where I had given up on the team I was pulling for because it looked like there was no way to for them to come back.  There have been moments where I didn't know if my song was going to be cut by an artist or whether it was going to be singled.  Sometimes I give up easily.  Sarah never stopped BELIEVING.  She started saying, "I believe.  That's who I am!"  We walked by Macy's in New York and "Believe" was on the side of the building.  Sarah said, "I believe. That's who I am!" and we snapped the picture.  I am so grateful for her.

I hope you see the Lord's blessing this year at Christmas as we worship Jesus.  Please take a moment to pray for Eric!

Merry Christmas!

Song School

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Hello good people. I'm launching my new website. It is www.chadcates.net. Check it out! As a part of the launch, I am also adding a service on this blog called Song School. Hopefully it will be a place that you can check back every now and then to pick up some tips and tricks about songwriting. Here is the intro video. The second video is the first lesson called "Melody Dynamics". Let me know what you think.