Many of you know that I am one of Katherine Nelson’s biggest fans on planet earth. I have spent countless hours on the road and abroad with her and the rest of the Nashville Tribute Band and I have had the privilege of getting to know Katherine well. I am a fan of her songwriting, of her acting, of her singing and of her ability to intimately engage a crowd. But, more importantly, I am a fan of her as a person; of her bravery to put her life out on her sleeve and sing and talk about the difficult times through which she has forged and how she dug deep to find the faith to navigate herself, her husband and her family successfully through each day of those trials. Kind of reminds me another woman who lived in a place called Nauvoo once.

I wanted to write this week on Katherine’s album BORN BRAVE. You who know me know I love this album. I loved the process of seeing the concept in its infancy as Katherine first shared it with me; to watch her vision, then to see it grow wings and eventually fly was an evolution that I shall not soon forget. It is one of my favorite albums that I have ever worked on and I wanted to spend a minute or two and tell you why.

After a few years on the road with NTB, Katherine came to me in 2010 and said, “Jason, I have an album in me that I need to get out. I feel a connection to an audience that needs to hear something and I want to say it. All over the world today there are women wearing rubber gloves standing over a sink of dirty dishes staring blankly out the kitchen window saying to themselves…’This is not what I signed up for. My kids show me little or no respect. My husband is not the man I married and I have given up everything for, well, for this?’ Jason, I want to give those women hope! I want to give them music that makes them want to stand up and fight!” Waylaid by this estrogen thunderstorm that had just shot like lightening out of this woman’s mouth…I was inspired. She played me a song she had written called Soldier Girls and I felt her passion. I knew this wasn’t just any record she wanted to make. She complelled to make this record and I knew that I was privileged to be along for the ride on this very important journey. She asked me to write with her for the project. I said yes. She asked me to produce her album. I said yes.

Over the next many months, as we were on the road we would find pockets of time around our sound checks and shows to jump into green rooms and quiet hallways where we could discuss songs and what the album needed to say. Katherine was locked-in on these sessions. We started to make an album and I started to feel something special coming to life with every step. Here are some stories behind the songs, at least from my perspective:

BORN

Kat and I got together in her home and wrote this song. While in Utah, I drove to her house in Kaysville one spring day in 2011, I believe. It was the first song we ever wrote together. We started talking about what song should start this album out. What we thought every woman should know. What they were “born” to do. There you go. We had a title. We worked a while and we had a chorus. The verses came pretty easily as we began with…”I was raised to be brave”. We didn’t know it at the time but the album title “Born Brave” was found somewhere in that lyric as it rolled out. I am amazed at women. Always have been. My mother is a spectacular woman. My grandmother and my great-grandmothers were spectacular woman. My wife will be forever amazing me with the inherent magic of her womanhood and my daughters surprise me every day with those things God planted in their DNA, both spiritually and emotionally. Men are built for brute physical strength, but women are built inherently with a strength from within that when needed by those they love, can move both heaven and earth if it be God’s will. I am amazed at how often it is God’s will. Women are beautiful. They are loved by the Father who created them and when they stand up every morning and say things like:

I was born to stand tall
I was born to face the wind
I was born to feel heartbreak and heal again
Born to open up my heart
Raise my hands and sing
I was born to fill the measure of my wings
To be the light in the storm
I was born”

…then they truly will find themselves working miracles as they live and love among the generations that they will forever influence.

WE ARE

Katherine had shared with me a verse melody and lyric that I liked a lot but I just couldn’t seem to find the estrogen in me to help her take it to the next level. Katherine soon after came to Nashville and I arranged a co-write with a brilliant songwriter friend of mine named Emily Shackelton. We met at my publishing company and Katherine laid her idea out in her usual passionate way:

“We’re not little girls with our dress ups on
We’ve earned these heels in a hundred love songs
We are wise, we are heart, we are struggle
We are strong
We’ll die as brave as the day that we were born
Walkin’ like queens but we work like soldiers
We’re the front lines, we’re the hemlines
Men and children cling on
And we claim our right to carry on”

Emily laid her fingers on the ivories and sat silently with her eyes closed, soaking the song in. She started to play and sing a melody to the chorus that followed Katherine’s verse and it was beautiful. Emily’s voice and chords on the piano broke it wide open and we all three knew what to do. This song seemed to reach out and hold hands with Katherine’s song Soldier Girls, and together they held up a banner for the world to see. Soldier Girls, Born and We Are became the backbone of the album we were building…and we started to feel a beating creative pulse to this project. We were on our way.

SOLDIER GIRLS

This is one of two songs on the album that I did not write that I wish that I had. The song is powerful from beginning to end. Katherine and her co-writers made me want to put on a dress and wade the muddy trenches. Well, not really, but they definitely made me think of the women through the ages who have triumphed amidst tragedy and brought life and hope to countless souls in the wake of their faith. I love this song. Always will. Recording this on Katherine was an absolute pleasure.

GOOD FOR ME

This song was another that we wrote at Katherine’s house, or at least we started it there. Katherine had seen a Tyra Banks talk show that set four women who were rather mousey examples of modern home-makers against four very well educated and socially articulate business woman who had chosen to work outside the home. Katherine had little respect for the show’s apparent attempts to belittle stay-at-home-moms and portray their plight in life as “less than” those woman who have chosen careers outside of the home.

“I’m not asking your permission
No talk show host will change my mind
Some make their peace with independence
I find mine own at dinnertime

When all around my table
See every face and every hand
And I thank the God above us
Cause all I want is where I am

Chorus:

Here’s to the courageous women out there in shiny shoes and business suits
Good for you
But hats off to the women in the kitchen who run the world raising boys and girls
All the broken nails, laundry to my knees
Every bed I make, dishes in the sink
Life is sweet in my little dream
Good for me”

I don’t know any other song that touches on this subject in the direct way that Katherine wanted to. I am very proud of this song. I love everything about it.

WHAT’S MINE IS YOURS

This is the other song on the album that I wish I had written. I don’t even want to muddy the waters of this brilliant piece with my opinion, other than to say it is a masterpiece. Katherine performing it live is something everyone should behold. Her vocal in the studio the day we recorded it remains one of the best vocals that I have ever recorded in my career. Top to bottom beautiful. I love it.

DON’T TELL ME

Katherine and I wrote this song I believe in some back room that had a piano in it at the Safford Center For the Arts between an NTB sound check and a show. We finished it outside in the parking lot just before the show. We started discussing the power of women in groups. How they inspire each other and how they draw strength from one another. The words rolled out:

“Don’t tell me we are not the same
Our faces may be different, people call us by different names
But hey
Don’t think the road your walking on
Will take you to a place that one of us hasn’t gone
You know you’re not alone

We all live, we all laugh, we all cry
We all dream and we pray, we press on and we fight
Our hearts beat and they break when lose what we love”

In a group of women, they always seem to find their same core struggles and motivations aligning; triumphs and desires strangely but naturally congruent in some sort of seemingly pre-existing sisterhood that sustains them all as they pour their hearts out to one another. They find solace in their sameness, and find a strength untold in their collective will to survive and their determination to leave a legacy in the generations walking behind them.

HOME SWEET HOME

Katherine came to Nashville on a writing trip and walked into my office. She sat down around my round, oak kitchen table with me and my friend Billy Austin to write a song for the album. The table had been in my kitchen at home for years and I had only recently moved it down to my office after we bought a new one at home. The old table is scarred with years of use. Breakfasts, lunches, dinners, homework, scripture study, letters written and games played had worn it’s surface nearly out. I guess the table sort of helped us write the song that day:

“Homes ain’t built by bricks and mortar
It ain’t bound walls and floors
Leave your lonely at the fence posts
Walk your love right through my door
Children gather round the table
Little voices in their seats
Sayin’grace for what’s before us
Life is sweet enough to eat

Home sweet home

Always comin’, runnin’ to the arms I love love love…yeah
Home sweet home
So thankful for the hearts that make it up 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6”

Katherine has four children…hence 1,2,3,4,5,6 around her table every night. This song does my heart good.

WHEN LOVE COMES AGAIN

This was an idea that me and my friends Dave Robbins (writer of RESTLESS HEARTS The Bluest Eyes In Texas…among other hits) and Billy Austin (the writer of THE WRECKERS Leave The Pieces) had started before Katherine came to town. We played the concept for Katherine and she got it and we finished what I think is a great feeling song that says some important things. We all knew women who had lost their marriages for a number of reasons and we discussed the challenges that all of them faced to ready their own hearts to become fertile ground for love when it comes again:

“Baby take your heart out of your pocket where you put it
When he broke it and you swore you’d never love again
It’s crazy staying in that little silly place
That keeps you paralyzed from moving on
To where new love begins

Cause when love comes to save you don’t let it find you
Broken down

Jaded and melancholy all alone and feeling sorry
Lost in your own world when love comes again
Temperamental mad and moody
Missing out on the good that could be
Let ‘em see that pretty smile
When love that comes again”

In theory the concept of this song is a true principle. In practice it is a sight to behold.

EMMA

In 2004 I had written the song Emma after a longing desire to know the heart of Emma Hale Smith. I had read volumes about her and marveled at her life experience, which is extraordinary in every respect. I had experiences very personal to me that I would consider sacred in writing that song. I love that woman and forever will for her sacrifices that have brought forth the blessings that I so enjoy today. I looked long and hard to find the right vocalist for the first recording of that song. It had to be perfect. After trying several vocalist that just didn’t fit, a young singer named Mindy Gledhill walked into Soularium Studios in Alpine, Utah one day in the spring of 2005 and nailed it. Mindy was sick the day she met me in the studio and we both wondered if it was going to work. Maybe that’s where she got the emotion to sing it… I don’t know…but her vocal on the song was perfect for the album Joseph: A Nashville Tribute To The Prophet. Mindy toured with the Nashville Tribute Band for several years brilliantly testifying of Emma as she soulfully sang this song. People loved her singing Emma. People still love her recording of it. I certainly do. After a while Mindy was going to school full time, being a mom to her boys a wife to her husband Ryan; and was making projects of her own and it was just time for her to not be out on the road with NTB anymore. We missed her but we understood. I am forever grateful for Mindy and her talents.

In 2008, NTB was doing a show in Nauvoo. We were so full of the spirit of the place when someone asked us to come to the theater in Nauvoo and see the new film Emma: My Story. We went and we all sat memorized by the performance of Katherine Nelson as she played Emma in that film. She had become onscreen the woman that I had come to know in writing the song. I called her up after we returned from Nauvoo and asked her if she wanted to tour with NTB. She said yes and she has been on the road with us ever since, lifting hearts heavenward as she sings the words of Emma and personifies the First Lady of our Dispensation with a regal grace unparalleled by anyone.

Katherine and I wanted to put a new version of Emma on her album BORN BRAVE. Emma Smith no doubt was born and lived brave in every way. The Joseph album version in a sense became the “period piece” tribute and the new recording is our “new millennia” tribute to the woman we both so admire. Katherine’s performance on record is perfect in my opinion and what, after all, could be better than Emma singing Emma. Katherine, I will be forever grateful to you for your reverent and sincere sensitivities to such a wonderful woman in your studies, in your portrayal of her on film and in your humble offering every time you step up to the mic on stage and sing this song.

BRAVE

Katherine had a neighbor in Utah named LaRaida who was a cancer survivor. In Nashville Katherine joined Billy Austin and me for another writing session and she wanted to write a song for LaRaida. For my personal contribution to the song, I had to dig from another source because I didn’t know LaRaida like Katherine did. I went to the well of my mother and drew from her experience of chronic pain, battling the drugs to survive it and the countless severe heath issues she has fought over the past 20 years. In this I found all that I needed for my creative contribution to the song. My sweet mom once painted clouds on her ceiling to lighten her bedroom. That’s where I got the first line.

VIRGIN’S LULLABY

Quite possibly one of my favorite songs that I have ever written. I wrote it several years ago with my friend Victoria Shaw (Garth Brooks The River & She’s Every Woman, John Michael Montgomery’s I Love The Way You Love Me). I loved it when we started it. I loved it as we wrote it and I have loved it ever since. It has been recorded several times and was on the soundtrack to the motion picture The Nativity Story, but I still don’t think the song has had its day in the sun, so to speak. Katherine wanted to record it for BORN BRAVE. Mary was certainly among the bravest women ever to walk the earth. It seemed fitting so we recorded it. Larry Stewart (of Restless Heart) and the boys of Due West joined Katherine and I in the studio and they each beautifully sang their parts. I love this recording. I love the wonderful choir of men and women from east Nashville who sang the parts of the angels. Katherine’s voice rendered the lullaby that I heard in my head as the song was written. Mary bringing the Savior of the world to earth through her humble and simple offering on that cool desert night is the beginning to the greatest story ever told.

Katherine Nelson has truly strengthened the world in making this album. Hats off to her for being BORN BRAVE and for living BRAVE. Hats off to her for awakening the women of the world to what they were BORN to do…be wonderful, beautiful, successful daughters of the God of this universe. This is a record that needed to be made and it needs to be heard. I hope that it changes you like it has me.

- Jason Deere

(READ KATHERINE’S STORY AND PURCHASE THE ALBUM BORN BRAVE HERE)

~ Jason Deere

I was on tour in Oregon recently when my wife texted me a picture of my little man J Davis standing on the street in Salt Lake City (where they were vacationing) with his new set of scriptures that Sonja bought him for his 8th birthday. He has since very proudly used them at family scripture studies and carried them to church every Sunday. He truly treasures this gift from his mama and he seems to know that they are not only a right of passage as he grows from a boy into a man, but that they are valuable tools for his personal growth. This photo made me think of what a treasure the scriptures truly are.

In 600 B.C., two very concerned parents (Lehi and Sariah) faithfully sent their sons back into the wicked city of Jerusalem because they were so sure that the plates of brass (which contained the five books of Moses) were essential to the salvation of their posterity. Joy beyond measure filled their souls as their sons returned to them in the desert wilderness having been preserved of the Lord and holding the plates of brass in their hands. Later, Lehi’s son Nephi was commanded of the Lord to keep a record of the political events of his people as they progressed in the promised land, and he was also asked to keep a separate record of the spiritual progression of his nation. This commandment was extended through time as one prophetic leader after another kept the records between the years 600 B.C. and 421 A.D. In the early 4th century A.D. a great prophet and warrior named Mormon had the entire collection of writings of all of the prophets since Lehi had left Jerusalem 1,000 years earlier.

It was quite a volume of work that would likely fill a large room. The sacrifice, suffering and struggles of countless faithful men and women in keeping those records out of wicked hands and safely preserved for later generations is a story that I long to hear the details of one day. Mormon, under the direction of God, faithfully gave his time and patient effort abridging all of these records into one small volume that later became known as “the gold plates”. Led by the Spirit, he took the passages, stories and events that our father in Heaven wanted us to know about in these modern days. Remember, Mormon was witnessing in great detail the systematic destruction of his own people due to their wickedness as he abridged these records. He wasn’t painstakingly combing the volumes for his own family, or for his own people. He was doing it for you. For me. For all of us in this generation.

Mormon was wounded in battle and he gave the abridged record to his righteous son Moroni. Moroni said goodbye to his father, and with all that he knew he fled the pursuit of his enemies and wandered alone in the wilderness until he found the place where the God of this universe told him to bury the record and preserve them for our generation. Like so many before him, he gave all to ensure these treasured words.

Those of you who know me know my passion for those early Latter-day Saints who sacrificed so much to bring these records to light. Their sacrifices allow two volumes to stand as companion witnesses of Jesus Christ on earth for as long as the world shall be. Two sticks have become one, each bringing light to the other. Thousands since have read from them, taught from them, shared them, loved them, walked the streets of the world with them, prospered in them, found salvation in them, embraced light and knowledge in them, and even found exaltation in their precious words.

This afternoon I went to my set of scriptures. I held them in my hands and prayerfully thanked my Father in Heaven for the thousands of people who were thoughtful of me without knowing my face, who made sure I could hold them in my hands this day and feast upon their words without any trouble whatsoever. We are so blessed. Let us be thankful!

SOUTH AFRICA and NTB

While making the WORK: A Nashville Tribute To The Missionaries, I asked my friend Judy Brummer, a native of South Africa, to come into the studio with me to help translate a few lines into an Africa language or two for a song called I Was Born. Judy is an amazing woman who has an incredible life experience to share about growing up during Apartheid. She has also been heavily involved in translating the Book of Mormon into Xhosa, an African clicking language for the church. To the studio Judy brought with her a BYU student named Jacqueline Du Plessis, who is a singer and also a native of South Africa. We all spent some time working out the lines, then Jacqueline sang it beautifully. Judy also did a small click line in Xhosa at the end of Jacqueline’s singing part. So cool. Such a fresh and wonderful experience for me to work with these talented people on this representation of such a culturally rich and diverse area of the world. I loved every minute of it. I hope that we have the opportunity to play in South Africa some time soon.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes video of Judy, Jacqueline, and myself working.

And here’s how it turned out – it’s about minute 1:48.

These days we are facing are hard ones too. Good jobs are tough to come by and the American people are struggling. Not all, of course, but so many. Hard work seems to be a declining way of life and those who do work hard seem to find that sweat and blood don’t always get the job done like it once did. I was at my parents farm in rural Tennessee this last week and the neighbor’s mare had just dropped a long-legged black colt with a white star on it’s forehead. This little guy was up in no time and was running with wild abandon all over the paddock; kicking, leaping and joyfully experiencing every sweet breath of life. The colt brought a gust of freedom to my heart. That’s my girl Sonja loving on the little guy’s mama.

The black colt made me think of times in my life when I felt that kind of freedom. In my memory there is a calm, relaxing security in the simplicity of those days. Youth is wonderful. Time goes by so fast. I thought of the day I entered the mission field. Nothing to worry about but opening my mouth and working from daylight until dark, not to earn a living, but to serve my Heavenly Father. Man, were those sweet days. Few worries compared to those experienced later in life. Sweet days indeed.

I thought of our little 1,400 square foot house that Sonja and I lived in for 8 years when we first moved to Nashville. Our first two girls were born while we lived there and their little tan fat summer arms and hands eating popsicles in the yard will forever bring me smiles when I think of them. Those two girls, my babies, are now almost 17 and almost 13. Times flies ever faster. Those were sweet times that seem so long ago, when mortgages were $600 a month and while struggles were still significant, the stakes seemed much simpler.

I will have the privilege next month of standing in the room with an apostle of the Lord as my eldest brother Monte is set apart to serve as the new mission president in Málaga, Spain. He and his wife Bobbi have worked hard and prepared much and they soon will be setting aside the routine difficulties of life in the real world and will be jumping full-on into serving the Lord and 200 young men and women as they all serve together their missions on the Mediterranean coasts of southern Spain. They will sweat their share of blood and tears for the souls they teach, there is no doubt, but they will leave their American home knowing that they have their affairs in order and with a surety that for three years they will need focus on nothing else but the task at hand. I am so proud of them. The are good for it. They will be wonderful in every respect. I am sure they feel a little freedom and excitement as they ready themselves for the journey overseas. They deserve this.

Sometimes our lives can become mundane, boring, tough, not fun and our meters sometimes “peg the red” if you know what I mean, and no vacation time or sweet relief is anywhere in sight. These are the times that cut the men from the boys, the women from the girls. These are the times that cut the masterpieces from the block of rough stone. These are the times we must close our eyes, take a deep breath and plow on. Our pioneer ancestors did through rain, cold and bitter days and nights. Lehi and his large family did it through deserts and across oceans. The Israelites did it following Moses through 40 years of never-ending dusty sand and rock. The sons of Mosiah did it among those who despised them for 14 years. We can find solace in daily scripture study, prayer and meditation. These are the blessings of God for our souls in times of trouble. He has commanded us to do them, but only because He knows the worth of the activities to our parched and wary souls. Let us welcome these gifts.

School is almost out. Summer is upon us. Let us find the heart of a child within us and find a new kick in our step as we PLOW ON. Other will love us for our enthusiasm for life and we will love ourselves more for finding the thrill of victory of yet another day in every breath. God bless every one of us in times of trouble and may we encourage each other to take a deep breath and plow on…enduring to the end.

- Jason Deere

I took a moment recently to do something I have not done in years.  The experience, as simple as it was, was like someone pushed the “refresh” button on my soul.  As a kid I used to wander for hours and hours up and down the banks of the south Canadian River near my home in Oklahoma.  One of my favorite things to do was to lay down along the riverbank under any number of towering giant cottonwood trees and I look up at the blue Oklahoma sky through thousands of silver-dollar-sized green leaves that softly rattled out a boy’s salvation when the wind blew through them.  My dog Gabe would catch a nap snuggled up next to me and during those lazy summer days I learned early in life what “bliss” was.  I’m pretty sure that heaven will feel something like that used to make me feel.  Last weekend I suddenly go the out of the blue urge and laid down on my back with my two kids and together we looked up through a Tennessee river willow at a crystal blue Saturday sky.  I think I may have heard the sound of my childhood whisper to me as a soft breeze made its way through willow leaves above me.  iPhone in hand, I took a picture to remember it:

You may have seen a FaceBook post I made about my family attending a funeral procession through our little town of Franklin last weekend.  Townspeople were invited to show up on Saturday afternoon and pick up U.S. flag poles at the high school to hold along Hillsboro Road as the body of one of our hometown boys, 22 year old Jason Edens, was carried in a hearse with a parade of local motorcycle veteran groups and emergency vehicles reverently following.  My heart was moved by the turn out on a 89 degree, extremely humid Tennessee afternoon.  I was softened with compassion as many of my fellow people lined the streets silently holding their left hands on a US flag pole and their right hands over their hearts in patriotic respect for a fallen hero who lost his life in Afghanistan.  While my heart broke for the tearful faces of the soldier’s family and loved ones as they drove by, I was at the same time extremely grateful for the opportunity that my family had to feel the sobering humility of the price paid for freedom and to know the surge of patriotism that rises in the soul as the costs of liberty became a reality before our eyes.  Here are a few pics:

The hearse passing Franklin High School

My boy J Davis proudly holding his flag

Jason Eden's young widow as his body arrived home

I have had the pleasure of watching my three children play numerous soccer, volleyball and baseball games this spring.  I love athletics.  I love seeing kids learn the thrill of giving it their all and being pushed to their limits as they experience the valuable lessons of victory and defeat.  I thought I’d include a short clip of my little man last week, no bigger than a minute, smacking an opposite field single and rounding first with the energy and swagger of a mini Derek Jeter.  I love the game of baseball.  I love that kid.  Therefore I love little moments like this:  CLICK HERE

And one more thing before I make a point of all of this.  Early this morning I walked outside and just happened to notice the morning dew shining like tiny diamonds on a beautiful bunch of yellow day lilies that just seemed to shout to the world “Good Morning!”.  I took a pic.

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Matthew 6;28-29)

You may wonder why I am taking the time to tell you about these “little moments” that I have recently had.  The reason is because I have felt a need in the last several months to slow down; to stop, to look, to listen.  To see the sun rise.  To see the sun set.  And let me tell you the good stuff is in the small stuff.  I count each experience that i have described above, as insignificant in the universe as they might seem to many, as precious portions of a collective personal testimony that God is alive and well, and his love and influence can be felt by his sons and daughters when we take the time to soak it in, like we did when we were children (Matthew 18:3); to see, smell, touch, taste and respect the little things all around us.  Confucious said, “Tell me and I will forget.  Show me and I will remember.  Involve me and I will understand.”  Being involved in the little stuff is to understand this life experience.

OK, now that I got all of that off of my chest, its time for NTB to HIT THE ROAD!

Jump in my truck and ride with me a minute:

We are announcing a new show every Wednesday during the month of May, so be sure you check in on our Facebook page or here on the website.

For the shows that have been announced thus far, go to our “Shows” page or click HERE.

In other NTB News:

-  Due West’s brand new single “Things You Can’t Do In A Car” will be released by their label Black River Entertainment to country radio on Tuesday, May 14th!  You can check them out on Facebook or their Website.  The new single should be available for purchase through iTunes on the 14th as well.

-  Katherine Nelson is giving away a FREE song download of her new single “Beautiful” at Katherinenelson.com.  Her long awaited new album Born Brave will be out later this summer.  It is an awesome piece of estrogen YEE-HAW!

-  Keep up on Dan Truman and his Grammy Award-Winning band Diamond Rio’s summer happenings at DiamondRio.com.

-  Our very own Grammy nominated and Emmy Award winning Ron Saltmarsh is relieved to have graded the last of his semester papers at BYU in the past few days.  Ron runs the Media, Music & Sound Recording Department at BYU.  He will jump in with us when we head out to do shows in a few weeks, but I am guessing that he will be somewhere calm, quiet and hard to reach until then.

One last thing!  Please “LIKE” us on Facebook.  We like to be liked and we love to see your faces on our Facebook page!

We love you all!

Jason Deere

Secondly, a new video about the beginnings of NTB and how it all got started has been finished by our fabulous media team.  I think they did a superb job, so please take a minute and check it out.

Let me start today’s blog by saying . . . I’m no political expert.  In fact, the subject of politics is low on my brain’s totem pole.  There are many people much smarter than me who live and breathe this stuff.  For the most part, I’ll stick to music.  I was once in DC having lunch at a hip little restaurant and I suddenly had the realization that everyone in the entire establishment was talking about politics.  No one was talking about this new artist or that publisher, or this songwriter or that new album.  I was not in Nashville, for sure.  Those people might as well have been speaking Chinese.  I was a fish out of water.  However, this is a political year and I believe that Mormons should be thinking about a few things.  I will not express my political preferences here, for that is not the point.

And then there were two . . . Obama vs Romney.  I am not sure that members of the LDS Church fully realize the heat that soon could be placed on our religion by the world media.  Sure we have seen a little here with the Olympics and a little there with Prop 8, but not the inferno that may be on it’s way in the coming months.  The Obama camp, and Obama ally’s in the media, will certainly do all that they can to attack everything about Mitt Romney.  Romney’s record, his views and certainly his religion’s views on every sensitive subject that could sway public views.

My prayer is that we as members of the Church stand firm in our faith, with a sure knowledge that such silver-tongued scrutiny and persecutions are nothing new to believers; King Mosiah faced such opposition, the Apostles of Christ faced it, Alma faced it, the early Saints certainly faced it, our missionaries on the streets of the world today face it and we too will face our share.  What do we do?  We testify and we pray and we surrender our will to be instruments in the hands of God, however He may need us.  What better time than now to get our houses in order, to live sinless lives, to charge forward in our faith and be obedient to the will of our Father.  These are exciting times!  Opposition always brings to light everlasting truth.  And truth always prevails.  We can shrink and cower, avoiding any conversations that are difficult.  OR, we can be honest and truthful and testify of the things we know to be true.  And if there are things that we do not know, we simply say, “I don’t know, but let me see if I can help us find an answer and get right back to you.”  Honesty always has been, is and will always be the best policy.

A few things that I have found to be helpful:

The Book Of Mormon - No better resource in times like these.  It’s pages are filled with examples of how to triumph in times of opposition.

The Gainsayers - A book by a former anti-Mormon who was converted and discusses some common anti-Mormon tactics and ways that we can handle those seemingly difficult subjects when they come up.  My favorite advice in the book is to NEVER bash, for “He that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil” (3 Nephi 11:29).  Always be willing to discuss a subject, but only one subject at a time, with the rule set forth up front that the discussion will not move on to another subject until both parties have agreed that they are done discussing the subject at hand.  This eliminates the frustrated ping-ponging of subjects that so many will try.  At any rate, I find THIS BOOK interesting.

The PBS Special on Mormons - I have heard some say that they didn’t like this series.  I LOVED it.  I thought that for the most part that both sides of most issues were very well covered.  Some of the most sensitive issues in LDS history are discussed.  I love to pay particular attention to the way the brethren handle themselves when questioned about these sensitive issues.  As always, they are stellar examples.  You can view some of the footage here:  Interviews or The Entire PBS Special

I am as thankful as ever that I am a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  There is nothing that I love more than gathering with others who share my convictions; at conference, at church at an NTB show or wherever we find ourselves.  The truth we share is a beautiful thing!  Let us all stay anxiously engaged in THE WORK!

Jason Deere

There is a mother in Highland, UT who persistently encouraged me on Facebook for almost four years to give her three children a listen.  She used what I call TRT (tactful relentless tenacity), with emphasis on “tactful”.  I liked the respective way she patiently operated.  Finally I invited them to come to an NTB show in Logan in October of 2010.  I told them if they wouldn’t mind waiting until after the show that I would be happy to hear them perform a song or two.  That night, at almost midnight, then 14 year old Mady, 15 year old Tiann and 17 year old Tel (known as Dyer Highway) stood on the back of that stage and made me smile.  They were good . . . and they would get better.

I talked to them outside for a while after the show.  I believed that I could record them and get them a record deal.  I said to Tel, “What about a mission?  What if . . . well, what about a mission?”  Tel looked at me straight in the eye and said, “Jason, no record producer, label or record deal could stop me from turning in my papers the day I turn 19.”  His two sisters looked at me with proud smiles on their faces.  I was in.  Those were the kind of kids I wanted to hang around.  We went on to record a six song EP that they could sell until Tel left on his mission and while he was gone.  Upon Tel’s return, then we could get really serious.  In the mean time, you can learn more about Dyer Highway and purchase their music HERE.

Tel received his mission call and entered the Mission Training Center in February of 2012 where he is now preparing for his mission to Korea.  His sisters cried the day he walked away from them through the front doors of the MTC, but they too are confident as they are firmly invested in their testimonies and know of a surety that their talents will provide better instruments in the hands of their Father in Heaven when Tel returns.

On March 31st, Elder Tel Dyer stood with an army of MTC warriors who sang at the top of their lungs at the 182 Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 I felt like a proud musical papa seeing him on the screen doing THE WORK!  I can only imagine how his own family felt seeing him there.  May God continue to bless the wonderful missionaries of the world and may He forever bless THE WORK they do!

Thank you so much for your continued support of The Nashville Tribute Band.  I sincerely feel it an honor to be able to do what we do with the support of so many people.  We’ve got some big show announcements coming up in 2 weeks.  In the mean time, dont hesitate to help spread the word of NTB and follow us on Facebook or by signing up on the Email List.

Sincerely . . . Jason

It’s also the time of the year when the music industry comes alive.  For many, new music has been created over the winter months, new albums are being released and the tour buses are warmed up to hit the road.  Well, for NTB, we are more mini-van kind of folks, but we too are warming those up.

Our album The Work:  A Nashville Tribute To The Missionaries is just a few months old and there are still so many who have not yet heard this music and we are anxious to continue singing about and honoring our great missionaries around the world.

We are truly sorry for the cancellation of our last run of shows through Beaver and Cedar City, UT as well as Show Low and Safford, AZ.  We are still in the process of rescheduling those and will make an announcement as soon as that is confirmed.

Two of our biggest shows of the year have been scheduled and those include a performance on August 25th at the Sandy Amphitheater.  This seems to be turning into an annual event, as this will be our 3rd Annual performance at this venue.  Tickets go on sale May 7th and are available HERE.

ALSO, southern Utah look out!  We are excited to once again be performing at the Tuacahn Amphitheater in St. George, UT on November 9th.  These tickets are on sale already and can be purchased HERE.  Likely the most breathtaking venue in the state of Utah.  We are excited to be back with our friends beneath the red rocks!

In other news . . . We are so incredibly proud of our Due West boys.  They have just
recently finished recording four brand new songs, one of which will be released to major
market country radio late in April.  They have been hard at work touring the ENTIRE United States on a bus visiting major radio stations and promoting the new material.  So, keep your ears open for new music coming from them later in April.  Hopefully we can talk them into playing a new song or two on the road with us this summer!

Katherine Nelson continues to work on the release of her new album Born Brave.  The music is done, the artwork is done . . . we are simply finishing up some final touches on things and hope to be announcing a release date in the coming weeks.  The new music coming from her is beyond incredible and will touch the hearts of all those that listen, specifically women.  Don’t worry guys, you will probably find yourself jammin’ to it as well!

As for myself, I’ve been working hard in Nashville writing and recording.  Very excited to be producing a new album on the incomparable Taylor Hicks.  There is a reason why he won American Idol.  The boy can SING.  Plus he is a great guy!  I’m honored to be working on his project . . .

We love you guys and hope to see you soon!  Until the next blog post . . . Thanks for your continued support and don’t forget to “Like” us on our Facebook page if you haven’t already!

Jason