We’re very excited to announce that we have been nominated for a Kindred Award. In case you’re not familiar with Kindred Ministries, they are a ministry based in Delaware that seeks to “partner with local artists and musicians, churches and organizations to bring high quality concerts and events to the tri-state area and to present the message and the gospel of Christ in a fun and non-threatening manner.” One of the ways they do that is through the Kindred Awards which seeks to recognize regional Christian music artists/groups for their work. And we have been nominated in the Contemporary Group category. And we need your help. The voters for the awards are the public. So….WE NEED YOUR VOTE.
Since my elementary school days when I was addicted to Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes, to my job first as a copyeditor and then as a writer for the federal government, and the songs I’ve written for almost 50 years, I’ve been a lover of words.
Even now, I never leave home without a book, and if I’m home with time on my hands, my nose is usually in the pages; just ask Kris! I started a monthly book club almost 10 years ago to discuss books with fellow bookworms. I love the smell and feel of hardcover books, and enjoy the many chats I have with my librarian.
But the book I can’t live without is the Bible. The truths in that book—written by men of God who allowed the Holy Spirit to pen God’s infallible words through them—tell us all we need to know about living the God kind of life. And that word instructs us to be cautious about what we allow to enter our hearts via words because our very lives depend on it. Words we hear or read, whether from the pulpit or the world, must be tested against God’s word so we can cling to life-giving truth and discard what isn’t.
Which is why when I recently heard the character in a popular movie claim that man never had dominion over the animals, it caught my attention. Hey, dude, your character may think he’s a man of wisdom, but this is only a movie based on a book by a well-known author, and that information is incorrect! Here’s proof:
“Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image … and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts, over all the earth and over everything that creeps upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26 AMP)
This isn’t an expose’ of the Genesis scripture, I’m just pointing out the importance of recognizing an untruth, and these days, it’s not difficult to find a lot of those untruths spoken by folks we might look up to. Our own words may also be suspect at times! This was just a movie, but I needed to reject that thought. Why?
“We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.” (II Corinthians 10:5 TPT)
I wrote a song entitled The Book that admonishes all of us:
You’ve got to go to the book You’ve got to study the book You’ve got to believe the book You’ve got to live the book
If you want to overcome If you want to be set free If you want to have eternal hope You’ve got to go to the book
Interestingly, in the end of the movie, a statement is made expressing the hope that one day every living thing on the planet will live together in peace, and it occurred to me that before sin entered Adam and Eve’s perfect garden, that is exactly what God had in mind. The Bible account indicates that God paraded every living creature past Adam and he gave them their name. (It also opened his eyes to his need for a wife!) If whoever wrote those final thoughts in the movie had read the Bible, maybe it could have had a different ending altogether.
Speaking of experiencing peace—God’s kind in this case—at our next concert, we will perform a song recently written by Jess about a struggle that taught her a valuable lesson about God’s marvelous peace. We hope you can join us:
On Sunday, December 19, 2021 the Scott Day Band will be doing something they’ve never done in it’s 18-1/2 year history. On that date they will appear at 10:00am at Walkersville Community Church (WCC) (207 Braeburn Drive, Walkersville, MD) for a Christmas concert. What’s interesting about this concert is how it all came about.
Just over a year ago WCC Pastor Tim Fisher mentioned to Scott that it would be really nice to have the band come and do a Christmas concert. Of course, at the time the COVID-19 pandemic was raging and WCC had only just recently started meeting indoors again but with far smaller weekly attendance than usual. So that idea was placed firmly on the back burner.
Fast forward to a couple of months ago. That’s when lead singer Jess McClain had a dream one night. In the dream the band was doing a Christmas concert at WCC and in that concert Jess was singing Aretha Franklin’s version of Joy To The World. As Jess tells it, when she was growing up, on Christmas morning, no one was allowed to come downstairs until Jess’s dad put that version of Joy To The World on the record player. So Franklin’s version of the song held great meaning for Jess.
After Jess shared the dream with Scott it was time for Scott to rekindle that conversation with Pastor Tim Fisher about that Christmas concert. The date was set and the work began.
And a lot of work it became. Like mentioned before, the band has never done a Christmas concert. They have a very extensive song catalog, filled mostly with original music, but that catalog had almost no music suitable for a Christmas concert. So the first step was building a concert from scratch. And God was faithful! A hint here, an idea there, whether from band members or from Scott’s wife and before you knew it a wonderfully diverse group of songs came together. Songs ranging from jazzy renditions of classic Christmas carols, to more traditional versions, some quiet ballads and some humorous takes on Christmas classics.
And then began the process of learning the music. And that first practice was more than a bit scary since it showed clearly just how much work would be involved in making this happen. But, practice after practice, the creative juices flowed and little by little it all came together. Now it’s time to see that dream fulfilled. How exciting it is when you see God at work putting something together. And He sure has been doing that here.
So we hope you can join us, Sunday morning, December 19 to discover what He had in mind when God set this dream in motion. And, just maybe, that very specific dream Jess had will come to reality.
Being musicians all our lives, and Christians for the majority of that time, the two of us alone have written more worship tunes than we can count, including the ones that never went beyond our own personal times of worship.
During one of those times recently, Scott was inspired to write a song based on Zephaniah, Chapter 3, verses 16 and 17.
Zephaniah spends several chapters speaking about a judgment coming for Judah and Israel, then he begins painting a picture of what it will be like if they repent and turn to God. Verse 17, reads:
The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Savior [who saves]! He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest [in silent satisfaction] and in His love He will be silent and make no mention [of past sins, or even recall them]; He will exult over you with singing. (AMP)
The Message Bible writes that last phrase as: “He’ll calm you with his love and delight you with his songs,” and the New Living Translation writes: “He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” The Tree of Life version adds that he dances over us! Can you imagine God singing and dancing – over US? Over YOU?
Here’s what Scott has to say about his new song, “Mighty Warrior”:
“The imagery Zephaniah uses in these verses really blows me away. In the New Revised Standard Version that I use for my daily reading, verse 16 says, “On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak.” So He starts off by telling us not to be afraid and not to let ourselves get weak. But why?
Because our God, our Mighty Warrior, is in our midst.
This is a pretty strange looking warrior. Nothing about weapons, or blood, or wars or just general gore. This warrior is rejoicing and actually singing over us. I personally believe He’s singing over us because of the victory He knows He has won for us. He’s excited about our victory. I liken this to Luke 10:21 where it says, “At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.’” If you pull out your concordance, you’ll find the Greek words translated “full of joy,” or in the King James Version “rejoiced,” actually mean to jump for joy. Jesus was excitedly rejoicing because of what His disciples were learning about Him and His Father.
God is excited about all the things He’s doing in our lives, and He’s probably extra excited because He sees clearly the victory He has won and is winning on our behalf better than we do. We may see our current problems, but He sees our ultimate victory, and He’s rejoicing and singing over us about it! I almost hear Him singing, “I know you think things are really challenging for you right now, but I am so excited to see your reaction when you see the outcome of what I’m doing just around the corner.”
It’s not a day for shrinking
It's not a time for fear
Now is the time for shouting
For the victor's song is here
Now let us lift our voices
Let it be heard far and wide
Because our God is with us
Mighty Warrior splits the sky
From Mighty Warrior
Words and music by Scott Day
Copyright 2021 Mizelli Music
To be one of the first to hear the Scott Day Band perform Mighty Warrior and other new songs, along with some older favorites, join us in Hagerstown, Maryland, at 7:00pm on June 16, 2021, for an Encounter City Park (Encounter City Park | Facebook) event sponsored by Valor Ministries (www.thevalorcenter.org). Or check our Events listing (Concerts – Scott Day Band) for other SDB performances in upcoming months.
(HIT PLAY ABOVE FOR A QUICK TOUR OF ALL THE SONGS ON TRUST)
It’s been two and a half years in the making but finally the new Scott Day Band CD (or EP to be accurate), TRUST, is out. On this CD you’ll find what I hope you’ve come to expect from SDB. A little rock, a little jazz, a little soft worship, a little this, a little that, tight vocals backuped by quality instrumental musicianship. It’s hard to nail SDB down to a particular sound but there is something in there for everyone.
Five of the six songs on TRUST, I’m Gonna Trust In You, I Choose The Truth, No Better Cure and The Prodigal were written by Jess McClain, with her husband, Andrew, pitching in with the writing of The Rock At The Bottom. The remaining song, (the soon to be worship classic) Rescued, was written by Gayle Swenson.
You can get your own copy of TRUST right here in the web site store. Of course you can saving shipping and handling by purchasing a copy when you see any member of the band.
Digital distribution is also available for those of you who prefer that. You can hit the link below to purchase them from Amazon. The music will also be on Apple Music soon.
TRUST is also now live on Spotify and, if you subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited, you can simple say, “Alexa, play (pick a song) by The Scott Day Band” to listen on your Amazon device.
We hope you are encouraged, built up in your faith and blessed by the songs on this CD.
Gayle modeling her mask. Is there a smile under there?
Masks
I do not like to wear a mask I find I cannot breathe I cannot see when wearing one Because my glasses steam I do not like that when I smile No one else can see I hope someday to go without And set my smiler free!
Gayle
Swenson, May 20, 2020
Wearing a mask may help protect me from COVID-19, but it has
lessened my ability to spread joy in the world because smiling is a way to spread
it. Nowadays, for someone to know I’m smiling, they have to see it in my eyes
or hear it in my voice under the cloth.
A simple smile can change someone’s day. It takes less
effort to smile than to frown, I’m told, and smiling makes even the smiler feel
better. It costs me nothing to smile, making it just about the free-est gift I
can easily and quickly give to someone as we pass along life’s way. I do not
like to cover my smile with a mask.
There’s a popular movie in which a family seated around the
table is discussing how they see Jesus, and an adult says he likes to think of
his Jesus as someone who is serious, but also likes to party. First of all,
Jesus is who He is regardless of your ideas, dude, but in fact, Jesus is
the party, because in His presence is fullness of joy!
Jesus embodied joy and spoke about it regularly. He
experienced it in purity with the Father before becoming the Son of Man, and it
gave Him strength to endure a fallen world for more than 33 years as well as
the cross at the end of His mission on Earth. His joy wasn’t based on feelings
of happiness, which come and go. Jesus’ joy was based on a trust that the
Father who sent Him here knew what He was doing.
I define a smile as joy showing up on our face, and because
of that, I think Jesus smiled – a lot. And because we also trust our lives to
God, we can reflect joy from our faces to a fearful world through a smile. Face
it, the world desperately needs to see those smiles!
One day, our smiles will again be free to spread the joy.
And one day, we will see the perfect smile of Jesus.
And
before you go…
If fighting
the good fight against the coronavirus has robbed you of your smile, hang on,
because The Scott Day Band will soon release a few new songs that could help
you get it back! Stay tuned…
We’re going to attempt to post a series of articles focused on each member of the band in order to let you know more about where we all come from. We start it off with an article about keyboardist/vocalist Gayle Swenson and her musical past. This article was written by Gayle and published in NIST Connections as part her real life job as a Writer/Editor in the Public Affairs Office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD. Enjoy!!!
Playing my first guitar in 1978 while sitting on Sugar Loaf Mountain south of Frederick, Maryland. Credit: Kris Swenson
To my surprise, the article “NISTers on Stage: The Many
Musicians of NIST,” that I wrote and posted in NIST Connections in May 2019 turned out to be one of the most
popular articles ever to appear in NIST Connections, having been viewed nearly
2,000 times by more than 1,500 NIST employees and associates. The only fiscal
year 2019 article to beat it was about the NIST budget and a pay raise for
employees. My group leader Jason Stoughton says, “When it comes to internal
news, a pay raise is practically unbeatable,” and that makes sense to me.
When I wrote the article about NIST musicians, it was a
topic near and dear to me, and I was asked by several people who read it, “Why
didn’t you include yourself in the article?” Some had heard me sing the
National Anthem at a few NIST awards ceremonies or performing an original
arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with my husband accompanying on
guitar at the Engineering Laboratory’s 2018 talent show to benefit the Combined
Federal Campaign.
But with all the interesting and very talented musicians at
NIST, I really didn’t need to add myself to the mix. And I didn’t want the
story to be a shameless plug.
But since you asked…
My paternal family originated in Wales, a country
traditionally referred to as “the land of song,” according to Wikipedia. So I
suppose music was in our DNA, because my family members — the descendants of
James S. Day (originally O’Day in Wales), who was our first ancestor in the
Damascus, Maryland, area — have all been very musical. No rich and famous
musicians, per se, just folks who love to play instruments and sing.
My great-grandfather, James S. Day, posing with his instrument and wearing his Browningsville Cornet Band Uniform Credit: W.G. Bell Photography
James played the cornet; my paternal grandfather, two uncles
and an aunt played clarinet; another uncle played saxophone; and my father was
a talented trombonist (a good choice for a man missing half a finger). Most of
them played the piano and all of them sang in and directed choirs at one time
or another. My father and one uncle were part of a dance band in the 1950s and
all four of the Day male siblings sang in local quartets.
Even my mother, who couldn’t read a lick of music and never
took a music lesson in her life, sang in our church choir, and sang well.
Like me, most of my cousins play instruments and/or sing, as
do some of their children. My cousins include guitarist-singers in Southern
California bands; a pianist in Wasilla, Alaska; and an accomplished composer
who is manager of music and education for the Washington National Opera at the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. My brother
is a songwriter, singer, guitarist, trombonist and drummer who has played in
Frederick-area bands since the ’70s, and whose plans include learning to play
the banjo.
I’m not making this up — music IS my family. And this list
doesn’t even include my musical extended family because they are just too
numerous to mention!
It all started with a band
The roots of my family lie deep in a band that’s been around the Damascus area for more than 130 years, the Browningsville Cornet Band. Beginning in 1884 when it was founded, my relatives — starting with my great-grandfather, great uncles, and later some of those relatives listed in previous paragraphs — have performed in concert and marched in parades with the band.
My father, Kelsel W. Day Jr., posing with his trombone that was gifted him by the Browningsville Cornet Band as part of their 100th anniversary celebration Credit: Browningsville Cornet Band
Me posing in my Linganore High School band uniform sometime in the 60’s Credit: Kelsel W Day, Jr
In our corner of small-town America, music and the Day family were just about synonymous. Being a musician in my family wasn’t a choice, really, it was tradition. There wasn’t a house we visited in our family that didn’t have an instrument — most often a piano. I loved to play my aunt’s pump organ (a great leg workout before exercise was a thing). Although whether or not my grandparents’ piano was a “player piano” that could play music on its own using rolls of perforated paper has been recently debated, someone we knew had one. And my grandparents’ beautiful, and very heavy piano was moved to my house when they left the farm.
I started piano lessons when I was 6 years old and began singing in the church choir at 9. At 14, I took a year of organ classes and by 16 was the primary pianist and organist for my church. You have to be fairly coordinated to play a keyboard with your feet while also playing one or two of them with your hands! A surprising benefit was how that coordination enabled me to become a motorcyclist a few years later.
My friend Jeanne (right) and me (left) on our motorcycles back in the 70’s
In high school, I learned a little bit of guitar with a small folk group, but mostly played clarinet in the school’s marching and concert band, where I landed the sweet spot of “first chair.” In the Browningsville Cornet Band during those years, I played the glockenspiel (aka bells) for a time but settled into playing clarinet.
In my late teens and early 20s, I traded performing in
choirs and marching bands for going to rock concerts. While my memory of those
times is a bit hazy, they satisfied the musical need in my life, and along the
way I got to know a few rock musicians in Baltimore and D.C. I even hung out
backstage with a few of them at the historic Bayou club in Georgetown.
Changing directions
Then in 1977, due to some major changes in my personal life, I was inspired to begin playing guitar again, and I started writing music. But the only instrument I owned was an electric organ, until…
I began dating a lead guitarist in the Knight Brothers, a Frederick, Maryland-area band. Kris had been playing
guitar and performing with bands since he was 14. I loaned him my car while I
went off on a month-long backpacking trip to Europe, and when I returned, he
had had a small automobile accident, which provided the insurance money that
paid for my first guitar. A few months later, I married that lead guitarist,
and after 42 years of listening to his amazing riffs, I’m still his biggest
fan.
I discovered that I had a gift for guitar picking that I couldn’t
explain, much less teach to those who asked me to show them how to play the way
I did. With my new guitar in hand, I performed the first song I’d ever written
at the beginning of a performance by my brother’s band. From there, I went on
to play at home gatherings and eventually became the music minister at my
church, where my songwriting career kicked into full gear and I recorded two
albums with the church band, Dominion. I also played piano and sang at
weddings, including one at Hood College for the daughter of NIST’s Electronics
and Electrical Engineering Laboratory Director Bill Anderson.
By 2007, though, I stopped playing and singing because I was “burned out” from raising a family and working a job while simultaneously keeping up musical obligations. Then my brother’s keyboardist left his band, and guess who was invited to replace her?
I’d done several cameo vocals on the band’s first two records, and although it took me a while to decide, I joined the band, as did Kris a month later. For the past decade we’ve written songs, sung, and played our instruments around Maryland and Pennsylvania as members of the Scott Day Band based in Jefferson, Maryland. For over a year, the band has been recording original songs at Tonal Park studio in Takoma Park, Maryland, that we hope will be available on Apple Music this year.
I prepare to perform with the Scott Day Band at a charity event in Frederick Fairgrounds in Frederick, Maryland. The event provided services such as free haircuts and health screenings as well as clothes and food for those in need. Credit: Kris Swenson
The music we perform may never be heard on your local Top-40
radio station. We like to say it’s music with a message of hope. While it’s
probably best known as contemporary Christian music, others say it’s religious.
All I know is that it’s a far cry from the hymns I once played in church, and
the songs simply reflect how we get through everyday life. We’re a six-member
cross-generational band of 30- to 60-somethings with a taste for rock, soul,
jazz and blues, and — since four of us are songwriters — we perform mostly
original music.
Our repertoire includes a medley of songs that Scott likes
to call “the Boogie Woogie Rock Block” because it begins with a bluesy song
written by my husband and ends with two New Orleans-style songs written by our
lead singer (in which my brother, following in Dad’s footsteps, breaks out his
trombone). And, of course, not only do I sing a rendition of “Somewhere
Over the Rainbow” similar to what we performed at NIST in 2018, but a few
of my own originals as well.
Musicians love to play and singers love to sing, and I enjoy
both, but for me it’s about more than just a catchy tune with a great hook.
Music, like other arts, is a precious gift to humanity. Sometimes it just
offers pure joy for both performer and listener. At other times, it is a
container that opens the listener’s soul to grasp a lyrical message penned from
the deepest emotions of a songwriter. Personally, my goal is to write songs
that matter — the ones that might change someone’s life for the better.
Southern novelist Pat Conroy wrote that “without music, life
is a journey through a desert.” I’m grateful to my ancestors for a life that
has been anything but dry!
So,
there you have it — “NISTers on Stage—Part Deux.” As radio personality Paul
Harvey used to say: “And now you know the rest of the story.”
We always acknowledge our total dependence on God when He sends the band out to play. That was never so evident as after our concert at The Way Station in Waynesboro, PA on November 17.
After the concert we packed up and headed out for our normal post concert dinner at Applebee’s in Waynesboro before heading home. On the way home I was driving my truck pulling a Uhaul trailer full of sound equipment with Tony Langston and my wife, Ellie, on board. Coming east bound on US40 between Myersville and Braddock Heights, 2-1/2 miles from Tony’s house, I saw 2 cars in the west bound lane heading our direction. Suddenly the 2nd car decided to pass and came into our lane to do so. I figured, surely they would see me coming and move back over, but it quickly became evident that wasn’t happening as they continued on a collision course straight at us. As the distance between us began to rapidly shrink, I pulled my truck over onto the shoulder to avoid the crash, but so did the oncoming vehicle. At this point it became evident a very nasty crash was mere seconds away and was unavoidable. As we braced for impact there was a crunch of metal and suddenly we were continuing down the road. I pulled the truck back over onto the shoulder and stopped to assess the damage. The passenger side tire on the trailer was flat, the rim was massively bent and the fender over the tire was partially ripped off. But, not a scratch on my truck and all 3 of us on board were totally uninjured or touched. The driver of the car who hit us turned around and was herself wondering what had happened. But her confusion was understandable as a breathalyzer test administered by the Maryland State Police came back at .17 blood alcohol contact (.08 is the legal limit in Maryland)
Tony, Ellie and I are all so thankful and amazed that, by God’s power and grace, what looked like an unavoidable very bad night for us as well as our families and friends ended up being another display of God’s power and protection.
The only damage in a wreck that should have been much worse
God put the desire in our hearts and gave us talents, abilities—and instruments! We love to perform for Him and those who come to our shows.
We also play music because we know God uses music to speak His message of love, hope and redemption. He took the first step toward a relationship with each of us.
We believe God has given us a message to share, and while we write most of our own music, we also mix in more well-known tunes from more well-known Christian artists, and even play the occasional “secular” song, if the message works.
We work hard to be faithful stewards of the gifts He has given us. God deserves our best and so do our listeners.
We also want listeners to feel God’s loving presence and experience His power through our music because it’s not just about how well we play or sing. We feel compelled to write songs about what God has done or is doing in us, real life. He has given us a future and a hope!
