Amen was co-written with my long-time friend, guitarist PJ Lorenzo, quite a few years ago. I remember it quite clearly as PJ had sent me a swinging, heavy, blues rock track with a rip-roaring guitar solo to kick it off. There were some lyrics, but no vocals. I remember having the guitar lines stuck in my head and coming up with bits of a melody line in the shower.
I worked out the melody, modified some lyrics to fit and laid down vocal tracks. There was a long section in the middle of song ripe for some sort of solo. We thought about filling it with another guitar solo, possibly organ, or even harmonica. But in the end, we left it on the back burner and the song remained unfinished.
A few months ago, as I was going through some of my past ideas, I came across that early recording of “Amen”. I started playing it on my acoustic guitar and it struck me just how well it fit as a personal sort of ballad versus a rockin’ blues song. I rang up PJ and he was content to let me run with it and wanting to hear where it might go.
As I started putting it down, I made some changes to the arrangement, removing what would have been the main solo section and turning it into a bridge with new lyrics and a melody transitioning to the ending. I also had quite a bit of feedback that it was more fitting as a solo guitar and vocal song. I re-recorded the guitar lines and brought in Bruce Decker from the local Buffalo band “Breakaway” to play piano. Bruce also played on my track “Mesmerized”. The recorded vocal is the demo vocal I laid down. I really liked the way it turned out – spontaneous, personal, and organic. I chose to keep it. I added string pads and some tambourine to lightly build up the bridge and the result is what you hear!
Oh yeah, and PJ loved it!
Song Credits:
Written by Todd Michael Chapman & PJ Lorenzo
Todd Michael Chapman – vocals, guitar, tambourine, string pads
Bruce Decker – piano
Acoustic guitar and piano engineered by Paul Weisenberger
Engineered, mixed, and mastered by Todd Michael Chapman
