24th October,. 2014
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The new single ‘Way of the Lord’. |
Representing something of a who”s who of male Christian musicians in Australia, artists including David Willersdorf, Peter Shurley, Steve Grace and Compliments of Gus” Jared Hashek have joined together in recording a song as a fundraiser for child-focused Christian sponsorship and development organisation Compassion.
Willersdorf, who has supported Compassion since 1999, says he wrote the upbeat Way of the Lord some time ago but had only relatively recently decided to record it with the aid of Peter Shurley, Steve Grace, Steve Apirana and Compliments of Gus” Jared Hashek for an album he was putting together.
That project was temporarily shelved, however, so it was then Willersdorf suggested the song be used to raise funds and awareness of Campassion”s work among the poor.
“I really love what they do…(and) how they approach helping people overseas ” they do very practical things for kids and for communities but they also do it under the Christian banner which I really appreciate…” he says.
Among the other artists who came on board were the Paul Coleman Trio’s Phil Gaudion, Judd Field, Scott Ezzy, Ben Clarke and a number of other instrumentalists.
“A lot of things I”ve done for Compassion are very serious as we kind of look at some of the horrific things that are happening in the world but this one is a little different‚Äö√Ѭ∂We thought we could do something good while having a great time recording it," says Willersdorf.
Recording only finished about a month ago with a lot of the artists recording while they were a various locations around the country on tour.
“I couldn”t get the grin off my face because of how good it all sounded,” says Willersdorf. “It”s a dream, really, for me as a songwriter…It”s been a fairly history-making kind of moment with all these artists coming together.”
As to whether there will be a follow-up, Willersdorf says that if someone else wanted to get some artists together for a similar project in the future, “I would put my hand up”. “Hopefully we can get some of the talented ladies involved next time, too.”
Noting that he hopes the song will encourage people to support Compassion, Willersdorf says that it’s through his sponsorship of three young men from Ethiopia, Bolivia and Rwanda that he”s come to realize how special the relationship between child and sponsor is.
“(S)eeing them develop and having that special place in their lives…I”m part of seeing their potential happen,” he says. “It”s like having three sons in different parts of the world and just cheering them on in life.”
The song Way of the Lord can be downloaded from www.compassionsong.com.
– DAVID ADAMS
