CJ Stay

People find inspiration for songs everywhere. I've found the Lord tends to send me great ones when I'm filling the horse tanks! There is never a defining moment when I go, "Ah-HAH!, I have it!", but rather I find myself humming a tune and then singing it to myself and before I know it I'm wailing away and the horses are getting freaked out! (They have gotten used to it now and come around to listen. They are partial to more bluesy tunes!) I was chasing a neighbors pony across my front lawn in April and found myself singing song #2 on the album, Only One Way. All of it, put together and rolling off my tongue like I had been singing it forever. I am always the most excited one to hear how a song is going to turn out! Number 5, Jesus Sweet Jesus, was described by a pastor friend as a hymn with a touch of New Orleans swamp and grease! It was a love song I found myself singing to the Lord one cold, winter night as I came in the house. (But I like the swamp and grease thing!)
I'm a 5th generation Texan, which is a big thing if you're from Texas, so I grew up hearing a diversity of music. Country, (DUH!), Good 'ole Southern Gospel done old style, rock-n-roll that would roll right into rockabilly and the music from the old BBQ place we went to. You know the kind; no one from health services ever went there to check it out, but always ate there, duct tape on the vinyl seats and always a group of older black men singing the most incrediable harmonies I had ever heard. It was mesmerizing! They created music unlike anything I had ever heard from the very air I was breathing. Very heady stuff for a young girl! And I loved it all!
I walked away from it all when I had children. I had done my stint singing Country Pop here and there, but I had a new focus. Music doesn't stay down for long. I sang to my kids, sang to their friends, plunked on my guitar and sang to myself, the dogs, the cats and anything that didn't run away. But I didn't write songs, ever.
Things have a way of changing. There is a song I just finished writing that says, "I've had many trials, when I thought I'd lost my smile, forever ". But for everytime I've felt the sting of defeat, for each tear that fell from my eye, for the times when I have been overwhelmed and paralyzed with grief, He has lifted me up, He has dusted me off and He has told me to try again. I understand now that the Lord was preparing me for this work. I had to get beyond myself and not fear rejection , and He'd provide the rest! I have never dreamed of making an album; I never thought I'd be singing like this again and yet I've been with the church Praise Team for more than 2 years and not quite two years ago, He began 'downloading' songs to me. Lots-n-lots of songs. I sit now at over 200 and they just keep coming! Some I hear me singing, other songs I know are for other artists. I can hear them singing them so clearly! Doesn't matter who sings them, they are just supposed to get out there to His people. I just have the privlege of being His instrument. All Praise and Glory to God!
Live event bookings are beginning to come in, there is another CD being talked about for next year with a new producer on board. I'm am smiling my face off as I write this because I know for a fact that the Lord dreams much bigger dreams for me than I dream for myself! Joy Beyond Description, baby, that's what I'm talking about!
The gentlemen playing on the album were gifts from God to me. I had prayed and prayed for this project to have the muscians He needed and, boy, did He deliver! My biggest requirement was that they like to 'play' with music, to see where it would lead us. These guys can 'play' with the best! It was nothing short of wonderful. They even said they'd come play with me again!
This whole biography thing is such a hoot! I'm just a woman who loves the Lord, loves to sing to Him and wants to let everyone share in this amazing abundance of songs He has given me. I've had it good and I've had it bad but nothing compares to what I have now! (I think I hear a song in that!!!) I do believe it's time for my favorite saying! Jesus ROCKS! Be blessed and be a blessing.