Let It Rise is a song by Holland Davis that has been around for a while (relatively speaking), and was very popular for contemporary worship during the mid-late 90s – when the whole scene was just exploding. It is one of those songs in “the book” that is just not used as much today for whatever reason.
But one afternoon I had ESPN on (as I often do) and some commercial came on, I want to say it was advertising a car. It had a real funky, almost 80ish kind of beat, then the idea struck. What if we did a song in worship driven principally by a real simple beat? Often our songs in contemporary worship are based upon a guitar riff, or a simple melody, or a bombastic chorus – but I don’t see many songs moving with a simple groovy beat. Why not break out of the mold – because by doing a song built in a different way it will draw in the congregation during worship.
With that question in mind I took pen to paper and sketched out the idea, reducing the song to just a beat and a couple simple changes. I feel the melody and lyrics were brought out to the forefront of the song for greater emphasis.
Hopefully the rhythms and message of the song were carried away through the week for those present in worship Sunday morning.
Red Chair Music 