Once upon a time, I attended a church plant where the opening hymn every week was "Holy, Holy, Holy!" As a child, I found the practice to be tiresome and wondered why anybody would think that was a good idea. As an adult, I have a different perspective. This is now one of my favorite hymns because it focuses on one of the great qualities that distinguishes God from mankind - His holiness. Opening with such a profound statement every week was and is so appropriate to remind us fleshly beings what an amazing God we serve. In the arrangement and recording of this song, the Lord was so good. The final version ended up having more than sixty separate audio tracks, and was almost nightmarish to edit and mix. But time and time again from the on-the-fly arrangement to the extended jam that became track thirteen, God was blessing this particular song. Someday, I would love to revisit this arrangement in a worship service setting with a full orchestra, choir, and praise band. I think

Greg Thompson's arrangement of this hymn has been a favorite of mine since helping Richard Rieves with his church plant in Fort Collins six or seven years ago. I favor this arrangement because it can be played upbeat and though the structure is not difficult, it has a memorable tune. A couple of years back, I attempted a dance rock version with a borrowed chorus and new melody from the hymn "And Can It Be that I Should Gain" . This call-and-answer chorus seemed to work well with the various youth retreats I was playing, so it stuck. On a technical note, the drums were recorded acoustically and later replaced mathematically in post production. The integrity of the original performance was maintained, though the samples were altered to fit the electronic style. The band all agrees that this was one of their favorite tunes to record because of its experimental, electronic, and uptempo nature. I thoroughly enjoy this hymn's emphasis on how madly in love with us

This brief interlude was included last minute as a nod to Irish hymnody. Though I have some Irish heritage, I mostly chose to include a stanza from this hymn as a means to further the effect of "Sweet Hour of Prayer" and because I love the droning qualities of ethnic music. As a bonus, it allowed me another opportunity to attempt vocalization in a differing genre and style, which I found challenging, to say the least. For the production heads out there: the droning sounds were created by layering bowed electric guitar sounds. A cello bow with dark rosin was used.