One of my favorite new worship artists is All Sons & Daughters. The story of All Sons & Daughters began with artist David Leonard wanting to spend less time traveling and more of it in real relationship with his local church. After experiencing the music business rush as front man in the acclaimed band Jackson Waters and then as touring keyboard player with NEEDTOBREATHE, David felt called to write songs for the spiritual community he and his wife belonged to in Franklin, Tenn. At the same time, Leslie Jordan was part of the creative staff at Journey Church where they worshipped. Her passion for singing and writing was likewise rooted in being there to live out the story of faith with her husband and a close group of believers. Neither was expecting to find a path that would spread these efforts both near and far. But God is so good at making things beautiful. 

 

Following three critically acclaimed projects, Franklin, Tennessee-based worship duo All Sons & Daughters announce the release of a new six-track EP, The Longing. This EP follows the EPs Brokenness Aside and Reason To Sing (and the full-length Season One, which combines those earlier EPs). Their music has earned them comparisons to The Civil Wars for their sweet harmonies and organic instrumentation. Composed of Leslie Jordan and David Leonard, the duo is known for writing songs such as "All The Poor and Powerless," "Buried in the Grave" and "Reason to Sing," that focus squarely on Jesus while embracing the tension of the Christian walk.

 

I had the great opportunity to interview David Leonard and Leslie Jordan about "Oh How I Need You" from The Longing.

 

David: This song started in a writing session with me, Leslie and Stu Garrard from Delirious. The man he is and the pastor he is to us turns the writing session into a beautiful worship experience for us in that moment. That day we wrote this song, Stu was going through a season of Lent and had been reading quotes from Mother Teresa.

 

Leslie: The quote, "Lord I find You in the seeking, Lord I find You in the doubt, And to know You is to love You, And to know so little else," comes right from Mother Teresa. From that, we dove right into that concept, that God is found more in the seeking than even in finding Him. God consistently reveals His characteristics when we choose to dig in. Once we dig in, we realize how much we need Him and realize how much more of Him would be better, and less of us. That only comes from that pursuit of God. Originally the entire song started just like the beginning of the song, very slow and ballad-like. Then our producer Paul Mabury got involved with the song.

 

David: It was the first time we wrote with Paul of the three EP's. Coming together with Paul, we weren't sure how our writing session would go. The hope was that we'd come together and create something beautiful. We had put "Oh how I need You" on the back burner, because we loved the message, but musically it wasn't connecting with the rest of the songs. Paul came in and had an idea for an up tempo song, and gave us a melody which we knew would fit this song. He helped us speed up the song and we wrote the bridge, expressing our need for Christ and adding an energy to go with the urgency of the message of the song.

 

Psalm 9:10: "And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You."
 

...and Psalm 40:16: "Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, 'The Lord be magnified!'"

 

Leslie: We've watched our people grow and mature in the way they worship and the way they come to worship, and we want people to experience that in their own churches. We want people to dig into local community, to see the importance of being poured into and being poured out at the same time. I think you can hear that in these songs…I think you can hear the excitement and the beauty of being in the Word and being in community and being a part of the local body. I really hope that's what people take away from this.

 

David: If we're honest, it's a lot easier to talk about and fully embrace the seasons when God's goodness feels so real, those proverbial spiritual mountaintops where faith is effortless and life's little circumstances are easily explained. But when life is hard and heartache and confusion inevitably reign, what do we do with those moments, and how do we actually worship God in the midst of them? I think that's one of the biggest problems in the modern church right now. We don't always give people permission to feel these things. When things are going wrong, we tell them 'It's okay, God's taking care of it.' But if you read the Psalms, David is never afraid to express exactly what he's feeling, so that gave us the freedom to be honest and transparent.

 

 

Matthew Henry's Bible commentary: "With the thoughts of that sweet satisfaction and repose of mind which those have that make God their refuge for the favor of God is the same towards all the saints. The more God is trusted the more He is sought unto. If we trust God we shall seek Him by faithful and fervent prayer, and by a constant care to approve ourselves to Him in the whole course of our conversations."

 

Born out of what's happening with their unique community of believers at The Journey Church in Franklin, Tenn., worship leaders David Leonard and Leslie Jordan have written songs they hope will give people permission to not only ask questions, but to express their pain in the midst of it. Creating music for their own congregation and mindful of the global Church, Jordan and Leonard express a simple but profound hope for The Longing.

 

These incredibly anointed songs cause me to worship along loudly with these talented worship leaders at the feet of Jesus and offer Him all of my praise and surrender to His majesty. Don't miss out on All Sons & Daughters. This 3rd EP The Longing is compelling and ranks as my favorite of their three EPs. These prayerful sentiments are consistently filled with their personal adoration of God. Several of these songs should be added to your Sunday morning worship set, especially "Oh How I Need You," "Hear The Sound,"  "Rising Sun" and "The Longing."

 

Opening track "Oh How I Need You" has a NEEDTOBREATHE musical feel reminding me of "The Outsiders" with the rollicking banjo part. The change in tempo really hooks me in as a listener and a worshipper into the theme of this great new worship song. The song was co-written with Stu G from Delirious and the opening lyrics are based on writings of Mother Teresa:"Lord I find You in the seeking / Lord I find You in the doubt / And to know You is to Love / And to know so little else."  One of my daily devotionals in trying to grow in my walk with Jesus is to sing to Him at least one praise song every day. The application of this song is that you can start your morning with this devotional prayer: "Lord I find You in the morning,  Lord I seek You everyday, Let my life be for Your glory, Woven in your threads of grace, I need You, Oh how I need You." Amen!

 

(Check out this video about the song.)