Project Together

I don’t always know when my music is truly making a difference in someone’s life. We write and record songs with the intent of moving people, but after we throw these creations out into the world, we rarely know whose ears they’re hitting or if they’re moving anyone at all.

From time to time, I’ll get an email or direct message on my socials saying, “I played your song at my wedding.” Or there was that one time I was invited to sing a song live as a proposal (true story! And she said, “yes!”). Those are moments when I know, without a doubt, that something I was a part of hit home.

I got to experience a life-changing musical moment recently. I want to tell you about it.

A few months ago, I was asked to record a duet for an international marketing campaign for Canadian National (CN) Railway Company. This was a dream gig in so many ways. For starters, my duet partner was one of my musical heroes: multi-Grammy award winning blues/Americana artist, Keb’ Mo’.

I’ve been a fan of Keb’s music since college and even performed one of his songs for my senior project to graduate from Belmont University. I’ve heard it said you shouldn’t meet your heroes. Meeting Keb’ Mo’ did not disappoint. He was as kind and authentic as I expected him to be. I loved getting a bird’s eye view of his recording process, but most of all, I enjoyed our conversations in between takes.

Ocean Way Studio A

Lauren Lucas, Keb’ Mo’ & CN Employees

Getting to record a song written by hit-makers, Bob DiPiero and David Kalmusky, in historic Ocean Way Studio A wasn’t a bad deal, either. Pat McMakin, along with David, manned the ship in the producer seat, with Mills Logan engineering.

Here’s where the real magic starts to happen: CN, a company with over 23,000 employees spanning across North America, held auditions to find 14 musicians to help us record the song. Most of these folks had never met each other. Very few had ever been to Nashville, and even fewer had stepped foot into a recording studio.

Given the bad press lately about derailments and spills, it’s easy to forget how integral trains are to our every day lives. I learned that one triple-stacked train car replaces 10,000 eighteen wheelers on the road. I also learned that more women work in the railway company than I expected, including the CEO and many of it’s engineers. Two women train engineers joined us for this recording.

It was heartwarming to see these 14 strangers connecting over 2 commonalities: a love for music, and pride in a company where their jobs are demanding, isolating and often times dangerous. They bravely sang or played their solo for each other while being amplified (some for the first time), and with video cameras up in their faces!

Taillight TV documented the entire studio experience. They even traveled to all 14 employees’ hometowns to get B roll footage.

What you are about to see in this video is stunning scenery of Canadian countryside, footage from our studio process recording the song called, “Together,” behind-the-scenes interviews from employees and Keb’ Mo’, and the huge hearts that guide the spirit of CN.

Just a few weeks ago, several of these CN employees had to evacuate their homes due to wildfires. These 14 people, once strangers, now see each other as brothers and sisters because of their shared bond in Nashville. They sprang into action, sending train loads of supplies and doing anything they could to help.

The CN employees saw first hand that no matter where you are, or how autonomous the working conditions, business and life mean more when we do it together.

Heck, Pat, David, Keb’ and I could have recorded this song and sent it to CN to enjoy. But it wouldn’t have touched them the way this experience did.

It only matter because we did it together. Push play below to enjoy the song and video of Project Together.

Click to Watch

Credits:

Recording Team

Mills Logan, Pat McMakin, David Kalmusky, Lauren Lucas

Executive Producer: Pat McMakin

Song Producers: Pat McMakin, David Kalmusky

Guest Artists: Keb' Mo', Lauren Lucas

Production Coordinator: Bridgette Slater

Audio Team Engineer: Mills Logan

Asst Eng: Katelyn Prieboy, Wolf Robinson

Mixed by: David Kalmusky

Songwriters: Bob Dipiero, David Kalmusky, Marc Pavlica

SESSION MUSICIANS Leader and Drums: Chad Cromwell

Keyboards: Jeff Roach

Bass: Marc Rogers

Electric Guitar: Sol Littlefield

Acoustic Guitar: Bryan Sutton

Electric Guitar: David Kalmusky

Video Team —

Video Producer: Matt Houser

Video Director: Justin Key

Production Coordinator: Taylor Campbell

Director of Photography: Tyler Oaks

Camera – Steadicam: Trent Millspaugh

Camera – Broll: Maria Valetta

1st Assistant Camera: Kenny Herron

2nd Assistant Camera: Quentin Lesser

Camera Utility: Sheila Dunaway

Gaffer: Barrett Depeis

Key Grip: Kitt Fresa

Swing: Luke Lamar

Audio -

Doc Crew: Hunter Vickers

Production Assistant: Patrick Tyler

Production Assistant: Kristen Herbert

CN TALENT:

Anuoluwapo (Anu) Adeola Brian Chojnacki Claire Levesque Eugenia Kefallinos James (Jimmy) Mitchell Jeffrey Aitchison Jonathan Moorman Mariah Lambertus Mark Girgis Rick Laboucan Ryan Whittle Sneha Cherian Timothy Evans PROJECT TEAM: Mark Seland Bridgette Slater Sunny McKechnie Marc Pavlica Alessia Longo Cathy Stojak Sheila Bourque

Recorded at: Ocean Way Nashville, Addiction Studios, Curb Studios