I was surprised when my dad told me that “I Know a Savior” had never been recorded before. While some of his other songs talk about the Christmas story in poetic, storytelling ways, embedded at the heart of this song is genuine personal human experience expressed in the “I know” phrases—“I know a trouble, I know a sorrow.” I also know that this song is particularly dear to my dad’s heart.
I took a few steps to make this recording as genuine and honest as possible. What I mean by that is: through trial and error, we attempted to not overproduce, overcomplicate, or bring in some artificial gloss to smooth off the rough edges. To explain what I mean, let me take you a little behind the scenes.
It took us three separate recording sessions to finally hear what we were after. Initially, we’d agreed on recording the piano part first and then adding the vocal part over the top of it. While this works for many different songs—and can even make the process easier in the long run—something felt unnatural about the piano and vocal parts being disconnected, having not been recorded together. In light of this, we decided to record them together, live in the living room at the piano.
Basically, what this means is that we get one take. Studio recording microphones aren’t generally hyper-directional, meaning they pick up noise to the sides of whatever you’re trying to record, and sound from another source bleeds into each and every track during a recording. So the piano part is picked up in the vocal mic, and vice versa. It makes taking mistakes out rather difficult in the editing process…
I hoped that all of this (plus more tech stuff that I assume you wouldn’t want me to go into detail on…) would amount to you being able to picture yourself around the piano in my dad’s living room… even though you weren’t there when we recorded this whisper of “I Know a Savior.”
— Trailand
There is a PDF of today’s song and other’s available by following this link
I Know a Savior | Lyrics
I know a trouble I know a sorrow
I know a grieving I know a pain
I know a trial I know a hardship
I know a burden I know a weight
Chorus:
But I know a Savior
He’s so much greater
Everlasting is His love
I know a Savior
He’s so much greater
Everlasting is His love
Verse 2
I know a failing I know a lying
I know a stumbling I know a sin
I know a bending I know a falling
I know a promise that is broken again
(chorus)
Verse 3
I know a terror I know a darkness
I know a danger I know a fear
I know a sadness I know an evil
I know a dying I know a tear
(chorus)
Ending:
He’s so much greater
Everlasting is His love
Everlasting is His love
Everlasting is His love
37 Days of Christmas 