Some Good News and Some Bad News, but I'm still "Glad"

Hey friends,

First the good news: I've finally finished my first album!! Well, almost...
It's been a long season, and I felt a real sense joy in the completion of my CD, titled Glad, which I made available to family and friends in December. The CD is descriptive of a period of life in which I witnessed the saving work of the Lord in my life and experienced his power to pick me up "out of deep waters" and to bring me into "a spacious place" (Psalm 18:16-19).

The bad news is that I have just been thrown a curve ball that I wasn't expecting. I have just discovered that in the process of making the album, I unknowingly violated the copyright restrictions for the final track, a cover of the song "He Has Made Me Glad" by Leona Von Brethorst (*see below for more details on my mistake). For this reason I will need to reprint the album and retrieve the old copies.

So for those who have not had a chance to hear this album, this blog post serves as an album-release announcement... It should be ready for purchase hopefully by the end of the month or by mid-February. Shoot me an email at bdoggett.music@gmail.com if you're not in the DC area and would like a copy. Otherwise, just grab one out of the trunk of my car some time! I also hope to have the album downloadable on iTunes sometime next month as well.

For those of you who already have a copy of Glad, this blog post serves as a request for help. In short, I will need to retrieve these old copies of the album. Upon reprinting the corrected version of Glad, I will provide you with the new version, for free of course, and would ask you to return the old version and delete any mp3's of the final track, "Glad (2)", that you may have on your computer or other devices.

I very much regret this hassle, but would greatly appreciate your help in my efforts to rectify this situation. I know that I did nothing intentionally malicious in printing the first version of Glad, and so I have a clear conscious in that regard, but now that I have discovered my mistake I need to make it right as best as I can.

Many thanks for your love and support!
Peace & Grace,
Ben

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*The final track on this album was actually a cover of a well-known worship song called "He Has Made Me Glad" by Leona Von Brethorst (c) 1976 Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publishing (ASCAP). The track was meant to serve as the concluding bookend to an album which began its first track with the words "Make me glad for as many days as I have known pain and sadness." Given this prayer-like intro, I loved singing "He has made me glad, He has made me glad, I will rejoice for He has made me glad..." as a concluding declaration of praise for what the Lord has accomplished in my life, that my prayers had been answered! So I titled the first track on the album "Glad (1)" and the final track, "Glad (2)", to emphasize my intent to use these tracks as an introduction and conclusion to the album. I also included a musical and vocal part on the tail of "Glad (2)" that consisted of a free-worship expression of praise to the Lord, "You have done great things for me..."

I filed for a license to obtain permission to include this song on my album, but failed to understand the license restrictions properly, making two very unfortunate mistakes. Although I credited the original song, my CD lists the song title as "Glad (2)" rather than "He Has Made Me Glad", and this change of title was not permissible. My second mistake was in recording the final lyrical section in which I added my own words ("You have done great things for me..."), also a violation of the license agreement. For these two reasons I will need to reprint the CD's, removing the final track. I will also be retitling the first track simply "Glad". I'm encouraged by the fact that the new final track (after removing "Glad (2)") is still a joyful expression of praise to the Lord, and can still serve as a fitting conclusion to the album. The new final track will be "Whatever Was to My Profit."