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 Her Own Commentary on her Songs Check out these 'track by track' commentaries from CeCe Winans, on her new self-titled project, her fifth solo effort, from Wellspring Gospel. (See also, album review) Track 1. “Heavenly Father” written by CeCe & Tommy Sims, produced by Tommy Sims, co-production Brown Bannister “This is another prayer — there’s a lot of praying on this record. I wrote it and Tommy Sims did some changing, so we both ended up being co-writers on it. “You get to a point of desperation sometimes and I’ve been guilty of trying to work things out on my own. ‘I haven’t heard you God, so I’m going to go ahead and do this and fix this.’ And you do it  long enough until you make a mess and you realize, ‘you know what, you’ve got to wait on Him…’ He’s the answer. That’s what ‘Heavenly Father’ is about. Knowing that He is your source and letting him know, ‘I need you now!’”Track 2. “Anybody Wanna Pray” written by Cedric Caldwell, Victor Caldwell & Margaret Bell, produced by Tommy Sims (co-produced by Brown Bannister) “I love the message of this song. We are in a warfare. Families and marriages are being broken up, children are suffering and the only answer is on our knees. So even though it’s it has a hit thing going and people are going to enjoy it when they hear it, I want them to get the message. We hope it spreads like fire and burns in the hearts of people and motivates people to really pray, realizing that God is the answer, the way out. Prayer really changes things.” Track 3. “Say A Prayer” written by CeCe, Madeline Stone & Dennis Martkosky, produced by Brown Bannister “Hopefully, this is a song that will make people smile and make them think about praying for one another. We need to pray for everybody at every stage of life. When a baby is being born, it’s a beautiful thing, but you still need prayer to make it through and you need God’s guidance in order to raise that child. If someone loses a child, then they need prayer to go through that, too. When people are getting married, it’s a celebrative thing, but without prayer to hold them together, they won’t make it. When you look at the world and see all the different situations, you realize the only one who is going to help everybody, no matter what situation they’re in, is God.” Track 4. “More Than What I Wanted” written by Tommy Sims, Adrian Gervitz & Jamie O’Neal, produced by Tommy Sims (co-production Brown Bannister) “This was written as a secular song and meant to be a love song. When I heard it, it just moved me. I loved the beat; it’s a happy song. I was like, ‘I’ve got to do this song! And I’m not saying “baby,” ’cause this is what I feel about the Lord.’ He is more than what I wanted. He has been so good to me. I don’t deserve how great He’s been. For anyone who  doesn’t believe in God, I just don’t believe you don’t believe in Him. He’s so great and He’s so awesome and to have Him in your life and to know He’s there for you is just more than what I wanted.”Track 5. “Looking Back At You” written by CeCe, Adrian Gervitz, Wendy Waldman, produced by Brown Bannister (co-prodcution with Robbie Buchannon) “What I wanted to convey is the passion and the love in a Godly relationship. I mean a human relationship is a beautiful thing, God created it; it’s a powerful wonderful thing and it is supposed to represent Christ’s love for the church, and vice versa. But having a relationship with Him surpasses all. And ‘Looking Back At You’ is just a beautiful song.” Track 6. “More Than Just A Friend” written by Kayla Parker, Gerald L. Kinchelow and Michael J. Powell, Produced by Brown Bannister “A friend of mine wrote this song years ago and I’ve loved it for a long time. It’s a very up song with a great message. ‘Hello Mr. Busy, just wonder if you could spare a little time.’ Often, we want God to be part of our lives; we call on Him when we’re in trouble, but we ignore Him the rest of the time. A Godly relationship is like any other relationship — of course it’s the most important relationship, but it’s still a relationship — it’s a give and take situation and He wants to be loved just like He loves us.” Track 7. “No One” written by Marc Anthony, Cory Rooney, Dan Shea, Ira Antelis, Chris Robinson, produced by Brown Bannister “ ‘No one’ was written by Marc Anthony and is on his CD. My husband bought it and my son, who was fourteen at the time and really into music, heard this song and he said, ‘Mom, you’ve got to listen to this. I think it’s the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard.’ It  was almost like ‘More Than What I Wanted’ because it was my testimony, what I feel and what I know to be true and, of course, he [Marc] was singing it and I think he’s an awesome singer. So we got permission from his publishers to change the words — I didn’t have to change many — so it would definitely be about a vertical as opposed to a horizontal relationship. Every time I hear it, I’m blessed by it. ‘No One.’ It’s my favorite song on the record.”Track 8. “For Love Alone” written by CeCe, Adam Anders, Pamela Sheyne, produced by Brown Bannister “We came up with the title for the song first. The song says: And wonder what life is all about If there’s a purpose or a plan Or does it happen just by chance?’ Track 9. “Let’s Bring Back The Days Of Yea & Nay” written by Marvin Winans, produced by Brown Bannister. “ ‘Yea And Nay’ was previously recorded by my brothers [The Winans] and it’s a song that’s known to churchgoers. Man oh man, does it minister! It’s just straight to the point. It’s something that we all long for, that we feel like we used to have, those days of ‘yea and nay’ when things were a little clearer, when people stood for something. It’s a prayer: ‘Help us return to what’s right and see what’s wrong, instead of calling wrong right, and right wrong.’ It’s a great song as far as the musical feel of it, but I’m in love with it because of what it’s saying.” Track 10. “Out My House” written by CeCe, & Tommy Sims, produced by Tommy Sims, co-produced by Brown Bannister “I wrote ‘Out My House’ one night and it was a rough night for me. The devil was attacking my home, my marriage… and I was weeping and praying to the Lord. It’s almost like anger came and I realized, ‘You know what? You don’t have to take this!’ When I wrote it, I wrote it with an attitude. I was mad. I said ‘Devil, you gonna play like that. I’m coming after you. You’re getting out of here. You’re going to leave me alone and I’m going to start praying for my loved ones and my family and you will have to leave them alone. This song is about the authority of the believer. If we don’t realize what God has in us, we’ll let the devil beat us up all the time. It’s time for us to turn that anger, not to one another, but to where the problem is and that’s the enemy — you’ve got to kick him out and you’ve got to keep him out. And that only happens through prayer and a consecrated life.” Track 11. “Holy Spirit, Come Fill This Place” written by Babby Mason & Marty Hennis, produced by Brown Bannister “First of all, this song is my prayer for this project, for my life, for everything: ‘Holy Spirit fill this place; you’re welcome here. We need You cause without You it’s only words, it’s only just another song, but we need You in order to move and touch the hearts of people. We need You to change us so that we can minister, so we can be what God  wants us to be.’
“With this particular CD being more of an outreach album, some may not understand the ‘Holy Spirit,’ but when I listen to the song, I feel the Holy spirit and hopefully they will too, enough that they’ll have to search and find out just who the Holy Spirit is. The song, right when you hear it, you know it’s a classic. It’s one of those songs that will be around for a long, long time.”Track 12. “It’s Gonna Get Better” written by CeCe & Tommy Sims, produced by Tommy Sims, co-production by Brown Bannister “I wrote the song specifically in response to a horrible problem that I was totally ignorant of — child suicide. A few years back it was brought to my attention how suicide rates had shot up in our community and especially in our children. I had no idea kids were taking their own lives and it just broke my heart. So I got involved with the Initiative Teen organization and went to a few of the suicide survivor banquets. Hearing the stories of these parents finding their children dead. It blew my mind. It’s been a silent thing going on for years, that people don’t want to talk about. And I said ‘that’s crazy; we’ve got to talk about this and begin to pray about it.’ ‘It’s Gonna Get Better’ is a very special song and I’m praying the anointing of God upon it, that it will save lives.” Track 13. “Better Place” written by Nick Trevisic and Nee-C Walls, produced by Brown Bannister “The title is self-explanatory. It’s what we all live for. I wanted this album to encourage people. This song it’s just ‘hey, we’ve all made mistakes, but keep holding on, keep pressing on. Prepare yourself. Because one day we will go to a better place.’”
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