A year ago, with the help of Oregon Catholic Press (OCP), I released the Mass of Restoration. I was working full time at a church and traveling to parts unknown to play music for churches, conferences, and camps. Although the mass was never written to only be an acoustic setting, I, and co-writer, Grae McCullough, recognized the need for a mass setting to be approachable on the guitar. I have been alone with my guitar in some amazing audio situations. I have plugged it in and known it to sound like a full orchestra waiting to accompany a world-renowned tenor. I have also been in much less accommodating situations; situations where the best I could hope for is banging out chords, singing as loud as I can, and praying the assembly can hear. Those experiences led me to a desire to demonstrate how the mass might be played in the simplest of settings with limited resources. In other words, how can one person pick up an acoustic guitar and make beautiful music for mass? After some discussion with my friend, mentor, and experienced liturgical guitarist, Tom Booth, I decided to release audio and video for “Mass of Restoration: Acoustic Sessions.”
The setting was well received in audio, video, and sheet music form, and continues to grow in popularity. As it has grown, so has the desire in me to demonstrate more fully how it was intended to sound, and the stylistic versatility it was written to express. I’m excited for the Mass of Restoration to be the first of its kind, recorded in three different versions to exhibit three different styles of music that the Catholic faith has come to use in her celebrations worldwide. First, the acoustic sessions, then the Mass of Restoration Live version (released Nov. 16, 2018), and finally, the Sacred Sessions (organ) available in mid-February, 2019.
Whether you are a church musician looking for a change in your liturgical music, or a daily communicant who heard this mass in some random church in some random town, or simply an avid Josh Blakesley fan who can’t wait for the next recording, I would be grateful if you would listen and pray along. And if you find yourself in a church assembly singing along to this mass setting, let it wash over you and simply experience the restoration that comes from the Source and Summit of our faith.
