The making of Fish With Me: More Songs for Every Generation

What was the inspiration behind Fish With Me: More Songs for Every Generation?

Jessie : Ken and I were in the Philippines on the occasion of a visit from Pope Francis. We simply had a conversation about our last collection, Love Never Fails and thought, “Why not join forces again?” One of the standout songs of Love Never Fails was “Fish with Me” and Ken thought, “Why not build on that?” We wrote new songs, revisited and rearranged older songs. Our hope was to create a resource similar to that of Love Never Fails but instead of “Songs for Every Generation,” this would be “More Songs for Every Generation.”

Ken: Jesse and I went on tour in 2003 to promote our first collaborative collection, Love Never Fails. By God’s grace, our songs resonated with youth groups and with families, especially at Sunday worship. But our ministries went on divergent paths since then. In 2015 we were together again in the Manila to help provide music for the visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines. We realized how much we missed the joy of working together in music ministry and we thought, “Let’s do it again!” The result is Fish With Me, whose sub-title is More Songs for Every Generation, a playful nod at the sub-title for our first CD.

One of the standout songs on Love Never Fails was “Fish with Me,” and we decided to make it the title and starting point of our new collection. We did a new recording with children in the fun call-and-response way that Jesse performs the song at concerts and rallies. But a lot has happened in the world and in our lives since the song first appeared in 2003. As we began to compose new music, together and separately, it became clear that we were writing about the concerns of today: for safety and reassurance in a time of terrorism; for inclusiveness in a time of division; for hope in a time of uncertainty. We didn’t set out to focus on those themes but as we sent our song demos to each other we became excited at how our faith was inspiring us to sing of God’s light in a time when the world seems to be tilting toward darkness.

Fish With Me is filled with songs of hope at a time when doomsayers are painting a bleak picture for the future. We’re saying, hey, hold on to God’s love! Listen to the wisdom of God’s Word! Be nourished by the Eucharist and uplifted by Jesus’ promise of eternal life! These are all lasting truths that have been obscured by the allures and false security of the modern world. The Lord still calls us to follow him into God’s kingdom, where all are welcome and all belong.