Cry of My Heart - Performed by One AccordA Tribute to One Accord Worship Band - Regina/Pilot Butte, Saskatchewan, Canada
The only official page of the only real One Accord (at least to my way of thinking). Lots of One Accord bands out there in Christian circles. No surprise, given the fairly generic name. Of course, back then, we never knew about each other because there was no internet but now when I do a keyword search, there are all kinds of One Accord bands. Anyway, we were the best and when we were at it, it totally rocked!! Long live One Accord!!!
Ah, One Accord... the little worship band that could. Really beginning as early as 1987, I was with the group until the summer of 2000 when the then-current lineup disbanded. Back when it started, I hadn't even learned to play the guitar yet, let alone written a single song. We all played on Sundays at the Regina Apostolic Church and we ended up getting asked to play at a few local events before we ever really thought of becoming a band. If I recall, I think the very original line-up was Dave Hooper, Richard Verity, Joe Leier, Phil Nordin, Kirk and Derek Leverington. Kirk and I were playing trumpet but Kirk ended up playing bass when Phil decided not to pursue things once we had formalized into a band. Donna Booth was also with the band as a vocalist but I don't recall exactly when. Later on, Darla Gregor (who later became Darla Verity) joined.
I got sick of playing trumpet pretty early on and started experimenting with guitar. Kirk has already made the transition to bass. I'm sure I was awful at the time. The only guitar I had was a red Yamaha guitar I bought from the Sears Clearance Centre and an old Traynor solid-state guitar amp and all I really knew how to play was power chords.
When Dave Hooper, who had been handling the electric guitar duties to date, announced he was leaving the band, I spoke up to Richie and told him that I was interested in stepping into the job. So, I practised up to 8 hours a day (no exagerration!!!) to try and figure out what I was doing and took over when Dave left.
We released three full-length CD's, Feel So Free, Revival Fire and Worship.
Here's all the music that I wrote on my own. There were other songs and others that I co-wrote, but these are the ones I own the intellectual property for and feel closest to.
Download freely. Right click and "Save As . . ." and away you go. Free worship music as mp3 files for your listening pleasure.
Included are my "unofficial liner notes" for each of the songs.
All songs written by Derek Leverington
Worship - 1996
This is my favourite album that we did. I'm sure it didn't hurt that I wrote 8 of the 10 songs on it. For us, it had the best production, the most cohesive set of songs, the best album artwork and the best studio performances and production that we were going to accomplish.
Cry of My Heart - Performed by One Accord
Of all the songs we recorded, this one has the most work put into it in terms of developing some texture to the arrangements. In the third verse you can hear the layered guitar tracks in the background and some alternate chords. I always like that part musically, although it would have been nice to have been able to lay down more instances of each part to thicken up the sound. Even at that though, I never played that part live anyhow - it was played on keyboard - as I always play acoustic anyhow. I was originally going to sing the lead vocal and Kirk has another vocal harmony line worked up. He ended up doing the lead vocal but forgot to sing the harmony part so it never made it on. So, whenever I listen to it, I always sing it in because it bugs me that it isn't there.
Set Us Free - Lead Vocal - Derek - Performed by One Accord
There was one spot in the first verse where I sing way out of tune. Ouch!!! This song never really took off as a big favourite as far as people singing along with it so we never did it that much. That said, I always like that it had a unique sound and vibe to it for a worship song - even if it was a little darker.
Ever Worship You - Performed by One Accord
This and Holy, Holy are, to my mind anway, the two best slow, ballad worship songs I wrote during this time. I think Holy, Holy is a better song but I prefer how the recording on this song came off in comparison. I always wished that I had been able to figure out a third harmony part in the chorus, but to carry on the part that I started in the beginning of the chorus would have been too high for me to sing.
Consuming Fire - Performed by One Accord
I still remember the first time that we played this song at a gig. I could always tell ultimately how well a song would catch on after playing it even once. If people "got it" and either started singing along or at least were attempting to learn the words, I knew it was going to go somewhere. And as it turned out, some songs went and some didn't. I always knew within 30 seconds whether it was going to go or not.
On this particular day, we were playing outside in a park on a very hot summer day in Regina and I remember that people instantly got caught on the hook of the chorus and get right into it. I think the tempo of the song was just right for people to be able to hop around. Anyhow, we ended up doing it three different times that day because people kept on wanting to hear it again (and of course it wasn't recorded yet).
Healer of My Soul - Lead Vocal - Derek - Performed by One Accord
I wanted to write a song that was very much like a Psalm, but not a literal lyric lift from an existing Psalm. I liked how the lyrics worked on this song. Regarding the falsetto ending, it seemed like a much better idea at the time than it does now. I recall Kirk not liking the idea at all, and I think I should have listened to him more. Although, if it had been mixed differently, I think it would have worked better.
You Oh Lord Are Exalted - Lead Vocal - Derek - Performed by One Accord
I think this is likely the heaviest song we did. I think this would have been one of the first times I tuned the E string down to a D. I rememeber trying to sound as raspy as possible to get the right edge to the vocal. I also sang a lower octave part but it sounded a little too hard core to make it in to the final mix. The guitar solo part could have used a little more imagination - I used to have the bad habit of ending every solo line on the root. I really like this song and how it got recorded. And how could you not like a song that has cowbell in it!! Christopher Walken would be proud...
Your Name Is Lifted High - Lead Vocal - Derek - Performed by One Accord
This always felt a like a concept worship song and like Set Us Free never really got played live. I think we would have had a hard time pulling it off anyway. That said, it has a certain power to it that I always liked. My favourite thing about this song is that it was the brothers Leverington doing vocals together and I love how our voices blend togther. Anytime now I'm doing a lead vocal now, I want brother Kirk doing backgrounds.
Holy, Holy - Performed by One Accord
I think in many respects this was the pinnacle song of everything that I wrote. If there was a song of ours that was being done in other churches, it was Holy, Holy. I heard stories of it being done at churches in the States and it was done in some churches in town as well. This song was actually written very shortly after Revival Fire was released and the most frequent song asked at the disc table was whether this song was on the disc or not.
For a song being such a big deal, I was never happy with how the recording turned out. Most of that is what I did to it. The inclusion of those answer-back melody lines with the electric guitar lines were a bad idea. Sean had fairly recently departed the band and used a line in there and I was trying to fill in the space with a guitar bit. In retrospect I would have left it alone. Also, the crunchy guitars come in way too forcefully and it really throws off the vibe of the song. Later on, well after this was recorded, we started doing a free-worship time with a couple of repeated chords after this song. It was often a very powerful time of worship and it's too bad none of that was ever captured on this recording. We had a cassette recording of a gig we placed in Moose Jaw that was really quite powerful. It's too bad that kind of stuff gets lost.
Also notice the tip of the hat to Slash from Guns 'n Roses - November Rain to my solo under the E minor in the middle section.
If there's a song that I'd ever consider re-recording it would be this song. It would likely turn out to be about 10 minutes, but that would be the truest way to represent the song and how it was experienced live in a worship setting.
Revival Fire - 1995
This was the first album that contained worship songs and these were the first songs I had written on my own. I had co-written songs on the previous Feel So Free album, but my contributions were limited to chord structures and little in the way of lyrics (not to mention bad guitar solos). There were other songs on there, some Kirk and Sean had written and some covers of mostly Brian Doerksen songs. It was our first foray into doing an entirely worship-based project and we were becoming comfortable with the idea of being strictly a worship band. At the time, this album was an expression of some of what was happening in the way of worship in Regina during some of the renewal/Toronto Blessing times.
Only You - Performed by One Accord
This song really lacked the punch it had live, actually by a long shot. We tended to play it safe in the studio on this album and I find a bit of clinical quality to this album. Also adding to what I find missing on this song was that after it was recorded I came up with a guitar riff that I think really spiced it up. Secret of this song is its simplicity but audience alwayed loved to sing and dance along with it.
More of You - Performed by One Accord
One of the many one verse/one chorus songs I did. I always liked the drum part in this song. I think I must have had Bon Jovi "Bed of Roses" on the brain when doing the guitar work on this song. Was never really happy with how the recorded version compared to how it came off live.
So, those are the unofficial liner notes from 10 years after the fact. Will be nice to get something else recorded one of these days...
Derek Leverington
Contact Derek Leverington by email.