Free

Get a digital download of 1 or more new song demos every month. Plus: Get a digital download of all the music I've released prior to these new songs.
 
I'll send you new songs I'm writing for this story before anyone else gets to hear them. You get the all the old albums! And all the new demos!

All the Music

(Above +) Get a digital download of the final, full-band story-album when complete.
 
When I'm done writing songs for this story, I'm going to make it an album, fully produced, arranged, and recorded. You'll get that record in download format.
 
I'll also take your favorite song and record an acoustic version of it, just for you.

Story-Album Download

(Above +) Get a multi-disc set of the final, full-band story-album when complete, with your name in the liner notes.
 
When I'm done writing songs for this story, I'm going to make it an album, fully produced, arranged, and recorded. You'll get that record in CD format.
 
When you open it up, you'll find your name printed in the liner notes with my gratitude.

Deluxe Story-Album Package

(Above +) You will be listed as an executive producer on the story-album's liner notes.
 
Wow. You are making a big difference to this project and to me. An executive producer provides a chance for a creator to fulfill a grand vision. That's you.

Executive Producer: You

(Above +) You get a free physical copy of every CD, shirt, or other anything I make, as long as you’re a member.
 
And to be honest, that’s not even close to reciprocal. You and I see that you’re doing this because you believe in this as much as I do. Thank you.

Everything I Ever Create

(Above +) I'll contact you via video chat. I'll play a cover song of your choosing, and ask you to tell me a story.
 
After that, I'll write a song in response to your story. I'll record a demo of it and send it to you as a digital download.
 
This is your story now. I'm so glad to play a small part.

Your Story in a Song

Custom Cover Song

Story Album CD

Story Album Demos

All Past Music

Story Album Download

Story Album Deluxe Package

Executive Producer Credit

All New Merch

Your Story Song

(right-click on the file name above and save to your computer)— - –An IntroductionHere is the first song that got me thinking that it might be possible to tell a story through a series of songs. It's surreal to see how much it has evolved since it was first written back in 2011.This demo is just me and the guitar, although I'd love for you to hear it with cello when we have a chance to record the full band version.There is more to come, so stay tuned. Please leave your impressions/comments/questions below... I hope you enjoy!– Zack— - –The LyricsI was born on the northern border She is the one I’ve sought for She is the one I’ve loved I came down of an ageless order She is the one I sing to She is the one I’ve dreamedLovers may come and lovers may go You don’t have to walk that road alone You will find solace in the way the story ends People will say whatever they say You don’t have to do it all your own way You’ll find a home with me, my friendShe was lost in an endless ocean She had the world on a string A balloon of stone So I swam out in ceaseless motion I kissed her cold blue fingers She opened up her eyes And I saidLovers may come and lovers may go You don’t have to walk that road alone You will find solace in the way the story ends People will say whatever they say You don’t have to do it all your own way You’ll find a home with me, my friendYou cannot carry this around You just let it go, you set it down Sinking so fast, so far into the sea People will say I don’t know how To tell you now this will all work out but I won’t just wait for you to drown, noLovers may come and lovers may go You don’t have to walk that road alone You will find solace in the way the story ends People will say whatever they say You don’t have to do it all your own way You’ll find a home with me, my friendYou'll find a home with me, my friend You'll find a home with me© 2011 Zachary Alden Smith— - –The Story Behind the SongI was sitting at my desk, working late at night. My mom was awake, too, not feeling well, laying on the couch. She was staying with my wife and I for a while between month-long inpatient chemotherapy treatments. She had been diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia a year or so before this.The thing about chemo is that it pretty much pushes you to the edge of life by destroying a lot of your cells; even the good ones. The nurses administering it wear special gloves and gowns to protect themselves, in the event that the intravenous bag holding the bright orange liquid is punctured. If the toxic chemicals inside spill onto the surface of their skin, rather than into the patient’s body, it’s not only expensive, but injurious.I guess it sort of makes you know how sick you are, in case your particular affliction of cancer hasn’t made you feel all that bad, yet. So the docs give you all kinds of medicine to counteract various side effects that occur as a result of being exposed to it. Anything from being unable to hold a meal, to chronic headaches, or just feeling incurably itchy, all over.Then the medicine for the side-effects causes more side-effects. And they give you other drugs to help with those. Which cause more side-effects of their own...At the peak effect of all this, you’re probably reeling from a puzzling chain-reaction of meds you wouldn’t even need to be on if it weren’t for your own response to all the rounds of whatever you’ve taken up to now.So it was common for my mom to be feeling everything all at once and just not be able to sleep, eat, function well, think straight. Any single one of these afflictions would’ve kept me from several nights of sleep in a row, were I in her shoes.I decided I would stay up as long as she was up. If she’s unable to sleep, why should I?It happened to be a Saturday night. The sun came up after a long night of just being in the same room together, me watching her, too sick to rest, trying to understand how she feels, and what’s the point of it all. My mother’s stomach was in a knot. And my mind was on a loop: What’s all this suffering for?I went to church that morning. I sat through my 1500th (or so) worship service and wondered what the heck is going on in this world, underneath or above the tireless grind of human weariness, defeat, searching, and death.While all of God’s children are showing up to be close with him, praying to hear from him, to be seen and loved... Where is he? Is he here?I realized from the look on my friend’s face as he approached, that I must be visibly dejected. He asked me what’s wrong. I recapped the previous night for him. I asked:“How is all of the suffering, here and now, where the creator of the heavens and the earth is supposed to be all-powerful and all-loving, going to help me trust that there’s anything more safe or enjoyable to wait or live for? We live between the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’, right? If he’s already having his way on this earth, why should I stick around to see what he’s not yet shown us about his plans for us in heaven? Is this supposed to be the proof that he has good things in store for us? If so, I’m not sure what to believe or where to go from here.”He paused. The first response I caught in his eyes was that he knew what I was feeling. He said: “Good questions.”He said: “Does she believe in Christ?” I nodded. He paused again, longer this time.“God hasn’t promised that anything here on this earth is going to happen the way we want it to. Instead, he’s given you experiences that are hard to endure, and now you’re feeling the difference between where you are and where you’re going... and from that dissonance, you are certain that you were meant for something greater. Seeing that, first-hand, is part of what it means to be made more like Christ. Because in Christ, we find what he has promised: That when we die, he will, unfathomably, hold us, save us, and make all things new. He promises to solve a greater problem that we have no hope of solving on our own... The problem of our own death. He promises to deliver us, and to deliver on that promise. But he hasn’t promised that life will make sense, that we will have everything we ask for, or that someone we love won’t get leukemia and die. We can’t find what we really want anywhere else.”I didn’t know how, but that made me feel better, and worse, at the same time. I appreciated his words. But I didn’t get into that conversation because I wanted to find there’s no way around the suffering, only through. No way to get my mom out of it, either.Over the next hours I shifted from demanding to know what’s wrong with God, to curiosity about what’s wrong with me. What’s incomplete in my realization of the weight of my own death? I found myself asking:Why don’t I appreciate so much that he’s solving the problem of life after death for me? Why do I throw that out if the difficulties between now and then go unrelieved, instead?That’s when I realized that I’ve made a list. A list of things that I want God to do for me. And then I pretended that God had promised to give me everything on the list.This wasn’t the first time I was playing the victim of unfulfilled longings. It is a pattern. A weed, stemming from a belief that God doesn’t love me if he doesn’t do for me what I have decided is most loving for him to do.I can argue that the list came from a place of hope, of wanting God to be good and true and beautiful, and to fully give us himself.And also, it came from a decision I made, that if God is good, true, and beautiful, that he will give me whatever I think is good and true and beautiful. That my definitions and my plans for what that means are big enough to be the very path of my life. That I’m the one who gets to say what’s right.And as a result, to justify my own anger at not getting what I want. To be controlled by my fear that I’m not in control. To buy the story that my story ends in my shame.I’ve made a list of what I want. It’s all good things. All things a good father should want to give his children. And should be accountable to give, if he’s truly got all the resources to do so. And I told myself I wouldn’t stop until I get them.I’ve been so fixated on my list of wants, that I’ve almost lost sight of any thankfulness that I don’t have to worry about the condition of my eternity, or that of the ones I love the most.For each item on the list, there is something that happened to me that made me want to put that thing on the list. But I don’t always remember the reasons between the lines anymore. I don’t hold dear the seed of hope for shalom, within the desire for change. All I know is my items, my decisions, about what sort of tree that seed should look like, fully grown. My little limited picture of heaven.That night, my mom was feeling well enough to get some of a night’s rest, but my heart was still searching too much to do the same. I wanted to do something about the state of my desires. To align them with what I believed was better, truer, more beautiful, and more attainable... So that I can be a happier person, maybe.But I had no clue how to do this. Resting with the uncertainty was not on the list.That night, awake again, reeling in a more puzzling chain-reaction of questions than I’d previously known... I started to imagine a little girl. Her eyes downcast, holding a wrinkled scrap of paper in one hand, and a half-finished kite in the other.What follows is her story.She’s clutching the paper, almost hiding it behind her back. On it is a handwritten list, of things she doesn’t even have, but holds most dear, nonetheless.A story of letting go. A story of transformation, from bitterness, to joy, through suffering.The list comes from a place of hope. But it cannot give her what she hopes for most.— - –The Artwork<img data-media-id="33606336" src="https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/2523698/209dd626547e498f9562fcdf444a2fbb/eyJwIjoxfQ%3D%3D/1.jpg?token-time=1715385600&token-hash=rb6YJczw1z_iDv8B71dVqCBa8fQ578tY6KM4JCz_x94%3D">— - –

Here is the first song that started my brain onto the idea that I might be able to tell a story through a series of songs. I actually...

She Is the One

Zachary Alden Smith

She Is the One - Cover.jpg

01 She Is the One (Demo).mp3

This is a beautiful song all on its own - but reading the story behind the song takes it to a whole new level.  There is something about knowing the depths where a song is birthed that give it such richness.  I agree with Ryan!  I love the imagery of holding the world on a string - but it is in fact a balloon of stone.  My reading this morning was in Matthew 16 where Jesus tells us that to come with Him, we must let Him lead.  We can not hold that stone balloon but He gently, graciously carries the weight for us.  It is a beautiful picture of the love that we all truly need and the love that allows us to live an abundant life in the midst of our own brand of suffering.  Thank you for sharing your thought processes and your life experiences.  I love you, friend.

My favorite verse:

She was lost in an endless ocean
She had the world on a string
A balloon of stone
So I swam out in ceaseless motion
I kissed her cold blue fingers
She opened up her eyes

Such a beautiful picture, to me, of spiritual awakening.  All of God's action moves toward us to show us love while we are carried down by the weight of sin and guilt that is so fresh in our minds.

With your eyes open, the verse transitions in to the chorus of God talking to me and saying "You'll find a home with me, my friend" it gives me chills and my heart wells up with so much joy at the hope that is embedded in that statement.  All of my sins and guilt just dissolves.  It's like me putting all of the good things and bad things that I have done on a table in front of God and saying:  "This is who I am."  Then God looks at everything and shoves it aside and puts Jesus on the table and says:  "This is what I see when I look at you, and I love you!"

I also love the picture and context of the phrase "She had the world on a string".  It makes me think of the idols we so easily think we need and control, but then God coming toward us and saying I love you and am all you need! 

Thanks Zack for writing such encouraging music and lyrics :)

Chrisann, thank you! It is hard to remember things I want to block out, and even harder to assume anyone else wants to read it or can use it at all. I'm super encouraged by you and I hope you are free to tell your story as well. What God has done for us is worth remembering. Love and thanks to you as well...

Thank you, Ryan! I love your story and how it intertwines. That line you're mentioning is one I've struggled with, because I didn't know if it made sense or not. At the risk of it being a big distraction I have kept it. So many times I get what I want, and then discover I didn't want it after all. So grateful for you, man.