Hi Danny,

those who have replied already are much more focused on recording technique than I am... all of my observations are from the perspective of the average listener

1) I listen to a lot of contemporary Christian music, and the first question I would ask is whether you'd rather make this song "fit in" or "stand out" in that genre. If you want to "fit in", I'd ditch the pedal steel and keep the cello. To my ear, the cello/piano combination works VERY well for the genre... and especially in this song, I prefer the cello parts over the pedal steel parts

2) however, there are lots of faith-based songs in contemporary country music, and in that genre the pedal steel fits quite well. However, the mood of the song and the chord progression used are a better fit (in my subjective opinion) with the CChristian genre than the CCountry genre.

3) having said all that... there are times when you may want to DEPART from genre paradigms and do something unexpected. I would describe this version of your song to be exactly that... something that doesn't fit exactly into an established musical paradigm.

But its worth noting that audiences are hard-wired with genre expectations, and it is very hard for an unknown artist to get away with "breaking the rules". In my opinion, your best path for this song going forward would be to pick one genre and play to it.

I love the fact that you are using your music as a ministry. Keep up the good work!

Last edited by Pat Marr; 05/25/13 05:05 AM.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0