Jenny Oaks Baker and Jason Wright: Witnesses of Christmas

Jenny Oaks Baker is the perfect guest for the premiere of The Book Drop Mic with Jason Wright. Join Jason and Jenny as they discuss their brand new book, Witnesses of Christmas — A Musical Journey Through the Nativity of Jesus the Christ.

They also discuss their beloved Christmas show, "Joy to the World — A Sacred Christmas Celebration". The 2023 edition of the show features live music, choirs, and dancers and will hit 20 cities between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Buy Jason and Jenny's new book:
https://shadowmountain.com/product/witnesses-of-christmas-a-musical-journey-through-the-nativity-of-jesus-the-christ

Buy tickets to the show
https://www.jennyoaksbaker.com

Learn more about Jenny:
https://www.jennyoaksbaker.com

Learn more about Jason:
http://www.jasonfwright.com

This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.

Transcript

Jason: 0:02

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Book Drop Mic brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo and press releases. This is Jason Wright and this is our premiere episode. And look, when I decided to launch this new show, I knew that today's guest would have to be our first, and not just because I am somewhat familiar with her new book, but because I just love and adore her and her fabulous and funny and wacky family. I am so happy to welcome Jenny Oaks Baker to Book Drop Mic. Hey, jenny.

Jenny: 0:40

Hey, Jason, it's always so fun to talk to you, but it's actually your book. It just seems kind of along for the ride.

Jason: 0:47

I don't know your name's on the cover as well.

Jenny: 0:50

Yeah, but it's really your book.

Jason: 0:54

Well, we're going to talk about that and, by the way, if you missed my interview with Jenny on Wright when you Are, which is a little bit longer form show, as many of you will recall, go back and find that. Just search Jason Wright, jason Oaksbaker, on wherever you listen to your podcast, and you'll find it. That was a great, great discussion that we had a couple of years ago.

Jenny: 1:14

All right, so we are going to talk about the book, of course, but first people listening might know Well, it's the same as last year, but it's called Joy to the World, a Sacred Celebration, but it is all about becoming a better witness of Jesus Christ, so it's definitely like Witnesses of Christmas, which is actually the book titles.

Jason: 1:35

So this started about three years ago. Jenny reached out and said I want to do a Christmas show in the middle of a global pandemic. Well, you're right.

Jenny: 1:50

No one else is doing them. So it seemed like, yeah, I thought that was just the way it was and I can't remember. I'm kind of now that I'm trying to book venues, not in a global pandemic. It's actually really really, really, really, really difficult, because, especially because this time there's something called Nutcracker that seems to take all the venues.

Jason: 2:09

Yeah, it is great for them. But I do remember back then just how, what a unique experience that was, even just telling people, hey, we're doing this show at Tuocon in St George and Jenny and her family and dancers and choirs, and like it's this beautiful, like let's gather together again and talk about the real meaning of Christmas, and the show sort of came together in that sort of test, I guess three years ago.

Jenny: 2:37

And then now we're venues. So we were just everyone was safe.

Jason: 2:41

Yeah, that's right. And then we went back the next year, so in in 21, right, and had again just in St George, but had a little different. The script was similar but I I showed up as a shepherd with some facial hair, which was fantastic, and the show was better, absolutely better, because you know, you were wearing a shepherd skirt you got from your friend.

Jason: 3:11

That's right. Shout out to Shatley for the skirt that I wore to cover up my knobby knees. And then you called me in like January or February of 22 and said, OK, so what success. We had the first couple years in St George. What if we went to to maybe 10 cities? And I remember thinking she's probably lost her mind, Jenny Oaks Bakers, we're going from one sort of a test experiment, kind of a Petrie dish thing, in St George to let's try this in 10 cities. And she did and it was fantastic and she really I mean she had, she had help in all the key areas but really this has been your baby in terms of of producing and booking venues and and the finance and all that side of this. This is really a Jenny Oaks Baker joint in every sense. And we survived somehow. We survived 10 cities. And then Jenny called me in January or February or March.

Jenny: 4:13

And what did you say to me, Jenny, this year, I don't remember because I'm just, I've just been such a long life, but I think I was like I want to do 20.

Jason: 4:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go from 10 to goodness it's been.

Jenny: 4:26

It's been the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Like, honestly, I don't think I've ever broken down in tears so many times sitting at my computer has like the last few months because I thought that this year I mean it was really hard to figure out how to do a tour for 10 cities Like it was really hard but I did it and I was like, well, this year I know what I'm doing, Like I can this is not new Like I just do the same thing but just do two of the same at the same time. Like double a no big deal. And oh my goodness, it's so much harder. I swear it's 10 times harder than just two times harder. And I know how to work hard and I'll pull it off and I know that God is helping me.

Jenny: 5:06

But he's also like how many father likes to teach you lessons as he helps you and sometimes those lessons are not super fun, but they're worthwhile and I'm grateful for them when I'm done with them, but when I'm in the middle of them I'm not as grateful and I'm working on it, but it has been the hardest thing I've ever tried to pull off and I'm still. Every day I pray for specific miracles that I need to come through, and very often those miracles come, and so it's kept me humble. It's keeping me working hard, it's keeping me my Kleenex box is right by my computer, but it keeps. It keeps you humble, and doing hard things is what, what I feel like, sanctifies me and helps me become more of the person that God would have me be. So I know how to work hard, I know how to rely on the Lord, and this has been a really good test of that.

Jason: 5:56

Well, and I always. When my family and I we in fact just yesterday we had kind of a conversation about how the calendar was starting to look and travel and all that for the tour, and we were talking about just the sheer amount of work that goes in long before we ever arrive at the first venue. On what is it? Black Friday day after Thanksgiving? I love my.

Jenny: 6:19

March 24th.

Jason: 6:21

Yeah, yeah, folks, it's. We're not talking days and weeks, we're literally talking months and months of work. Yeah, Like you just got home, so I'm glad you.

Jenny: 6:40

We finished the day before Christmas Eve, I believe, so we flew home on Christmas Eve.

Jason: 6:46

Yeah.

Jenny: 6:47

I've got my actually performed at place on Missionary Training Center that day, which was we were not really great. I mean, I love to be at the Missionary Training Center. The spirit's so strong there. I love it. But it was hard for me to be in a good mood because I was so tired.

Jenny: 7:01

Anyway like being there, you become in a good mood. But, like it was, it was harder to get in a good mood because we were so thrashed and tired, like alcohol, but thrashed as in gone through Extraordinary amount of right, no, that was.

Jason: 7:18

and I and I posted and wrote a little bit about some of the miracles and the Once we hit November 24, that's my vacation.

Jenny: 7:25

Like it, I will bring it every single night because I know how to do that, but that's the easy part, that is. But I will bring it and my kids will bring it, and Jason always brings it. Alex will bring it, like the dancers. We have 60 different performing groups on this tour and that actually is one of the hardest things to To actually find the performing groups that are willing to do it at Christmas time, which is a busy time. But we have Irish dancer at every stop group and Lyrical dancers at every stop and acquired every stop and a backpiper, but we're using the same two backpipers on the whole tour, so that makes a little easier than last year. But, um, yeah, so we, and then we have a percussionist, jay night guard, who's wonderful and Um, anyway, so we just just so many people and I'm still trying to get their tour travel every day. It's been on my leg to do like there's so much I think people enjoy.

Jason: 8:17

I actually think it's really helpful for people that are debating. Do I do? I have the? You know the 90 minutes or two hours that come to the show. You know the 20, 30, 40, 50 bucks whatever it is given the venue in the seat choice to buy a ticket. You really do, because you're. You're not just coming to experience Something really special on stage for an hour and a half or two hours, you're coming to experience the culmination of months and months and months of work and prayer and sweat and Spiritual energy that goes into it. And so we'll link, of course, to all the cities and tickets and all that stuff in the in the show notes. But Tell us, is there anything super interesting that's new about this year that's worth people Maybe they came last year, they're trying to decide if they want to come again.

Jenny: 9:03

Well before we go into that, the most I mean. Honestly, I don't care if people who are at the show Understand how much work went into it. Like I, I want them to be there to just have a really great spiritual experience to come like, become closer to Jesus Christ, to feel unified with their family and friends, whoever they're with or um, and to just just be, have the spirit speak to their hearts and help them feel the true meaning of Christmas and and to just become, you know, a better witness of Jesus Christ, like that. I honestly don't need to them to know how much work went into it, but I do want them to feel the spirit and to know of God's love for each of them. So that that's why we're, that's why Heavenly Father has blessed me to be able to pull us off, and that's why he blessed you to write such a powerful and impactful, beautiful script and deliver it with such authenticity and um. But there's also, of course, entertainment and entertaining moments. It's not just like attending a Religious service, but so it's got the Irish dancers and lots of energy and beautiful lighting and gorgeous videos and of of Jesus Christ and um Anyway, so it's a really special show as far as the new things, this year I hired a?

Jenny: 10:23

Um lyrical choreographer in our Idaho Falls show. I loved the choreography so much because all of their movements, when we were, when the choir was singing glory to gone and we're playing these glorious Christmas carols, their hands were all reaching up to heaven in such a beautiful way and I I just loved the choreography in Idaho Falls. So I reached out to Janelle Fulmer and I said will you Choreograph the whole show for next year? So all my lyrical dancers will have this and it's actually there's, there's a name for it. There's like liturgical dance. There's a kind of dance that that is more kind of religious and sacred, and so the lyrical dancers are doing this liturgical dance. So that's that's new this year.

Jenny: 11:06

Um, and I hired a creative director, um, scott Ekern, and he's he's gone through the whole script and just kind of tweaked things. We made in an hour and a half instead of two hours of no intermission, um, just to tighten it up and make it even more spiritually and artistically and creatively impactful. Um, and you just changed a little bit of the script. Here and there we're changing some of the projections, um, I think the Irish dancing. We've made some tweaks with the different Irish dancers are always, um, so different Irish dancing groups, different choirs, um, anyway, so those are some of the changes and I think it'll be a little more. We've got a congregational singing on Silent Night. That I think will be really beautiful and powerful. Um so it'll. It'll be pretty different and, I think, just even more impactful and and beautifully satisfying.

Jason: 12:06

You know it's, and it's interesting because generally you think, well, if you've taken away, you've, if you've taken away from something, then you've diminished its value, like it's now smaller. But I actually think and this is true with you know, with writing and editing and everything else, actually I in this case absolutely the reverse is true. By taking a little bit away from the show in terms of the length and tightening up, like there's a little bit of change to the, to the song, even just the song order, and it's not significantly shorter, but it is, it is tighter enough that I actually think it's better like it's. I can't wait to get on stage and to and to see how, because we're just seeing scripts at this point, but to see how it plays out, because I think, by taking the intermission away, by reordering the music a little bit, I think we pulled out a number, one or two numbers, right.

Jenny: 12:58

At least I think, maybe just one. Honestly, I think it's just one song left, I don't. I don't remember. The creative part is is next week. For me, my, my creative director has been working on it all year but, like for me, focusing in on that, is is next week.

Jason: 13:13

That's going to be great. I just think it's actually going to be an even better, more powerful show by being a little bit shorter. And it's the holidays, people are going to get in and out a little bit faster and.

Jenny: 13:24

I love a show with no intermission. I get bored easy, so I just not on stage but as like a viewer, I just I just want the most impactful, like my food is really spicy and or just yeah, I'm just like a big bold person and so I love a show that, like every moment is impactful.

Jason: 13:42

So I think that's what we're going to deliver and ladies and gentlemen, if you want to come a little early and to say Jenny has dreamt up a VIP reception opportunity.

Jenny: 13:55

Oh goodness, I hope people come. This is just like my experiment of, oh, we'll just do that, because I've heard of, I heard shows. They do these, like my husband's, like you should try it in a few places, and I was like, okay, we'll just do 20, but actually we're not doing any Calgary because Calgary couldn't find a big enough concert hall that was available not cracker, Thank you. And so we're doing two, two shows in Calgary, which means we just like the day it has no room for a VIP reception. We're also not doing one at Oakland because it's a temple hill and they won't allow it. But every other venue We'll be doing a VIP reception where you can come. We're gonna give actually the new book that we're talking about today signed, we'll be given to everyone that attends and we'll have some little refreshments. A little photo while we're making the banner, for the little photo area Makes it look like it's like a Hollywood premiere.

Jason: 14:53

And you don't have to stand in line at the end of the show and deal with all that you can-.

Jenny: 14:58

And you just meet you by yourself with us. So we'll just have a little-.

Jason: 15:01

In some venues. In some venues, that's right, and it's a little bit it's made in my popularity with these receptions.

Jenny: 15:10

So we'll see if it could just be you and us.

Jason: 15:15

And what a bar way out. What a bargain that would be. So again, all the links for all that good stuff in the show notes. But we do hope that we see you at the show somewhere this year. If you look at the cities and you're like, oh, you're not coming to DC, you're not coming to Alabama, you're not coming to wherever, hold out your hope for 2024, because I'm certain that we will be in 40 plus cities.

Jenny: 15:43

We actually next year is difficult, because I think it'll just be 10.

Jason: 15:48

Oh yeah, but these-.

Jenny: 15:50

Because it's Sarah's fault. Mike Chalice, like her school. She got accepted to her school at Susan Scotland. They're like we're so excited to have you here and we're like so she actually needs to miss three weeks of school during her first year of college. You don't mind, right? And they're like actually we do mind and I'm like, but it's kind of already done. I didn't know she was gonna go to your school and miss three weeks. And they're like well, this year yes, but next year no. So I'm gonna try to figure out 10 cities next year, but they'll be really good ones.

Jenny: 16:17

So just come this year and then yeah, come this year.

Jason: 16:21

And then, if you are in one of those cities, maybe that we were in last year that we're not coming to this year I know that's been the discussion is to try to get maybe to DC again or even New York or Florida or something like that.

Jenny: 16:34

I think Atlanta probably, but if not just, I mean not if not, but like just quite a Chicago or St Louis, that's close yeah.

Jason: 16:42

Just like oops Right, Just come see us. Just come see us. How do they start? They're my-.

Jenny: 16:50

You and me.

Jason: 16:51

If you, if someone's listening right now, who says sorry? Well, I'm familiar now with the show. I'm familiar with Jason and his books, but they're maybe not as familiar with America's violinist Jenny Oaks Baker. What's the? What's the short bio version of you and who you are and why you're doing what you do?

Jenny: 17:12

Well, why I'm doing what I do is cause the spirit has told me to do it and I'm kind of I try to be obedient cause I love blessings, I love the blessings, I'll do anything to get a blessing. But so I started playing violin when I was four and immediately showed that I kind of had a talent that God had given me and my mom recognized that and so she was extremely supportive, and my my dad as well. My mom practiced me till I was 12, I think, and my dad was willing to pay for those lessons, so he was supportive as well. But I ended up just showing a musical gift from God and so my parents supported that and I practiced really hard and they instilled in me that I had a responsibility to develop my talent and be worthy and ready to use that talent to build the kingdom. And I just always knew that God had something for me to do and I had to be. I had to keep the commandments to be worthy and I had to work really hard and just listen to the spirit to try to figure out what it was. And I just always knew there was something I was supposed to do with my talent. I just knew and then I got into the Curtis Institute of Music. I went there for my bachelors, which, curtis, is a really special place. It's probably the best music school in the world, so I was really blessed to get in.

Jenny: 18:30

And then I got into Juilliard and got my master's from Juilliard School in New York City, met my husband in New York. We got married. We moved to DC for his job, I got into the National Symphony. I played in the National Symphony as I was having children. I had four children.

Jenny: 18:44

By the time I'd had our fourth child in the symphony I felt like that wasn't what God wanted me to do. He wanted me to be home with more kids and so I walked away from the symphony, which is really hard and scary, and I had. I had started making albums. Right after I got married I released my first album. So during the time in the symphony I'd released a couple albums, but I hadn't really pursued a big solo career because I was in the symphony. I had one, two, three and four kids.

Jenny: 19:13

But as soon as I left the symphony I had, as I was leaving the symphony, I didn't have any solo concerts. But the day after I resigned from the symphony, conductors started calling and I started performing quite a bit and not being in the symphony, I also had more time to help my kids develop their musical talents and over the years they started performing with me and so I started. They were really good. So I started performing with them and, as like a ton, I started putting them on concerts and eventually they were on all my concerts and I was performing with them. And now so that's where we, that's kind of where we are today, like although they're older, and so my oldest daughter's married and she still performs with us because she makes time, which is wonderful, and I pay her.

Jenny: 20:04

I pay my children to perform with me. And then Hannah, so that's Lars plays violin. Hannah is a pianist. She's going to the Royal Academy of Music studying piano in London. She's in her 30th year now of college. Sarah starts the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on Friday actually she leaves, so she'll be in Scotland, but she'll come back for the tour Again, missing those three weeks of school which they're thrilled about. And then Matthew. Matthew is a junior in high school. He plays classical guitar and he's willing to play with us because he lives in my house and that's kind of part of it. So, anyway, so we performed.

Jason: 20:47

And he's quite good he is. He's no slouch yeah.

Jenny: 20:50

Very good. So we performed together as Jenny Oaks, baker and Family Four and my wonderful husband. He supports it all. He has his own job which pays for it all and he's supportive. So that's a little bit of who I am and I'm grateful to be able to perform and grateful that Heavenly Father has entrusted me with this beautiful show and has provided miracles and direction on how to bring it to the world.

Jason: 21:21

Amen, amen and amen, and I just feel so. First of all, I feel so fortunate to have known all that before you said it, because we've known each other for a long time, and to know that, to back up to your previous thought on why you do what you do, that it's I know you love your education and I know you love the schools you went to and I know you love the halls you have played and around the world, and I know you love the show and I know you love the book and I know you love it all, but you love, you love God so much more than any of that that it pales in significance. It's silly to even compare the two, and so I know, I do know, why you do what you do, and it's for much more than VIP receptions, right, even though we do hope you come to the VIP reception.

Jenny: 22:13

The VIP reception is honestly to help pay for the tour, because the tour is really really, really expensive. And I just follow the spirit, and the spirit is wonderful and never leads you astray, but you can still lose money and follow the spirit.

Jason: 22:30

Yeah, that's right.

Jenny: 22:32

It's happened before because life lessons again and I'm just trying not to lose the house, have the lose the house, life lesson.

Jason: 22:39

So that's the VIP reception.

Jenny: 22:41

But I trust God and I know I felt led to come to each of these cities and I'm we're supposed to come and there's people we're supposed to touch and it's going to be an amazing show and I'm grateful for those life lessons and I'm grateful again that God blesses me and he trusts me to just to do it, so that's why we're here.

Jason: 23:07

That's why we're here and we're here. We're here to also talk about this book, which is now the reverse story. I called you after the show last year and said you know what if we, what if we packaged the, the narration, with your music and some new arrangements maybe, and what if we produce something that might be a lovely gift for people who attend the show but might also be something that people that will never have an opportunity to be near a venue or travel or whatever, can see it? And so that this is where we end up with the witnesses of Christmas, a musical journey through the nativity of Jesus, the Christ. It is the, it's the narration, an edited version of the narration from from David the shepherd that I, that I play in the show.

Jason: 24:02

That's part one of the book, with the sheet music, which you can talk about in a minute, kind of how that came to be. And then part two of the book, we sort of dive into some attributes of the Savior and some scriptures that illustrate those attributes, and then some real world examples on how we can maybe become more like him by by adopting those attributes, by by learning from his life and applying those lessons. So so talk to us a little bit about, first of all, the. The arrangements were brand new, aren't they? Didn't you want these commissioned for the book?

Jenny: 24:39

Well, some of them were. So this idea for the book, of course, as you said, was entirely your idea. I think it's the greatest idea. Of course I have CDs, but very few people have CD players and so this is a way of sharing my music without having to have a CD player. So there's QR codes, which is amazing that just open up the music and so you're getting these recordings from the Christmas show and able to listen to them. And and Jason had this great idea with the book that we could make it very interactive for people and so they could gather their families and sit around, you know, the living room, sit around the Christmas tree, or sit around the fireplace or whatever, and we're just by themselves and have this, have this experience of the show where they read the script and then they they can.

Jenny: 25:33

Either there's three options, so everyone's happy. You can either just listen to the recording of the music from the, from your phone or your computer, whatever the queue, with the QR code, just the audio recording, you can. Or, if you want to be more interactive, there's sheet music. If you play the piano, you can play the piano and everyone can sing. Or you can sing, you know, if you're by yourself, you can just sing and and play. Or there's accompaniment versions. These are the new arrangements where they're basically just the accompaniment and you can just sing along to. If it's silent night, you know, you know silent night you can just sing along.

Jenny: 26:13

If you're not familiar with one of the songs do you hear what I hear? For instance, maybe you don't know those words or those that melody, you can read the sheet music, so you don't even need to need the piano, but you can just read the words and just you'll hear the melody and the accompaniment or some of that, some of for the, for the songs where we have music videos you also want, if you just want, to sit there and watch and watch a video. Most of the songs have a music video for you to watch and those are all accessed by a QR code. So it's very interactive and just a great way to experience the show or just. I mean, even you don't even need to think about the show. It's a great way to experience and bring yourself closer to Jesus Christ.

Jenny: 26:55

And then the second part that you referenced was entirely your idea. That's not in the show, but it's kind of the because, because we're witnessing a Christmas of Christ. How does that apply to our lives? And you have beautiful thoughts on that and it's, it's really beautiful, beautiful what you've written. And then there's like an extra little bonus video at the end.

Jason: 27:20

So Jenny keeps saying this was, you know, my idea and that I did more work on it. They don't know how much time you spent deeply invested in selection of the artwork and when the designer of the book would send back options, you'd go no, not quite, no, not quite, no, no better, but no, this one on this one on all spring.

Jenny: 27:46

I've been doing that on the website as well as ready to like throw me off a cliff.

Jason: 27:52

No, no, that the it paid off because it's a shadow mountain in the team that that produced this book published. It just did a lovely job and it looks. It looks terrific, the art is terrific, the arrangements are wonderful and I remember it's kind of funny now thinking back on it that when we first had the idea, I thought and I said to you well, couldn't we just take the sheet music this is how much I know about music that you're using in the show and just put it in this book that people can? And you're like trying to be so kind, jason, I don't think you understand.

Jenny: 28:36

I'm never that kind. I'm very direct, I'm sure. I'm sure I was like no, that won't work at all. What are you thinking? So, curbester? He like takes you on a musical journey with, with the melody, and like explodes in a climactic way and then it resolves and it's beautiful. And if you just tried to sing your, your regular Christmas carol that you know and love, you wouldn't be able to necessarily sing like you can hear that. You can hear it and you know it, and it's silent night, but you're not going to be able to just sing along without having or sit at the piano with that Right.

Jenny: 29:07

So he wrote entirely new accompaniment arrangements. Someday, I think, we'll want to put these on the show, where it's like they're beautiful. Like these arrangements are gorgeous and like they're, they're just they're, they're not just. You know, take a take a handbook and chunk out, chunk out that all the different four parts on the choir Like these are beautiful accompaniment arrangements that everyone's going to want to hear.

Jason: 29:33

Yeah, and of course some listening know who Kurt Bessler is and know that he has had his own Christmas show for many years. And if you can only see one Christmas show this Christmas, you should see the Janus Baker Christmas show. If you can see two, then go see his. I do hope that people will consider introducing this book the way that people have been so supportive Christmas hours through the years, as a part perhaps of your family tradition at Christmas. If you gather your kids around and you put on the bathrobe and you do the nativity or whatever you do with your family and you read Luke 2 or whatever, that's beautiful.

Jason: 30:14

We certainly don't want to interfere with people's long-standing family traditions that are so special and sacred. But if you're interested in doing something a little bit different and the books have laid out again so you can have someone be the narrator and read the narration and sort of experience the whole thing as if you were in a beautiful hall somewhere which any in her family and me you can do that right in your living room, so we do hope people will experience it You'll be able to pick up the book at at least some of the venues right, you'll be able to buy it there.

Jenny: 30:48

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll take it to the Utah and Idaho and Las Vegas venues just because it's so heavy yeah like beautiful books. Places and not charged $50.

Jason: 31:01

No, it's going to be a return by people.

Jenny: 31:03

So it'll be at the venues that I can drive to, but probably not the California or Texas. But we're gonna do something special that we're figuring out where people can come with the book.

Jason: 31:14

Yes, come with the book and it's so good to signature it. So the book is available on Amazon and Deseret Book and Walmart and Target and any place that you buy books online. You can find it in most places that you buy books traditionally through retailers. You can find it in Brick Mortar. All right, jenny, what is what's next? What is next for you?

Jenny: 31:38

Let me just mention one other thing about the book and the show. Alex Sharp, who formerly a couple years in the show. She's phenomenal and she's in quite a few of the recordings in the book and a couple of videos, so you want to miss her as well.

Jason: 31:53

Yes.

Jenny: 31:54

Just even better, just an even more beautiful book. So next up for me is I have this production called the Redeemer. That's for Easter and it's truly one of the most beautiful things that I've ever been a part of and I'm bringing it to like six or eight cities this spring for Easter. If you come on my website to get show tickets for the Christmas show, which is JennyOaksBakercom, you'll also see a few Redeemer shows and if you're in the area, I highly suggest you incorporate that into your Easter celebrations because it's all about the savior and it's really powerful.

Jenny: 32:32

And then Jason wrote another incredible script that the first time I read the script I actually was like ugly crying because it was so beautiful, which is not usually what you do when you read a script on America.

Jenny: 32:43

I love America and America's inspiring, but it doesn't usually engender such powerful spiritual feelings as a script. It's really beautiful. It's called American Mosaic and it's all about bringing the different people that of this great nation, like going through and just appreciating each other and how we can come together as one nation under God and rejoice in our differences and be excited about our strengths and just have more unity and more gratitude to God for this incredible land and it's got folk dancers and ballroom dancers and Conlon Bonner is the narrator. He's phenomenal. It's just such a great show. So I'm hoping, as soon as I climb my way out of the 2020 City Christmas tour and pull it all off, I'm gonna really start booking halls this summer for not halls like outdoor amphitheaters, as Michael wrote this really great summer show that Jason wrote this beautiful script for. So that's that, between Redeemer and then American Mosaic and then next season's Christmas show, I'll have enough to do next year as well.

Jason: 33:56

Yeah you'll be busy and let me say the I would love to see that. That has been a strange experience for me as a writer to to generate the script for you and to not be able to see it on stage and to just. I mean, I've seen pictures and of course you were telling me how rehearsals and things went, but so I can't wait to actually see how that played out. I'm sure it's fantastic. And I will say specifically about Redeemer that I have a friend who has been going through kind of a hard time and I obviously not gonna say her name, but she's had a little bit of a rough year. But she saw your Redeemer show and she said it was one of the most profoundly spiritual experiences that she had had in reconnecting her to God in a pretty impactful way.

Jenny: 34:48

So I don't know if I ever showed that with you before, but my Redeemer show is the Redeemer show and I've seen that it's it's not. It's not my show, but the Lord honestly gave me Christmas show to teach me how to rent venues to be able to bring Redeemer to the world as well, and and that show is special and so is Christmas show. But the Redeemer is all about Jesus Christ, like every single thing is, about his life and his mission, and I just, I honestly, would never turn me think about it. I'm just I'm grateful that I could be a part of it, and in Christmas show as well. So I'm just grateful to be a part of preparing, helping, trying my best to help prepare the world for the second coming, and that's what. That's what I'm supposed to do with my music. So I'm grateful to be able to do that with wonderful people like you. So thank you, jason.

Jason: 35:41

Oh, it's the, it's the honor, honor of my career to do it and and it's just such a pleasure to work with you and your, your terrific family, and getting to know them. And I'm so glad you mentioned Alex. I just if you, if you've ever met Alex, then you just know that she has this sparkle and light in her eyes. That's just particularly when she takes the stage and the lights come up. Just her, her love of her craft and and music and you and your family and the Lord. All of it is just so evident and everything Alex says and yeah, so I'm I'm glad that you mentioned that. And and again, you will find in the show notes all the information about not just the Christmas show but where Jenny will be with Redeemer next year. I do happen to know my Virginia friends that Redeemer is coming to DC, to the DC area, next spring. Is that not true?

Jenny: 36:39

Strathmore Hall on March 28th and the Lincoln Center March 30th. We're also doing Nashville March 9th. Tuicon March 23rd, saturday I think it's Saturday, march 23rd and I'm trying to do Mesa. I'm trying to get a venue right there right now, but we're coming to Mesa because I've got choir and orchestra all ready to go and also a Brabantel Hall and Salt Lake on. March 18th. So those are so far the dates that are locked in for Redeemer.

Jason: 37:11

Love it so again that when you, when you hit Jenny's website, you'll see not just the Christmas ticketing information but also the at least the dates that are locked in for Redeemer for next year. Jenny, you're the best. Thank you for taking some time for this discussion for our premier episode of the book drop mic. Fun to talk about a book that drops today. Actually, this, this book, is officially available everywhere today, so we're excited about that and tell your family that I said hello. I love them. I cannot wait to have adventures with them on the road over the holidays. And, in case we didn't mention it, we do hope that you'll come to the VIP reception. Just come. Come and see, right, come and see. Alright. Thank you, miss Jenny.

Jenny: 38:02

So good. Thanks, jason, so fun.