UPDATED: What's it like to create a music album with Glenn Beck?

December 10, 2013

Writer

Miss Part 1 of Believe Again? Watch it ON DEMAND and then tune in for Part 2 Wednesday at 8pm ET!

On Tuesday, TheBlaze debuted the first installment of a two-part musical special called Believe Again. A few months ago, Glenn asked several musical artists of different faiths to come together to record a full Christmas album over the course of four days.

Mark Mabry, a member of Glenn’s American Dream Labs team in Dallas, headed up the project and sat down with GlennBeck.com for a quick interview during the editing process.

GlennBeck.com: So, what was it like when Glenn first downloaded the idea for Believe Again?

Mark: Glenn, (composer) Clyde Bawden, and I sat together in, I think it was May, Glenn’s office. We were eating cookies and talking about doing a few Christmas songs, when the album idea was born. Glenn mentioned Andy Williams and a lot of other ideas. The concept kind of snowballed, Clyde went to work on some fantastic arrangements, including Go Tell it on the Mountain, Oh Come all Ye Faithful, and some others. He also made a fantastic version of What Child is This that we’re saving.

Anyway, we ate all of the cookies, then found a sharpie and wrote our plan - which, by the way, totally got turned on it’s head when we found out that none of the songs were in the public domain – on the back of a paper plate!

Glennbeck.com: So what was your role in the production of the album?

Mark: Officially, I was the producer of the TV show and co-producer of the album. Glenn, Jason, Clyde, and I were all equally nuts enough to think you could jam 9 strangers into a room and make an album from scratch in 4 days. So whatever you call that job, I was 25% of that.

LJ Herman was also a big part of coordinating the idea around the offices, and then he helped get the album into the music world. Unsung hero.

Everybody on the album arranged, composed, performed, etc. It’s tough to pin down “roles” for this kind of project.

GlennBeck.com: What are some of your favorite stories from the recording process?

Mark: There was so much good stuff, more than we could possibly include in the album. There was Jason, Clyde, and I late at night wondering if we had gone off the cliff and what Glenn would say when he saw the stuff. It was the energy of seeing the moment of creation of these songs. I grew more in awe of my long time collaborators Jason Barney and Clyde Bawden. It was tough to relate in the show how much I love and respect them.

GlennBeck.com: It’s well known around the office that what we affectionately call “Glenn Ideas” usually have a pretty nontraditional creative process. Can you go more into what those late night conversations were like and how the three of you worked to execute Glenn’s vision?

Mark: We took some liberties with traditional Christmas songs that we knew might ruffle a few feathers. Glenn is a creative enough guy to understand and appreciate just about every style of music that is well performed, so we weren't super worried about his acceptance. I've been with him jamming to Muse, Sinatra, and classic rock. But, we have a conservative audience and that extends beyond political conservatism in a lot of cases into traditionalism on a lot of fronts. Putting an electric guitar on Angels We Have Heard on High is not a traditional Christmas music choice.

But here is what makes me comfortable with it - Our musicians are not a bunch of Godless rockers locking to capitalize on a commercial holiday. They are worship leaders, churchgoers, and God fearing people. The last thing they would do is offend the spirit of Christmas.

When they sang Angels We Have Heard On High it was in a spirit of praise and happiness. They felt that the louder they did it, the more right it felt. If people understood the composers of that version, Cody Carnes and David Osmond, they would understand the spirit of the song. That song should rock chapels all over the country.

GlennBeck.com: And Glenn’s been a big part of the behind-the-scenes too, right?

Mark: It’s tough to explain to people just how good Glenn’s ear is. He could pick out audio issues with precision and also had a great handle on what would hit when released. People forget that he was a music guy for decades.

GlennBeck.com: What was the biggest challenge with putting the album together?

Mark: Time was our challenge. Being so close to it that there was no time for evaluation. We had to produce on the fly, dropping all egos and trusting each other to say if something wasn’t right. That made our greatest challenge also our greatest strength. It was a speed of trust thing.

Also, we have kind of made a big deal about the artists all being from different branches of Christianity. That’s isn’t just part of marketing the special, but it was an internal issue early on because some people we reached out to declined to participate. But to these guys, our guys, it was a non-issue. They were all smart enough to recognize their theology differences, but they were also smart enough to realize that those differences should not define us.

GlennBeck.com: So how did you pick these musical artists?

Mark: Glenn, Clyde, Jason, and I chose them. Since time was compressed we only had time for phone calls and YouTube videos. Generally speaking, they were all in the first wave of people we wanted on the show. We realized that we wanted another girl on the album and it was tough to put our finger on exactly what sound. Cody recommended Dianne Michelle, whom he knew, we watched her on Youtube and fell in love.

GlennBeck.com: What are your favorite songs on the album? Why?

Mark: It’s changed a bunch of times. I love Angels We Have Heard On High and Deck the Halls for when I want to put on a red Christmas sweater and boogie.

But not too long after Oh Come all Ye Faithful was done my family was having a rough time with something and that song was playing in the kitchen. It ended up with everybody embracing in tears during that song. That’ll always be a favorite. I love where the choir hits on Go Tell it on the Mountain as well. Kim turned them into a pretty good gospel choir for that song.

GlennBeck.com: Mark, thank you for taking a few minutes to talk with us. We know you have to go get the special finished before air time.

Could China OWN our National Parks?

Jonathan Newton / Contributor | Getty Images

The left’s idea of stewardship involves bulldozing bison and barring access. Lee’s vision puts conservation back in the hands of the people.

The media wants you to believe that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to bulldoze Yellowstone and turn national parks into strip malls — that he’s calling for a reckless fire sale of America’s natural beauty to line developers’ pockets. That narrative is dishonest. It’s fearmongering, and, by the way, it’s wrong.

Here’s what’s really happening.

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized.

The federal government currently owns 640 million acres of land — nearly 28% of all land in the United States. To put that into perspective, that’s more territory than France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom combined.

Most of this land is west of the Mississippi River. That’s not a coincidence. In the American West, federal ownership isn’t just a bureaucratic technicality — it’s a stranglehold. States are suffocated. Locals are treated as tenants. Opportunities are choked off.

Meanwhile, people living east of the Mississippi — in places like Kentucky, Georgia, or Pennsylvania — might not even realize how little land their own states truly control. But the same policies that are plaguing the West could come for them next.

Lee isn’t proposing to auction off Yellowstone or pave over Yosemite. He’s talking about 3 million acres — that’s less than half of 1% of the federal estate. And this land isn’t your family’s favorite hiking trail. It’s remote, hard to access, and often mismanaged.

Failed management

Why was it mismanaged in the first place? Because the federal government is a terrible landlord.

Consider Yellowstone again. It’s home to the last remaining herd of genetically pure American bison — animals that haven’t been crossbred with cattle. Ranchers, myself included, would love the chance to help restore these majestic creatures on private land. But the federal government won’t allow it.

So what do they do when the herd gets too big?

They kill them. Bulldoze them into mass graves. That’s not conservation. That’s bureaucratic malpractice.

And don’t even get me started on bald eagles — majestic symbols of American freedom and a federally protected endangered species, now regularly slaughtered by wind turbines. I have pictures of piles of dead bald eagles. Where’s the outrage?

Biden’s federal land-grab

Some argue that states can’t afford to manage this land themselves. But if the states can’t afford it, how can Washington? We’re $35 trillion in debt. Entitlements are strained, infrastructure is crumbling, and the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service are billions of dollars behind in basic maintenance. Roads, firebreaks, and trails are falling apart.

The Biden administration quietly embraced something called the “30 by 30” initiative, a plan to lock up 30% of all U.S. land and water under federal “conservation” by 2030. The real goal is 50% by 2050.

That entails half of the country being taken away from you, controlled not by the people who live there but by technocrats in D.C.

You think that won’t affect your ability to hunt, fish, graze cattle, or cut timber? Think again. It won’t be conservatives who stop you from building a cabin, raising cattle, or teaching your grandkids how to shoot a rifle. It’ll be the same radical environmentalists who treat land as sacred — unless it’s your truck, your deer stand, or your back yard.

Land as collateral

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury is considering putting federally owned land on the national balance sheet, listing your parks, forests, and hunting grounds as collateral.

What happens if America defaults on its debt?

David McNew / Stringer | Getty Images

Do you think our creditors won’t come calling? Imagine explaining to your kids that the lake you used to fish in is now under foreign ownership, that the forest you hunted in belongs to China.

This is not hypothetical. This is the logical conclusion of treating land like a piggy bank.

The American way

There’s a better way — and it’s the American way.

Let the people who live near the land steward it. Let ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and local conservationists do what they’ve done for generations.

Did you know that 75% of America’s wetlands are on private land? Or that the most successful wildlife recoveries — whitetail deer, ducks, wild turkeys — didn’t come from Washington but from partnerships between private landowners and groups like Ducks Unlimited?

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized. When you break it, you fix it. When you profit from the land, you protect it.

This is not about selling out. It’s about buying in — to freedom, to responsibility, to the principle of constitutional self-governance.

So when you hear the pundits cry foul over 3 million acres of federal land, remember: We don’t need Washington to protect our land. We need Washington to get out of the way.

Because this isn’t just about land. It’s about liberty. And once liberty is lost, it doesn’t come back easily.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

EXPOSED: Why the left’s trans agenda just CRASHED at SCOTUS

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

You never know what you’re going to get with the U.S. Supreme Court these days.

For all of the Left’s insane panic over having six supposedly conservative justices on the court, the decisions have been much more of a mixed bag. But thank God – sincerely – there was a seismic win for common sense at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. It’s a win for American children, parents, and for truth itself.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s state ban on irreversible transgender procedures for minors.

The mostly conservative justices stood tall in this case, while Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson predictably dissented. This isn’t just Tennessee’s victory – 20 other red states that have similar bans can now breathe easier, knowing they can protect vulnerable children from these sick, experimental, life-altering procedures.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, saying Tennessee’s law does not violate the Equal Protection Clause. It’s rooted in a very simple truth that common sense Americans get: kids cannot consent to permanent damage. The science backs this up – Norway, Finland, and the UK have all sounded alarms about the lack of evidence for so-called “gender-affirming care.” The Trump administration’s recent HHS report shredded the activist claims that these treatments help kids’ mental health. Nothing about this is “healthcare.” It is absolute harm.

The Left, the ACLU, and the Biden DOJ screamed “discrimination” and tried to twist the Constitution to force this radical ideology on our kids.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court saw through it this time. In her concurring opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett nailed it: gender identity is not some fixed, immutable trait like race or sex. Detransitioners are speaking out, regretting the surgeries and hormones they were rushed into as teens. WPATH – the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the supposed experts on this, knew that kids cannot fully grasp this decision, and their own leaked documents prove that they knew it. But they pushed operations and treatments on kids anyway.

This decision is about protecting the innocent from a dangerous ideology that denies biology and reality. Tennessee’s Attorney General calls this a “landmark victory in defense of America’s children.” He’s right. This time at least, the Supreme Court refused to let judicial activism steal our kids’ futures. Now every state needs to follow Tennessee’s lead on this, and maybe the tide will continue to turn.

Insider alert: Glenn’s audience EXPOSES the riots’ dark truth

Barbara Davidson / Contributor | Getty Images

Glenn asked for YOUR take on the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots, and YOU responded with a thunderous verdict. Your answers to our recent Glennbeck.com poll cut through the establishment’s haze, revealing a profound skepticism of their narrative.

The results are undeniable: 98% of you believe taxpayer-funded NGOs are bankrolling these riots, a bold rejection of the claim that these are grassroots protests. Meanwhile, 99% dismiss the mainstream media’s coverage as woefully inadequate—can the official story survive such resounding doubt? And 99% of you view the involvement of socialist and Islamist groups as a growing threat to national security, signaling alarm at what Glenn calls a coordinated “Color Revolution” lurking beneath the surface.

You also stand firmly with decisive action: 99% support President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to quell the chaos. These numbers defy the elite’s tired excuses and reflect a demand for truth and accountability. Are your tax dollars being weaponized to destabilize America? You’ve answered with conviction.

Your voice sends a powerful message to those who dismiss the unrest as mere “protests.” You spoke, and Glenn listened. Keep shaping the conversation at Glennbeck.com.

Want to make your voice heard? Check out more polls HERE.

EXPOSED: Your tax dollars FUND Marxist riots in LA

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

Protesters wore Che shirts, waved foreign flags, and chanted Marxist slogans — but corporate media still peddles the ‘spontaneous outrage’ narrative.

I sat in front of the television this weekend, watching the glittering spectacle of corporate media do what it does best: tell me not to believe my lying eyes.

According to the polished news anchors, what I was witnessing in Los Angeles was “mostly peaceful protests.” They said it with all the earnest gravitas of someone reading a bedtime story, while behind them the streets looked like a deleted scene from “Mad Max.” Federal agents dodged concrete slabs as if it were an Olympic sport. A man in a Che Guevara crop top tried to set a police car on fire. Dumpster fires lit the night sky like some sort of postapocalyptic luau.

If you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

But sure, it was peaceful. Tear gas clouds and Molotov cocktails are apparently the incense and candles of this new civic religion.

The media expects us to play along — to nod solemnly while cities burn and to call it “activism.”

Let’s call this what it is: delusion.

Another ‘peaceful’ riot

If the Titanic “mostly floated” and the Hindenburg “mostly flew,” then yes, the latest L.A. riots are “mostly peaceful.” But history tends to care about those tiny details at the end — like icebergs and explosions.

The coverage was full of phrases like “spontaneous,” “grassroots,” and “organic,” as if these protests materialized from thin air. But many of the signs and banners looked like they’d been run off at ComradesKinkos.com — crisp print jobs with slogans promoting socialism, communism, and various anti-American regimes. Palestinian flags waved beside banners from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and El Salvador. It was like someone looted a United Nations souvenir shop and turned it into a revolution starter pack.

And guess who funded it? You did.

According to at least one report, much of this so-called spontaneous rage fest was paid for with your tax dollars. Tens of millions of dollars from the Biden administration ensured your paycheck funded Trotsky cosplayers chucking firebombs at local coffee shops.

The same aging radicals from the 1970s — now armed with tenure, pensions, and book deals — are cheering from the sidelines, waxing poetic about how burning a squad car is “liberation.” These are the same folks who once wore tie-dye and flew to help guerrilla fighters and now applaud chaos under the banner of “progress.”

This is not progress. It is not protest. It’s certainly not justice or peace.

It’s an attempt to dismantle the American system — and if you dare say that out loud, you’re labeled a bigot, a fascist, or, worst of all, someone who notices reality.

And what sparked this taxpayer-funded riot? Enforcement against illegal immigrants — many of whom, according to official arrest records, are repeat violent offenders. These are not the “dreamers” or the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. These are criminals with long, violent rap sheets — allowed to remain free by a broken system that prioritizes ideology over public safety.

Photo by Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg | Getty Images

This is what people are rioting over — not the mistreatment of the innocent, but the arrest of the guilty. And in California, that’s apparently a cause for outrage.

The average American, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, is supposed to worry they’ll be next. But unless you’re in the habit of assaulting people, smuggling, or firing guns into people’s homes, you probably don’t have much to fear.

Still, if you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

The left has lost it

This is what happens when a culture loses its grip on reality. We begin to call arson “art,” lawlessness “liberation,” and criminals “community members.” We burn the good and excuse the evil — all while the media insists it’s just “vibes.”

But it’s not just vibes. It’s violence, paid for by you, endorsed by your elected officials, and whitewashed by newsrooms with more concern for hair and lighting than for truth.

This isn’t activism. This is anarchism. And Democratic politicians are fueling the flame.