It ’ s just an ‘ other than ’ authority that needs to be celebrated .
[ WM ] Absolutely . It ’ s not meant to be exclusive , but inclusive of the uniqueness of what women carry in worship and songs . I love that . So , you touched a little bit on your live project that just released right ? When did you release the Women Who Worship record ?
[ Rita ] They released it in March . They were supposed to release it last year , but so many things got rearranged because of Covid . Then the actual night , the gal who spearheaded the whole thing had Covid and she couldn ’ t even attend it . So , we all felt like we were flying by the seat of our pants . We get in the building , and I ’ m thinking , ‘ Oh , this is not going to be a good building to record this in . This is gonna be horrible , the sound is going to be slapping off these walls .’ We hardly got any practice or rehearsal in , and I just thought , this is not going to work . But the Lord just met us . And the night itself was just a very precious , precious night . I think the goal was accomplished in capturing the different voices of women for this project .
[ WM ] That is awesome . What song do you lead on the project ?
[ Rita ] I lead a song that I wrote with Leslie Jordan and it ’ s a song that we wrote prior to Covid in 2019 . It ’ s called “ All My Hallelujahs .” It ’ s just a very simple worship chorus . It just simply says , “ You can have all of this , all of this belongs to You , it was all Yours ’ in the first place and You can have every hallelujah that that comes out of me .” Their goal was for this album was to have something out of the gate that was very singable and easy to catch . “ All My Hallelujahs ” has that simplicity .
All My Hallelujahs
[ WM ] Speaking of songwriting , what is the songwriting / co-writing process like for you ? Is your current approach the same as it ’ s always been , or has it changed over the years ?
[ Rita ] It actually really has changed over the years . I think I absolutely love the process now more than ever . I think I have more fun songwriting now than I ever have before . I didn ’ t used to co-write as much as I do now , because back in the day , artists usually had other people write their songs . But now a lot more artists are writing , so co-writing is almost a must . I always explain co-writing to my students like this . When you bring your ideas into the writing room , it ’ s like you ’ re bringing your baby into the room and handing your baby off to somebody to hold . And that other person comments on the wart on your baby ’ s nose . And you ’ re like “ I love that wart ; I don ’ t see the wart as a problem .” But the other writer ’ s like “ yeah … that wart ’ s not gonna fly , we gotta get the wart off the nose .” And so the challenge of songwriting sometimes is like that , where you have to be willing to lay down your idea … walk