When Hayley McGrail was contemplating a title for her debut CD, she did so while recalling the first time she sang a solo in public.
“I was 15 years old and I sang ‘I Know a Fount,’ ” McGrail said. “My dad tells me that, if you look real close, you can still see prints in the wood from my fingernails gripping the podium.”
McGrail is a bit more at ease with public music ministry these days. Be Still, now available online at V-Min.com and soon available through the Maranatha bookstore, draws from those experiences as well as the first part of Psalms 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
“A lot of these songs have been very special to me in the past,” McGrail said. “Some of them reflect my personality. Some of them reflect lessons I’ve learned. Most of them are calmer songs that focus on taking the time to be still and know God’s characteristics.”
The 14 songs include duets with Alisha Vegter, Ann Fredricks Poorman and Nicholas Peterson. Noel Hipolito, a family friend, plays guitar on another song.
The CD was produced by Victory Ministries with the help of former Maranatha music faculty member Jeremy Vegter. It was Vegter who approached McGrail with the idea of compiling a CD following her part in the college’s December 2008 performance of The Messiah. Production took place during the spring of 2009.
“I grew up around singing and music in my home,” McGrail said. “My dad and brother were basso profondo basses. I always thought I was an alto. I didn’t know any different until I had my first voice lessons.”
McGrail spent five years as a student at Maranatha, playing soccer and graduating with a Music Education degree in 2007. She then spent two years as supervisor at Weeks Hall. In the fall of 2008, while sharing women’s soccer coaching duties with Sommer Rodolph, McGrail helped lead the Crusaders to a fourth-place finish at the National Christian College Athletic Association national tournament.
She will begin teaching music this fall at Oakwood Christian School in Anderson, S.C.
”It’s hard to leave Maranatha, but my heart has always been to get out there and teach,” McGrail said. “These songs help remind me that, even in the midst of change in my life, God doesn’t change. He’s a constant, and I can trust Him.”
--Posted by Andrew Call, 8-3-09