17KS Ep 0 - Podcast Trailer with Host Alaina Larsen: Why 17Thousand Songs?

Join our host, Alaina Larsen, as she shares the purpose and intention of the "17Thousand Songs" podcast. Discover why it was named "17Thousand Songs," and what life experiences led her to identify the need for this platform. We hope you will see the hand of the Lord in this project and in the stories shared by our guests. We're excited to share this space with you!

Watch the video version of this episode on our YouTube channel.
youtube.com/@17thousandsongs

SHOW NOTES

00:34 – Purpose and Intention
01:21 – Personal Songwriting Story
02:02 – Divine Guidance
02:45 – 17,000+ Songs
03:36 – Our Focus
4:15 – Follow Us

Music by Alaina Larsen
To see songs written by Alaina Larsen and her mother, Cris Conerty, visit their website, alainalarsen.com. To access their song, "Believe in God," found on the Church's website visit the following link. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/music/songs/believe-in-god-larsen-blomberg-conerty?lang=eng

Support Us
By purchasing our merch and joining our monthly membership on Patreon.
Merch Shop: 17thousandsongs.org/shop/
Patreon: patreon.com/17ThousandSongs

Follow Us
YouTube: youtube.com/@17thousandsongs
Instagram: instagram.com/17thousandsongs
Facebook: facebook.com/17thousandsongs
FB Group: facebook.com/group/17thousandsongs
Website: 17thousandsongs.org

Disclaimer
17Thousand Songs is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The views, opinions and thoughts of our host and guests are our own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Church.

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Intro
• 0:34 Purpose and Intention
• 1:21 Personal Songwriting Story
• 2:02 Divine Guidance
• 2:45 17,000+ Songs
• 3:36 Our Focus
• 4:15 Follow Us

Transcript

[Podcast Intro]

Alaina Larsen: Welcome to 17000 Songs, a podcast where we explore the stories behind our inspired Latter-day Saint hymns to refresh, rekindle, and restore your faith. I’m your host, Alaina Larsen.

[Purpose and Intention]

Alaina Larsen: Welcome to the “17,000 Songs” podcast. My name is Alaina Larsen and I am the host and creator of “17,000 Songs,” along with a dedicated team. In this episode, I’d like to share the purpose and intention of the podcast – why we started it and what we hope you’ll get out of it.

We created this podcast because we wanted to give our Latter-day Saint songwriters a platform to share their songwriting stories, including the inspiration behind their music, and some of the life experiences that helped to shape their testimonies. We feel these stories are important and we wanted to gather them, so that our listeners could gain a greater appreciation for, and a deeper connection to, the songs in our new hymnal, “Hymns – for Home and Church.”

[Personal Songwriting Story]

Alaina Larsen: When the Church put out a call for new hymns and children’s songs in 2018, I, myself, had never written a song before. But the project seemed really significant to me, and I instinctively thought of my mother, who had been a songwriter and arranger throughout my life. I felt a pull to get her involved and kept telling her, “You have to submit something!”

But she had a lot going on in her life at the time, and after several conversations, she said to me, “Well, why don’t you submit something?” Her invitation really caught me off guard because I had never considered submitting a song myself. But this marked the beginning of my own songwriting journey, and soon we had partnered, and ultimately submitted over a dozen songs to the Church.

[Divine Guidance]

Alaina Larsen: During that time of songwriting, I had several instances where I felt divine guidance. In conversations with other Latter-day Saint songwriters who had also submitted music during that time, I kept hearing the same things and a reoccurring theme emerged—that songs that had once taken months to write, were taking only weeks, lyrics that normally took days, were crafted in only hours.

It became clear to me that the Lord had poured out His Spirit on anyone who was willing to create a simple, yet profound, gospel message through song. And that this songwriting process was another witness of the detail and level of concern of our Savior, both in our individual lives and in the overall progression of the Church.

[17,000+ Songs]

Alaina Larsen: By the submission deadline in July of 2019, the Church had received over 17,000 unique song submissions. In addition to these, were the thousands of songs the Church had already received in previous music contests since the publication of the 1985 hymnal. Many of these songs have shown up in the Ensign or the Friend and are already well-known and loved by our church. 

And still beyond these songs, were the countless other hymns of other Christian faith traditions or hymns that we had had in our hymnal, but that had been recently excluded, such as the well-known and deeply loved hymn, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," which, incidentally, was the number one requested song by church members. Undoubtedly, this has been an immense undertaking for those responsible for selecting the hymns and children’s songs for our new hymnal.

[Our Focus]

Alaina Larsen: While our podcast will primarily focus on the stories behind the songs that are selected, we chose the title "17,000 Songs" because we wanted to honor all those who felt inspired to submit an offering. We believe that each song is a unique testimony and a personal witness of the reality of a living Savior, who often accomplishes His work through imperfect individuals and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

As you listen to our episodes, we hope that you will see the hand of the Lord in our songwriters’ stories. How he prepared those who would contribute this music, and how he guided them through the whisperings of the spirit to produce what would be most beneficial for our congregations. 

[Follow Us]

Alaina Larsen: We invite you to join us in this endeavor by following us on YouTube, social media platforms, and wherever you get your podcasts. You can find us by searching for "17Thousand Songs.” That’s 1-7, the word "Thousand" spelled out, and "Songs.” You can also visit us on our website at 17thousandsongs.org, where you can support the podcast by purchasing our upcoming merchandise or by becoming a member of our Patreon community.

We hope that listening to these stories will indeed refresh, rekindle, and restore your faith. We’ll see you there.

[Podcast Outro]