Oakdale Tragedies Inspired Pastor to Record Benefit Album

After two murder-suicide incidents affected students last year in less than a month, Pastor John Stiles felt he had to do something positive for children in the area.

He decided to do it through music—by making a CD to raise money for local charities that help children and address domestic violence.

“This is really important to lift up children, and that’s what this has been from the get-go,” he said. “It’s coming from a real spiritual base. I think that’s something that we just decided that we really wanted to do, to really bring some hope and some light into the darkness, some of the dark stuff that this community has had to go through.”

Stiles reached out to everyone from his brother—whom he jams with at family gatherings—to Lionel Richie (no answer yet from him).

He scored some big local names like Sam Butler, who has played with the Blind Boys of Alabama, and Dan Neale, who often plays on a Prairie Home Companion. But many of the performers are people Stiles knew through Holy Cross.

“I have been just blown away,” Stiles said, “by people that I never knew, and people from our church and just people locally that just, they come and they open up their guitar case and they pull a little magic out, or they open up their voice and it’s just like you’re on holy ground when you hear some of that.”

Although some of the songs were simply donated in pre-recorded form for the CD—like Lauren Redpath Auge’s rendition of The Grass Withers—many of the artists have been going to Oakdale resident Kendall Johnson’s home studio to record their parts.

Johnson, who plays guitar at Holy Cross, composes music for movies, television and video games. When he heard about the project, he thought it was a “fantastic opportunity” to use his skills for good, he said.

“I thought it was a phenomenal idea,” he said. “It’s been a wonderful learning experience, working with different personalities and different problems that may arise.”

One of the most memorable experiences, Johnson said, was recording the children in the Head Start program housed at Holy Cross singing We are the World.

“The kids are adorable and most of them don’t sing in key, so it’s going to be a fun project to try to tweak that and see if I can make it work,” he said. “Also, to see how excited they were just to be a part of it … for me, that was one of the coolest experiences.”

About 12 of the students who are part of Head Start got permission from their parents to sing for the CD, Stiles said.

RELATED: Hear the kids singing We are the World, and other samples from the album.

Stiles said they’re hoping to have the album ready by the end of April—before Head Start is over for the season.

The album is up to about 15 songs, Stiles said. In addition to all the musicians who helped out, graphic designers and a photographer also donated or discounted their services.

“It’s been kind of exciting to see people come in and take this in a new direction that we hadn’t quite thought possible,” he said. “I couldn’t do this without the people just stepping up and saying we support this idea and we really want to get behind it.”

How to Help

The We are the Children 2012 Project is currently collecting donations to pay for the production costs—such as licensing fees for the songs that weren’t donated—through gofundme.com, PayPal or by sending checks. Proceeds from the CD sales will go toward causes supporting children and preventing domestic violence such as and the Lutheran Community Foundation. See the project website for more information.