By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
SOLON — As Chuck and Alicia Brock planned the worship music for the Diocesan Catholic Youth Conference in 2014, they decided to do something a little different. They took the words to one of their favorite hymns, “How Great Thou Art,” and re-wrote the melody.
It was so much fun — for the Brocks and for the youths at the Davenport conference — that the Brocks decided to do the same for other classic worship hymns.
Alicia Brock, center, and Chuck Brock, left, lead worship at the Diocesan Catholic Youth Conference in Davenport in 2014. The husband-wife duo from Solon is planning to make an album mixing traditional Christian hymns with new, original melodies.
“It had been a goal for a while to take the lyrics of a traditional hymn and set them to a new melody,” Chuck said. “DCYC was the opportunity to do so. We were amazed to see how this new melody helped us experience the lyrics in a new and different way.”
For the next three years, Chuck, who is the musical director and youth minister at St. Mary Parish in Solon, and wife Alicia embarked on a journey of creating more original melodies for their favorite classic worship hymn texts.
“We discovered that many of them were originally written as a poem or even a prayer and then later set to music. Sometimes, it was just a common tune or folk tune from that era,” Chuck said.
The Brocks now have enough material to offer live performances and make an album.
So far, the Brocks have offered evenings of prayer, stories and music in Solon, Dubuque and Clinton. Their upcoming concerts will be in Williamsburg and Iowa City.
This spring, they will head to Brentwood, Tenn., to record their album.
In the meantime, “We would love to share this music with as many people as we possibly can,” Chuck said.
The Brocks in concert
March 4: St. Mary Parish, Williamsburg, 5 p.m.
March 7: St. Patrick Parish, Iowa City, 7 p.m.
