A community of praise through recorded song

<p>Allen Fennewald/California Democrat</p><p>Shannon and Anita Davidson in their dream-come-true studio control room at the Bridge Studio outside Jamestown.</p>

Allen Fennewald/California Democrat

Shannon and Anita Davidson in their dream-come-true studio control room at the Bridge Studio outside Jamestown.

Shannon and Anita Davidson feel called by God to spread his word through song, like the Davidian musicians who performed before the Arc of the Covenant.

While music from the time of King David was passed down through the biblical Book of Psalms, today’s worship is easier spread through MP3. But recording music can be a difficult task for independent musicians, especially in rural communities.

Access, funding and expertise are hard to come by before up-and-coming artists make the big time. That is why the Davidson family in Jamestown is building His Musician Pool, a religious community that gives songwriters the opportunity to record their music in a studio fit for Nashville.

“This began with the idea that the Lord really deposited in our hearts that one drop makes an ocean,” Shannon said. “The idea behind the pool is this collective of musicians, so what we really felt in our hearts was to focus on the Christian songwriting community and help them facilitate a way to release these songs that God has deposited in their hearts.”

For just $40 a month per band, musicians of any genre can become His Musician Pool members and gain access to Bridge Studio to record original music with a professional studio engineer. Post-production fees will be included until the pool reaches 200 subscribers to help cover the cost of labor. The artists are free to have the recordings produced elsewhere, as well.

The songwriters will maintain full rights to their songs and even can get help with the copyrighting process.

Shannon said pool members play a lot more than worship songs, but he hopes everyone shares in the spirit of proclaiming Jesus through their music.

Members are encouraged to seek subscribers to help support the pool. For the same monthly fee, subscribers help fund the recording process while obtaining access to music and behind-the-scenes online content. Shannon said the pool still is building a foundation and currently has about 70 subscribers.

Bridge Studio is located at 15663 Graff Drive, amid hills of fields and forests near babbling Splice Creek. The recording studio includes a fully equipped control room, large live room and two isolated booths. The amenities also include songwriting rooms, a full kitchen, beds for seven, washer and dryer, camping space, and more.

The project is a 27-year dream come true for the Davidsons. They feel God brought them together, though they grew up an ocean apart.

Anita was raised in a very musical family in Switzerland. Her father is the famous Swiss Louis Armstrong impersonator who tours with his jazz band, Harry Satchmo’s All Stars, and her brother is in the internationally acclaimed band Heimweh. Although she came from such a notable family in her home nation, Anita said, she felt called to leave home and find her husband in America.

Shannon learned the ropes of recording music through the art of trial and error as a teenager in a Kansas City band. He didn’t gain any professional experience until he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and got on board with a sound crew for nationally traveling Christian ensembles.

The couple met when they were 28 years old at a 1992 Independence Day party in Nashville. Although Anita said it wasn’t love at first sight, it didn’t take long for something special to blossom. By that September, the two were engaged and moving to Switzerland to be near Anita’s family. They had two children and opened a chain of successful self-tanning salons, which still helps support them from Switzerland as they carry on their new mission in Jamestown.

“We have three children, and our two oldest children for the first six or seven years of their lives lived in Switzerland,” Shannon said. “One of our children was diagnosed with ADHD symptoms, and as we began to research things that would be beneficial, a lot of the best options led back to America. … As we began to think about that and pray, the door opened up for us to move back.”

This move led the couple to live near Shannon’s sister outside of Jamestown. The Davidsons originally had planned to open a studio in Switzerland, and they found a nice place in the countryside to begin that dream anew. Although it began as a standard studio in 2004, Anita said, she suddenly had a strong feeling they needed to offer something new.

“I really felt like we needed to create a space of beauty with garden areas for inspiration,” Anita said. “As I was doing the garden work, I really had this stirring in my heart where God showed me what it looked like in the Bible and how it all began with musicians. He showed me how David brought musicians around the Arc of the Covenant to represent the presence of God, night and day. He showed me that was how music was made to be. … I heard him say, ‘I want you to record Christian artists for free.’”

Shannon said this concept connected with him because he always has felt the desire to share his knowledge of music production.

“I had to learn things the hard way,” he said. “I always thought that, if I get the opportunity, I want to pass what I know along for ears who would like to hear this. My heart is to share this, and that’s what grew the idea of Bridge Studio and the bridge being this studio helping people to cross over to the next level.”

Anita said, like how community members brought food to help nourish the musicians who played for God at the Arc of the Covenant, they hope to one day have enough subscribers that they can make the entire process free to musicians and expand their services to include features like an online distribution platform.

The studio currently hosts worship services on the first Saturday of every month, and Shannon hopes to begin hosting outdoor concerts.