Original Master MultiTracks for Cody Carnes' anticipated album Run to the Father are available now. Read below for song stories written by Cody including "Christ Be Magnified," Nothing Else," and new songs "Death of Death," "Heaven Fall" and more. Of his song "Heaven Fall," Cody shares, "I love what this song does in a room of worshippers. It’s a joyful, energetic cry for wanting to experience more of everything God is. When we get more of Jesus, we get more freedom, more hope, more mercy, more joy - cause that’s who HE IS."
Run to the Father - Cody Carnes
Song Stories by Cody Carnes
"Christ Be Magnified"
In August of last year, Cory Asbury and I found ourselves at Bethel Music Conference together with a couple of hours free. So, we decided to sit down and try to write something. At the time, people were denouncing their faith left and right and we wanted to write a song that communicated our commitment and devotion to following Jesus. As we began digging through scripture and looking deeper into what frames a life of consecrated worship, the bridge of this song was born. We knew we had something special, so we pulled our friend Ethan Hulse in, who brought the chorus & we finished the verses together over a text thread. I love how weighty, yet celebratory this song is. It lights a fire in me every time I sing it.
Were creation suddenly articulate
with a thousand tongues to lift one cry
Then from north to south & east to west
We’d hear “Christ be magnified!”
Were the whole earth echoing His eminence
His name would burst from sea and sky
From rivers to the mountain tops
We’d hear “Christ be magnified!”
"Nothing Else"
This is the one that started this whole new season of songs. I remember fall of 2018 asking God to give me vision for the next record. I had a dream one night that I was playing in a friend’s wedding and Johnny Cash was a grandfather of the family. After I put on my suit and walked out of the dressing room - Johnny Cash was sitting there waiting for me. He looked me in the eyes and said “You need to wear what’s comfortable. You need to wear what you can sing and play in that feels the most natural to you. And you need to just let the songs sing themselves the way they wrote themselves and they’ll land a lot better that way.”
And I woke up. In tears, full presence of God chills, knowing God had just spoken to me through Johnny Cash. 🤯😂 And as I processed it over the following few days, I realized my most natural comfortable place was sitting at a piano leading worship. Something I had done a ton throughout college years but had kind of slipped away from at the time. Three weeks after that dream, I sat down (at the piano) with some friends and wrote "Nothing Else." I got set free writing that song and realized I had found my comfy clothes.
"Power in the Blood"
Last year, I started noticing that when I would lead worship, there were several occasions that I really wanted to go into a song about the power of the blood of Jesus.. and as beautiful as the old songs about that are, there wasn’t a modern one that would quickly come to mind. Felt like maybe there was a void there in our current church songs that needed to be filled. At the end of last year, I sat down to write with Kristian Stanfill and we ended up talking about this and we stumbled upon a modern rendition of the old “there is power, power wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb” chorus.
I really love the verses in this song. They’re vulnerable and they directly address issues that seem to be so prevalent around us today.. fear, depression, anxiety, pain, brokenness, loneliness, etc.. so we decided to write the first verse in the form of questions, like if we were having a heart to heart with a friend, and to those questions like “are you buried in depression?”, the hopeful answer is the chorus: “there is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb.”
"All My Delight"
This one is FUNNNNNNN. It’s a joy bomb. When we were recording, I actually had the gang vocals chant “JOY! JOY! JOY! JOY!” on quarter notes because I wanted it to be a big ol’ joy party.. buuuut once it got placed in the mix it sounded too much like “CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!” 😂Sooooo we turned it way down - but it’s still in there!! Like subliminal messaging. You can’t experience this one and not feel the JOYYYY OF THE LORD.
"Death of Death"
“I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave!” Revelation 1:17-18
“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:55
Death thought it had won. But our King Jesus turned death on itself and defeated it with its own power! This is a resurrection, enemy-has-been-defeated anthem song. Wrote this one with my friends at Life Church and Life Church Worship. And for all you musicians. it switches time signatures from 3/4 in the verses to 4/4 in the choruses. So that’s fun! 🤓
"Heaven Fall"
I love what this song does in a room of worshippers. It’s a joyful, energetic cry for wanting to experience more of everything God is. When we get more of Jesus, we get more freedom, more hope, more mercy, more joy - cause that’s who HE IS. We want it all! This sits great in that song 2 slot in a worship set. It’s got a ton of energy for a mid tempo song. I started this idea a few years ago - I went back and listened to the voice memo recently and realized that those 17 min of murmurings and ideas got split into two songs and eventually led to this song and "Let The Light In."
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