Lawson Bates – ‘I Have Decided’ (w/Emily Ann Roberts)

CCM Magazine: What kinds of music inspire you?
Emily Roberts: Gospel and bluegrass music are probably my favorite types of music to sing and listen to, just because I relate to it so much. We have such a platform and we don’t know who this song could touch, and I like to think about that when I’m singing “I Have Decided.”

Lawson Bates: One of the great things about working with Emily is we like the same music. Being from East Tennessee, bluegrass is king of the world there—gospel is too. She’s like, “I love Ricky Skaggs,” and I’m like, “I love Ricky Skaggs!” Not many people our age are fans of Vince Gill, Skaggs, and Johnny Cash, so it’s a little different, but I think it’s cool.

CCM: Lawson, why did you include “I Have Decided” on your new album?
LB: I loved the idea of closing this album with a hymn. When my sister-in-law showed me Emily singing, “In The Garden” on The Voice I thought it’d be awesome to have her as part of the project and so we arranged it as a duet. Faith is more than a side note for me, it is who I am and in everything I do—I want to be honest and present who I really am. In music you can open up to people in, say, more than a sermon, for example. I am hoping it will connect with a lot of people that may not find themselves in a church.

CCM: What do you like most about the duet?
LB: The song starts off with Emily singing, and it’s real soulful and not much going on in the background. Then the guitar comes in and I start singing over it. So, we are both singing the same thing and coming to the same conclusion—a lot of times I think that’s the way we share the gospel. They say, “I’m the only one doing this,” and, “Everyone is going to look at me as ‘odd’ if I decide to take this path in my life.” But when you decide to follow, somebody else might decide to also follow. Somebody is always looking up to you and basing a lot of what they do off of what you do—that’s just the way life can be. One cool part of the song is when it says, “Though no one join me,” and we are singing that as a duet.