- Donald Lawrence is a Grammyaward winning songwriter,

producer, composer, and choir director

with endless albumsand hits to his credit.

His current project is called "Goshen".

It's a unique album he produced,

actually more than a year ago,

with plans for a stagemusic and dance project,

but the pandemic put thebrakes on those plans.

But now a tour is comingsoon and last week,

people got a sneak peek at "Goshen"

as part of a Chicago Dance Theater's

25th anniversary season celebration

in the city's Millennium Park.

(jazz music)♪ A call was sent to heaven ♪

♪ About power being abused ♪

♪ Heaven shows a deliverer ♪

♪ The most unlikely to be used ♪

♪ Go tell those in power ♪♪ That who much is given ♪

♪ Much is required ♪

♪ Tell them they can really lead ♪

♪ And if they're leading ♪

♪ To the eyes of those they hired ♪

- It describing you, it said,

"You're the man who wearsmany musical colors."

What does that mean? (laughs)

♪ Shouldn't determined their amount ♪

♪ Or the pay raise ♪

- I do so many things.

I've worked in multiple genres

so whether it's gospel,

whether it's music or theater,

whether it's R&B, I started there.

♪ Aye man ♪

♪ Respect my people ♪

So I go from producer to choir master,

to artists, to musical director,

to songwriter, to whatever

that just kind of all thingsto all people. (laughs)

♪ My children ♪

- What brings us here today

is your work "Goshen".

- Yeah. The album "Goshen" that I did,

I created that work

with the idea that I would take this stage

and create it as dance theater.

♪ The joy of the Lord ♪

♪ In this time of stressing ♪

We actually did the music first

knowing that I was eventuallygonna take the stage

and pair it with a dance company

to tell the story on stage

with dancing and singing and lyric,

and that's pretty much

that's what that's about.

- Where was this whole idea

of this marriage born for you

for this particular project?- The most people don't know

that my background really in education

is musical theater.

I've always done that,

I've always loved that.

Even when I was a younger kid in church,

I would always be the one

to take the songs we did

and try to put some type of drama to it

or some type of scene to it.

And I always wanted to take my work

and just do it like that,so that's why a lot of times

if you listen to the music,

it's very theatrical

because that's just the passion

that I've always had even just growing up.

And this particular project,

I had started working on saying,

"I wanna tell the story of the Exodus,

but I wanna tell it in a unique way."

And I had started working on some songs,

and this young writer came to me and said,

"I have this song would love you to hear,

and maybe rewrite it

or do whatever you wanna do to it."

And it was "Goshen".

And I was like, "This is interesting."

And he said, "But do you really understand

the concept of this?"

And he was like, "Whatare you hearing in?"

So I said, "Allow meto rewrite the lyric."

And I decided that instead of

titling this album Exodus or whatever,

"Goshen" was the better title

because it was so unique,

it was something that wedon't focus on as much

but it really tells a story as well.

And once I explainedto him where I saw it,

he was like, "Wow."

So he allowed me to rewrite the song,

so we would co-collab on the song,

and I let it be the titleof the album, "Goshen".

- What is Goshen? (laughs)

- Goshen is a body of land

where the Hebrews lived right near Egypt.

So, during the time of their oppression,

they lived in this one little body of land

that was right near the Red Sea,

and it was called Goshen.

But this particular bodyof land was very special.

Some people say, I say it like this,

I say, Goshen is a supernatural zip code

that those who live there

achieve against all odds

because they achievedstuff against all odds.

And I used this whole story

to parallel where we are now

when I wrote it,

and that story to let everybody know

that you could carry Goshen with you.

That everywhere you place your feet,

success follows you

because there's a Goshen inside you,

there's a body of land,

there's an imagination,

there's a faith inside of you

that if you just focus on

and realize who you are,

Goshen travels with you.

So we always kind of use this tagline,

may God's Goshen be withyou wherever you go.

And not just you,

those that you love andthose that connected to you,

that supernatural protection happens,

but also that you achieved the things

that you've desired toand dreamed of achieving.

♪ Whom shall I fear ♪

- Donald Lawrence is aNorth Carolina native,

and there's a celebration next month

for his 2020 induction to the State's

Musical Hall of Fame.

For more uplifting stories like this,

be sure to catch "Studio 5" this evening

at 8:30 Eastern.

You can find it on the CBN News channel

or the CBN News.