An experiment with the Neo Soul MIDI pack for Toontrack EZ Keys. 
https://johnbowen.bandcamp.com/track/you-lift-me
 
Hope you enjoy!
 
John B.

Well written piece, sort of Al Greenish. Nice sparse, airy arrangement. Solid hooky chorus with well executed bgv. Lead vocal is a bit tenative, sort of searching for the melody. Maybe a touch of Melodyne in spots would help. Overall it is nice to hear a soulful, classic feeling tune like this. I was visualizing the bgv boys doing their " pips" moves. Very cool.....

DUDE ****! I love this.
 
Chorus is great. I think your meter could be more interesting the verse as it pretty much follows the down beat of the piano.
 
I would beat the **** out of this song vocally, throw it in the dumpster, jump in after it, light it on fire and become a homeless dumpster diving soul singer on this song. JEEEEZ! Love it. I guess neo-soul keys might be in my future.

Thanks guys.  The melody is not tentative.  It took three takes to get this down.  It's just my almost 62 year old asthmatic voice trying to prove it's still relevant.  Also I was trying to sound "black" but I know exactly where I wanted the melody to go.  Funny you should mention Melodyne.  I DID use it here.  Didn't help much, I guess, but I could never have gotten the background vocals as tight without it.
 
Yes,  (ruralrocker) you might want to consider EZ Keys, unless you are already a competent keyboardist.  This program is the greatest.  I get accused of "picking" the song instead of "writing" it by some people, but most of the time I'm the one picking the chord progression and melody.  I think it's no different than getting with a great pianist and having him/her play your ideas for you.
 
John B.

John - this is excellent. Vocals sound great.

Johnbee58
  It's just my almost 62 year old asthmatic voice trying to prove it's still relevant.  

That's so funny I did a spit take!  I get your phrasing and your attempt to sound "soulful" and I think your phrasing is exactly that.
 
I think you should get the "Improved Sonar User of the Year" award. You have really jumped up in quality over the last year, at least as far as I've been aware. Good work!
 
As the chorus is by far the strongest part of the song, with the bgv's, what about starting the song with like 8 bars of that chorus groove? Then downshift into a verse, which is more sparse. Just an idea.
 
Yeah, this kind of melody is really hard to sing, even if you are 22 and vocally relevant!
 
cheers,
-Tom

Very well written song John, top drawer. That piano intro is splendid.

Very nice john. Not the sort of piece I would normally listen to, being a metal had and creator of electronic stuff, but I like to listen to as much different stuff as I can here, on this forum. Makes a refreshing change actually.
 
Nice piano. Is that EZkeys? Sounds sweet
 
Good lyrics... On my second listen now...
 
Overall, a nice piece of work here John.
 
cheers
 
andy

Daryl, Emerald, James & Synchotron-
Thanks.  This is EZ Keys and EZ Drummer.  All using the browser presets.
Emerald-The hard part is keeping the voice in tune and under control.  I used Melodyne on the backgrounds but resisted using it on the lead.  Actually I tried it on the lead but it over corrected on some notes and under corrected on others and I just didn't feel like doing a note for note correction.  It's too tedious.
John B.

Well it is a wonderful composition up front. Nice well thought out lyrics. The piano work stands out the most to me. Maybe some room to tweak the atmosphere, but overall a nice presentation.
 
"voice trying to prove it's still relevant."
 
Ha! Funny way of putting it, but I understand completely.I do ok for the most part, but there are days for me when putting down a vocal track is not in the cards. Could be any number of things from not in the right mood to voice not in shape. However, I have accepted there are just certain styles of singing that is out of my little box of options. It is just the way it is, so I don't wonder off too much from my comfort zone.