Saturday, September 30, 2023

Rachel Wilhelm: Jeremiah

Artist: Rachel Wilhelm
Album:  Jeremiah
Release: August 18, 2023
Genre: (She says) Alt Country. (I say) Adult Contemporary with a folk-chamber underbelly)
featuring a cast of gifted musicians, including stellar guitarist, Phil Keaggy.
In or about the same week that first-time-ever recording artist, Oliver Anthony hit 20 million hits for his anthem of communal despair (Rich Men North of Richmond) the gifted queen of melancholy, Rachel Wilhelm registered ten more downloads.
(Ouch)
Forgive my lame attempt at humor.  I keep playing with a lead that captures the ethos of pathos.

Short Spin
Jeremiah the album, is a “Cliff Note” exploration of the book of Jeremiah, highlighting its key themes, with adapted verse, presented in the flow of the book

Vocalist, songsmith, and worship leader Rachel Wilhelm joins with fellow song writers, vocalist Devin Pogue, and a cast of stellar musicians (including guitarist Phil Keaggy) to give us a work of ardent, sober encouragement.  The album chases themes common to the prophets, but less common in our corporate worship, namely - our corporate depravity, and God's concrete justice.  When did you last hear a song about slaughter by the Sword? -- And yet, the album brims with joy, and God’s zeal for his wayward children. 

As per the sound.  It is lovely, crisp, jubilant or angry, bold or forlorn, in keeping with the dictates of each song.

Note: I was under an impression that guitarist Phil K. was behind just one song. (I could hear his signature style in one particular track) but thought--”My there is a lot of good guitar work here.” Turns out Phil provided backup in five of the songs. That said, the rest of the instrumental cast (Rachel, Adam Whipple, Jered McKenna, Keiko Ying, Anya-Katarina Gerber) are all phenomenal musicians.  Get ready for some quality sounds, including striking piano, crunchy banjo, galloping guitar, mourning cello, and dancing violin.
You can listen to Jeremiah on Spotify and Youtube, However, I recommend BANDCAMP. Not only can you purchase a CD or downloads, you can read the lyrics to each song. https://rachelwilhelm1.bandcamp.com/album/jeremiah


Long Play

I discovered the music of Rachel Wilhelm about six years ago through her first full length studio album, Songs of Lament. That title suggested what would be evident with her follow up work Requiem-- Rachel likes and lives in the darker shades--A place that I too find solace.

I am reminded of a conversion I had some decades ago with my mom.  I was living in an album entitled Come to the Quiet, by monastic troubadour John Michael Talbot.  My mom, a woman who liked her music robust and southern, asked me why I played such music.  “That music makes me want to kill myself.”  I, in turn, was mortified.  How is it that this lean, sober music, which filled my heart with brooding delight, really did make her sad, whereas her happy go-lucky southern gospel just sucked the joy right out of me.  Go figure.

All of which bring us to Rachel’s Jeremiah, an album anchored in weeping, woe, judgment -- and the love of a passionate groom. Concerning Jeremiah, we read on her Bandcamp page:

This album started in 2018 when City Church of Minneapolis asked Rachel to lead their songwriters and musicians in a "Jeremiah series" songwriting retreat. She taught the attendees how to write songs from scripture and they spent two days with each other, writing songs. With the completion of this retreat, the songs were featured after each sermon during the series by co-writer and worship pastor of City Church, Devin Pogue. Tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8 were written during the retreat and refined afterwards. Rachel wrote track 1 after she was asked to lead the retreat, starting off the creativity.

The album was supposed to be an EP, but quickly became a full-length record as songs continued to form during the year-long recording process.


Rachel’s sung words are easy enough to understand, however I find that the art of song sometimes obscures easy comprehension.  Add to that the fact that the spokesperson behind each song keeps changing. I am not always comfortable with the idea of people speaking (or singing) for God…but it's a thing that the prophet Jeremiah does with some frequency.  He not only tells us what God is thinking, he speaks as God directly.  And so it goes, in Jeremiah (the album), many of the songs are sung directly to us (through Rachel and friends) by God himself -- A practice which must be somewhat disorienting for the singer!


On the other hand, not all the songs are sung “by God”-- some are sung by Jeremiah to God.  And so I found that I needed some 
notes to more fully absorb the flow.  Here are scratch notes I used to aid my hearing.



1) You Won’t Turn (Jeremiah 2)

Starts with the setting question: 

Where is the Lord?” not a soul has asked.

Not a prophet, shepherd or scribe who studies the law.

“Where is the Fountain of the Living God?”

They have molded the vessels themselves,

With cracks in the clay.

God indicts his people for the hardness of their hearts.  “You turn your back to me but not your face.”

* I am reminded of how I, as a married man, can lie with my back to a beautiful woman.  We may be inches apart, and miles away.


2)  Turn to Me (Jeremiah 3)

w vocalist Devin Pogue.   

God begins with “incredulity” -- Have you seen what my people have done….

God adds to his indictment, lament; “ My people, my children do not know me” 

Adding:“Call on me, and you will find peace”

 

3) My Heart is Faint (Jeremiah 8,9)

Jeremiah joins in lamentation asking “Where is the balm of Gilead, is there no healer there, no rest in this wilderness.” Jeremiah's lamentation turns to a form of prophecy.

If I could hide who I am, And walk away and leave, But you have called me to suffer, Just like a future King.


4) Far From Their Hearts (Jeremiah 12)

(Get ready for the ear worm)…  This seems to be the song that plays in my head for hours after each listen.  But the banjo, BIG guitar and happy-ish refrain might mask the heaviness of Jeremiah's query: Why do the wicked prosper?

(I am thinking the happiness may be connected to another facet of this song, the idea that God will respond to present injustice.)


5) Woe to you O Jerusalem (Jeremiah 13)


God -- Can there be a lovelier "Woe?" I have always heard Woe as a harsh word, but through the twined vocals of Rachel and Devin, Woe comes across as the pleading heart of a longing father. 


(I am reminded of Jesus as he cries out: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!)

                                                    


6) Vengeance with the Sword (Jeremiah 25)  


God announces his direct, immediate and concrete judgment of his people -- through the Babylonians.
--
Oh my -- the banjo.  

While my ear much appreciates the Americana ethos, I can imagine this song covered by a death metal band.     



7)  I Know The Plans (Jeremiah 27) w Devin Pogue and ensemble.


God declares, "I know the plans that I have for you, plans for a future.  Plans for your children...."


Amazing really by way of contrast to the judgment just announced.
I can easily hear this upbeat anthem made part of corporate worship.


8) On that Day (Jeremiah 30)  featuring Devin Pogue

terror and liberation twined.

God: Cries of fear are heard; cries of terror not of peace. Take a look and see every face turned deathly pale How awful that day will be but on that day you will be saved.

--

exceptional harmony/mandolin/fiddle
9)  Fear Not for I m with You  (Jeremiah 45)

Another radio friendly anthem of promise.

God declares: Fear Not for I am with you,  I ‘m not finished with you yet. ---

This Old Covenant promise sound a lot like Philippians 1:6 (He who has begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Christ Jesus.)



10) Daughter, Daughter (Jeremiah 50)

God pleads, whoos, affirms.
This is currently my favorite listen, not only for its gorgeous melancholy and PK guitar, but for the suggestive force of the eternal groom waiting on his bride.

D
aughter, daughter, come; Weeping, weeping, come;
There is room, there is room, come To my house,
do you know the way?  Will you seek my face?
You are worth the wait, so I’m waiting, waiting.
You may ask the way; hear me when I say:
Turn your face to the mountain, climb up and stay..
.

The album having started with our turned backs beacons us to turn full-face to the Lord.


11)  Refuge of the Weary    

Jeremiah?  (or Rachel)  offers a complex praise… and asks God to both remember and carry us.

“We might be burned, we might fall down, but we won't drown.”

On a peculiar note, the album ends not fully resolved. Now it's our turn.  Will we turn our face toward our beckoning lover?




In closing:

I have now listened to this album nearly fifty times!  And (unintended consequences) read the book a couple times! --


I have since learned that this has been a very difficult year for Rachel. I am not sure how public she is with everything, suffice it to say, she has likely had to sing many of these songs to herself.


Thank you Rachel for giving us a body of work that meets us in our brokenness, even at those times when it is hard to look God in the face.  May He be your wooing King and sustainer. May you taste of his fierce love in the place of trial.  May he supplant a current disappointment with a greater joy. Additional Links: Article by Kelsey Kramer McGinnishttps://www.christianitytoday.com/.../christian-music...

Tent Talks a podcast Chris Marchand

Rachel Wilhelm on Scriptural Songwriting: Podcast


Friday, November 4, 2022

Jeff Johnson and Brian Dunning: Coming, Going -- Winter Songs

Coming-Going 

Winter Songs


A two volume, 54 song retrospective, 

featuring the Celtic colored soundscapes and chamber music of

Jeff Johnson & Brian Dunning (together with friends.)

November 2022




Quick Spin

Key-man and producer Jeff Johnson and longtime friend, flutist Brian Dunning have been crafting fluid-festive-haunting, sacred-cinematic, Celtic-colored (largely) instrumental sound-scapes for some 35 years. Johnson uses electric and acoustic piano, together with sampled sounds rhythms, and ambient layers to build the underlying structure (i.e. river bed) while Dunning’s melodic and sometimes percussive flute lines flow in, through and over each composition like water.


Coming, Going.
Music for the epic journey

This sweeping 32 song retrospective features compositions from 16+ albums. Many of the tunes are pulled from works “inspired” by the medieval-ish fantasy worlds of author Steven Lawhead (with titles like Albion, King Raven, and Eirlandia.) The binding theme: Sojourn--with aural allusions to battle and dazzling discovery. That said, there is something about this collection that runs sober. It is not without brilliance or joy, but should delight travelers who find pleasure in the gray-blue of twilight.




Winter Songs
Music of heart, home, and sanctuary

By way of contrast, the 24 song Winter/Christmas collection plays both brighter and more festive.  (i.e. more live.) It strikes me as the perfect soundtrack for living out Advent, surrounded by friends, fire, or--as the Spirit gives liberty-- a mug of mead.

* Until the advent of streaming, I always made sure to bring a Johnson/Dunning Christmas CD to family gatherings.  It was my way of fanning a sacred focus, without being shrill.


Long Play:

It started with a review and a cassette. The year was 1982; I was 22. Campus Life Magazine highlighted Jeff Johnson’s album “The Face of the Deep.” I was intrigued by the album art and the reviewer’s description of a lyricist who referenced the likes of Gauguin, Rodin (the Thinker), and preacher-philosopher Francis Schaeffer. When I bought the tape I was taken aback by the many approaches to voice and sound. Johnson mixed direct recordings of nature with madrigal moods and Moog synthesizer(?)--Something like a blend of ELO, Bach, and touch of Styx. I followed every review thereafter, adding each new Johnson release to my growing collection of cassettes. Johnson even seemed to release higher quality tapes than the average mass-market fare!

A decade in, I sent Johnson my first fan letter, along with some photos that he might consider for future album use. I didn't offer anything he needed, but he graciously responded by sending me my very first physical CD--Songs from Albion, an instrumental collaboration with “Celtic-jazz” Flutist Brian Dunning.

And now, some thirty years later, I find I’m baptized in all things Johnson and Dunning. I’ve traveled with the duo across wind swept moors, to Byzantium, and on to the Orient. I’ve tread with them into battle, or upward into the sublime. It was with some sadness then that I absorbed the news that Johnson's long time friend Brian Dunning, passed away in February of 2022.






Johnson said, “I am deeply grieved to share the news that the great Irish flutist, Brian Dunning, passed away peacefully this morning after a two month illness. We first met and started working together in 1986. The music we made and the friendship we shared were gifts that I will keep in my heart until my own time comes.
    He was one of the most accomplished players to ever play the flute – a true genius of improvisation and melody. His music shot out like a waterfall and drenched all of us who had the honor and great pleasure in playing with him and listening to him.
    He was a true friend – dedicated, thoughtful, gracious and ever humorous--Countless were the evenings of stories and jokes that left us all with aching stomachs from laughing so much!”





My first listen, I am mesmerized by the opening track; Coming-Going (hear it here) is haunting and spare and speaks to a thin-walled world. 


From here on out, I am swept in a river of memory. As a long time Johnson fan, I am familiar with many of these tunes, spread across CD’s. Many come with distinct images of place and light.


Confession: I have read only one Lawhead book. And so, I turn instead, to the scenery at hand. The year is 1981. I live in a college flat with my bride and newborn daughter. I am playing Songs from Albion (Volume 1) -- I imagine Vikings or Scottish moors, because I think I should. Then the Aegean Sea (or whatever body of water is being traversed) gives way to a sea of sweeping Oklahoma Tallgrass Prairie.

The year is 2003. I am riding, windows down and decibels up, through the winding and virid greens of an Arkansas Ozark Spring. It feels a lot like the Ireland of Patrick!

A storm is brewing. I put on the CD Byzantium, a battle hymn joins with thunder.

It is November 2022. I have come full circle. I am curving (once again) through the autumnal hills of the Arkansas' Ozarks to a “Flight of Ravens” --my heart alive with the many places I have traversed inside this music.



At 56 songs strong, the audio wallop of these two collections is massive, but according to Johnson represents a fraction of their combined output. I asked Johnson how he came to the final collection.


Johnson: While Brian was featured on many of my solo albums, I only drew from the recordings that are listed as by “Jeff Johnson & Brian Dunning” including the ones with John Fitzpatrick, Wendy Goodwin and the Coram Deo Ensemble. I tried to pick two - three pieces from each one so these retrospective albums only represent about 20 - 30% of our entire recorded catalog.


Me: Did you use a specific criteria for what you included?


Johnson: Most of the choices were personal preference. I tried to pick songs that retained a certain musical longevity. I spent a lot of time sequencing the choices so that there was a logical musical flow. In other words, a listener could listen to the albums in their entirety and not have the sense that they were listening to a compilation album!


Me: What role did Brian play in the composition process?


Johnson: For most of the years, it was a 50/50 collaboration with both Brian and myself bringing ideas to whatever piece we were working on in the process. You have to remember that Brian was an extraordinary “jazz” player, so a lot of the things we ended up with came from hours of recording together in the studio.
    In the later years - particularly the chamber albums with Wendy Goodwin - I initiated and organized many of the compositions. But both Brian and Wendy were very involved in the actual lines and solos that they contributed.”


In closing I asked Jeff how it has been to assemble this work, in the wake of such loss.


Johnson shared: The whole process was emotional for me. I miss Brian terribly and have found myself feeling completely adrift these past months. Yet, I’m glad I did this. It was quite something to consider the extraordinary body of work we produced with one another over the years. I was also very pleased how the new song (Coming, Going) came together and that violinist, John Fitzpatrick was part of it.
    There will never be another Brian Dunning. I’m fortunate to have not only made music with him for so long but to have enjoyed his love and friendship all those years
.







Thank you Brian and Jeff, for priming our souls for worlds beyond.




*****

Jeff Johnson - Ark Productions, Home Page

Coming-Going on Bandcamp  

Winter Songs on Bandcamp Photo illustrations by Kirk, care of Arkansas Tourism.






Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Ravenna: Jeff Johnson and Phil Keaggy


Ravenna
Jeff Johnson and Phil Keaggy
Genre: Ambi-coustic, jazz-age fusion, with touches of Art-rock
Release date: 2/5/2021

Order and Listen


Quick Spin:
The promotional material for the album Ravenna offers this concise description:

Ravenna. A richly textured instrumental journey inspired by the visually spectacular 5th and 6th century mosaics of Ravenna, Italy. Here are eight musical mosaics by the acclaimed duo in their most ambitious recording yet.



Long Play:
If you have arrived at this review and do not yet know the music of Jeff Johnson or Phil Keaggy, shame on the world for hiding her gems. Key-man-composer Jeff Johnson, and guitar virtuoso Phil Keaggy have been at their respective crafts for over a century of combined years. Each in turn, has built a massive catalogue, spanning multiple genres.




Ravenna, following Frio Suite (2009), WaterSky (2012), and Cappadocia (2019) is the duo’s fourth full-length, ambi-cousitic collaboration. Part of Johnson's craft is weaving together his keys (piano, organ, synth) and Phil’s many guitars, inside a layered, percussive sound mountain.


I might loosely compare the duo’s efforts to figure skating-- (No gender implications)--just the idea of two people, flawlessly working with each other, melded and flowing, in a dance that sometimes feels “simple” but is in fact, disciplined and difficult - the product of honing years.


In the promo material for Ravenna, Johnson suggests that this is their most ambitious effort yet. Which strikes me as a high bar--How do you improve on serial excellence? How do you make a better kid? I am not sure all of what is behind that statement, I can, however, tell you what I hear in Ravenna that is both distinctive and reaching.



--

Ravenna, like its predecessor Cappadocia, boasts inspiration from a concrete geography with a deep sacred history--this time an Italian city which hosts a number of Byzantine-era churches and buildings, as ubiquitous as white frame churches are to the American south.

In keeping with the Mediterranean motif, Keaggy dips into his wheelhouse (consider his album, The Streets of Madrid) then spices the work --using a borrowed mandolin and mandocello, with distinctively Italian hue.


As for the Churches of inspiration--These are not the flying-buttress rib and glass creations of a later age--They are however, colossal. Think of structures of tremendous heft with high domed ceilings-- many adorned from floor to ceiling in with massive mosaics, each in turn created from shards or rock, glass and gem. That both the structures and their mosaics remain with us these 1500 years later, testifies to astonishing craftsmanship and engineering.



As it is, I hail from a wing of Christendom which is not wholly at ease with sacred imaging. So I put aside my Puritan lens and consider these mosaics from the vantage of a “Middle Aged” pilgrim. I walk my 6th century self through the doors and into a grand expanse. I see above my head, the spangled firmament-an arching rock canvas of gold stars, or another dome heralding the King, Creator, and Redeemer of the world.


The stunning packaging that accompanies the CD features Jeff’s pictures of Ravenna’s interior spaces and mosaics. I see an exotic creature from the book of Revelation, or the Holy Spirit as a dove presiding over the baptism of Jesus. I see sundry saints, Mary, angels, a cosmic cross, or in one, the Lamb of God, lifted high, like the center of the universe. And in looking, my life is given meaning, mystery and scale. (I feel small, but enveloped.)

The man hours behind these works is staggering, the spiritual implications even greater.

We might think of the body of Christ in this present world as made of many parts (people) even as a mosaic is made of many stones.



Indeed, This idea is suggested in verse that illustrates the CD,
Consider this fragment from the poem “Ravenna” by poet Scott Cairns.

Our brokenness, just now suggests

New purpose,

As each sharp edge avails for us

A place to meet.

--

And so it goes, even in the creative enterprise, these independent stones play off of each other in part of a larger telling.


All of which brings me to Ravenna’s sound. In what ways do Johnson and Keaggy illustrate the experience of walking into a star encrusted cathedral? How does this music illustrate the idea of Mosaic?


First, there are the titles. Mosaic One, Mosaic Two…on through Mosaic Eight. It is as if we are playing tone-poem Jeopardy. Jeff and Phil create the tune, we fill in the title. The compositions are largely impressionistic and asymmetrical, and range from six-and-half to seven-and-a-half minutes each.--Which makes for a series of long songs, or very short symphonies, replete with movements. And while each of these mosaics are in themselves distinctive, I find them unified. I can imagine, eight frames on a wall, with different content but a shared mind and pallet..

On my very first listen I wrote down words conjured by the music. Consider my first impressions.



 Starts with bells and birds… Outside,
Then in.


Simple. Open. Expansive.


Spacious.



Italian Mandolin??


                    hey-- that's quirky

Warm
Sheltered, protected.
Massive.

Delicate/Masculine


                Rest, Rest, Rest

Luxury, layered, but not crowded.

Thematic and aural unity. Rich

Whole

Madrigal?

Season-Summer? But not hot.

Guitar like liquid fish.

Comfort.

This ended soon. I feel refreshed,
enlivened.



---

If you take my loose notes and create a unit, you can see what I find distinctive in this recording. There is throughout, a certain muscle, generosity and strength. The parts fit, like a well engineered car. I was surprised when, in impressionistic mode, I used the word “masculine” --not because I hear in the music something that a noble, strong and virtuous woman could not personify… but because. Bass.

Many of the textural dallies build from a bed of low bass notes… Not thudding, but like a solid rock floor. This entire work just exudes quality and cush.



Add to that mix, elements of quirk. I heard at least two or three textural elements that belong to 60s sci-fi.

Add to that, gliding cosmic sound loops that could accompany a movie like Interstellar.

Add to that a touch of Rev. Several tracks feature a third player, drummer Mike Snyder. I even heard in the mix what may be a subliminal rock-organ nod to In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Add to that, a required season.

As part of my quest to make Jeff and Phil’s collaborations into a modern four seasons, I assign to Ravenna, July. But not a July of blistering heat. Think of summer in the high mountains, or in the shelter of a stone-cool cathedral washed in the breeze of the Adriatic Sea.



Final thoughts:
If there is one final take away from the themes of Ravenna, it is this: Endurance.

I am blessed to watch two men give themselves to God-centric artistry over many decades. Both men have broken free from the limiting confines of the Christian music industry, Both remain faithful to their calling. They have loved God and loved their neighbors through their craft. (My ears are beyond blessed.)

I have no idea if the music of Phil and Jeff will be played in a hundred years. I will not be surprised, however to find they have commissions in the new Jerusalem, or that their songs echo in the heavenly breeze.


--

Order and Listen Here







EVERY PSALM - Poor Bishop Hooper (album of the year!)

EVERY-PSALM Poor bishop Hooper.

The best album of 2020, goes not to album - but a mission worthy of a life.  Or two. the Every-Psalm Project on Spotify the Every-Psalm Project on Youtube An introduction to the Project (Youtube)

I don’t know when the husband and wife duo of Jesse and Leah Roberts, otherwise known as  Poor Bishop Hooper first envisioned (or started recording) the Every-Psalm project, however, they have been releasing a recording a week, for the all of last year, and don't plan on stopping for almost two more.

Their goal.  Take the canon of Hebrew Psalms, all 150, and create a distilled song from each.  Then dribble out their craftsmanship over150 weeks!





Some years ago my wife and I attended a church that had as its base conviction that the people of God were to use the book of Psalms for their sole “hymnbook” in Christian worship.  While I did not embrace the conviction of “Exclusive Psalmody” I noted something huge.  In singing the Psalms we gave rise to places our pleading, broken, and sometimes forlorn souls, that had never received a proper airing.  The Psalms allow us to express not only joy, but anger, disappointment, and crippling sorrow. 
As for Poor Bishop Hooper’s renditions.  These are not a verse by verse adaptations, though the couple does a fantastic job of getting to the heart of each Psalm and plumbing it for its spiritual and psychological depth.  There is all the welling happiness, and bone crunching lamentation an afflicted soul could long for.
I won’t say a lot about style for the simple reason that you can listen to about three of their adaptations and get the gist. Their sensibilities are spare, airy, and haunting. Psalm one, a modern “Ode to Joy” rolls out with effervescent  Leah solo.  Psalm Two, introduces Jesse’s tender grit, then the twine.    I read in their literature that they come to their craft with guitar and an upright bass. A video shows the couple working a large piano, together. I hear tasteful electronica, echo, and gizmo spice.   (I wonder if the couple do all the music, or if they are friends with a chamber orchestra and mixing chamber guru.)  Some compositions sound like they are singing in a cave with dripping springs.



In addition to all things audio-artistic, Poor Bishop Hooper represents, knows or otherwise lives on top of an art museum.  I have no idea who is responsible for the attending art, but it appears that in addition to each weekly composition, PBH pushes out a new illustration (with the feel of William Blake etching on leather).   The Bishop’s commitment to the visual arts permeates their entire catalogue.
Final synopsis: From top to bottom-- quality, commitment, staggering beauty and depth.   The likes of which our world rarely sees.

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Mo Leverett: Autumn Years

 Mo Leverett: Autumn Years. Release 2020

Genre:  Imminently listenable Chicory-Blues, Pirate Folk, Renegade Gospel, with small instrumental ensemble.

(This is a review of Autumn Years 2020, but I also reference an earlier work - Invisible Child 2016 - that  I picked up at the same time.)





Spotify Link


Youtube, Full album

Have you ever listened to an album 40 times in two weeks?   For whatever reasons, Autumn Years by Mo Leverett fits my inner man like my favorite sneakers fit my feat.  I wear them because they fit, they fit because I wear them. 


I am at a strange place with respect to music.   I have finally discovered that I can use Spotify to  make lists, jump around and sample.  And I have found not a few newbies of incredible talent and worth.   But there are a handful of people who’ve cut such deep grooves in my soul that I am creased--like a bend in the knee.   I want to live in everything they create.   It is with some shame then, that I almost missed two albums by one of the people I claim as essential.
For the unacquainted Mo is a man of complex pedigree.   Would-be football player turned inner city minister --turned pastor-- turned out on his ear.  Gritty blues singer with taste for redemption, God’s righteousness, and quality tobacco.  Dad.  Would-be lover, left to stew.  I don’t know where Mo is right now in relationship to relationships.  Last I knew (some many years back) he was picking up in the wake of a downed marriage of substantial years.  I joined him first in misery, then in joy as he celebrated the healing work of a new union.   Then--Never touted loudly...A blind side.  Two down.

--


Creating music and albums in the midst of real life trauma is tricky business.  In part, because it takes time to write and record music.  By the time a tune is released it may no longer match where the artist is in life.  When you sing of a love who is no longer part of your life, what do you do with the music?  I am listening to both Invisible Child and Autumn Years in the fall of 2020, which is odd.  Not only has this been the pinnacle year for all things blues...but I happen to know, from things I read on Facebook, that Mo has been through a ringer.  And not just a punch but a pummel.

My quick guess.  Invisible Child (2016)  was largely created before the quiet collapse of Mo’s second marriage. It is weird to listen to in retrospect.  It is like watching a movie for the second time, only this time you know what’s about to hit the fan.


Now I am listening to Autumn Years.  I do not know where it falls as a production, against a more recent tragedy in life of the Leverett family. What I do know,  Mo knows grief.  He knows what it is like to see people he has cherished taken away.  He knows the disorienting blows of a ravaged world.  That “shell shock” haunts his music.   You can listen to the larger catalogue of Mo music and know that he comes to his blues honestly. 

And if that was all Mo was about, the world would have in its wreckage, another troubadour of misery. 


What is strange about Autumn Years is its pervasive warmth and tranquility.  Mo has taken a novel step of placing an instrumental track between each of his sung songs. Mo's voice and lyrics sometimes run dark. His guitar plays gentle and warm. Like an Indian summer.  Like warm wheat bread. I am hearing instruments below the surface.  Banjo.  Yuke. Delightful Buddy Greene harmonica.   I know too that Mo has been listening to Bruce Cockburn. (I know this because Mo has said so, and I too listen to Bruce.)

I don’t know what is different on production level, but I feel a greater sense of low notes? … It is almost as if the storm has passed, knocked the hell out of the landscape, downed power lines, and strewn wreckage.  Then the sun comes up, and flowers poke through the shattered glass.  Or something like that.

My sense.  Mo is one of the “lucky” human beings who has had his whole sense of self worth so battered, that he has no place left to camp, but in God.   He cannot feed you his past.  It is sick.  He can not sell you his religious credentials. They have been questioned. Or removed.    He cannot give you the present.  He is hemorrhaging beneath the smoke.   He cannot sell you his virtue… He knows who he is.

And all that would be a terrible, terrible place to be, except for Christ who is our all in all, who lifts damaged souls, who breathes life into lungs filled with water.

And so it is that Mo, in his Autumn Years, continues to sing Mo themes.  He sings songs for others getting married.  He sings of the beautiful thorns.  He sings of water and stars and the quality of light.  He alludes to loss. All the while held securely in those powerful arms.

I do not know if it is purposeful, but when I listen to Autumn Years I take in the peace.

Here is a quick run down for me of highlights and thoughts.



The opening sung song--Riding out the Storm, establishes a theme for the album: perseverance in the face of trauma.   Very recently I had occasion to listen to an audio version of “Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neal Hurston. TEWWG illustrates, among other things, what it means to weather a hurricane. (As if hurricanes can be weathered.)  And so it is, that Mo has lived both his physical life (by virtue of where he has lived)  and his inner life to the  rhythm of seasonal bashing.

And with that, seasons of repair.



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The many instrumental inclusions on this album help push a subliminal theme that counters Mo’ predilections for grit.  It is as if we are given the opportunity to breath, or sigh, or heal, between lamentation and  emotional weight.  


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Should you ask me my favorite songs on this album, three make that four stand out.

There is the rather crunchy, chain-gang chorus of Crown of Thorns, in which Mo sees beauty in the darkest places. There is Blood on the Mountain--what could be an instrumental track for "To Kill a Mockingbird."

There is Shooting Star a song, of such melodic and visual beauty, that the whole thing lingers in my soul, long after the hearing.


Finally, there is “Slash”  (a song that Mo told me was one of his favorites)   This song cooks with gas on multiple levels.  Poetry.  Layered multi-voice choral production… and the foundational concept.  The very same God who allows ravage (even permitting slash) also binds our wounds.   


Or as sung by Mo


The till to the soil

Deep tracks left behind 


Like scars on the earth

Like scars in my mind

But seedlings will grow 

from  from some other realm

And sunshine will sow

With clouds overwhelm


My heart learned this theme 

still when I was a child


The bigger the dreams 

the harder the trial


The harder the fall

 the  swifter embrace

The deeper the slash,  profounder the grace….


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I have said this before, but say it again.  There is an ethos inside of Autumn Years that is more than anyone song.  It as if the collected whole speaks to a condition of 

Divine Holding. Or Mo knows repose.  And we sit with him on the porch in the fading light of an autumn eve, replete with chill and smoke and sturdy coffee.


Thank you Mo - a friend I have never met - for giving me this warm flannel shirt, these warm audio slippers, this soundtrack to live life in the waiting.