Josh Garrrels - Heaven' Blade

Josh Garrels is hardly a new name to Jesus Music.  My only concern, there may yet be those out there from my generation who have yet to discover they artistic behemoth that is Josh Garrels.

Josh on Spotify

We start out simple.  Heaven's Knife: A song from Garrel's 2015 Album Home, dedicated to the artist's wife






Lyric

Take my hand
I won't let go
We've waited so long

And all my life
I walked alone
To you, my heart, my home

Like the first man
I was cut so deep by heaven's knife
When I awoke from my sleep
Oh my Lord, she's beautiful
She's a part of me
She's my wife

Bound by love
One flesh to be
An unbroken ring

And I lay down
My life for thee
In love we are free

Like the first man
I was cut so deep by heaven's knife
When I awoke from my sleep
Oh my Lord, she' s beautiful
Walking up to me
Oh she's wonderful, standing next to me
Oh she's all
All that I could need, yeah
She's beautiful, she's a part of me
She's my wife

The lyric to Heaven's knife, anchored in the first romance reminds me much of this "lyric" penned a some years earlier by John Milton, author of Paradise Lost



Under his forming hands a Creature grew

Manlike but different sex, so lovely fair,

That what seemed fair in all the world seem’d now

Mean, or in her summ’d up, in her contained

And in her looks, from that time infused

Sweetness into my heart unfelt before,

And into all things from her Air inspir’d

The spirit of love and amorous delight.

She disappeared and left me dark, I wak’d

To find her, or forever to deplore

Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure

When out of hope, behold her not far off,

Such as I saw her in my dream adorn’d

With what all Earth or Heaven could bestow

To make her amiable: On she came

Led by her heav’nly maker, though unseen

And guided by His voice, nor uninform’d

Of nuptial Sanctity and marital Rights:

Grace was in all her steps, and Heav’n in her Eye

And every gesture dignity and love.




--

John Milton – Paradise Lost. (sliver)

Geezer Ear - New Music for Old Ears

Introducing “Geezer Ear"

#Geezerear

I am part of a Facebook group given to the "glory" years of Jesus Music: 1969-1989. I am not sure exactly how the group decided upon those years, however, there is a shared feeling among many of our elder members that as Jesus Music morphed into “Contemporary Christian Music” (CCM) we lost something vital. We watched as Christian radio bloomed, and gave rise to an ever homogeneous sound, void of risk, and sometimes conviction.

While I sometimes join them in head-shaking as we look at the state of Christian artistry (especially that which hits the airwaves) I am convinced that many in the group are simply not aware of the many profoundly gifted musicians and singers making new music in the Jesus Music tradition.

Over the next year, I hope to highlight artists (maybe one a week) that stand out for creating music that is current and sanctified and culturally engaged, and has not succumbed to the homogeneity of the age.

Stay Tuned.