Wood Between the Worlds

Bill Mallone test

2012-01-22T00:44:00.004-06:00

Mo Leverett: It's Alright (Music Review by Kirk Jordan)

2011-03-28T08:00:00.004-05:00

Artist: Mo Leverett
Album: It’s Alright.
Genre: Singer/Songwriter, intimate ballads, bluesy Creole colored folk.

(Album now available in full on I-Tunes
or order limited addition CDs through Rebirth International.

A broken, tender, torn, self-deprecating, even surprisingly celebratory Psalm of an album. This album will break your heart, or make it well with bigger things. If that combo doesn’t yet make sense, hang on.

For the unfamiliar, Mo is a singer/musician/ song writer -- former pastor and Football castaway. (Years ago his career as a would-be football pro went south with torn tendons…Last year his career as a pastor ended with the demise of his marriage. But he still has his guitar.

I don’t say much about the music in this review. In short, I find the music fits my ear to perfection. Mo has been at this for a while. Tunes alternate between lone, raw acoustic guitar, and intimate studio-work with a lean bluesy feel. I hear piano, electric guitar, chimes, strings, flute, acoustic bass, and stellar Buddy Greene harmonica. I hear gospel. I hear death-crow. I hear a tune (and a direct reference) that lets me know that both Mo and I like the music of Bruce Cockburn… And…I hear an approach to the music that says that a producer somewhere knows that you don’t have to add layer upon layer to music to make it bite. This is skillfully wrought, unpretentious music of human proportions. Then there is Mo’s voice. Rough, gentle, bruised. Fitting. (a tad like Lyle Lovett.) But that that is not the focus of this album.

It’s hard to know where to begin. But one thing is for certain. In the ordinary sense of things, not much of anything is alright in Mo’s new world. (In a theological God soaked, ultimate, or even survival sense…. Well, that is a different matter.) Sometime in 2010 Mo Leverets’ marriage of 24 years collapsed. His wife asked to be loosed from their covenant bond. And from what I know of Mo, though Facebook and a little shared culture… Mo is crushed.

A thousands songs would I have penned
Against a thousand foes defend
She so fine and soft to see
Greater than the world to me

Elusive and estranged ..the peace(?)
Softy she has sought release
Now my tears forever flow
Forever I will let her go

Still would I have fought and died
For elegance personified
She the apple of my eye
Never more to taste will I

I guess, in one sense, no divorce is ever easy. I figure even Liz Taylor woke up the morning after her fifth marriage wondering what it’s all about and how she would deal with the wreck. But here is something different. Mo is a Pastor, (formerly with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and, belongs to a culture where divorce still caries shock. And shame. (And while it seems to be losing its shock value as the statistics climb) my sense is that Mo might rather break his back.

I do not want you to leave me alone
Flesh of my flesh, and Bone of my bone
My children’s mother, my precious wife
The queen of my heart, the love of my life.

But may the Lord bless you
And I will pray
May the Lord bless you. as you go your way

I do not want you to tender my name
But I would not want you to wear it in shame
I would commit myself to some mortis (sp?) flame
And I would be willing to field all the blame

May the Lord bless you … and be for you, everything I failed to do….
May the Lord bless you as you cross that line
Cross that line…

(Cross the line, one of the saddest songs in the universe.)

Bunny Trail: Truth is “It’s alright” is not really – or only -- a divorce album. Only two of the songs directly reference Mo’s divorce. On the other hand, most every song – like whites washed with a red magic marker – carries the stain.

Take these tears, this throbbing pain… these grinding fears, this darkest stain

And make it go away. Awaaaaay ay
These long hard years, that you’ve ordained
Like a mist appears and falls like rain
Make it go away…..

Take these lies, these fabled feet
This damn disguise, the self deceit
And make it go awy
Away away away……

Earlier I said this album is not about the music, or the voice. I may be wrong. You can read those lyrics, but you haven’t heard them till you hear Mo sing them with cracking desperation in his voice

This is an album of unmitigated pathos. This is an album that comes at great cost to its creator. But then… Then there are those songs that push in the opposite direction… For all its pain, there are several songs of Psalm-like praise, and several that directly celebrate marriage. With abandon. Really.

At first I was confused.

Were these leftover songs -- or is Mo singing about Christ’s love for his church?
What does it mean, when a guy who his riding the dark side of human existence sings..

Dance with me, Dance with me
Come away with my bride
I will be, bound to thee with the chords of love inside
You will always have my heart, you have owned it from the start

As it is, Mo helped clarify. These were songs written for young couples he knew that were getting married. (In an odd way, it reminded me of a time when my own marriage was deeply troubled, and I spent week after week as a wedding photographer, wondering… would my wife and I still be married by my next photo gig. The happiness of the young couples only made our present pain that much greater. But here, Mo shows a some spiritual insight.. No matter how badly we have managed marriage… Marriage, as a God-given gift, is still a good thing. Indeed, marriage is, and ever remains sacred.

Here ‘s the rub. Mo brings attitudes to the whole arena of pain and human failure, even fractured romance -- that are worlds apart from the messages we hear on the radio every day.

And this is where “It’s Alright” sets itself apart. It actually nourishes the damaged soul.

Here is the ordinary way that radio songs might work with love lost.

1) Wallow in the pain, cry the blues, down another beer.

2) Write blistering angry or demeaning lyrics about the person that hurt you.

3) Hide in yourself. Say nothing,

4) Announce to the world that you are strong, and will go on.

5) Forget the whole idea of genuine romance, and live for the one-night stand.

On the other hand, here is the way that Mo, a God redeemed and broken man has worked through his loss.

1) Wallow in the pain, smoke a cigar – and take your bloodied and sinful heart to the throne of God. Cry out to him for help. Worship God – who gives, and takes away, even as you ask Him to carry you through mess.

2) Seek to avoid all scathing remarks, even to the point of apologizing for cryptic comments about your former. Honor the woman you loved, even as you lament her loss.

3)Recognize that you share in, or even deeply added to the climate that cause the divorce in the first place. Publically recognize your culpability. Help carry the shame.

4) Announce that you are weak and broken… but that you will indeed go on, limping. See beyond the immediate story to a larger story in which God is working. Say that everything is Alright (in a God held ultimate sense) and not have a sarcastic tone.

5) Despite personal failure and loss, continue to see marriage of a good God ordained institution, fully worthy of celebration. Sing with your mangled heart at a young person’s wedding.

6. Don’t let the pain obliterate beauty. (The tune “Beautiful” is in fact achingliy beautiful, and is playing non-stop in my brain right now.)

7. Eat well. (This is more of Facebook thing.)

-

As is, I have focused on the pain filled parts of this album. But that only draws into stark contrast several tracks that really are given to another life dimension. Kinda like the dark country skies that make those stars shout out all the louder with their beauty.

All in all, It's Alright is one of those standout albums, that just because the world is what it is, will probably be known only by the few. And that is too bad. There is depth and even audio delight here that simply puts it in another league.

If I have any quibble it would be with song order… for whatever reasons, I want to listen the track order almost backwards. I know that most folks who know anything of Mo’s music will know of his current plight, but it seems, that the load was almost too much to put out front. So we back into the pain knowing something is wrong, long before it has a name. And the title track (third selection) offers what feels like resolution… before the fact. Then, the only song that I might have scrubbed, closes out the tracks with a dose of sadness.

But then, I, who like to find theological or artistic rational for things I do -- think… Hey, isn’t this the way it is. We who find hope in Christ, experience a form of resolution before the fact. We proclaim we are saved … before everything that pertains to salvation is realized. We are pilgrims in a place that is not our home, a place where the scream loosed at the dawn of creation still rages with fury. And finally… the melancholy note of the last track leaves us in the unsettled present.

“It’s Alright” hints at a way of praising God that is largely alien in much of today’s Christian world. It would not have been alien to David, or many of those who contended with God throughout the pages of holy writ, but it affirms that the God who loves, loves in difficult ways.

Now the long remaining day, struggling, limping on my way..
Now in pain, that never ends, bitter is the joy God sends
Grace that comes at times of of need,
Hope that comes from wounds that bleed.

Or

If your life line snaps
And you lose your way
And dark relapse
On your feet of clay

And you lose it all…Its alright
Cause if the Lord is standing with us
Then we are not alone
We are not alone…

If your lover leaves
And she steals your heart
And your wounded soul, it peels apart

It’s alright
If the Lord is standing with us

We are not alone

We are not alone
We are not alone……

So. Conclusion. Weep with those that weep. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Pray for Mo and his family. Be fed at another’s cost. Buy this exceptional album.

Bonus Treat: Here's a beautifull touch of Mo, with some of my images.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t-YyQvTN1o

Christine Dente: Voyage

2010-12-20T12:48:00.015-06:00

Album/CD review

Christine Dente
and Out of the Grey: “Voyage”

(This appears to have been released December 2009, but I was only recently made aware of it through Facebook.)

Quick Spin:

Beautiful balladesque techno-pop (with big-piano and hints of jazz) by one of gospel music’s premier vocalists, anchored in an uncommon source…the poems and prayers of the Puritans. Christine penned these songs while interacting with the book “The Valley of Vision; A collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions.” Dente’s verse is a blend of adaptation and direct quote.

I’ll develop this theme deeper down, but the source material for this album is what makes it utterly distinctive, truly ear-worthy, and even slightly ironic – in a good way.

Highly recommended. (I have already loaned my disk to coworkers.) Ends too soon.

(Sorry, couldn't find any better existing art.)

In a recent music review I heralded a particular album as “one of the 10 best albums in the history of the world.” Given that I may lose credibility if I speak that way too many times, I will simply say that Voyage is one of the top 10 “pop” albums – given to Puritan themes -- produced in North America in the last hundred years:)

As is, “pop” may be a misnomer. I don’t give much ear to Christian radio these days, but I suspect the greater part of “Voyage” won’t be getting a lot of popular play, be it on religious radio, or otherwise. (Only one or two tracks fit the limited upbeat, high gloss production values of Christian radio). By “pop” I simply mean a sound that isn’t rock, isn’t rap, isn’t folk, -- falls middle to easy on the ear, and comes with production values that include reverb and computers.

Background: Out of the Grey

For the uninitiated, Christine Dente is part of the husband and wife duo, who together with supporting musicians, have recorded at least half a dozen albums as ‘Out of the Grey.” The basic sound is vibrant pop with a techno edge. (I happen to like the very quirky first-album, and the very crunchy-acoustic, more aggressive last-album -- best. All demonstrate a trademark “call” of encouraging followers of Christ in and through adverse circumstances. Christine also collaborated with husband Scott on a leaner, piano-driven “solo” album (I actually listen to this one the most) but all their efforts begin with Christine’s strikingly beautiful -- fragile/feminine/muscled vocals. Think of Karen Carpenter with a modern music edge. (If you are too young to know Karen…someone else will have to supply a modern name.)

The less audible member (vocally), Scott Dente, furnishes, what I suspect, is a vital part of the OotG sound. Background hum, strong Ambient Guitar work, with production and this at once modern, slick and experimental. If by rule, artists produce less than what they conceive inside, I wonder what this guy hears in his head!

This particular offering is presented under the name Christine Dente …with Out of the Grey, which means that it is less loud -- and given to a stronger piano presence – though, by contrast to her initial solo offering, comes with a little more techno twittering.

I won’t say a lot more about the sound (it’s not the meat) except to say that Voyage is absolute sonic treat, filled will all kinds of internal ambience, big bass, instrumental dallies, subterranean textures, cello rifts, and surprising melodic shifts. Individual songs may explode from quietude to full orchestra to techno touch all in a brief space. All in all, it’s not the kind of album that would ever play live (as is)…who hires a horn section to show up for ten seconds only to disappear?

Truth is, two of the songs didn’t really work for me as much on a music level. I am afraid to mention them, as I wouldn’t want in any way to dissuade anyone from purchasing this exceptional release…but one is the opening track (and which is featured as a promo on the album site), the other is (the beefier part) of the one I suspect might get radio play (its all about you). But then, the public and I don’t always agree.

But here’s the rub. This may be the first Dente/Out of the Grey CD that I listen too first and foremost for the content, but which also happens to be one of their finest on a sonic level. Several tunes have cut deep grooves in my soul. So how good is that! Sound/content/Union. And here, I go to theological musings that may lose some of my half-dozen readers.

--

Some years back H. L Mencken, offered this view of the Puritans, a religious movement that started as an effort to purify the Church of England and later moved with a great presence in early colonial America…

“Puritanism - the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." (H.L. Mencken)

Ask the public at large, and the puritans, if they are known at all, are often associated with sexual prudery, sensory deprivation, hard work, and harsh, hypocritical judgments –i.e.. Think of the community of “A” painters, found in Nathaniel Hawthorn’s the Scarlet Letter. And while the Puritans certainly held a number of convictions that rage against modern American culture, even churchy culture, many historians both secular and religious, find that the Puritans have been painted in a false light. For a little different take on the Puritans see

http://www.texnews.com/opinion97/hart112697.html

I have yet to read the particular book from which Christine draws the inspiration for these songs, but the book “The Valley of Vision; A collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions” is something of a small classic among Christians of Reformed conviction.

(Reformed theology is a label for a large and very active school of Christian thought - which bloomed during the Reformation and in later efforts to "purify" the Church -- (the Church of England in particular.) While I do not think many folks claim to be"Puritan" today, many Christians chart a heritage through the preaching and practice of the Puritans.)

As is, these songs are not about Puritans, or even theology (directly), What they are, are songs that reflect certain themes in keeping with the Puritan conviction that God is active in our world, working out his will, in and through our lives – in both the mundane and the terrible.

Puritans (or the Reformed) are often noted for their strident theology... but this album pulls source from the devotional life of the same. And what we find, are songs that flow from a lover’s heart… make that the heart of the beloved, to her lover -- The lover of her soul. Any Christian who knows himself or herself to be Christ’s bride will find encouragement in these prayers, anchored in a recognition that Christ woos…prepares, and works with great tenderness and force in the life of his betrothed to bring her to her place of completion. Indeed, that place where the means of grace are no longer needed.

I will leave it up the listener to carve up the songs for their particular doctrinal or spiritual insights, but this lyric and song meant a lot to me on a personal level.

God all sufficient…

If I venture forth alone
I stumble and I fall
But on the beloved’s arms
I’m a tree standing tall

God all sufficient…

If left to the treachery of my heart
I would shame thy name
But if upheld by thy Spirit
I’ll bring glory to the same

Be thou my strength to stand
Be my light to see, my feet to run,
My sword to fight, my shield protecting me

To enrich me will not diminish thee
All thy love is in thy Son,
I claim his name, his blood covers my shame…

In the beginning I noted a certain irony in the larger concept of this album.

But first a bunny trail. We need a new word. A word that conveys the idea of sensual (full of that which is sensory), but devoid of the sexually indulgent part of that word. Christ’s family is to enjoy all God’s good gifts with great liberty, but we are also warned not to be sensually minded.

So what’s the irony?

Here is an album, built around the poems and prayers of a people that modern culture sees as rejecting a life of pleasure. Again, that is a false view, but we know what is suggested by the term “Puritanical.” And now, ironically, we find an album built around puritan themes, drenched in full orbed sensory sound and voice. Ironic too…Here is a very modern woman singing with thee’s and thou’s. Not wrong, just funny. And endearing.

(Even so, I suspect that there will be those in the “Reformed” community, who might read the source poems, but who would find the music a little too sensory.)

Beyond that, there is a certain irony in the packaging. Christine is by all counts a lovely woman. (Think of Gwyeneth Paltrow with a straighter nose;) But there isn’t even a hint of her appearance in the packaging. I guess it goes with Puritan humility.

The greatest irony however, (for some) is the great freedom, rest and even delight found in these songs. Puritans… people of radiant joy… You bettcha.

The heaven I desired

I am going where the means of grace shall cease
Where I need no more to fast or pray or seek
I am going where no grief or fears can live
No more tears or sorrow, no more shame or sin

I am going where I'll see the perfect sight
Find the sweetest food to fill my appetite
Where the music plays the finest melody
For the soul that finds its happiness in thee

I am going where I'll finally draw close
With my body and my soul
To the One I've longed to know

It's a big idea...That which gives the greatest satisfaction, to both sense and soul, appetite and dream is to be found in the arms of the eternal groom.

Final final note:

Ps. If you would like to read my own interaction with a particular early American Puritan poet, you can read a poem in which I correspond with poet Anne Bradstreet.
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Kemper Crabb: Reliquarium

2010-11-30T09:54:00.017-06:00

Kemper Crabb: Reliquarium Review

Quick Spin. Ten "future hymns from an anchient world" as “messed with” by the marvel that is Sir Crabb and his band of merry friends. Think of your favorite medieval, period-instrument band. Then think of Radio head. Throw the two together. Whalla. (or something like that.)

Once a decade or so, the atoms in the universe conspire in such a way-- Or, God...who is working in and through the atoms that are in the minds that are in the universe, conspires with those atoms in such a way -- as to produce music of such extraordinary power, loveliness, and mystique, that one wonders how the universe should have survived without it.

About a week ago, I sent a Facebook message to Kemper Crabb in which I said that his newest release “Reliquarium” must be among the top ten albums in the history of the world. (And that was just my impression from the 30 second promo samples.) He replied “thanks for the hyperbole” or something of the sort. But I meant no hyperbole. Should I pack my suitcase with everything we’ll need at the end of the world to restart civilization, I will throw in -- along with Some Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, and Satellite Sky by Mark Heard -- a copy of Reliquarium. And while we might quibble about which other seven albums belong on that list, Reliquarium easily makes the top 10 Hymns albums in the history of the world. Really. It’s that good.

Now I know, hymns as such may not be a universal taste. I have about two dozen CDs given solely to Christian hymns, so you could say I’m something of a connoisseur. Indeed, my sense of what is vital, may not be your sense of what is vital. But my guess, there are some folks out there who would never opt to buy a hymns anything, that could thrive on Reliquarium.

The lyrics are what they are. Bold. Beautiful, full of light and life and the concrete power of the blood of God. Kemper didn’t write them. But one quick listen reminds me of the poverty of so much modern song craft. Would it be that more of our modern day worship song writers knew a thing or two about poetry. Or weight.

Then there is the music. An audio onslaught, gleaned from another age. (1300's, 1960s)

This next part may sound a tad vain, but for years I have used this description of myself on BlogSpot: “Kirk Jordan is a musician's musician who lives with his wife and three daughters in Central Arkansas. People who know Kirk do not think of him as a musician. That is because Kirk does not play any known instruments. He does, however, hear the most incredible music inside his head --- Something like Arabian-Celtic Rock, or the older hymns as sung by the trees.”

Finally, somebody is creating something close to the music I hear in my head but am unable to express.

Kemper Crabb is master of a pretty “remote” genre. Think of your favorite medieval old world-instrument band. Then think of Radiohead. Throw the two together. Whalla.

First, while the album is clearly a Kemper product, that is about like crediting Arthur Fiedler for the music of the Boston Pops. This is a true community effort, with lots of people playing lots of instruments. The music ranges from lean chamber stuff, to very large full-orchestra adrenaline attacks. But even with the mood variation, there is great unity in the album itself, joined by a common sound or approach. I won’t try to describe the sound too much, you can hear samples here.

I said that Kemper messed with the songs. (Those were his words). But surprisingly, most of the tunes --as sung -- are the tunes as I know them, given a chord shift or two. Kemper's voice has deepened over the last decades. His newer older voice is less elastic, but with a bit more baritone crunch. In short. These are the tunes we know, sorta.

The whacked-out part comes all under and around the voice. (Which sometimes includes a chorus.)

Each song is built on bed of instruments, many Old-world, including Ali-Baba/Celtic sounding fare, sometimes played like a reel, sometimes played like avalanche, but in each case the music under the song varies – often substantially -- from the sung song. And I am just weirded out.

I don’t get this musically at all. Beyond the word “counterpoint” I simply don’t know how to describe what is going on. The musical bath or structure is often so wholly different than the sung melodic line, that you wonder how the two musical “worlds” could work together. But they collide joyfully.

Reliquarium opens with the hymn, This is our Father’s World. Now if other renditions of this song proclaim a God who is worthy of creating a cow, the Reliquarium version proclaims a God worthy of creating a bull moose. Or a charging legion of war horses. In later songs we will hear tunes fitting for a God who should make a tiger, or an earthworm -- A mastodon …a platypus, even an Orc. (I don’t know, does God make Orcs?)

As is, at least three of these songs (Holy 3x, Just as I am, and On Jordan’s Stormy Banks” embrace such levels of minor-chord fervor and dissonance (not to mention volume) that lovers of the mere old-world sound will flinch. My gut grimaced with all the pleasure that only superb, highly crafted discord and loud guitars can do. And was that an old-world moog synthesizer? Oh my! My mother, God rest her soul, would have loved about half this album. The other half would simply have shattered her nerves.)

For the curious, Here is a list of players and insturments featured in Reliquarium.

•Kemper Crabb: Bloogle Tube, Cittern, Celtic Harp, Oud, Electric Rhythm Guitar, Mandolin, Electric Rhythm Mandolin, Ebo Guitar, Electric Slide Mandolin, Mountain Dulcimer, Theremin, Chanter, Frontal Voice, Crummhorn, Harmonic Voices, Bombarde, Kellhorn, Autoharp, Harmonium, Low Whistle, Harmonica, Kalimba, Harmony Recorder, Melodica, Frontal Recorder, Sampled Drones, Kazoo, Bouzouki, Frontal Electric Mandolin, Echo Harp, Electronic Bagpipes, Whistle, Bowed Psaltery, Harpe de Judah, Sopranino Recorder, Production, Song Arrangements, String Parts

•Garett Buell: Djembe, Udu, Tamborine, Repinique, Mazhar, Darbuka, Dumbek, Shaker, Gong, Cymbal, Tablas, Kick Drum, Conga, Cymbal Bells, Pandeiro, Bodhran, Dohalla, Gong-Kaido, Programmed Percussives, Chimes, Electronic Effects, Wind Chimes, Programmed Loop

•Christina "Crickett" David: Violin, Viola, Erhu, String Arrangements

•Ryan Birsinger: Chapman Stick, Bowed Psaltery, Low Harmonic Voices, Programmed Percussives, Harmonium, Electric Rhythm Guitar, Engineering, Co-production

•Chris Whittington: Acoustic Guitar, Harmonic Voices, Saz

•Charles Shadell: Double Bass

•Frank Hart: Electric Frontal Guitar, Electric Slide Guitar, Electric Rhythm Guitar

•John Simmons: Dumbek, Djembe

•Alecia Lawyer: Oboe

•Max Dyer: Cello

•David Marshall: Electric Frontal Guitar, Electric Rhythm Guitar

•Daniel Mendiola: Electric Melodic Guitar, Electric Ambient Guitar, Ebo Guitar, Frontal Electric Guitar

•Shanna Crabb: Autoharp, Sampled Drones

•Tony Weiss: Frontal Synthesiser, Synthesiser, Electric Organ

•Stan Nelson: Fretless Bass, Electric Bass

•Thadd Grimm: Electric Frontal Guitar, Electric Rhythm Guitar

•Mark Luitjen: Electric Bass

•Chuck Dotson: Electric Rhythm Guitar

•Andy Crabb: Electric Rhythm Guitar

•Phillip Roberts: Acoustic Guitar_

I don’t want to make too much of this next idea, but sometimes I think the music that we give to God, rises to the level of our concepts about God. Which, given much of modern worship-fare has me worried. On the other hand, this album, with both its music and lyrics, serves as needed antidote. I sense, that behind the variety, crunch, and exploration, is a deeper (older) conception of God: A warrior God, an extravagant, playful, imaginative God … a holy, dreadful God… a communing God. A consuming Fire.

Final Note:

As is, this album functions at another level. I will let Kemper have the last word.

Since 1984, the Servants of the King have labored toward the spiritual betterment of humanity, building orphanages, schools, leprosoriums, hospitals, and churches in India and Africa. Founded and led by the elder Kemper Crabb, missionary, priest, and three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, SOTK feeds, clothes, educates, provides medical care, and vocationally equips thousands upon thousands of people daily. The proceeds of this project, all of whose musical contributors donated their time and skills, will benefit the Servants of the King. For more on SOTK, visit their website at www.servantsoftheking.org

Illegal copying is theft from orphans and lepers.

Bonus: some of Kirk's other favorite Hymn albums in the history of the world.

Looking into the Light: Celtic Hymns, by Joanne Hogg
Hymns and Prayer Songs, Buddy Greene
Men and Angels say: Ashley Clevland
(Various ablums ) - Blind Boys of Alabama
Downtown Church - Patty Griffith
Shards of Light - Mo Leverett (many original lyrics)
Redemptions Songs: Jars of Clay (alternate tunes)
Kingdom Come: Jill Phillips
Hymns: Michael Card (MC also has a great Celtic hymns album)
The Shadow of your Wings (and several others) Fernadno Ortega
Hymns Project: Chris Rice
My Mother's hymnbook: Johnny Cash
Life Line: Iris Dement
Hymns: 2nd Chapter of Acts.
Hymnsinger: Cynthia Clawson

And while they aren't really hymns, in the modern protestant sense, most any early album my "early church" troubador Johm Micheal Talbot.

Ps. If you have a hymns album (or other recording) you would like me to review, contact
Kirk Jordan, kirkwood2020 at Yahoo.com

Audrey Assad, The House You are Building.

2010-08-20T12:29:00.010-05:00

Devotional pop, “rainy day” worship.
Sparrow Records. July 2010

Audrey Assad, The House You are Building.

Quick Spin: this is something of an audio diary and Christian worship album (but not a corporate worship album) with a literary nod, by singer songwriter Audrey Assasd. Sound ranges from polished pop (with some drop dead gorgeous melodic lines) to moments in the foggy meadow parlor (or something like that). Overall, a little heavy on production for my ear, but the stuff that works is so beautiful that I push through the gloss to multiple moments of exquisite loveliness.

I picked this one up on a lark, with no sense whatsoever what I would hear or find. Special price and cover art pulled me in. I’m an easy sell when it comes to bookish looking girls with dweeb glasses, illumined by a nice North light. The package pretty much shouted - dangerous, minor chord, introverted poetry from a woman of striking intelligence.

And the verdict ...

EVERYTHING I should would from a vocalist -- Most of what I should want in a songwriter -- and (sadly) a little less that works for me on a production/ sound craft level.

First listen has me scratching my head. How did a girl with this much pure vocal ability (and content worth hearing) end up getting run through a CCM (Contemporary Christian pop music) filter? Granted, it’s a quality CCM filter, but it just sounds too much like the product of mainstream radio or what might be dished up by a modern praise band. There are some nice exceptions, those moments, when the producers allowed the piano to well to the top, but my ear is straining to hear all the real music moments under the gloss. (The title song “The House you are Building, or the song “Ought to be” come closest to what this record ought to be. And the final cut – Show me, Well that is simply gorgeous.)

Note: Fifth listen in. I find my heart is warming to the production. Turns out Audrey is working with a veteran audio team including Matt Slocum (Instrumentalist with Sixpence) and producer Marshall Altman (Who… “pulled things out of me emotionally that I don’t think I’d ever accessed”).

Even so, my ear yearns for a little more discord and spit, or -- if we are doing Pop -- those sensibilities that guided Regina Spektor's last CD. I find the opening track "For Love of You" that is currently being used to promote Audrey is my LEAST favorite musically. It set the stage for an initial disappointment, but now I find myself easily drawn into the overall soundscape. Think lush key-driven melancholy-pop with moments of delightful restraint.

Ps. Turns out the opening track that I don’t like is the one doing really well on I-Tunes. So what do I know? I have also found that I-Tunes features an acoustic version of the same track, which I much prefer.

Vocal:

Audrey’s deeply feminine vocals combine both whimsy and strength. She does the “gymnastics” without sounding like an exhibitionist.

Must confess I lack a deep enough exposure to modern pop to make comparisons that may be meaningful. But here are the folks I hear with a touch: Sarah Groves, but more strident, and with more vocal twists. (You can really hear Sara G. in the harmony elements.) Mindy Smith (countrified blues) with just a little more pop sensibility. Eisley (whatever her name is): Not as dainty or flitty, but with a shared penchant for falsetto flips.

Content:

It took me to the second listen till I realized that this is a total “you” record. I read that there may be one song written to a boyfriend (in reality) but the dominant “you” -- really is the YOU of God. And this is where Audrey’s songcraft shines. She has managed to write (or co write) a series of vertical poems that are neither hymnbook heavy nor t-shirt casual. Her verse is simple, elegant and poetic, but not whacked-out esoteric. But mostly… (and this is the best part) Audrey's words and worship ring genuine. As a performer, she invites us into her communion with God, be it with the language of wonder, question, or praise.

Yeah these are old shoes that I've been walking in
I'm wearing weary like it's a second skin
I've been looking for a place to lay my head
All this time like a vagabond
A homeless stranger
I've been wandering
All my life you've been calling me
To a home you know I've been needing

I'm a broken stone
So lay me in the house you're building

You are a shelter for every misfit soul
We are the four walls and you're the cornerstone

you're the solid rock that we are built upon

I'm a broken stone
So lay me in the house you're building

'Cause in you I find my meaning, yeah
And in you I find my beauty

(Audio Clip, The House You are Building)

I mentioned Audrey’s bookish cover look. Turns out she really is a reader, and many of the songs reference poems or spiritual writings. I heard an immediate reference to Augustine (I am restless, restless, till I find my rest in You’) Christianity Today pointed to some others.

Additional lyrical inspiration came from Assad’s love of literature and her memories of middle school; Audrey turned to favourite poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins and Francis Thompson, to the works of St Augustine and CS Lewis, and to her own feelings of still not quite fitting in.

The first single “For Love Of You” which was inspired by the Hopkins poem “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”, has already made a splash at radio with K-Love recently adding the single and Assad making an aggressive radio promo tour across the country talking about the single.

Beyond that, I read that Audrey is a relatively recent Roman Catholic convert. (And joins company with a few of my faves, John Michael Talbot, Bill Malonee, and Sarah Hart) Audrey's conversion may direct her reading but seems to have little “direct” impact on her writing, at least in an Ava Maria kind of way. (I hope that didn’t sound too wrong) These songs truly are universal, and this son-of-the reformation was delighted to join with Audrey in bent-heart worship of our living God.

Conclusion:

I recommend this disk and hope it finds play in wide circle. I plan to loan it to my kids. I see that one of her songs had been offered free on I-Tunes, and that many responders joined me in both surprise and delight. While I will keep my fingers crossed for more “organic” production next time around, I figure I’ve met a sister in the soul, and look forward to enjoying many a drive or cleaning Saturday with Audrey singing “backup.” My life has been beautified in the listen.

Jesus' Blood never failed me yet: New-Old Find

2010-07-30T07:59:00.051-05:00

Ps... I am working on this post. It isn't finished yet.

Odd discovery: Jesus’ blood never failed me yet

I knew, when I heard the plaintive song of the "tramp" that I had heard this tune... these words before...But not these words, or in this setting.

Turns out, I was introduced to the song "Jesus' blood never failed me yet" by way of modern techno-pop band called Delerious - but that is kind of like finding the song "American Pie" by way of Madonna. (A good take, but I had to tell one of my daughters that the Madonna version, played on the radio a few years back, wasn't the original.)

From time to time I come across something that seems to be part of “art culture knowledge” about which I am totally clueless. Actually, all kinds of things fall in this category for me, as major portions of my life have been marked by almost Amish like distance from popular culture, and certainly from minimalistic choral or art-house film culture.

Case in point, this music video and the music behind it - by modern-minimalist composer Gavin Bryars (with added vocals by Tom Waits) which has now taken hold of my soul with its haunting images and beautiful chorus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZVZ5NBkpw&feature=related

(Note: video contains some non-sexual nudity. I believe it is the creation of xxxxx. As it is, there are some dozen different "homemade" visual presentations of this same song on You-Tube. Some seem to be efforts to get around the peculiar (unsettling?) imaging original. Here is a good link for those who prefer the song alone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BJNYRzoA1o&feature=related

In a moment we'll get to the larger music piece and history from which all this springs. For now (or later) here are a few more links of interest.

Extended 10 minute portion, with more robust Tom Wait Vocals

Same 10 minute section on my Pandora radio station.

This exquisit cover by the group Jars of Clay maintains the fragility of the original tramp song.

Beautiful Modern (techno-pop) adaptation by the group Delirious, but with the jarring addition of images from the Passion of the Christ. (I have deep difficulties with the latter, beyond my explaining here, and as such, much prefer the

Background:

The story behind "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet" from Gavin Bryars.... In 1971, when I lived in London, I was working with a friend, Alan Power, on a film about people living rough in the area around Elephant and Castle and Waterloo Station. In the course of being filmed, some people broke into drunken song - sometimes bits of opera, sometimes sentimental ballads - and one, who in fact did not drink, sang a religious song "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet". This was not ultimately used in the film and I was given all the unused sections of tape, including this one.   When I played it at home, I found that his singing was in tune with my piano, and I improvised a simple accompaniment. I noticed, too, that the first section of the song - 13 bars in length - formed an effective loop which repeated in a slightly unpredictable way. I took the tape loop to Leicester, where I was working in the Fine Art Department, and copied the loop onto a continuous reel of tape, thinking about perhaps add... about perhaps adding an orchestrated accompaniment to this. The door of the recording room opened on to one of the large painting studios and I left the tape copying, with the door open, while I went to have a cup of coffee. When I came back I found the normally lively room unnaturally subdued. People were moving about much more slowly than usual and a few were sitting alone, quietly weeping.

I was puzzled until I realised that the tape was still playing and that they had been overcome by the old man's singing. This convinced me of the emotional power of the music and of the possibilities offered by adding a simple, though gradually evolving, orchestral accompaniment that respected the tramp's nobility and simple faith. Although he died before he could hear what I had done with his singing, the piece remains as an eloquent, but understated testimony to his spirit and optimism.

The piece was originally recorded on Brian Eno's Obscure label in 1975 and a substantially revised and extended version for Point Records in 1993. The version which is played by my ensemble was specially created in 1993 to coincide with this last recording.

Gavin Bryars.

Notes on the recording of Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet - written for John Potter

When Philip Glass asked me if I would be interested in doing a new recording of Jesus' Blood he assumed that I would do something similar to the first version and wanted to know what other pieces would be on the same CD. He was somewhat fazed when I said that I would do a version lasting the whole 74 minutes available.

I pointed out to him that I had no intention of simply multiplying by three the number of times each of the old repetitions would be done (an approach that would, perhaps of been his solution!). The original version had lasted for one side of a vinyl album - about 25 minutes - as I merely wanted to avoid a side-break. I decided rather to make the first 25 minutes exactly the same in terms of structure as the old version (to satisfy purists who, if they wanted, could listen no further) but then to take the music on another journey. (For the whole telling see:

http://www.gavinbryars.com/Pages/writing_note_on_jbnfmyr.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEXDscpA6J8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEXDscpA6J8&feature=related

Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet

Short History, form Gavin Bryars’ website

http://www.gavinbryars.com/Pages/jesus_blood_never_failed_m.html

The voice of this senior citizen conveys an unambiguous sense of childlike innocence in his tone carried by the song’s lyrics. Normally cockney accents of this type fall into cap-in-hand insincerity, but this sweetly humble old man leaves an incredibly powerful visual representation with a minimum of effort. Could it possible that Bryars worked some alchemical magic on this sample to draw so much from this tiny sliver of a man’s life? The open eyed adoration, the waver in his voice, the audible almost-smile at the phrase “…he loves me so” and his surety are all astonishingly clear.

This kind of faith and unwavering assurance that you will never ever be left, be lost or unloved is heart achingly tangible in these moments, affecting both those who share his beliefs and those to whom it remains unattainable (or perhaps unacceptable). And this is what Bryars is wordlessly reinforcing here; a respect at this man’s devotion and at the same time, with this melancholy arrangement, a broken hearted acceptance of something he can never have.

There is a tiny disgustingly arrogant pitying part of me that knows there is no eternal comfort to be found in Jesus, but this is overwhelmed by my own complete assurance that he has found contentment in heaven, a place that this black hearted atheist doesn’t even believe exists.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/seconds/gavin-bryars-jesus-blood-never-failed-me-yet.htm

From Pandora, a great place to hear the song.
Gavin Bryars (born in 1943) is one of the most versatile British composers to emerge in the second half of the 20th century. He began his career playing double bass, but in the 1960s began composing in the experimental, conceptual tradition of John Cage. His best-known work, Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, is a minimalist classic. Bryars is committed to collaboration and has worked with artists from various disciplines, including dance, theater, and the visual arts. He has gone on to develop a large body of lyrical work in traditional forms, such as choral, orchestral, chamber music, and opera. ~ Stephen Eddins, Rovi

5 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

God help us, January 22, 2006

By James Williams (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bryars: Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (Audio CD)

I can understand why people say they heard this once five years ago and have been unable to forget it. If you repeat a 15 second clip over and over for close to an hour it will be hard to get out of your head. But I am not sure why you would want to do that.

I cannot understand why people think manipulating an unpaid and uncredited drunk to the sound of weepy strings is an art form, or worse, a spiritual experience.

But some people do. So a word of warning, before you buy this CD listen to the clip. Then listen to it again. Listen to it a couple hundred times. Is this a spiritual experience? Are you in the presence of the divine? Then buy this CD. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

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10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

A Haunted Hallelujah, January 13, 2006

By sherri "sherri" (LaGrange, Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bryars: Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (Audio CD)

This is a beautiful, theologically rich work.

My first hearing of the first movement, angered me. I was troubled by the irreverence of it, frustrated to have spent my money on something that obviously ridiculed religion. The reason? I hastily concluded that Gavin Bryars' and Tom Waits (whose thirsty music reflects a quest for God but hostility toward the body of Christ) had taken up a sacred song of Christian faith and drug it through the gutter.

On the lips of a drunk who is stumbling along, a mesmerizing melody announces to the world: "Jesus blood, never failed me yet. This one thing I know, that He Loves me so...Jesus blood never failed me yet."

The tension of the work begins here: Hasn't Jesus' blood obviously failed him? He stumbles along drunk, uttering a mindless mantra probably learned from the Salvation Army. In his stupor, religion is his opiate.

The recording is almost 75 minutes of this single loop.

As you listen to the recording, however, something profound happens, which I judge to be beyond the artists intentions.

At exactly three minutes into the field recording of the bum singing, he is joined with a musical background of violins. At this trinitarian moment, human and divine sympathy are evoked in the hearer, and one immediately senses that the bum is not alone. Later, other instrumental voices, and the cello, the instrument of grieving, joins him as well.

The work continues to develop with the addition of musical instruments entering as archetypal symbols of human community. Hence, the development of the work is as important as the content.

In the third movement, there is no music. Church bells are ringing, cathedral choirs harmonizing. The bum is strengthened now, not by human sympathy, but by the supernatural. The work continues through several more important and developmentally rich movements until the bum is joined in a duet by Tom Waits. Waits rich voice echoes, as in a chamber of eternity, a tunnel of time. His empathetic voice is grotesquely prophet-like.

I have listened to this work numerous times. I hear a new instrument and discover a different meaning each time. The end result, for me, is that the bum is incredibly strong...and his strength derives from his faith

In a strange way, this is an inspiring work, and reflects the subliminal desire of both artists, Bryars and Waits, to name the Eternal. This is probably about as close to the incarnation as they will get...and it may be the closest you will ever get...if your brand of Christian faith is crusted over with moralism.

Every seminary in America should hold chapel and let every seminarian experience this. Different sermons would emerge from our pulpits if ministers lived in its truth. I tremble, and sometimes weep, each time I hear it. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

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Mo Leverett: Shards of Light

2010-04-27T08:26:00.009-05:00

Mo Leverett: Shards of Light
(Hymns and Spiritual Songs – (Pirate Edition*)

I think this came out real late 2009.
Genre: Rogue Folk, at the intersection of Creole blues and the great Awakening.

Synopsis: Original and “Old-School” hymns, as sung by a poet-pirate. Lean production, mostly guitar and small ensemble. One of the finest “New-Hymn” collections ever created on the Face of the Earth.

Mo Leverett: Shards of Light (order)

Mo Leverett is one of those guys whose music you just have to know about – or you will never find. He doesn’t seem to show up in any kind of stores, or lists, or even reviews…..and he even dumped me on Facebook. (Truth is, he may have dumped everyone. For whatever reasons, I stopped seeing his post, then went to see if perhaps I had been relegated to Facebook purgatory, only to find that Mo doesn’t appear to be there right now. You can however, follow him through one of his ministry music outlets, or on a Facebook page. You can even read him on this defunct blog, or read a charming review of the process behind Shards of Light.

For the unacquainted (most everyone) Mo is musician-slash-pastor with an intentionally urban church, Centerpoint of Tallahassee, Florida. (Given the lack of a denomination in the name, I guess I’ll skip it too, except to say that Pastor MO works out of a church identified with Puritans, Presbyters, Churches in America, Total depravity, conservative social-sensibilities, and largely white suburban professionals.

It is with some intrigue then, that MO has dedicated his musical and pastoral life to shattering the demographic. He lived and worked for years in an inner city ministry in New Orleans. (Mo founded Desire Street Ministries in 1990 and led the same till 2006. You can trace his ministry --through tribulation, growth and hope ---then deep lamentation, following Katrina’s wrath -- across multiple albums.

Mo’s music is mostly muscled folk, but steeped in an alt-bayou sound. It’s not just theatre, Mo knows the blues. I cannot now find the lyric, but some of Mo’s best music is angry music – including a song in which he hears the Star Spangled Banner from a street side perch. I don’t know if Desire Street Ministries is still going, but I get the sense it took it hard on the chin with the rest of his devastated “parish.” Mo’s since moved his family to higher ground, and opened Rebirth International, an organization with a focus on the revitalization of urban communities worldwide.

All of which is interesting, but has virtually nothing to do (except for the “everything of forging the man) with the music of Shards.

In Short, Shards is one of the MOST SATIFYING collections of hymns and spiritual songs ever created on the Face of the Earth.

And I am not an easy audience. I have an ear for old hymns (but seldome get to hear them) -- And really like the idea of introducing those same hymns to new generations – even if it sometimes means changing the tune. Just the same, I’m mostly underwhelmed by efforts to do just that. Part of the glory of old hymns is their structure. Why trade a tune of enduring beauty for something modern, especially if you trade it for something which is just soggy and unmemorable?

But Mo is not about the business of simply trading tunes or adding beat. He is about the business of making “old” content— dangerous, and desperate and lovely.

The first and big surprise. Mo’s voice.

Mo makes no bones. He likes a good cigar. But I hadn’t heard a Mo CD in some half a dozen years. Now I am going to go back and fill in the gaps. Mo never had a polished voice… He was always a folk singer’s singer… but his is the voice of one who talks tobacco… or weeps, or sings – like a violin - multiple tones at the same time. (This may be harsh, but my first mental image was of the guy who loses the chariot race to Ben Hur and is gurgling for life… There are times MO’s voice is tortured raspy. Think Pirate, or some kind of cross between Lyle Lovett and Leonard Cohen.

According to the promo material, Shards is Mo’s 9th album, and considered lighter and more hopeful than recent recordings. …. Which in turn, makes me want to go back and hear the misery I’ve missed. Shards dishes a range of emotions, from unbridled jubilation, to quivering reflection -- but there is mass and a depth to Shards that is missing in so much of modern music. When Mo laments sin, or sings of grace you understand that he understands he has been freed from a death sentence. But Augh... The Jubilation. Refiner's Flame is hands down one of the most Joy filled songs I’ve ever heard. (and in the face of great irony)

That we could call our failures friend, and praise our darkest day...And hidden in the worst of times...a mystery to appear, it is in darkness light will shine, and cries which draw God near.

Then there is that splendid "Last Song"

If this be my last song , let me like a clarion, like a seraphim angel I'll be, singing all to your glory..If this be my last day...all my burdens will fly away, I will lift crooked hands to the sky and the flame of your name....

You have my permission. Sing it when I die.

Beyond that, Shards is graced with two songs sung by Mo’s daughter…the beauty and virtue that wells from her voice blesses the soul, and would make any Dad proud.

Production on Shards is delightfully lean. The album opens with an instrumental guitar track. Remaining tracks are built on an acoustic guitar base, with swirls of piano or cello and a touch or two of old-church-organ, hand-drum, upright bass, electric guitar, even trumpet -- but never in a way that overpowers the songs. I wish more people would catch the ear for this kind of real music – the kind you could play in your living room if you only knew half a dozen primo musicians and some swampy black vocalists.

---

All in all, someone may wonder why these are called hymns. We know Rock of Ages was a hymn, but is it a hymn when Mo sings it without the familiar tune or structure? Some may quibble with the word “hymn” but where Shard bumps heavy into song craft of a century or two ago is at the point of content. (Shards also uses some of the rhyme style I associate with the Psalter, an old English adaptation of the Psalms. Some of the words look hokey in print, but they really do work in song.) Take for example the song, Shards of Life. Mo joins the saints of old and sings with conviction of the sinfulness of sin -- and of a boldly loving God we associate with the likes of Amazing Grace.

There I was in darkness found
Lying prostrate on the ground…
Banded like a shattered reed
Fallen like some scattered seed,
Oh I (or Whoa – I)

Slow I walked on sorrow’s path
Bruised within by sorrow’s wrath
Where to find the hope of cure
Where the strength for to endure
Ohhh-I, whoa I

Shards of Light with arrow speed
Downward flight to pierce my need
Now I’m wounded from above
Wounded by redemptive love

Graceful Grace and Grace alone
Now the only judgment known (Not sure on this)
Now no condemnation plan
Only mercy in His hand
Whoa I, OOh I (?)

Shards of Light with arrow speed
Downward flight to pierce my need
Now I’m wounded from above
I was wounded by redemptive love

As is, I have only one beef with this exceptional album. Given limited print, self production and a modest budget, the Shards CD offers NO linear notes. I recognized several of the lyrics as belonging to old hymns, but am not sure—in the end, how many of these songs are MO’s or how many belong to ‘Public Domain”. I figure at least part of my 15 bucks could have been used to throw in an extra piece of paper. But hey, if that extra thirty cents goes to his family, his ministry or the next CD, I’m for it.

Joanna Newsom: Have One on Me.

2010-02-23T10:34:00.001-06:00

It probably isn’t much of review to say: Read this review (Paste Magazine), but I am listening to the NPR temporary “free-listen” of Joanna Newsom's new release "Have One on Me" and am kind of blown away by her and the whole process. Who ever heard of harp-based grunge-hyper femme folk? Sure, it sounds like a kind of two hour mono-song experimental car sing*.. with chamber orchestra (the kind of stuff you sing when you are driving alone in your car.), but the textures, ad lib, audio dallies, and poetry are like the ramblings of wonder drunk faire. I wonder how much of it written down, and how much she is just singing as she goes? I don't know much about her, or those things that push her heart, but am her newest fan.

Phil Keaggy/Randy Stonehill: Mystery Highway (Review)

2010-02-15T08:21:00.021-06:00

Phil Keaggy/ Randy Stonehill, Mystery Highway
(or, Sunday’s Child Part 2)

(This came out in June 2009, but I just found it.)

Rowdy fun-loving Jesus rock, with heavy nods to the Beatles, Cream, rockabilly, Bob D, and the blues.

Warning: do not listen to this disk if you would avoid catchy galloping-guitar tunes playing the repeat cycle in your head. "Riding Backwards on her Bike" has cut a permanent groove between my ears and into my kid-like psychedelic soul.

Tomorrow, should a Mount Rushmore be built in honor of the founding fathers of Jesus Music, Phil Keaggy would be my first pick among the quartet. I know that Larry Norman and Keith Green belong there too, (historically), but should I get to pick the remaining three, I would want to squeeze in Randy Stonehill, Mark Heard, Paul Clark and John Michael Talbot. (Can we go for five heads?)…and I have conveniently left out Daniel Amos as “he” is a band, but I count Phil Keaggy and Randy Stonehill as among the most important people ever knock the socks off of my formative ear. (Or something like that)

It is with some consternation then that I see two of my founding fathers have put out a joint CD without so much as a flutter in the music industry. (It may be there, but I have yet to fully understand the dynamics of the new market place. It used to be that we stood with others in the store smelling vinyl, counting stock, and checking out nifty posters. Back then we played music… out loud though speakers. Now, the only way I have of knowing if something is really making waves, is to see if the product generates reviews.

To be honest, I just haven’t gotten used to the idea that Phil and Randy are “old folks” music. But even if they are, there seems to be something in this album that says: Look out young-uns, we got game. We Rock.”

To Catch a wiff, or get the drift, try this link to "Who's Your Driver"

Mystery Highway is, among other things, a bold nod to the music of sixties or seventies (or in this case, to an 80’s album by Keaggy (Sunday’s child) that was itself a nod to the Beatle/Birds era using period instruments. Randy Stonehill played a vital backup role in Sunday’s Child, and that, with a remake of the Sunday’s Child title song on Mystery Highway, invites immediate comparison.

For Keaggy fans, the question is: How can a man with over fifty albums under his belt generate something new. (Answer: Add Uncle Rand) For Randy fans, the question is: Why is a man of this gregarious spirit, insight, flamboyance and sobering vocal beauty so un-findable in the marketplace. (Anyone out there with an extra copy of between the Glory and the Flame want to send one this way?)

All of which is to say…I was pumped to see these two in such rare but obvious collusion.

And the verdict is…. FUN.

Big, LOUD, Rock-a-Billy-Goat-gruff, Lucy-in-the-laughing-sky-with-blue-Dylan Cream Puff galloping-guitar synergistic vocal-rhapsodic FUN. Perhaps not the kind of album one turns to for building a base in doctrine, or weeping for the plight of the world, but the kind of album you crank up loud on a Saturday cleaning morning, or with the car windows rolled down…while driving the HIGHWAY. Roadtrip yea….

The overall nod to Keaggy’s album “Sunday’s Child” is such that I will place this CD next to that in my collection, but Stonehill’s larger place in this recording makes for a slightly different brew. More muscle. More mirth. A little more detail in the lyrics. An alt-country touch and a sturdy dose of blessed Stonehill idiocy. Indeed, these two guys feed off of each other vocally for a very dimensional, lively, utterly joyful, kick-butt sound.

And the re-recording of the Sunday’s Child’s title track makes for interesting comparison. How do twenty years of in-between change a song? In some ways not much. Same basic song, same energy, same twining of David and Jonathan vocals. But this time, more bass in the mix, more weather in the vocals. Both men run mean falsettos, but both seem to have dropped an octave or a third, adding vocal sinew to the mix.

As it is, I found one other quirky nod to Sunday’s child. At the time of that recording (near or soon after singer/songwriter Mark Heard’s death) Keaggy recorded two covers of Mark’s songs. One showed up on Sunday’s Child, and the other on a Mark Heard Tribute disk. So, here I am listening to Mystery Highway, and I hear a Heard song. I know if by heart. (It is one of the most beautiful love songs in the history of the world… and I am singing with it word for word. Then I’m thinking, “so what album did Keaggy borrow from to make this remix.” Turns out neither. It’s the third cover of Heard, never heard before. But the cover was so in the audio spirit of the others I assumed it to be “ancient.” Beyond that, it simply aches with beauty.

Mystery Mix:

Speaking of the process, Keaggy (linear notes) writes: “With Randy living on the West coast and me in Nashville, the distance didn’t keep us from collaborating on a new collection of songs. Randy began scheduling song writing sessions here in Nashville about every couple of months--and being that we really enjoy hanging out together and amusing each other (the guy still make me laugh a lot), we though yea, let’s also write and see what comes of it. So each time we would work on a tune and record the basic track to it. After Randy left for home, I further add bass, drums, guitars and more vocals. … We even re-recorded our song “Sunday’s Child” for a fraction of the cost from the 1987 original, having recorded it in my small studio. I also must tell you that the out-takes would certainly be appreciate by people of similar sense of humor as mine and Randy’s. Perhaps they may see the light of day on one of our websites.

Mystery lyrics:

Keaggy may have set the tone for Mystery’s sound, but if my guess is right, Stonehill had his thumb real deep in the writing pie. (I hear it most in those kind of Route 66, spaghetti-western with whistle lyrics, and stuff about junk cars.) And here, the message fits the form. This is rock. Not the standard place for polemic, or even stand alone poetry… but the duo have dished up lyrics that somehow communicate spiritual force, way beyond the words.. (I guess that’s why we call it music and Randy is a poet!) Really though, Phil and Randy have worked to spin stories -- or even admonitions --consistent with their Jesus’ loving roots that don’t sound preachy or boxed. (More Later.)

By far the oddest song in the mix…Rockman, features the wacked out mono lyric of Randy Stonehill (I’m the rockman, no one can do it like the man can, I’m the rockman rockman…..etc.) This song stands out for its audio incongruity, and will either be found as an irritant, or the kind of thing that invites whole families to pull out the air guitar. But for me the oddest song on the album is “Rockin’ in a Hard Place”-- A song which notes the culture challenging walks of Elvis, Joshua, Christopher Columbus and Martin Luther King Jr. ---

MLK and Joshua -- Sure.
But Elvis?

Final Take:

This album cooks. -- It’s a real audio treat, plays quick, and makes for an easy repeat for a long commute. And I while I like the sound, I really really dig the friendship energy. Real Friendship is a rare thing. Guys can feel awkward with it -- then there is all that stuff of fair-share and ego. Phil and Randy have shown us is that two stunning musicians can fuse together independently (or something like that), give their egos to God (or one another), and soar in ways that bless us all, that much more.

Perhaps my only “sigh” -- I keep thinking they missed a song…something that would have pushed the album into the realm of great. (On Sundays Child, that song is “When you Walk in Two Worlds.” I’m missing “that” song. For the singles buyers among you, I recommend these downloads: Backwards on Her Bike, Sunday’s Child, Mystery Highway, Love is Not the Only Thing (Mark Heard), Irresistible Future, and the final trippy (Glass Harp/Cream colored “Dream Speak.”

Of course, there is one reason to go the extra mile and buy the CD. I won’t tell you what it is, but its hidden right under the disk. Priceless.

Ps. Thank you Randy for posting a link to my site on your Facebook fan page. (And if you are new to this blog (most everyone is) feel free to look around, try my other bloggy things, or leave a comment. I always appreciate them.

Best Music: 2009

2009-12-31T11:14:00.004-06:00

Okay, so I have only been reviewing music for a couple months now, and this site is attracting dozens and half-dozens of readers, but I thought I would go bold and announce the Wood-Between’s favorite music that showed up in our world in 2009.

Psalm 150 Award (the Best Instrumental Album):
Frio Suite, by Phi Keaggy and Jeff Johnson

Whatsoever* Award (most Edifying Album):
Love Was Here First: Carolyn Arends:

Best Album:
Fireflies and Songs: Sara Groves

Best Christmas Album:
In the Heart: Bob Dylan

Best Song:
Heaven is the Face: Steven Curtis Chapman (Beauty from Ashes)

Best Song Runner up:
Over the River, Jon Foreman (Limbs and Branches) Note: This is only runner up, because technically it came out in 2008, but it pretty much qualifies as the best song of the decade.

*Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Anne Haley: Its a Beautiful Life / Christmas

2009-12-17T14:07:00.008-06:00

Anne Haley: American Song writer and singer

Genre: Bluegrass/Folk/Pop-Americana

Albums:
It's a Beautiful Life
Christmas
LIVE -From the Old Theatre: "An Evening with Anne Haley and Friends"

It’s probably a little late to do anything with this review-this season, but I wanted to highlight the music of friend who has made a warm and wonderful Christmas album, most worthy of family time around the table, tree… or manger.

My wife and I often have this discussion: “Is it possible to have real friends, which you have never met, except by way of Facebook or some other kind of digital chat?” I say "Yes.” Wife says “No.” And of course, if we mean –can you have a deep abiding life transforming “digital” relationship, or the chat-group friend that you can call on in crisis -- my wife is probably right. But if we mean a friendship characterized by the a life enhancing relationship built around good conversation, mutual interests, shared photos- files-music, (or even disagreements), then the of course -- you can.

Case in point, Anne Haley. I’ve never met the woman, but given a mutual cyber-friend, status updates, and hanging around her Facebook page, I feel like I really know the woman.

And the woman who comes through on both Facebook and her music is both consistent and vibrant. Think of a renaissance farm woman or early pioneer, the kind of woman who can help birth a cow, mend a fence, then throw – and write the music for – a barn dance at the end of the day. A certain joy and optimism of the heart saturates everything she touches.

As is, I don’t really know if Anne mends fences, but she does live on farm in North Carolina, and we get updates about her late morns as she helps cow, goat, and dog-kind give birth. Beyond that, she tends to mend fences of another kind. I’ve kind of figured out Anne’s politics, but she would rather not make a big to-do about such stuff. She looks for common denominators in conversation and life.

Anne’s music reflects the same warm, pioneering spirit that I find on Facebook. The title track to first CD, “It’s a Beautiful Life” means what it says. No parody here. And though, as a folk singer Anne touches on some of the standard terrain of cloudy skies, she seems most at home when touting things gone good.

To date, Anne has put out three albums of which I have heard two. (The third a live disk) All are “home productions” (i.e., the kind of thing where you pay someone to produce your music for you.) But that has little to say to the quality. Or said differently, Anne -- with big voice and guitar, has teamed up with some first rate bluegrass musicians to produce albums that feel both sharp and live. The sound is neither “roots-primitive, nor Nashville gloss. I think I may have heard a few overdubs (for harmony) but Anne’s music sounds like what country should sound like – Real people with real talent on real instruments (mandolin, dobro, guitar, fiddle,paino) playing their hearts out --- live in your parlor.

Note: In subsequent converstations, Annie shared that she once was headed down the Nashville path, but pulled out when she saw how her handelers wanted to package her. "I didn't agree with the "power pop" country rootless music that was being cranked out. Soooo...a couple of "good music row lawyers, I was FREE. At that point, I made a rock solid decision that ANNE would produce herself. Period."

Anne’s voice matches her character (or helps define it) Her voice is bold, sometimes sassy, a little brassy, with hints of apple:) She sounds at times like Patty Loveless without the twang, or a crisper Allison Krauss at a lower register. Anne tells of time she was doing a show and someone came looking for the “black woman” - Overall, think “Big” (especially for folk) but with plenty of variation and feminine touches. (Or you could simply cheat, and listen to her samples,)

Album: It’s a Beautiful Life.

Disk opens with a tribute to her beloved….(supported on a cushion of soft fiddle and mandolin) Lighthouse:

Sometimes I lose a sense of my direction, I cannot seem to let love be my guide, Sometimes it doesn’t seem to be enough protection, from the howling winds and crashing waves that roll across my mind.

When the cold winds blow I will pull your love around me, and hold it close to my heart to remind me. When the storm clouds show how quickly light can turn to darkness your love will be the light house that guides me home.

There’s times my heart is like a raging ocean , twisting turning everything in me when there are those times you anchor me with love and devotion and the angry waves become a placid sea.

When the cold winds blow….

And as I near the rocks, I don’t know if I will sink or swim…then you enter my thoughts and your love will pull me safely in….

Song two, It’s a Beautiful Life (parts)

Covered lots of ground it seems in such a short time, takin’ offbeat paths along the road that might have lead us astray, shouted questions to the universe, then doubted all of its answers, wondering if we even make it anyway, but here we stand hand in hand, on this road that seems less traveled… and when it comes to love the answer is as simple as it can be.

It’s a beautiful life, good cup of coffee, and some lovely conversation. ….watching stars come out over God’s great plantation, we rise we fall, we’ve been through it all, Murphy’s law can say whatever it likes, caue when your eyes meet mine, I know… inside, baby it’s a beautiful life.

I’ll skip more lyrics, except to say that Anne, whether singing her own or others words, is intent on bringing the same joy she lives out on the farm or on her Facebook page to her total songcraft. She wants to walk with you. (And if you want to talk about lots of other folks music, she is game for that too.)

Disk 2: Christmas.

Anne’s Christmas album sticks to the same musical recipe of homespun folk found on “It’s a beautiful Life” – with perhaps a few changes. A few songs are less county, and it seems that Anne using a slightly different voice. It may be two years in between, or the very content, but it sounds like Anne has gone for a softer, less punchy --- more beautiful voice -- in keeping with the Christmas glow. These are traditional songs, sung with a reverence for tradition and family memories.

As is, I was hooked and surprised by the very first song. I’m not a real bluegrass devotee, but I own a disk called “Sugar Plums” put out by the bluegrass powerhouse label Sugar Hill. Sugar Plums is a superb disk that features a robust and diverse collection of Bluegrass, folk, and Primitive approaches to Christmas music. I was pretty sure I was the only one who owned this disk. Turns out Anne likes it too, and has borrowed a couple of tunes, one of which (Christ was born in Bethlehem) she sings with decidedly less twang. Anne’s opening cover of a song penned by Americanna Artist Tim Obrien, (Making Plans) really charms, and sets the stage for a loving, faith affirming romp through a wonderland of hearth and home, with Christ firmly at the Center. (In fact, Anne makes a reading from the Gospel of Luke the “centerfold” of her album, placing it square in the middle.

I don’t have a lot more to say about this album, for the simple reason that it simply works. Anne has opted not so much for innovation, but re-creation from a time tested cannon. But what she recreates she does with such warmth and sensitivity (and with clean lean country production) that this disk will easily make it into routine play around my house this December. I readily recommend it.

Addendum: Shorty after publishing this, I sent word to Anne: Her words in reply further illustrate why she is such a gem (and help clarify a few points.) She writes:

Anne Haley 17 December at 18:56

WOW..isn't this something! THANK YOU KIRK!! I just tried to pull a fast one and call you...BUT....according to the White Pages, your number has been changed. SO MUCH for your kind words. I really appreciate it. This seems "inadequate," as I wanted to give you a proper "thank you." Tell your wife I AM one of those you could call in a pinch! Might take me a little while to get there, but I'D COME! :)

As an aside, you GOT IT..."the REASON" I record as I do is because I WANT my recordings to be as much like my live shows as possible...relaxed, comfortable, IN YOUR PARLOR. The reason for the "change in voice" on the Christmas album is was also decided. I wanted to showcase a few different variations on what we "hear" at Christmas. I love to sing ALL styles and was able to perform those, again, in almost a quiet, piano bar (coffee or tea) setting!

Yes, indeed, Lighthouse is for my "beloved." It is for God.

It's a Beautiful Life resulted from a conversation that I was having with my "earthly beloved." We were driving thru Swansboro, NC...W said, "You know it's a beautiful life that we have." And I said, "Yep, W you're exactly right!!! NOW HOLD THAT THOUGHT!! And I wrote the song in the car immediately! LOL!

So, you foiled my plans to sneak a call in on you...and I have to say thank you via a typed message. "Not my style," but I suppose it will have to suffice.

I'm thankful for Pam Kemp and spirited discussions...I am so proud to have friends like you Kirk. You're a jewel...and like you I REFUSE to wish ANYONE a happy "holiday." "Holidays" are what Europeans do on "vacation," which also bugs me...coming from the derivative of HOLY. Go figure. I'm just as confused as you are! I'm guessing that's a good thing.

Again, thank you Kirk. I really appreciate your thoughts, opinion and most of all that you find enjoyment in what I love to share with others. THAT has been one of the MANY gifts that God has given me in order to connect with others.

My very, very best to you and yours!

Your VIRTUAL friend, (does that mean we are virtually friends?)

Annie

Sara Groves: Fireflys and Songs

2009-11-24T10:21:00.010-06:00

Sara Groves: Fireflies and Songs, Released 11/17?/2009

Genre: Adult contemporary, piano driven balladesque Folk-pop with a touch of “atmospheric classical, blue-grass and blues – (as produced by Charlie Peacock;) by vetran Christian lyricist, Sara Groves

Sorry for the long label, but sometimes there is just no good way to describe what to me should be “normal” music, but is so uncommon. Some folks might call this folk, but the production values clearly set it outside of the realm of flower-child troubadour with guitar (or piano). On the other hand, the pace, grace, and understated syncopation exclude this from the stuff we commonly call pop. And while Sara sounds different from either artist, the music shares in the song craft and quality I would associate with the likes of Nora Jones or Tracy Chapman.

In one of those odd moments of cultural convergence, Sava Groves’ album, Fireflies and Songs, let loose on the same morning our local DJ was playing --for the umpteenth time-- “Fireflies” by the group Owl City. The shared title invites a little compare and contrast. Both tunes ring magical, touching stars and childhood, though one tune is sung by a dreaming multi-voiced robot, the other by a flesh and blood woman with of touch of melancholy. (I guess the guys of Owl city bleed too, but there blood looks more like transmission fluid, or something like that.)

Truly though, in this day of auto-tune and airbrush, my heart yearns for the stuff of vocal spit and pores, and especially the stuff of an unprotected heart – All of which Sara delivers with unflinching grace.

If you are unacquainted with Sara, you can find plenty to read at her own site, suffice it to say, I consider Sara Groves as one the few bright lights to have emerged in Christian Music in the last decade. Ms. Groves offers a perfect storm of song craft. She is at once a gifted pianist with a penchant for audio story. Her voice is at once deeply feminine and emotional, but without saccharine drippiness, diva breathiness, or gothic apocalyptictonics (I made that last one up.) Her emotions run real. And finally, she captures the terrain of her heart and her life lived out before God with concrete lyrics. In short, Sara uses words to paint pictures in the mind. The pictures she paints belong to a kind of road trip of the soul, complete with small town streets and clanking dishes, vagabonds and missions, circus tents, playgrounds, and moonlit paths.

-
In the linear notes for the album Fireflies, Sara notes that she was not constrained on this disk to work with an established theme. (find quote)

All of which is kind of funny, because fireflies seems very unified, both thematically and musically. (Actually there is one song, right in the middle that makes a pretty sharp “u” turn, but we’ll get to that in a moment.)

The overarching tie of Fireflies is relationships. And while most every song builds along a horizontal (human) axis, they are not only horizontal. These are songs about relationships lived out in the greater context of God’s presence and blessing. She and her producer Charlie took a real marketing gamble in that only one song on the disk fits thematically into Christian radio territory.

As is, the overall tone of Fireflies and Songs is one of a kind of “sad-happiness” or, if you will, sober reflection infused by an undercurrent of joy. Sara herself notes in song that there are “different kinds of happy.” And clearly, this album charts some of those various kinds. Folks whose primary music diet consists of Christian radio may find some of the tunes on this disk a little dour. (Or perhaps too candid.) Which speaks not of the tone, but of Christian radio, which is often given to artificially sweet up-beat renditions of the Christian life. Sara, on the other hand, is not afraid to let a touch of heavy heart saddle up with her joy. Nor is she afraid to expose some a little personal dysfunction.

"As I started writing, I revisited some things that have taken place over the last 15 years of marriage,” she says. “It wasn’t all exactly current, but it was stuff that I hadn’t written about yet, and it was good to do so.” Soon she had her first conversations with producer Charlie Peacock about the album and, at one point, asked if he had any early direction for her. “I want you to enjoy God and the gift of songwriting,” he replied.

“I just burst into tears,” says Groves. “I don’t think anyone has ever told me to do that. And that’s what I did. I cried like a baby as every single song came out. And as they did, I thought, I’m more grateful today that I get to do this than ever before.” Even now, as she recalls the experience, her eyes well with emotion” (I think this is lifted from Sara's site but I found it here)

Truth is, I was surprised by the emotional terrain and confessional nature of several Firefly songs. And this is ironic, it seems that people outside of the Christian music industry are often far more honest about their troubled emotions or personal failures. Christian radio, in particular, places a premium on communicating our victory in Christ. But all the mess that belongs to our ordinary lives (those same lives in which Christ is working out our redemption) is often totally off screen.

While there is no undo wallowing, Sara wades into vulnerable territory.

you took a tone and I took offense
anger replacing all common sense
oh run for you life
all tenderness is gone
in the blink of an eye
all good will has withdrawn
and we mark out our paces and
stare out from our faces

but baby you and I are gone gone gone

incomprehensible layers of isolation
now your the man with a heart of stone
making me pay here by being alone
seemingly justified righteous indignation
now I'm the woman who holds all her pain
looking for somebody else to blame

we hold all the keys to our undoing
cutting me down in small degrees
you know my worst insecurities
I'm making no effort to understand
no one can hurt you like I can

deep down inside the girl's waking up
she's calling out to the boy she loves

On the other side, Sara offers a glimpse of the marvel of one flesh:

raise a glass to friendship and to knowing
you don't have to go alone
we'll raise our hearts to share each others’ burdens
on this road

with every burden I have carried
with every joy it's understood
life with you is half as hard
and twice as good

I know we're growing older
can you imagine what that will bring
it's all a mystery to me now
but this one thing
will be half as hard, and twice as good

(fragment from Twice as Good)

"At one moment, you're looking at each other with thoughts like, I can't believe I married you--what was I thinking? And you go from that place where there's no common ground to complete tenderness and the complete knowing of each other. (from an interview on her site)

Noted earlier, there is one song on this album that stands out for its “incongruity” – a kind of robust Dixie Chick toe- tapping bluegrass number with a peculiar theme - and now a video: (setting up pins and knocking them down.) But I found the variation served as a kind of intermission for the soul -- right there in the middle of commiseration and confession -- forging a delightful change of pace and mood. I think its inclusion lifts the album out of the mellon overcast. Then there is the final number, a kind of doxology which draws the dominating horizontal themes to a joyful close. As our creator, Christ is not only the author of the marriage, but the relationships through which he hones us. And we praise Him.

Production:

Having said very nice things about Sara, I’d admit that the production work on some of Sara’s catalogue leans a little “poppy” for my ears. The plush radio-ready quality of her album “Add to the Beauty” left me hungry for just a little more earth. (I let my bias slide given its stunning melodic lines and the power of the “I am the moon song”.) Even so, I regard her work “Conversations”, characterized by pretty much “one woman at a piano” as one of the great albums in the history of the world – Indeed, a disk I will take with me to restart civilization. It simply aches with beauty.

All of which sets the table for Fireflies. Would the production run lean--like Conversations-- or tend to the greater gloss of some of her later recordings?

Too be honest, I did not buy this album for so much for Sara, but for her producer, Charlie Peacock. I happen to own three- now four Sara CDs (out of 10?) But I own nearly a dozen of thirteen (?) Charlie P. releases. I follow him on Facebook, and always look forward to seeing what new and often quirky direction he will take his music or production. (Read a Charlie review here.) Even so, I was a little frightened by the prospect of Charlie Peacock producing a Sara Groves album. Why?

Simply, Charlie is given to the best of pop production, often with deep layering and forays into big quirky techno sounds. All of which works well with his own music or for groups with audio muscle, but left me concerned given Sara’s gentle side.

So how did Charlie do?

Brilliantly.

On my first listen I was too aware of the production.
Because I follow Charlie on Facebook, I knew that he was trying various things inside the production. (At this point in his career, Charlie P. has access to some of the best talent in Nashville. I heard that Matt Slockum (of Sixpence) would be playing guitar (or was that banjo.) I knew that Charlie was trying to dampen the sound of a bell (was that this album?) So I went into my first listen of Songs and Fireflies with an ear tuned to the production. And there were those moments I thought … “Charlie, pull back, pull back” But not much. Producer Peacock truly honored and highlighted the sensitive nature of the songs. The instrumentation is impeccable, and mostly earthy. He and his crew employed a range of supporting sounds, from staccato banjo, fiddle quartets, marimba, to accordion to some surprising steel lap-guitar. (Not too surprising for Nashville, but less common in pop-folk fare.) And they left her alone for long moments, just Sara and her piano. My sense: the instrumental variety and textures lift these songs without taking over. And by the second or fourth listen, my awareness of the production as a value in itself, faded into the background. Now I simply take it in stride as part of the total quality of the package.

While I don’t suspect Charlie did this work himself, this album shines on another level that may soon go the way of the LP jacket. The CD art itself matched the quality of the music, and carried the tone. Funny too… on the album “Add to the Beauty’ Sara herself is presented with model like beauty, thick brushed hair and soft colored lips. (Hey I am a guy, I notice these things.) But in Fireflies, Sara is presented with the candor of her camping face, and a tangle of hair... The art blends whimsy, earth, and the gentle beauty of worn things. Consider this a book where cover matches content.

Final thoughts. Sara has been credited over the years for her song craft, but what carried this album for my ear, had to do with just the raw pleasure of her voice. Now it helps if one is singing content worth hearing, but truly I heard glimpses of vocal artists Christine Dente, Emylou Harris, and even the elvin voice of Eisley. Sara took a kind of contemporary “dip and flow” with octave shifts and slowed it down, adding years and wisdom to the brew. She sounded at once both modern and ancient. Like a singing Velveteen rabbit.

Final final note: While I don’t think Sara is attempting what is sometimes called “crossover,” this is an album I would readily share with those who wouldn’t go close to “Christian music”. Its human themes are human themes. I highly recommended to all who hear “deep and slow” or who don’t mind beautiful melancholy melodies lingering in your soul for days.

David Crowder Band: Church Music

2009-11-04T13:34:00.019-06:00

Church Music, by David Crowder Band is a full throttle, audio extravaganza that invites modern saints to fall (or dance) before God's throne as we praise Him for his power in --and over-- light, dark, and death --- even as we contemplate his startling nearness . The sound is mostly elecronica, with forays into speed-pop, grunge – even disco, with an occasional pause from the noise so that you can hear the piano. (Actually there are more than a few pauses, however the overall sound is typified by a BIG dense sound wall.

Before I get to the disk itself, I wanted to set the stage and come clean. I am a part time David Crowder*Band fan. Not all of their music works for me. I am a geezer. I hold a general bias against electricity:)

For the unacquainted, front-man David Crowder is an odd bird in any book. He looks like a caffeinated hillbilly, or Moses on Speed. (I figure that it’s kind of a cultivated kookiness that says-- here is what an old-time circuit rider might have looked like if blown by the wind of a hundred-and-eighty decibels, or chased by the Hound of Heaven with his jaws nipping at your back pocket. And David sings a little like he looks. His voice is kind of nervy, tinged with wild man and urgency. Beyond that, he - with band, have put out several albums which might be called Americana-praise-electronica. (Yea, those words don’t usually go together.) DCB has also been a key participant in the “Passion Movement” -- an effort to bring modern worshipers before the throne of God in dynamic arena praise. The Passion movement can rightly be credited for introducing modern worshipers to range of older hymns, presented with new music sounds.

----

To be honest, I had been introduced to the David Crowder Band only though some of their Passion Ministry works, I might have written them off. I like the idea of introducing old music to new audiences, even using new sounds, but when the new sounds are less beautiful than the old, or simply revved up for rev’s sake, I think the lyrics and the music lose.

But then a friend loaned me a copy of “A Collision” followed by “B Collision” – a maverick work if ever there was one. “A Collision” struck me for its rambunctious variation in both music and emotion. Then I listened to “B Collision”, an experimental follow-up, recapitulating parts of “A” though a Deliverance filter. At the time, I didn’t know that “B Collision” was atypical, even for Crowder, but it --with its blend of banjo, mandolin and smashing synthesizer – set the hook. Here was a guy with a wacked out sense of humor, willing to experiment and blend totally incongruous styles. Here was music firmly anchored somewhere between the 18th and 23rd centuries. The music of A and B collision, eclipsed so much what I call modern worship music that I sat up to take another listen. I was brought face to face with a “post-modern” worship maestro, putting out music that made me question my bias against all modern worship music.

Since that time I have acquired a couple of other David Crowder releases (Sunsets and Sushi, and Remedy). And I must say, nothing has of yet, caught my ear like “B collision” -- but then, there are those times when bluegrass doesn’t bring out my dancing shoes like full orbed electric honeycomb, or the heart catching lyrics “He makes everything glorious.”

---- Now back to the disk at hand. (And I apologize for some repetition, as I joined two pieces of writing.)

The title Church Music, comes with something of a smile; This is probably not the music most churches feature on Sunday Morning -- unless they come with a name which includes the word Rock, Creek, or Tree. The title is, like all things Crowder, idiosyncratic, and suggest that the worship offered by those who bend their knee and before the living Christ (the head of the church) are engaged in the stuff Church Music. Even when it calls for a disco ball.

Not of course, that all the saints will like this brew. Bill Gothard would condemn it; Bach might lift a brow, while a good many saints across the globe might look for the end of the age, or ask to turn the volume down.

Truth is, I might be among them. As a rule I like my music stripped down, and organic. I find much of modern worship music disagreeable, ….(It is) Sometimes un-singable, sometimes too mindlessly-emotive, often too abstract and poorly written. (By abstract, I mean using words like “holy” or “awesome” but without ever giving us concrete examples of what those words mean.) Beyond that, much of modern praise music is simply loud, poundy and repetitive, dishing melodic lines you readily forget.

So here comes David Crowder band, which is at once extra loud and extra poundy—often highly repetitive. And they repeat themselves. Their lyrics fit the bill, but they are often extra simple -- One line of verse for every minute of song. To top it off, DCB lyrics are sometimes abstract and highly emotive, and he (or they) sings songs in way that don’t invite my joining in. But I still really like this guy and his band.

WHY?

First, these guys are a first rate quirks. Then, even with some checks in my minus-column, David and band present their songs with such fervor and conviction -- even desperation, that what might be a minus becomes a plus. This is hard to make sense of. -- I don’t like poundy music if it’s just kind of poundy in a way that muddies the melodic line. (as in some of the tunes on Remedy). But turn that same pound into a pleading hemorrhage, a bell-chorus arsenal, or the Rite of Spring (by Stravinsky) and what once was just in the way, becomes part of the art form. Make no mistake, When David Crowder Band offers a song of praise to God or builds a multi-hued wall of weaving sound there is a sense that they -- and we -- are standing with arms raised before the throne, with the thunder of God echoing though the rainbows.

Now if you really are unfamiliar with DCB, you can find all kinds of their music on You-Tube. Here is a good start.

For the familiar, If you like Sushi or Remedy, think of the same elecronica with a bit more volume, and different words. Some folks call Remedy a “pop” sound, while Church Music is byond, both crunchier and dissonant. Church Songs is categorically darker in hue that earlier works. Gothic is an overused word, but when I spin this disk, I “see” the stuff of ravens and towers and light punching through a Middle Earth forest.

In a promo for the disk, DCB show that they have added a second drummer named Steve to their arsenal, but this one a true drumming robot. (Speaking of drum machine.) Think of each drum beat as a drummer, with a drummer of his own. Or something like that.

By contrast to the catalogue onr “A or B” Collision, Church Music is thematically constrained. (Actually, by contrast, most everything is.) But listen for the variation inside the sound wall. Beyond that, Church Music seems to build around a theme, echoed in repeatedly in a single track: God is Near. Past albums have highlighted the Kingly authority, the holiness, or the beauty of God; This one celebrates his ever present presence.

Quick notes:

I just listened again. Nix the word constrained in the above sentence.

17 songs or One? (there are no spaces between the tracks)

Personal Faves:

Track One: “Hail Gladdening Light” How utterly appropriate. Given the title “Church Music” why not start with a hymn almost as old as the church itself. Wikipedia sheds some light on the ancient lyric. “Phos Hilaron (Φῶς Ἱλαρόν) is an ancient Christian hymn originally written in New Testament Greek. Often referred to by its Latin title Lumen Hilare it has been translated into English as 'Hail Gladdening Light' or 'O Gladsome/Joyous Light'. It is the earliest known Christian hymn recorded outside of the Bible that is still being used today. The hymn is featured in the vespers of the Byzantine liturgy used by the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic traditions, as well as being included in some modern Anglican and Lutheran liturgies.”

Tracks 3/5/7/8 Truth is, these tracks sound a bit alike -- pulsing, deep textured and urgent. Like David the Psalmist dancing in his underwear. Invites mind, body, and imagination to join in full throttled worship of the King. The King who is near.

Brilliant bright, our salvation
Took the fall to hold us up
All the weight of our condition
Lifted away from us

We can feel the breath of the angels
See the walls bend and shake
The sky's in a tremble
Let the dead wake

To sing the songs of the heavens
See the dawn start to break
The bond starts to loosen
Feel the earth shake

Darkest night, brought redemption
Innocence' divine embrace
In the light of all creation
Heaven and earth start to twist

And the nearness of there
Feels more near

(from the track 3, the Nearness)

Track 9: (All around Me) My daughter pointed out that this is a cover of a song by some group called “Fly Leaf”. “They stole that song!” she cried. (I wouldn’t have known, but the brooding classical piano and raspy-rhapsodic presentation of this song (which I understand is much different than the original) is itself different than many of the other tunes on this disk. If your download one song, this is it. Astonishingly beautiful!

Track 16. (God Almighty, None Compares) Okay forget everything I’ve ever said about liking restrained acoustic. Not that I still don’t, but add to that category speaker melting apocalyptic praise, with a touch of 80s hair band, Crowder prog, speed violins (?) and some lunatic guitars. Brings to mind an Anthem by Kemper Crabb and the band Archangel that no one who will read this review has ever heard. It sounds kind of frightening and underworld in a good way, or like the book of Revelation in which even those thing under the earth are joined in one torrential praise.

Personal dislikes.

Title Track, Church Music.

Ps, I had written one concluding paragraph, but have scrapped it as my sense of this disk keeps growing. ( I compared this disk to eating 12 Reeces Cups.) and while it clearly is an audio rush, the more I listen the more the content fills me with glorious thoughts. I am not sure I want to re-write the review, so here is a link from a guy who was pretty much blown away by Church Music -- even as I think this is the kind of disk I will play twice a year - LOUD.

http://www.soul-audio.com/album-reviews/09-21-2009/david-crowder-band-2/

Carolyn Arends: Love Was Here First

2009-10-19T09:54:00.013-05:00

Carolyn Arends: Love Was Here First Review 10/18/09

(Release: 10/20/09)

Synopsis: LWHF is an “Ameri-pop” extravaganza, featuring dallies with black gospel, blue grass, honky-tonk, even Broadway -- by Christian lyricist, singer, musician, film critic, Canadian and mom -- Carolyn Amends. This is Carolyn’s 10th album, and like her others, communicates spiritual insights with catchy lyrics, bent on feeding the heart and mind. The lyrics aim at Christian audience, but the quality dictates a larger hearing.

First, I’d clear up a misconception – My own. When I first saw the cover graphics for LWHF, then heard (Didn’t I?) that this album would have a slightly urban cast… I was expecting something gritty, perhaps even a poetically dark. (Might Carolyn try a Mark Heard Impression?) But while there may be some city sensibilities here -- namely the city of New Orleans, or wherever else they play Cajun colored Dixie-bayou-trombone-accordion bluegrass; this album brims with sunrise and grits. To be honest, I was having a hard time envisioning Carolyn sounding morose, though she does do “pensive” very well.

Interesting story, the title on the CD cover is not Photo-shopped onto the background building. Rather, she had her artists roller paint it direct on the wall, even as they checked to make sure there really was nothing crass in the existing graffiti.

As is, I own four of Carolyn’s nine, now ten music offerings. As an old Fuddy Duddy, who still buys CDs (and refuses to let people copy them) I had started to lose ground with some of my favorite music people over the last years; Given the shift to a download product, not everybody shows up in the record store they way they once did. But now… Presto, I find I am reuniting with my faves through Facebook.

So I was most intrigued when Carolyn, starting this summer gave us routine updates on her new music project, with details as she passed each marker in writing, song selection, recording process, and the final photo session. I wondered, would this be like her earliest folk-leaning records -- or more like her dallies with strobe-lights and mosh pits? Not really, but Carolyn does have at least one rock-out record. But I must confess, this review comes out of a vacuum. I haven’t followed Carolyn for several years, but after reading some reviews of earlier but recent albums, it appears Carolyn has been moving in a “Pop-Americanna” direction over the course of several albums.

So what is Love Was Here First?

It’s an album full of fledged quality, from the vocals to the instrumentation and production to the cover and inside graphics to the heart behind it all. Carolyn has worked hard to honor both God and her neighbor by giving us a product that is inventive, artistically challenging, and deeply encouraging.

For the uninitiated, Carolyn has what might be called a pretty voice, leaning cute. Or like a happy mom. But don’t misunderstand, I don’t mean saccharine, but rather kind of wholesome and funny and loaded with character. (Carolyn, I hope this doesn’t sound wrong, but I have always thought that you have the voice that should belong to a third-grade teacher; a little tough, a little sweet, with lots of play.) But teacher aside, Carolyn uses her voice in this album in some ways that are new to me. Think “lovely” as opposed to cute. Or bold as opposed to careful -- with moments of rhapsody. I’d almost bet she has been listening to indie pop singer Regina Spektor. (but that’s just a guess.)

Beyond that, the sonic textures and variety on LWHF push farther than anything I have heard in an Arend’s release. One or two tracks were a little over produced for my ear, but by-and-large, the production flat sizzles. The opening track begins with a gut-pleasing staccato “train track” guitar, followed later by a brass quartet and fiddle. The second track quiets down with Carolyn singing a pensive and soulful rendition of “Standing in the Need of Prayer.” She even gets to sing it with the Sojourners, an old- school black gospel quartet. Wow! Over the course of the next nine songs, Arends romps through multiple styles and moods, from gypsy to swing and Dixiegrass. Trumpets, fiddles, mandolins, yukes, and uilleann pipes fan an insturmental parade. (I think that was a uilleann pipe?) And did I hear a song fit for a Broadway musical? YES! I wouldn’t be surprised if producer Ray Salmond listens to Bruce Cockburn, Tracy Chapman, or Sufjan Stevens.

As a lyricist, Arends works hard to craft lyrics that are honed and colorful, but ultimately understandable. She prefers simple, catchy lines, in keeping with “county song craft.” Even so, her writing is concrete and smart. Both her word choice and themes suggest that she is well engaged with the world of culture and ideas, and often turns to God to guide her through strange places and uncertainty. I wouldn’t be surprised if she keeps a spiritual journal, or works out some of her questions with verse.

I could pretty much quote several songs, but here are a some fragments I really liked.

You made the cosmos out of chaos, you made Adam out of dust, you made wine out of water , You’ll make something out of us…You made light shine in our darkness, you made life conquer death, you make children out of sinners, You’ll make something out of us.

Or, while questioning the finality of the grave…

‘Cause why beauty, why poetry, Why no! no! no! to every tragedy; Why laughter, why lullabies, and why this asking why?…A sculpture of a canvas can speak a private language, telling secrets hidden in the heart about a world of spirit -- I swear sometimes I hear it, Playing like a piper’ in the dark. It’s in love songs, in symphonies, in funeral marches and in liturgies. It’s in whispers, in rally cries, in dreams that won’t say die…

You have a body, but you are a soul, You see a fraction, it’s not the whole, I cannot prove it, but still I know, You have a body… you are a soul.

Then there is that title track. With a simple phrase “Love Was Here First’ Arends fuels a really big idea. There, in the beginning, before night-time or apples, or the unfolding of a world gone wrong -- God (who is Love) was with himself, in perfect union and bliss. And He still holds the cosmos, waiting the complete the story.

New sounds and vocal treatments aside, the thing Carolyn does best is quietly minister to her audience. She appears to have a gift for encouragement, and writes songs that should stick in your head. We might know that nothing can separate from the love of Christ, but having that dance in your head through song brings double joy. In the end, Carolyn has succeeded at giving us a record that really does feed our mind and spirit, even as it reaches for high standards of expression. And this is odd…

(Bunny trail) I am a photographer. I listen to a lot of music; I look at a lot of images. And I have seen something in the photo realm and with other art forms related to “sophistication.” Namely, as works move away from the amateur world of sunsets and roses, into the challenging world of “fine art” there is often a corresponding motion toward “darkness.” That is, we very often see that as works grow in art-verve, they also become bitter, sardonic, elusive, unsettling, uncertain, vicious, bizarre, morbid etc. (I am just trying to think of “dark” words, but you get the picture.) We esteem a fashion picture more sophisticated if it shows a sullen gaunt woman who has never had kids who looks like she is about to have a crack breakdown.

But Carolyn proves that your really can make music that reaches for high standards artistically, yet which is also comprehensible, original, and nurturing at the deepest level.

I highly recommend this record.

To order, check out her store at Feed the Lake

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Final Final, Bunny. I have read two reviews of kid-films as critiqued by Carolyn in Christianity Today. (Up, and Where the Wild Things Are.) Given her status as mom, her “teacher’s voice”, and other child like attributes, I recommend that her next creative venture be a full blown soundtrack for a kid film. Really.

Jars of Clay: Redemptions Songs - 2005

2009-10-16T09:21:00.002-05:00

(this is another review that, four years late, may not make a lot of sense, but I’m on a theme.)

Jars of Clay: Redemptions Songs - 2005

Modern music renditions of songs with “old words.”

Synopsis: Thirteen covers of traditional and sometimes obscure hymns (with lyrics spanning several centuries), blending elements of folk, modern-rock, black gospel and “Jars-experimental-fusion”

(For the unacquainted, Jars of Clay is an acousta-rock phenomena, launched somewhere in the Christian world of the 1990’s, but moving (as of 2009) in an art-rock direction and toward broader “mainstream” audience. Early albums mixed elements of orchestral music, even tribal music into rhythmic folk. Later albums showcase a motion to Beatle-esque harmonies and harder edged modern rock, with attending lyrical ambiguity. As if to answer questions about who they are (or where they draw their vision) Redemption Songs is a clear statement by the Jars (2005) in which they clearly confess both their need of, and love for their Redeemer.

---

Of my couple dozen hymn-based CD’s this is one I spin less. Not for any lack of quality or spiritual vitality, but because the liberties taken with the hymns and the general styling make this more of a “listen to” than a “sing-with” CD… That, and the fact that several poundy-shrill “covers” kind of grate on my ears. Songs of Redemption isn’t really a rock album – I would call it heavy edged folk with a touch of the blues (reflective of Jars earlier albums) however, if you don’t have an ear for at least some rock, you probably won’t find home here. I personally found song three (God Will Lift up Your Head) too much of something. I might do better with the rock-dissonance in another album context, but find that I go to hymns for certain majesty and repose.)

That said, the delivery and tone of Redemptions songs goes a long way to driving home a message that might be lost to yesteryears piano. The stuff of sin and salvation (and nailing God to a tree) can be a bloody grating affair. And certainly the stuff of sorrow. “Redemption songs” isn’t bleak – indeed, it holds a great body of joy – however, a certain “heaviness of soul” infuses the album -- not unlike black gospel, where radiance flows from certain pain.

The “heaviness” is aided by lead vocalist Dan Haseltine’s multi-hued voice. He sounds at times like a pack-a-day tenor. How is it possible to have a voice that is at once high and melodic, muscled but thin, clear but rough, and tinged with a kind of frail desperation? I sense healing irony when I hear the voice of “nervy” little white man singing spirituals backed up by the very big black baritone voices of the Blind Boys of Alabama. It is as if two peoples, once estranged have found both common home and culture.

As is, Redemption Songs re-presents the songs of several centuries, beginning of all things with the Psalter, a 17th (?) Century adaptation of the book of Psalms, used by old Scottish Presbyterians, the Puritans, the Pilgrims, and even a few --very few-- contemporary assemblies. Later selections pick up with Charles Wesley and John Newton (author of Amazing Grace), both from the “First Great Awakening.” (Think of poetry-doctrine penned before the American Revolution.) Several other songs follow more directly from the Second Great Awakening (think of the fountain-of-blood revival tunes penned after the American Civil war and before World War One. Add to the mix several African American spirituals penned who knows when, and the closing offering – They will know we are Christians by our Love, penned (I think) somewhere in the 1960’s (?)

--

As a lover of hymns, I was surprised by how many of these songs I didn’t know. Jars of Clay went out of their way to choose a truly eclectic collection with songs off the beaten path. They chose songs with strong word craft, spanning source denominations and demographics. Even so, there is common denominator in the selection. These are songs for sinners, and the venue, whether new or old … is the rescue mission.

Beyond that, the tunes themselves represent a collage of old, semi old (or seeming new) and brand spanking new tunes. I am not sure of the exact count, but the greater number of the hymns employ “some part” or the original melody, but often reworked, so that we have some sense of antiquity and some sense of originality, twined. A few tunes emerge from the last decade. My favorite new tune – a surprising Beatle-esque adaptation of “It is Well With My Soul.”

Jars themselves do the best job of telling what they want to do with these songs (From a back cover excerpt) : I suppose if you dedicated your life entirely to the building of bridges your eye would be attune to notice things life rivers and canyons….You have in your hands a collection of very old words set to almost completely modern music. The music comes from a place of TRUE REVERENCE and appreciation for the RICHNESS OF OUR PAST and an attempt to leap across YEARS and articulate that the past in a language that could be embraced by 21st century of people of faith…..We hope you are challenged as we are by the unbridled praises that sprung out of the lives that were so deeply bruised with sorrow and struggle. We hope that you are blessed by them as well. Lastly, we hope your find FRESH orientation as your immersed in the rich grace the soaks these songs and that your HEART is ASTONISHED as they boldly and eloquently make that which has become old to us…NEW AGAIN.

I would heartily recommend this album to anyone who wishes to reap the creative and articulate passion of yester-years saints – but with one caveat. I would not give the album to my mom. By contrast to Jar’s other offerings, Redemptions Songs is toned down. It has yukes, flutes and cello. But it still has enough modern-rock sensibilities, that folks who don’t listen to some rock probably won’t like this record.

I do like this record, immensely, as much for the selection as the sound. Listening to Redemption Songs, I feel a deep connection with those who have called Zion their home across the centuries. Bravo Jars, for serving the saints with such skill and passion.

2009-10-09T10:09:00.006-05:00

Save the Hymns - Intro

In as much as I've been doing it in my head for years, I've recently decided download and start writing "visible" reviews about the music I love (or love less). While I really should be reviewing new stuff, my budget is small, so I am pretty much starting with stuff I already own. And what what a better place to start, than with contemporary recordings of of a body of music that has blessed folks, sometimes for centuries.

As a child turning teen in the 1970’s (b 1960) I was delighted when new forms of worship fuel by the Jesus Movement showed up at our church. On Wednesday nights my folks hosted a "flock group" in our home, consisting of our family and a dozen or so college kids, replete with big beards, maxi skirts, and longer hair for both boys and girls.

As is, my dad played strings (guitar, banjo, mandolin, and yuke) while others joined in with guitar and tambourine. (My Mom is a hand raising, toe-dancing tambourine shaker to this day, having “introduced” the instrument to several more reserved Baptist assemblies.) Back then, we sang a blend of hymns, simple choruses, and even spiritually inspired pop songs like “Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the waters.”

At the time, I didn't realize that we were part of a major cultural shift that would redefine worship in many of our churches. Now some forty years later, keyboards, guitars, and praise bands have replaced many a piano and organ. Overhead projection has taken the place of hymn books, and choruses are the mainstay of many a Sunday morning.

All in all, I am grateful for some of the changes that have come about with the new approaches: Many of our former testimonies ABOUT God, have been eclipsed by words of sung directly TO God, like a love song from the heart.

As for style itself, I once heard a pastor say: “Hymns can be living or dead...Modern worship can be fresh or stale. Either form can be done well... or very poorly.”

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It is not much of an exaggeration to say, that in the last decade many hundreds (?) of artists have recorded hymn based albums (or albums with vital hymn content), and that if you were to listen to even a dozen offerings, you would hear more hymns over your speakers than you might in many churches over a year--- or even a decade. In fact, so many churches have tilted toward modern chorus and “praise” music, that hymns are often regarded as a part of antiquity, gone the way of the piano and organ.

(In kind of strange way, there seems to be two very different groups who have resisted this overall shift-- very conservative churches, characterized by cultural separation and a resistance to change – and liberal --often liturgical churches who resist change at a different level. (On a personal level, I most like liturgical worship when it is practiced with the fervor of conservative zealots.)

I would like to tell you that I go to a church practices liturgical zealotry…or at least works to blend rich amounts of yesteryear, with today’s “new wine” offerings. But I can’t. Now we do do some things very well. I am pleased to hear the growth of black gospel harmonies in our worship. I am thrilled to lift my hands (though I do so sparingly) in immediate “throne room” worship, and I am pleased to sing with those that understand your brain and soul comes with a body that digs rhythm. The fellowship I attend is served by several worship teams who bring an astonishing level of skill and passion to corporate worship. But there is part of my particular soul that feels undernourished, and is given to real sorrow as I hear how little of that which ministered grace and strength to the saints of yesterday is preserved for saints today. (I think in fact, we might be a little more saintly if we fed on some of our fore father-and-mother’s food.

Given the hunger, I want to look at just a few of the musical offerings I have turned to, sometimes to fill a void, and sometimes just for the pure pleasure of hearing music that ministers to my intellect and emotions on multiple levels. The Book of Revelation records that people from every nation, tongue and tribe will be gather before "the Lamb, the great I-AM to sing a “new song.” But after some of the new ones, I sure want to sing a few of the standards.

To see reviews in this series click SAVE THE HYMNS

Jill Phillips: Kingdom Come

2009-10-08T17:19:00.022-05:00

Jill Phillips: Kingdom Come
Fervent Records (2005)

Ten Hymns (Eight traditional, two original), presented in a stripped down folksy way -- using pretty much piano, guitar (Bozouki or mandolin), understated percussion, and bass. I found this album in the bargain bin. I liked the price, but it didn’t belong there.

Kingdom Come is refreshing for its apparent simplicity. I know even simplicity is often illusion, but the creators really are to be commended for what isn’t there. Husband Andy Gullahorn is responsible for the production and melodic finger-style guitar -- which, in combination with Matt Stanfield's delicate piano -- and Jill's mostly "quietish" voice -- define the overall sound. Jill is joined by a handful of sometimes prominent Nashvillites (?) on background vocals. I recognized the names of Christine Dente (Out of the Grey) and Derek Webb (a Christian folkster); Even so, you have to listen closley for her parterns in duet.

Kingdom Come has accomplished something rare. While the overall instrumentation and vocal treatments are more akin to the coffee house than the cathedral, Kingdom Come isn’t casual. Think folk-classical. It maintains a reverence, even a sobriety that belongs to the heart of an earlier generation. Several of the hymns are delivered with alternate tunes, or tunings, but there is a never sense that the hymns have been hijacked or run through a ‘mak’em-modern' filter. I fully believe Jill when she sings these songs, and want to join her in the reverence. My favorite: an alternate tune rendition of Fairest Lord Jesus, delivered with spare counterpoint piano in a minor key.

Jill’s voice is beautiful in a normal – slightly northern kind of way. (This is a Nashville Product, but you could have said Canada, and I would embrace it.) Jill doesn’t sound like a “performer” or somebody doing “arty stuff” with her voice. She sings understated and direct. (At times she does sound just a little like pop singer Cheryl Crow, or fellow gospel singer Carolyn Arends, though again, without much fanfare.

All of which make for a product I fully recommend. This CD feeds my inner man.

(Only complaint, the linear notes do not note the names of the hymnists (or publication dates) and only reference "Public Domain". Thats the kind of stuff a hymn lover wants to know.)

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I have recently added Jill as a Facebook friend (find her fan page here) and was amused by some other FB friend who quipped: “I see you (Jill) are on tour… I didn’t even know you sang!” Now I don’t know if that is because Jill’s friend is from years back, or if Jill fills her day hours with lots of other things. Kingdom Come, however, is Jill’s second (or third?) album out of five or six?. (Though you can't really see it in her lone hymns album, she is a first class lyricist.) I own “Writing on the Wall” and hope to acquire her most recent two soon.

Final Note: Jill and husaband appear to be part of a circle of friends and literary types who not only support each other in music and other creative dallies, but read books and write about them. I plan on visiting the Rabbit Room on a routine basis.

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SAVE THE HYMNS

Jadon Lavik - Roots Run Deep; A collection of Hymns

2009-10-05T08:22:00.002-05:00

(a Collection of Hymns) Bec Recordings, 2008
Style: melodic pop/James Taylor acoustic.

I discovered this CD playing audio roulette at Walmart (I liked the cover and price.) Turns out Jadon is a worship leader with a liquid voice and two albums under his belt. His third album Roots Run Deep features up-tempo renditions of classic hymns with mostly standard tunes, dressed in melodic acousta-pop production.

Roots features time honored "chart toppers": Come Though Fount, Blessed Assurance, Tis so Sweet, This is my Father's World, I Surrender All, Wondrous Love, Turn Your Eyes, I Need Thee, Take my Life, What a Friend, and Amazing Grace.

"It's definitely a departure from the first two records" he says. "I hope people dig it. It's not super polished or overly produced, but it's really raw, acoustic and real." Lavik says he's always wanted to do a hymns project, especially since he grew up in a traditional church in the state of Washington where he developed a love and appreciation for the standards of the faith. "I love old hymns," the 29-year-old troubadour confesses. "For me, this is not about making a strategic career move. I wanted to do it because I have a deep reverence for the songs." http://www.jadonlavik.com/main.html

As is, Jadon and I have a very different sense of what "raw" or un-polished means. Roots Run Deep features dynamic acoustic work and Jadon's beautiful vocal treatments, but this ain't no Americana. Think instead, of well executed Christian-radio fare, with a strong acoustic base. The production is first rate and deeply layered, and meant to buttress but not overpower the songs.

All in all, Roots runs a tad glossy to my ear, but certainly turns a cold room warm... It enlivens (sp?) my spirit as it introduces young people (or modern worshipers) to our rich hymn heritage. Surprisingly, my three favorite presentations take the greatest liberties with the standard tunes. Download recommendations: The very danceable, What Wondrous Love is This (A+) and Take my Life, along with a soft bluesy rendition of Amazing Grace, with alternate chorus.

Thanks Jadon!

SAVE THE HYMNS

Frio Suite: Phil Keaggy - Jeff Johnson

2009-09-28T17:49:00.022-05:00

The Grand Canyon Suite: Ferde Grofé (1931)
The Frio Suite: Phil Keaggy and Jeff Johnson (2009) :)

Frio Suite: A new instrumental album (release 0ctober 6, 2009) showcasing the artistry of Phil Keaggy and Jeff Johnson, together with Kathy Hastings (visual artist) and Luci Shaw (poet). This album builds an audio poem built around the sights, sounds, and emotions of the Frio River, as it flows through the grounds of the Laity Lodge. In Leaky, Texas.

As a dedicated fan of guitarist Phil Keaggy and pianist/Keyboard/ambience man Jeff Johnson, (who collectively have put out near 80 albums spanning thirty years), I was ready to “sleep on the sidewalk and camp” when I heard these two were working on a collaborative effort.

For the uninitiated, Phil Keaggy is a world class guitarist who simply knows no genre borders. His instrumental works span the worlds of the chamber orchestra to blow-out-your-speakers psychedelic Rock. He dictates much of the audio track playing in my head! As a singer, Phil favors vocalist Paul McCartney, and many of his pop compositions carry Beatlesque overtones.

Keyboard/Ambience man Jeff Johnson may pull a smaller (but highly dedicated following) and has built a reputation around deeply layered instrumental works and “experimental” vocal albums with lyrics like poetry. Like Phil, he alternates between instrumental and vocal offerings (though in once sense every album either man makes is an instrumental.) Jeff’s music spans genres, but he has cut a deep river of works with an ambient-Celtic hue, or steeped in liturgical worship. Think of the music that should have been used for the Lord of the Rings series. Think of yourself exploring new worlds with singing sirens in the background. As is, Jeff has a special knack for teaming up with other talented singers and musicians (and authors) creating music anchored in another age.

This is a union that makes perfect sense; Both men are creating some of the best music on the planet, even as they delight in God and work to flesh out the meaning of Christ honoring artistry -- Even as they (happily) work outside the parameters of the Christian music industry. Both men fluctuate between instrumental and vocal releases. Both men have produced a rich and sometimes disparate body of music, but find common voice in experimental jazz and Celtic themes. Both men sport goatees. :)

On the critical side, both Phil and Jeff have thinner tenor voices that some (like my kids) aren’t keen on. I thoroughly enjoy both, and find their vocal treatments delightful, endearing and very human. (At one point in Frio there was a soaring wordless vocal. The linear notes say “Jeff” but I sure couldn’t tell. Could have easily been either.)

Anyway, back to the Suite.This union has produced everything I would hope for -- an utterly beautiful concept album full of hidden melodies and textures. It may be that some fans of Phil’s rock’n side won’t ride with this one. The guitar is sometimes restrained, in the best kind of way.

Truth is, this should be called a trio (or even quartet) production. The art of Kathy Hastings -- album cover and overall inspiration, and a particular poem by Luci Shaw are key to understanding the work.

I will confess a bias. You say Texas and I think tall-grass and steers or the Dallas/Houston sky line. But from what I see from the Frio Suites video this river so unlike what I think of when I hear of Texas. And seeing that river really set the stage for hearing the album and understating the Kathy Hastings’ illustration. I was most familiar with Hastings’ work showcased on many of Jeff’s albums -- exquisite, “crisp” illustrative work, but I had not seen the kind of raw globby and expressive approach to painting that I see evidenced on the Frio Suite Cover. I liked the painting, but assumed it to be something of an “emotion” explosion. Then I saw the video and realized that Kathy’s cover painting is almost photographic in detail (or may be an altered photo) as she illustrates the curved, worn, multicolored rock of a canyon wall. And that canyon and the water that flow through it set the parameters of the album. Add to that, Luci’s poem, and the meaning of place takes on form.

If Jeff and Phil were working the Hudson, or the Mississippi, or the crashing cascades of Colorado River as it cuts through the Grand Canyon, this would be a different album. It appears however, that the Frio is gentle and ancient, sometimes deep and sometimes trickley … The kind of place where light bounces all around. All of which goes to feeding the sound of Frio. The cliff walls are chiseled, the river small but fluid. We are treated to melody followed by impression and free flowing improvisations. The music swells, fades, and allows for moments of silence. There is a sense of wind of warbling under the water. There are hypnotic patterns in keeping with an undulating, reflecting channel. There are cloud days and subdued tones… a touch of melancholy. There is dissonance - and drama – but contained drama, in keeping with an intimate place. There is the sun rising and echoing thought the canyon. Beyond that the music is full of intricate inner layering, and quirky percussion and stunning guitar.

To be honest, I have been trying to decide where to store the CD. Should I place it with my Keaggy collection, or growing Jeff Johnson collection. I’ve decided with Jeff. From the opening piano riffs, to the “darker” final cut, Frio makes strong on a Jeff Johnson recipe: Minor modes, spare piano, multidimensional rhythm, and a sense of space… or journey. (On the other hand, this disk closely follows the recipe used by Keaggy in his last major instrumental release – Phantasmagorical: shifting melodic line, and guitar that builds, dips, and soars through a larger instrumental fabric. (So store it where you want.)

Fans of both Phil and Jeff will hear sonic signatures from past albums, but I don’t think I have ever heard Phil this “impressionistic.” The supporting structure allows Phil to play… or not, and then with great flourish ---or at the level of subterranean texture. Some of his guitar riffs sound like running water, both soft and rapid. Fluid indeed! The overall music, while highly electric, doesn’t sound “electric.” Jeff has a knack for creating tones that sound transparent or hollow or like multiple notes (with no spaces between) all at once, like nothing you could ever chart. And the music of Phil and Jeff flows together -- sometimes in duet, sometimes in counterpoint--so well that your ear gets to chase multiple parts in and out like tapestry. And the background ambience often fits so well, that you really have to think about hearing it.

All in all, this is a very mature work. Both men have produced bolder, more dynamic works. Both men have produced leaner…and certainly lower budget works. (Side note: Phil should scrap his drum machine forever; The quality of the percussion throughout this album would have lifted some of his past solo guitar albums from “incredible-minus” to “astonishing-plus”). And certainly both have produced works that may be more accessible for more people. But this work, with it sophistication, shared enterprise and delight in deep things will make it one of my favorites for decades to come. And now I’m waiting for the next collaboration!

Phantasmagorical, Master and Musicain II - Phil Keaggy

2009-09-27T07:27:00.008-05:00

Phantasmagorical: Master and Musician volume II, by Phil Keaggy

A deep disappointment, a raging delight (! - ?)

One may wonder how I could ever be disappointed in a Phil Keaggy album, but my disappointment has nothing to do with the music, but rather with part of the title.

Title part One: Phantasmagorical.

Linear notes read: Phantasmagorical: 1) a shifting series of phantasm, illusion, or appearances, is in dream or as created by the imagination. 2) A changing scene made up of many elements 3) an optical illusion in which figures increase or diminish in size, pass into each other dissolve, etc. This note perfectly describes the album and everything that makes it work. I fully applaud the title part of the title.

Master and Musician II.

Nope. Sorry. This subtitle set me up. I expected something with greater musical and spiritual connection to Master and the Musician, one of the great albums in the history of the world. I have long wanted just such a followup and was thrilled to see that someone else held my vision. But this is not that album.

Not that Phantasmagorical isn’t top of craft. It’s a very mature work showcasing lessons learned in the thirty years since M and M’s release. But this album misses so many elements that made Master I a distinctive work that there is no good reason to ride off of its coattails. And the compassion disappoints.

Master and Musician one was what we used to call a concept album. The total functioned as a unit, built around a theme... In this case the theme came in the form of a real story, reminiscent of little mini tale by George McDonald (or Lewis or Tolkien) spilling across front and back of the album sleeve. The story itself set a stage for hearing the music, so that even though Master and Musician featured VERY diverse musical components (an M and M highlight), the story wove them together. Linear Notes from the 30 year Anniversary reissue, note that the story was created after the music was created, in part as a way to present (and justify) the ground- breaking instrumental to a largely Christian audience. Even so, the story helped us hear the music as part of sacred narrative, complete with castles, golden halls, a wedding feast and the calling of distant land. I heard Christ wooing his bride. I head Aslan padding in the Hall. Indeed, I remember a review from the time. It asked what in fact might make a Christian instrumental album different from any other… (if not lack of skill;) -- But the reviewer said something that made sense to me. M and M, sounded “anointed.” That is, in disposition, skill and beauty it carried audio blessing beyond the mere music.

Beyond that Master and the Musician featured something that was a hall mark of several early PK recordings… The artful weaving (or sometimes immediate shifting) from acoustic to bold rock and back to acoustic. Master did this in a way I had never heard before. Was it jazz (or classical) or rock? (It was all and more)Master 2 simply doesn’t invite immediate comparison.

Phantasmagorical does feature several “madrigal” tunes that could have been placed in Master and Musician and fit very well. The album also masters the art of shift and weave, but it more from ambient acoustic to jazz acoustic. Gone are the blazing rock anthems. The biggest difference however is in the narrative. Phantasmagorical functions as a conceptual unit, but there is no story line or jacket notes to prime our imaginations. No knights or brides or castles. No Christ wooing his beloved. No throne with seraphim. No Aslan padding through the forest.

Lest I be misunderstood, I would not begin to suggest that M and M is "Christian", in a way that Phantasmagorical is not. Within the calendar week both Friday and Sunday belong to God. An album need not be baptized in Christian language or themes to bring pleasure to God or his people. It’s simply that Master and Musician fed my sacred imagination directly whereas as Phantasmagorical functions at the level of a sonic treat. Phantasmagorical needs no reference to M and M to justify its existence (or sell more records.)

So…. What does Phantasmagorical do right? Most everything …. (Except the subtitle!)

This is a mature album that incorporates elements of all that has gone before it. Here are the strong acoustic rifts of Acoustic Sketches and Freehand, Here are the melodic elements of the Quiet Hours or Cinemascapes. Here are stellar musicians playing a host of instruments, working with PK in the spirit of Beyond Nature (though less dense), and here are some of the weird and slightly hypnotic experiments of the highly looped album: Roundabouts.In two months I have listened to Phantasmagorical near one hundred times... This is an album with that real lasting power. It may be that real musicians, playing real instruments, give this album depth not heard n PK's lower-budget solo albums. And the song “Caffeinated Dessert” may be one of the loveliest most satisfying melodies ever created. Ever.

Beyond that, there are musical textures in this album that I have seldom -- if ever heard. When is the last time you heard and electric guitar and a clarinet (or oboe?) in tight harmony?

In short, Phantasmagorical reaches a level of musical complexity that may eclipse his earlier works. It’s beautiful. I highly recommend it. It’s just not M and M.

Phil Keaggy: Acoustic Sketches

2009-09-25T08:01:00.001-05:00

Genre: Solo or small ensamble, acoustic guitar

As the name implies, this disk features acoustic guitar sketches, at various stages of polish. Funny thing. Upon first listen, several pieces sounded so “sketchy” (imagine that) as to sound like just fooling around. Indeed, A few tacks do end with a fade, as opposed to a more satisfying “finished” ending. Now, however I listed to the work and everything sounds quite musical, very purposed, and mostly complete.

Acoustic Sketches stands out for its pure simplicity. There is probably far more to a recording like this than meets my ear. But mostly what we get is stunning “living-room” guitar. I did hear a touch of two of looping, and even a romping track with a Tuba, but on the whole this album stands out for what isn’t there. No orchestras, no drum machine, just Phil with Phil, either solo or in duet.

Stand outs:Iconic sounding entry and exit tracks, and track 3.Several instrumentals of hallmark sung-songs (Let Everything Else Go, and The 50th Family reunion) which probably mean more if you already know and love the sung version.

Staccato Blast:Those who are familiar with guitarist Michael Hedges, will hear several nods to his “violent acoustic” approach. (Phil directly referenced his on his album “Wind and the Wheat” and does well with an artful “borrow.” (As is, I heard Michael Hedges years ago on his album Aerial Boundaries (Windham Hill) and assumed the album featured Hedges in multi tracking. Then I saw the guy in concert and found he played a double necked dulcimer/guitar… all at once.) I do not know if Phil is using multi-tracking or some variation on picking while strumming, but Keaggy’s rapid staccato approach is just as startling. Can you really do that with a guitar?

I would give this album the highest rating, except that I think Phil may have eclipsed it with Free Hand, an album of similar conviction but with just a tad more power, variety, and instrumental depth.

Charlie Peacock: Love, Press Ex-Curio

2009-09-21T09:02:00.000-05:00

Genre: Experimental Jazz

"Love Expresses itself in Curiosity"

Wow, Mano, Mano do I like this recording. I guess you call “Love, Press Ex-curio” jazz fusion (You couldn’t call it anything else) but it dishes some really hip fusing. Upfront, this isn’t something that a “ jazz combo could play, unless you included all kinds of digital gizmos. Call it jazz-fusion electronica. But don’t let the electronic part fool you, this album showcases sock-melting “acoustic” instrumentals expertly twined with ambient elements and dancing keyboards. The only album I know to compare it to is an album by “movie-scape artist Mark Isham and his interpretations of Miles Davis numbers.

As for this work, the only supporting musician's name I am familiar with (by association) is Ravi Coltrane, son of Jazz legend John Coltrane. (However that doesn’t mean anything since I can only name a handful of jazz artists) ((Turns out after reading a far better review than this, that I simply am ignorant. Charlie was able to marshal the talents of several world class jazz musicians whose names those in the know, know.))

As for Charlie, most folks know him as a recording artist and veteran producer in the Christian Pop/rock arena. Even so, much of his “regular” music stands outside the bounds of the Christian Radio industry. He has a strong ear for quirky instrumentals, R&B and jazz dallies. This album slightly references his experimental pop album “Strange Language” (and a sampler album with artists he produced) but pushes in a whole new direction. (I bet Charlie has wanted to do this for years as he has referenced John Coltrane in several songs. All in all, and with a limited musical palette I hear Coltrane, Davis, Mark Isham, Chuck Mangione, Marcus Roberts, Glass Harp, Stravinsky!... and Peacock! Great album for those who hear outside the lines.

Terry Scott Taylor: Knowledge and Innocence

2009-09-20T09:33:00.000-05:00

Terry Scott Taylor: Knowledge and Innocence:

It probably doesn't make a lot of sense to review a CD that was first released as an album some twenty(?!) years ago, and that you will never see or hear of ---but I found a copy for far less than the 78 dollars someone wants for it on Ebay.

It’s been so many years since I rubbed all the particles off my old cassette, that I forgot how simply amazing this recording is. Count this as one of the ten recordings I should take to restart civilization. (Others include Mark Heard’s Satellite Sky, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, Handel’s Messiah.) There are times the recording sounds a little demo… like a synthesizer was making up for what should have been a full band. And it is, this is something of a homemade drum maching album. But budget aside, Terry pulls out more odd textures, melodies, and moods than could be thought possible. Borrowing a title employed by English poet William Blake, TS Taylor blends themes of childhood, discovery, blue collar life, and grandfather’s camp-meeting, and a longing for heaven. Quick adjectives describing all or part of the album: Cheesy, hypnotic, grand, mystic, human, Exquisite, silly, profound,. Simply... an astonishing album with one foot firmly anchored in the next world.

GREAT nature and landscape photography

2009-01-21T07:44:00.007-06:00

This next section may take a while to build, but the following links (many gathered from Earth Shots) showcase some of the fineset nature or travel photographers in the world.

Philippe Sainte-Laudy: Photographie nature (French)
countryside, flowers: images range from traditional landscapes to higly stylized photoshop adaptations. Superb.

Dirk Ehrenraut: The World is Unique
German photographer

Kevin McNeal:
Astonishing landscape photographer based out of Washington State. Beautiful light and motion studies. Large format vistas.

Theism v Atheism debates

2009-01-05T13:01:00.009-06:00

On occasion, I try to follow exchanges between those who affirm faith in a God-made and directed universe, and those who see the same as the end of a soley material process. Here is a growing list of links.
Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens (from a Christianity Today sponsored series: Is Chrisitanity Good for the the World?
Original Written exchange
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/mayweb-only/119-12.0.html
secondary debate at Westiminster University
http://blog.beliefnet.com/reformedchicksblabbing/2008/11/the-doug-wilson-and-christophe.html
(I was dissapointed by Douglas in this particular exchange, but see that he is stronger in print.)

(A ten-part series between Dawkins and Lennox)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRPSsKIOOoQ

(A series of debates between Christian William Lane Craig and a series of persons.)

http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/menus/debates.html

(the Great Debate 1985, Greg Bahnsen, Gordon Stein: Both now dead)

transcript: http://www.bellevuechristian.org/faculty/dribera/htdocs/PDFs/Apol_Bahnsen_Stein_Debate_Transcript.pdf

MP3's:
http://veritasdomain.wordpress.com/2006/12/05/greg-bahnsen-vs-gordon-stein-the-great-debate/

Advent Calendar

2008-12-02T13:33:00.003-06:00

I don't know how many of you growing up had those little calendars with the little doors that you opened to reveal a Christmas surprise. Seems we had them with themes from the Nutcracker, Santa, and the Jesus story. Now you can do a similar thing, but better... with an Advent Calendar featuring daily Bible readings and meditations, provided by Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet. (As a product of the sisterhood, the calendar has a few preliminary comments with respect to Mary and such that are not my own, however the strong grounding in the scripture makes this a rich place of preparation as we ready our hearts for the celebration of Messiah's birth.

New Radio

2008-11-09T08:19:00.008-06:00

My kids know all about these things, but to me on the down side of 40, I am amazed by the new ways of listening to music. The following sites allow you to access music you may never hear on regular radio.

Pandora: allows you to set up individual stations, then sow a "seed" song or two. Pandora then builds a station around your selections showcasing similar styles. I have built several stations:
Dust and Diesel, given to gritty folk, alt country and a touch of blues. Blue Jesu, given to a blend of rock'n gospel, sanctified blues, and largely female folksters. John Michael Talbot Radio, given to sacred music of John Michael Talbot and the likes of Frank Ortega and Michael Card. And finally Wind, War, And Chicago - a station given to groove rock with Chicago, Earth-wind-and Fire, and War as my seed bands. Go here to listen to my stations.

It appears that Paste Radio, the means by which I discovered Accuradio, is in a state of suspension given licence issues for playing music over computer. However, the larger Accuradio is still in full swing. Accuradio allows you to pick one of hundreds of stations or substations given to different themes. This is a great source for all the music that is hard to find on the radio: Classical (over thirty substations), Celtic, jazz, gospel, British rock, reggae. You name it, you'll probably find an Accustation playing your stuff.

Finally, for those with an ear for music from the Jesus Revolution (before the "Contemporary Christian" genre was damaged by commercial success) here are links to some stations that play music you'll never hear anywhere else.

http://www.live365.com/stations/okej?play

Voices of Black Dissent

2008-11-07T08:40:00.008-06:00

In the Wake of the pigment-barrier breaking election it is interesting to find people in the African American community who are not on the Obama bandwagon. Here are a few voices of dissent. (I do not know that all of these have commented on the Obama specifically, however, the following generally take positions that put them at odds with national black leadership.

Eric Remond

http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/11/eric-redmond-living-soli-deo-gloria.html

Star Parker
http://www.urbancure.org/dev/pagedetails.asp?SubCatID=162

list to grow

Thomas Sowell

Shelby Steele (who will have to eat crow after writing a book stating the Obama was unelectable.)

Alan Keys (who lost a body of legitimacy in my mind given his anitcs years ago when not given space at some of the Republican debates.)

Phrase finder (Cool Find)

2008-11-07T07:48:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine asked what "Pushing the envelope" meant. I knew its meaning by use, but not the relevance of the phrase. So we looked it up. It was not what I thought.

So take a guess... then check yourself against
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/push-the-envelope.html

and for a thousand other odd idioms see the phrase megasite:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/index.html

Prayer and Parody

2008-11-05T00:12:00.007-06:00

The links in this post are a tad late, and are certainly incongrous. Prayer and parody often pull in different directions. I present these links given the diverse nature of folks I call my friends. It may be that we need to pray, even as we wince.

This first post features the thoughts of Pastor John Piper, posted before election night (who probably votes like an elephant), nonetheless has things to say to fellow Christians of any political persuasion who would place their confidence in a political process.

See: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1473_thoughts_on_voting_and_politics/

Or for a response see

Justin Taylor responds generously and critically to John Piper's thoughts on voting and politics.

Beyond that, here is a site given to political parody. I do not care for profanity (even the bleeped kind) especially when employed as humor. However, this public service ad by the Liberal activist group Move On Org. shows a clever way to motivate Democrat non-voters.

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/video.shtml?nid=5cYV8I2.4D8D7aZeOiuJjTM4MTA4Ng--

A note

2008-11-04T23:37:00.004-06:00

Pam...I am enjoying strange emotions this evening. As a Republican with an appreciation of limited government I am apprehensive. (I gave my vote to a third party candidate.) As an American who has longed to see the pigment walls come down, I'm thrilled.

Blessings to you on this great night.

Kirk (who just watched the McCain concession speech and is waiting to hear from my new president.)

* I use "great" here in an older sense of the word -- A sense, that blends the ideas of monumental and historic, with a touch of uncertainty and even foreboding. Foreboding in that the sense that we are a nation with unbent knees.

Arkansas' Artists

2008-10-24T08:18:00.009-05:00

This is a post that I will be updating routinely as I meet Arkansas' Artists and post new links

Ariston Jacks: Mixed Media, mural painter, etchings, photography: I was blown away by the skill of this relatively young artist who creates works at the intersection of African and American culture. Look for repeted themes of African masks and American currency.

Matthew Lopas: Mattew not only likes to paint in his house, he makes his house and its varied rooms his primary subject! Check out Matthew's 360 wrap around perspective as applied to big murals.

Daily Bread

2008-10-17T08:33:00.000-05:00

Start your day right with some meditations in the Spirit.

The Beauty of His Face17 October 2008Hamilton, VA

The beauty of men shall vanish in old age, all former comeliness is wiped away with grief.The radiance of Christ's face, lovely before all things, is more to be desired than the frail flower of flesh.

- Columbanus, Poem on the World's Impermanence, Irish, 7th century

You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants. As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with Your goodness.

- Psalm 17.14, 15

For the devotion which follows, and a daily devotional in your mailbox go to
http://myparuchia.com:80/ and check out the "Crosfigell"

Intrigues

2008-10-05T07:21:00.000-05:00

Carl Warner photographer: For some of the weirdest and most delightful of food scapes (food and such arranged to look like fairytale landscapes) go to the orange square on English Photographer Carl Warner's site. Simply Amazing.

Cake Wrecks: a site given to cakes gone horribly or hilariously wrong (though I rather liked this Van Gogh cake.

Sarah Palin Baby name generator

2008-09-24T16:00:00.001-05:00

To find out what you might have been named if Sarah Palin were your mom, check out:

http://politsk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah_13.html

The best music in the world

2008-09-18T09:17:00.004-05:00

A growing master list of my favorite singers, song writers, and musicians. (in no certain order)

Phil Keaggy: master guitarist

Mark Heard: Gone Home - folk rock hero, brooding Psalmist

Jeff Johnson: Ambient Celtic, sonic sojourner

John Michael Talbot: Franciscan troubador

Randy Stonehill: veteran Jesus folk rocker. you know its a broken world, when this guy's music is hardly found.

Jill Phillips: Baladesque, Christian folkster (and hymn singer)

VOL/Bill Mallonee:

Jan Krist: Detroit Folkster

Wynton Marsalis: American, Jazz trumpeter extrodinere

Bob Bennett: intelligent balladesque folk

Bruce Cockburn:

Iona: Modern Celtic sacred-apocyliptic-jazz fusion.

Dannibelle Hall: Now Home - lush motherly Gospel

Cynthia Clawson: perfomance singer spanning classical to Bayou worlds.

Daniel Amos: simply the best alt-Christian band in the world. (though they sometimes confuse me.)

Ashey Cleveland: Knockout guitarist and righteous blues

Buddy Greene: Santified Blues/Cajun/ Country harmonica Hymn singing folkster

Bela Fleck: Brilliant Banjo-ist spanning classical to grass

Mo Leverett: Blues Preacher-prophet

Charlie Peacock: Sophisticated Pop, wizbang urban producer, Jazz preacher

Annie Moses Band: In a class by themselves, power classical (Home school?) blue-grass fusion

Blind Boys of Alabama: Chicory and Rum Black Gospel

Take 6: smoooth acappella (sp?)plus

Michael Kelly Blanchard: life changing story singer

Sarah Hart: Sacred Parish Feminime folk

Sarah Laughing: they don't appear to have a real site (anymore) but this "righteous groove" band, owns the genre.

Sarah Masen: frail to stalwart, feminime whimsical folk

Sara Groves: introspective piano to melodic pop

Emmlou Harris: Americanna sister of the wounded soul

Liz Story: Deep poetry piano

Amy Shreeve: Harpist, some of the most beautiful music ever made on the face of the earth

Michael Card: Creative theologian, folk w celtic, hebrew, and gospel touches

Lamb: Messianic worhsip, folk, dance

Paul Clark: Vetran Jesus-music fusion jazz rocker

Kemper Crabb: Sacred old-world madrigal (sp) accoustic

Keb Mo: back porch blues

Kerry Livgren: Cellestial Rock (formerly of Kansas)

Pierce Pettis: frenetic folkist, Lyric Laurette

Fernando Ortega: Sacred Pop, keeper of the hymns.

Margaret Becker: Blue Eyed Soul, Neoceltic, open heart

Moya Brennan: Ambient Celtic

Laurie McClain: whimsical, feminine folk

Night Noise: this band and several members are no longer with us, but if you find their work, savor it or send it to me.

Buddy and Julie Miller: sacred neo-grass, what country was supposed to be.

Alison Kraus:

Switchfoot: When I dabble in volume

Coldplay:

Johhny Cash:

Johhny Cox:

Jars of Clay:

Miles Davis:

Satire

2008-09-10T07:59:00.002-05:00

Democratic Convention condensed

Republican Convention condensed

* Note: I found these two links within my fair-game sense of satire, however, some of the other offerings on this site are not fit for viewing. Family-view Caution.

This post from the *ONION, appeals to the paranoid secret conspiracy part of my being. It closes with an element I wish they had left out. And while I clearly see this as hyper-parody, there are those times when I wonder....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF5Kdm4Eu6w&feature=related

Playtime, Pathos, and Humor part I

2008-09-09T23:12:00.001-05:00

Assorted things which ammuse me.

Lucky's funeral (You tube)

Hello, I'm Amy Walker (You Tube)

Mr. Seeker Sensitive Pastor Dude (You tube)

The Blog of "Unecessary" Quotation Marks (Blog)

The Blog of Crummy Church Signs (Blog)

Hidden Bonus Track

Politics I

2008-09-08T19:16:00.001-05:00

Folks who know me will understand why I take kind of middle of the road approach to politics. In part, because my political sensibilities really are kind of centrist with a libertarian twist. As it is, I hold an non-political position with the state of Arkansas, and have worked for the executive leadership of both political parties.

All in all, I am far more interested in the Kingdom of God than any political movement. While I seek to be politically informed and do indeed hold political opinions, I am of the thought that Political parties, like nations ...and gold... and personal ambition are headed for the dust bin of history. Don't get me wrong. I think public policy is important and can be either good or bad, holy or unholy, freeing or bureaucratic. That said, I think think the manner in which we conduct ourselves politically is often as important as the positions we advance.

With that in mind, here is a select and growing list of political blogs I sometimes visit.

(this is incomplete, I will be adding a much larger list)

Top Ten Conservative, Top Ten Liberal blogs.

Town Hall : Mega site for the best in conservative thought with dozens of daily editorials. (This site is made all the better for the diversity and breadth of conservative thought)

Mathew 25 Network (social activism, focus on Christian ethics and truth telling, liberal framework)

Tdad's Roar and Purr (I came across "T-Dads" site in a special way. In linking though Blog-spot profiles I discovered we love much of the same music -- with over 80% common ground on our favorite music lists. That said, we think less alike politically, though I deeply respect his tone and concerns.

World View Weekend (Brannon Howse)

WVW is not a political blog per say but rather a forum for applied biblical thought (conservative reading) --with many political applications. I find I differ with its contributors routinely (in both content and tone) and find its graphics, tragic -- but look to it to keep me honed.

Sojourners (comments to follow)

Pam's Coffee Conversation: (Christian writer, pretty critical of Republican politics, but she likes my pictures.)

Grassfire.org: A group started by a family friend - Steve Elliot, given to stirring political activism among those given to biblical (and conservative) values.

Steve Johnson's World (thinking outloud)

2008-09-08T08:40:00.000-05:00

Steve Johnson, best man at my wedding way back in 89.

I am not sure what differentiates an arm-chair theologian/philosopher from a "pro" but Steve ranks as a full time Christian thinker with a deep social conscious. Over the years I have watched him apply his mind and heart to a variety issues, spanning borders to origins. His thinking, both political and religious are somewhat hard to label as he takes positions that are at once conservative then radical, orthodox then inventive. As is, Steve's physical life truly does straddle realms. He lives in Texas but spends much of his time in Mexico, and is given to seeing certain works of Christan theology translated into Spanish. Beyond that, Steve currently takes positions in the origins debate that are not my own, as he advocates comprehensive evolution -- with God at the helm.

http://thinkingaloud99.blogspot.com/ (Primary blog)

Related interests:

http://www.dryander.com/ (Site given to Spanish translations of Christian works.)

Steve:

"but addressing the needs of the Reynosa shantytown communities remains my long-term vision. I stumbled across a YouTube video this morning that conveys very well the situation and needs of these people. I would urge you to view it at http://www.stephendevriesphoto.com/chronicles/?p=220.
It is produced by some folks from Alabama who came and stayed for a time with one of the shantytown families. Their ministry is called Bedouins International."

Arkansas - Events

2008-08-26T23:13:00.000-05:00

The following links should help those in Little Rock, or the larger Central Arkansas area discover what to do with all the time that none of us have!

Amanda Galiano: About.com: Little Rock

Arkansas Events Calendar (AR Department of Tourism)

KUAR (Host of National Public Radio) Events Calendar

Capture Arkansas

2008-08-26T16:11:00.000-05:00

In the summer of 2008, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette held a contest in which hundreds of photographers submitted depictions of the Natural State. In the course of the contest I made a few friends and came away deeply impressed by the depth of our photographic talent, often at the hands of weekend photographers. Here are the sites of some fellow photo enthusiasts, ranging from serious hobbyists to full time pros.

Rodney Steele: Human interest, AR scenics - Conway, AR

Bob Shull: Stylized "nature" studio, portraits, Arkansica - Rodgers, AR

Karla Hall; Exploring Arkansas: AR Scenics, travel diary- Conway, AR

Mike Hall; Enjoying Arkansas; Scenics, fishing, outdoor diary - Conway, AR

Zack Jennings: Fine Art B&W, street candids, illustration works

Alex Kent: B&W, Fine Art, Wilderness - Little Rock, AR

Emily Jones: Journalist, fine art, family life - Little Rock, AR

Danny Harris: Portrait, Free-lance, nature

ML Baxley: Commercial, Fine Art portrait, Editorial - Little Rock, AR

Chris Burns: New pro, stylized portraits, weddings, editorial - Conway, AR

Dixie Knight: Stylized portraits, pets, editorial - Little Rock, AR

Bill Patterson: Conway AR community sports and human interest.

Rex Lisman: Sylized portraits, Street candids, fine art

Carolyn Wright: scenics, flowers, fall color - NW AR

Deb Carter: travel, scenics, flowers

Gary Felker: World Travel, Wildlife and Bird expert - Fort Smith, AR

Rusty Wood: landscape, cityscape, birds

Richard Ryerson: Commercial, portraits, studio - Conway, AR

Wendy Dunn: Portrait studio, nature - NW AR

Chris Phillips: Nature, Weddings, Environmental portraiture - Rodgers, AR

Julia Noble: experimental, fine art - Fayettville, AR

Kerry Guice: Innnovatitve weddings, art - Little Rock, AR