What a Night! Beamo, Sammy Witness, and Jeremy West. The music was mostly original and was incredible. Afterwards, the guys from Beamo, one of their friends from work, and I headed next door to Ale House to hang out a bit more before heading home. Next time I’ll let you guys know sooner about upcoming shows. You should have been there.
Over the past couple of years, I have had the great "privilege" of introducing people on stage. I have never quite been sure what to say. In February, I got to do a string of introductions MC-ing the Ocoee leg of the Vox World Music Jam. As always, I felt like I was rambling, but I was assured that I didn’t do too bad a job, even though I introduced Berkana as Berkana, Ansus Berkana, and Erica.
However…
Here is a great introduction. I am going to have to up my game before next years World Music Jam.
I think one of the things missing in my life is music. Music used to be such a HUGE part of who I was and it has kind of slipped away over the last year. I got U2 by U2 for Christmas this year. I am still at the skimming through the pictures stage and have only read a little, but something that caught me was a comment by one of the guys in the intro pages.
He said that while they lacked in musical skill sometimes, one of the things that made them who they were was a natural connection between each other, musically. One of the things that I miss most about playing with Claymyre is not our incredible musical giftedness, but that natural connection. We play well together.
One of my resolutions for this year is going to be to constantly have a soundtrack to my life. For too long I have let music become something I like instead of something that is a part of me. An iPod for my birthday (hint hint) is going to be a part of making this happen.
Oh…and the reason I started writing this post…new music. Got Dusk and Summer by Dashboard Confessional and B Collision by David Crowder. It is still 2006, but a great start to building a soundtrack for 2007.
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I can’t help but think that K-Fed is pretty rediculous. It is the heigght of my disdain for the music industry. The man has a record and interviews on television and all that junk, not because he is good, but because he married someone. Not that that someone is particularly good, but because she was/is hot. Whatever happened to music.
Anyways…I came across this which is by someone who not only thinks K-Fed is rediculous (apparantly), but actually met him.
Almost every morning, my daughters and I listen to the same song on our way to school. Track 18 on David Crowder’s A Collision. The song is called We Win, and the repeating line is "Shout loud, loud until the walls come down".
The CD has been living in my car for some time, but the last few weeks, Robyn has started singing along. Well in the last few days, Bethany has started singing along as well. So now, every morning, I get to worship with my girls on the way to school.
After I drop them off, I listen to the next three tracks, Rescue Is Coming, A Conversation, and A Lark Ascending. This whole album has been a real insight into worship and my place in the Kingdom, but these three tracks have become my morning boost to get me going.
Everyday, a different line seems to strike me, and this morning it was "the ground pulls at my feet". How often does the weight of the world pull us down when God planned for us to soar? We are called to lead others, in life and in worship, and yet the ground keeps pulling us down.
I found a site a few weeks ago that includes a lot of David Crowder’s thoughts on this whole album, but also the complete transcript of A Conversation, including the part that gets drowned out once he starts singing.
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I am working on a massive redesign and a slight repurpose for this site. It will still serve the same basic purpose, an outlet for my writing and ideas, but I am going to restructure some of the categories to better suit how and what I write. Up til now the categories have been somewhat adhoc and lumped together. I made up categories as I went and lumped things wherever if I didn’t feel like making up a new category.
In addition to my random writings (as ideas come), I am going to start some weekly features. Ultimately I will have a feature per day (Monday Feature, Tuesday Feature, etc…) but I am going to start them one at a time.
I hope you enjoy the upcoming changes.
If you have not heard of Andrew Peterson it is because your local Christian Radio is as lame as ours is. Andrew is an amazing songwriter, incredible performer, and all around good guy. I still remember sitting next to him in Bible College during Ezekiel Class. I was trying to take notes (freshman in a 201 or 301 class) and he was creating songs. I always wonder if those songs were something great, or just some idea.
Anyways…The reason for my post.
I will be going to a concert in Lakeland, FL in a couple weeks and I think you should too. What?!? You don’t live in sunny Central Florida? Well then, how about you check out his tour page and find a show near you. Tour I have been to 2 album debuts, a handleful of smaller shows, countless chapels where he either led worship or sang a special, and one private performance after a coffee house for the state Christian Campus Fellowship Retreat where he and Gabe played a couple of favorites for Phat Rok and I. Seeing him live is the way to go.
If some how you just can’t make it out to one of his shows, buy an album or give him a search at the iTunes Music Store. I have watched Andrew for years become a deeper songwriter and better musician. He is the kind of person that makes you excited about the Christian Music Industry (although technically I don’t think he is a part of the “industry” anymore).
I saw Brian Bailey’s post, “10 Favorite Albums of All-Time” the other day and couldn’t even begin. There are a lot of albums that our my favorite for a particular mood, based on where I was when I heard it. Made me think of John Cusack in Hi Fidelity organizing his records in chronological order by first hearing. In honor of Hi Fidelity I thought I’d do a top five, and stick with just U2 to simplify my insanity.
1. The Joshua Tree By far their best complete album. Beginning to end, this is the one that I constantly go back to. It is a complete work of art.
2. War This album has some of my favorite singles (Sunday, Bloody Sunday & New Year’s Day) but as an album it doesn’t have the same continuity that The Joshua Tree had. This CD has been living in my CD player for about 12 repeats now. I should probably change it soon.
3. Rattle & Hum I have the DVD rather than the album for this one (although I did make a complete MP3 of the DVD which I listen to rather than watch when I am driving). Some of the particular versions of songs that are on this make this an “album” that must be included. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For with the gospel choir in Harlem; When Love Comes to Town with BB King; Sunday, Bloody Sunday on the day of the Inniskilin bombings. Such passion, such energy. Here is a man who believes what he believes with everything he has. No reservations. Man I wish I was seeing them live this year.
4. How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb While Vertigo was a great rock song and had some deep lines, there are few tracks (and lines) that just speak to me and won’t go away. The song Yahweh has been an echo in the back of my mind since I first read the lyric. That line from Miracle Drug just keeps pounding in the back of my brain. “Freedom has a scent, like the top of a newborn babies head.” What an image. The freedom of Christ and the image of new birth. There’s others on that album that just make it a great beginning to end, repeat, but nothing touches the classics, so it only made number 4.
If we went with singles I would definetly have to do a top ten rather than top 5, but they would be mostly off these albums with maybe Beautiful Day as well. Numb was always one of those songs I wanted to dislike, but couldn’t help loving, but I don’t think it would make the top ten. Generally I find myself listening to U2 in my office through iTunes with shuffle and I can’t think of a single song I would skip. Some of their B-sides of the Best of’s probably aren’t appropriate to crank at the church office, but still great songs.
To go back to Brian Baileys original post, a couple of albums I would have to include would be something by Rich Mullins (probably Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth), Ten by Pearl Jam, The Black Album by Metalica (or possibly Master of the Puppets), The Gin Blossoms first album, & Grave Dancers Union by Soul Asylum. There are few others and most of these I don’t even listen to anymore, but they all have had impact on who I am, both musically and as a person. I probably would include something by Elton John, James Taylor, and Eric Clapton as well. Not sure by the time I narrowed it down to just ten. Andrew Peterson’s CD, Love and Thunder, has been a regular in the play list and has some of the profound kind of song writing that makes U2 and Rich Mullins so great. You can see why I decided to stick with 5 and just U2, as I have now digressed into the insanity that caused me to ignore the original topic of Brian’s Post. Must go to bed. Good Night.
Kanye was on the Ellen show the other day (I didn’t see it but my mom apparently did so I checked it out online). A couple of quotes.
“It was just so emotional. I just felt there were so many things that I had been hearing and bullet points that I’ve been hearing that weren’t on those Teleprompters. And I told Mike Myers, ‘Yo, I’m going to ad lib a little bit.’”
“People have lost their lives, lost their families. It’s the least I could do to go up there and say something from my heart, to say something that’s real.”
“I’ve been brutally honest since I was a little kid”
Don’t know in what order these were aired as I didn’t see the show. I agree with his gut feeling that it seemed like a dreadfully long time before a proper response was made. Whether or not any preferential treatment was given to rich white people over poor black people, I (and probably Kanye too) am not in a position to know. I know what I saw on TV, but having lived through the Tornado at Florida Christian College in ‘98 and the Fires in Daytona the same year, I know that the media tends to air what it feels will get ratings and reaction and ultimately make them money. Truth is secondary. Even the mighty FOX News which tends to be more truthful then others spent a good hour or so in last years hurricanes talking about this guy who was trapped on his boat. Great ratings. Lets watch their exclusive. Turns out no guy on the boat. In ‘98 there was no power, minimal food, and probably a day before a full response team arrived. The college (students and staff) filled in and made it happen. But the news crews were there immediately. By the end of the day there were probably 50 of them, each with their own generator, while everyone went without power.
Kanye is contributing to the media’s distortion of reality. He says he is brutally honest, but what he means is that he is brutally honest about his opinion and perception. Maybe George Bush really hates the poor and the black and he planned the whole hurricane (followed by snipers) to help rid us of them. My guess though, is that circumstances outside of Kanye’s knowledge kept the government from responding in a timely manner. The media has skewed the facts, as usual, and Kanye percieves this as an attack on black people. We are always blindly defensive of those we love. I don’t know how many petitions I get in my email of Christians defending the rights of Christians about an issue that isn’t even real. I respect Kanye’s willingness to say what he thought was right; but to say it on television, where people assume that what you say equals fact, contributes to the insanity, rather than solving any issues.
Some of you may remember (or may be hearing for the first time) that I was in a band called Claymyre. Due to the move to Orlando and other things beyond our control, we took a step back and quit playing together for the time being. Probably for good, but God’s plans for things can not always be forseen.
Anyways….our guitarist and lead vocalist decided to play some on his own and is doing some acoustic solo stuff that you should check out. A bit tamer than Claymyre, though some of the music is rewrites of our old stuff. Here is a link to his pureVolume site. His actual website should be up soon.
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