Christian Music: Not Safe and Fun for the Whole Family

I haven't listened to a lot of Christian music in a long time, certainly not on the radio, for reasons I'm sure many of you can guess. But music is a particularly powerful influencer. Good music often carries a lyric into the subconscious and a song can stick in your head for days. For me (and I suspect for most folks) music is an important habit of my mind, whether intentional or unintentional.

For this reason, I've recently been more intentional about the role of music in my need to to "take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Cor 10) and to think on "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable" (Phil 4).

Since the stuff on Christian radio isn't my style, among other things, it doesn't have much power to help me in this endeavor. (It does help many, many Christians "set [their] minds on things above" (Col 3:1), so I won't judge it too harshly, and I chide myself for doing so so disdainfully in the past.)

Fortunately, there is a good amount of "inde" music out there these days that reaches out to me and others like me (and others not like me!). Thanks to sites like Amazon and Noisetrade with their automatic, you-may-also-like suggestion boxes, out-of-the-mainstream music gets easier and easier to find.

Here are some of my recent finds.

The Vespers

As you can plainly see from the cover of their album, The Fourth Wall, The Vespers belie my bias for folk and bluegrass. They could be described as inde folk, or neo-folk, rockin' out their pickin-n-strumin' instruments in their vintage clothing. What you can't see are their at times haunting, at times playful vocals and lyrics. You can sample those here.

The Vespers don't only help us rejoice with those who rejoice, they also help us weep with those who weep, a holistic truth telling.

Gungor

Note the cover art on Beautiful Things: this is not your typical Christian music scene. Paradox is a significant part of the Christian understanding of truth, and Gungor reminds us of one of the most crucial paradoxes: 

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

Psalm-like, "Beautiful Things" opens with doubts and a sense of being overwhelmed and beat down by the ugly things in this world and in our hearts, but it is the refrain that remains in the mind---the reminder, the affirmation, the hope.

Wilder Adkins

Wilder Adkins's Oak & Apple presents new, acoustic remakes of old, beloved hymns. This choice exposes my preference for hymns over other kinds of Christian music. I'm not the only one, apparently, because there have been several projects in this vein of late. I prefer acoustic, folk-oriented albums like this one, but there are a significant number of neo-hymn albums with more pop-rock flavor.

One reason I appreciate these kinds of albums is because, along with familiar favorites, I'm always introduced to hymns I didn't grow up with. I love learning new hymns; the hymn is such a rich heritage, and learning the hymns from outside my own tradition links me to the wide, deep heritage of the faith.

You can find her latest album here.

Christine Hand

You might recognize that name. It just so happens that one of my very favorite musicians is our very own Christine Hand. Christine's music appeals to me pretty much for all the same reasons the above albums and artists do: the woman and her band can play their instruments! roots in folk, folk-rock, and blues; soulful, holistic vocals and lyrics. Her song, "The Face of All the World", is one of my long-time favorites, and I often turn to it when I feel overwhelmed by the world and am in need of encouragement and a reminder that God is everywhere and in everything:

You're every sweet sound

You are the cold rain

And every tear that from my eyes will fall for joy or pain

You are the best thing that I have found

And this world is wide and round

I haven't given up "secular" music---as we often like to say, all truth is God's truth. There are many, many songs of all stripes that remind me of Christ or the absence of him, of the glory and the horror of this life; and many songs of many stripes that are just plain fun! But as music is a powerful influencer, it's something we should at times be intentional about. The above albums and artists disciple my mind and nurture my soul. 

Your turn. I'm always on the lookout for good music. Share with us in the comments: What have been some of your favorite finds? What music gives you courage and hope? 

How To Support Our Music

Many of you have told me that you would like to support the music that my wife and I play, and this is your chance (it is simple).  We perform at different venues in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and we are excited about finally recording our newer music.

If you want to help, we have a Facebook fan page that I would ask you to "like."  When we release songs the people who know us on Facebook will be the first to know and will end up getting access to any free copies of the songs we give out (which might happen a lot).  You can also visit the main website for more information.

Furthermore, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you can see videos like this one (which was taken with my Aunt's iPhone).




These simple things really do help us out, a lot, so if you've ever wanted to lend us a hand this is your time.

Blogging the DBU Paideia Conference - Part 3

The heart of the Paideia Conference is when papers are read. Each attendee is able to attend a number of papers about a great variety of topics read by some remarkably intelligent students. These papers discuss almost everything an intellectual could ask for, including issues of faith, purely scientific papers, and examples of literary theory, such as an analysis of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (Which my wife attended, but I didn't, so I asked her to keep a copy of it). A list of all the papers can be found here (pdf).

Jake Rogers gave an excellent talk about the theoretical state of consciousness in alternate realities, an issue being discussed by experts in the field of the philosophy of the mind. Most people probably think Christians sit around singing Kumbaya and asking Pat Robertson about metaphysical issues, but that's not the case.

Obviously this picture came from Amos Barker's Facebook profile, not the conference. He discussed the tricky exegetical habits of Origin. It was one of the most well written papers I have ever read and I really hope I can create papers as good as that some day. He's also a nice guy, as you can see in this photo where he is wrestling newborns.

Carrie Hamilton discussed the redemption story as it shows up in literature (and in movies today), particularly Beowulf and Piers Plowman. It's one of my favorite topics and she handled the material and the discussion quite well. J.R.R. Tolkien was smiling somewhere.

Blake Carlisle discussed the effects of the Renaissance on Italian social unity. He's not a historian, primarily, but I was impressed with how well he handled the historical side of this paper since it involved things I have been studying of late. It was an excellent paper on an issue I've never heard discussed. (Italian history is always swept under the rug.)

Shiffer on Schaeffer. Ph.D. student Scott Shiffer (pictured here with the rock band Petra) gave a discussion on the beliefs of Francis Shaeffer concerning the sanctity of life. It was illuminating and brought up some excellent discussion points that I will be pondering for quite some time. (This, maybe, should be the goal of all of these papers.)

Mark Boone used the conference as an excuse to show off his Lord of the Rings action figures. Just kidding, Mark told us about Augustine's "Egyptian Gold" analogy, how it related to the philosophy of Augustine's day, and how it relates to the thinking of our own time. Mark is probably the most impressively eclectic philosopher I know; he doesn't live in Plato's cave or in Hume's doubts, but he juggles the best teachings from ancient, modern, and post-modern philosphers and the Bible.

While Mark spoke, his son, Jeremiah, paid pretty good attention. It's neat that the babies of these scholars grow up thinking intimate acoustic concerts and intellectual readings are a normal part of life. Notice that Dr. Naugle is in attendance as well. This is something of a mixed blessing because the presenter gets some bragging rights to say they spoke to Dr. Naugle but they also might get some tough (but good) questions.

In the evening, we were treated to the music of a beautiful woman (who you can book here). It's my wife, of course, who was asked to fill in with some music at the last second. She did quite well. That's Dr. Naugle's ovation guitar; he's a guitar player and a drummer.

The conference was a rousing success. Dr. Naugle never ceases to amaze me with his connections, his wisdom, and his ability to put on professional enjoyable conferences that include some of the smartest people I will ever know. (He also writes good books.) You will do yourself a favor to try and join in on the excitement next year.

I need to take guitar lessons from this guy...

I'm blogging from the Opening Bell Coffee House in Dallas where a few songwriters are on stage taking turns playing their songs. Christine and I showed up because two of the songwriters are musicians we have met and shared the stage with twice before.

Lisa and Bruce (who just got married) are really good and if I ever get to be half the guitar player Bruce is I will consider myself to be pretty good. Here's a video so you know what I mean:



See? He's way better than me. Actually, I've watched him a few times now and I'm pretty sure he's the best guitar player I know. And I know some pretty good ones.

Anway, it's a good show, as always, and we're excited that we get to play here, tomorrow night! (Thursday, June 19 at 8...)

Here's the band's we're watching tonight, it's BROKUS & PATTERSON and our friends, MARKLEY & BALMER.

I have a present for you!

Go to my wife's website, www.christinehand.com, and you will see that she is offering a free download of one of here songs! It's one of my favorites, so check it out. You can't beat the price!

Merry Christmas from us!

Hurricanes and Guitars

Before I get to the part about music, I found this intellegent post about the current hurricane's path and it's obvious part in the Republican party's plans to kill off minorities and win elections. Good stuff.

Anyway, next Saturday I am playing guitar with my wife at a show in Fort Worth. It's fun to learn new songs (her new ones are great) but I can't help feeling nervous. I used to play in front of people all the time and it never bothered me, but these days I get scared just thinking about it. And sometimes people request that I sing. (Poor fools.)

It worries me and I made a lot of mistakes at our last show, but maybe I will get back into the swing of it.

Speaking of swing, I listen to a station that plays Jazz when I drive home (Jazz stations are impossible to find) and apparently they need money. So, any of you wanting to support a small Jazz station, they are taking pledges.

Check out my wife (I do)

My wife just revamped her webpage. It's cool and it shows you the upcoming events where you can see her/us perform.

You should also sign up for the newsletter because it's not something that will be in your inbox often, it's a rare reminder of upcoming shows, not one of those annoying things that just adds more junk to your already annoying daily emails. No, this is much different.

Most importantly, we are working on new material which you will see at some upcoming shows. Right now, we are proud of a new song called 'Girl on a String' which you can hear us perform at our shows. It's really my favorite song we do and I always look forward to it as we go through our set.

Here's my wife at a show a few years ago:



And here's me and some cool guys trying to bring Jazz to our whitebread campus back in the day...