get out the map!

I flew to Orlando on Wednesday. While flying I continued to read my amazing book whilst listening to the new mix cd I made (will post contents later) as well as deciding to listen to the Khrusty Brothers again (it's an album that requires some attention).

Now I'm about to drive to Jacksonville for a retreat for the weekend. I haven't gotten to inundate my college roommate, Liz, with new music for almost a year now so I've already made her listen, intermittently, to Misty Edwards, Alli Rogers, Ingrid Michaelson, Over the Rhine, Colbie Callait, well, it's been a lot. So I'll be off for a few days but blogs to look forward to when I get back:

-a way overdue review of seeing Superchick with my cousin
-Holly's singer/songwriter workshop (sort of waiting till I have mp3s of her songs)
-actual review of Misty Edwards' "Relentless"
-surely more thoughts on worship after the weekend and last week's "Logos"

i love louie

really, this is just genius.

I wouldn't trade this girl for a soul

This is a song for Lau, who I will see in less than 24 hours!!!






we cried over boys and we laughed over beers...

books & music

I just got an email from the library saying that this book was ready for me to pick it up! I am so excited to read it, I've been eyeing it for close to two years now, it had better be good!!!!



note: I'm back and have just read the first chapter and I'm already blown away. Part of me is like, "why didn't I read this years ago?!" and another part of me thinks, as accessible as its goal is to be, I still wouldn't have been ready until now. It's amazing. Go grab this right now and start reading.

a trio of songs for trinity sunday

first the complement to Misty Edwards' biblical usage: the first time I heard this song it was to run an errand for my friend Aleya and the CD just happened to be in the player. I was all, "Jennifer Knapp, how did you KNOW those were all my favorite verses?!"

The song is called "Trinity"



I went and saw the new Narnia movie tonight and it was actually a lot better than I expected. The song at the end was really good so I'm going to share it. It's Regina Spektor which is a sort of pleasant surprise.



I don't have a youtube for this last one; it's a song I've loved dearly since I first heard it and it just felt right tonight.

All I know
100 Portraits

today if there's ever been a day when I needed a rescue
I've been digging with all three hands a hole that I can't climb out from
someone throw me a rope
woven with the rounds of history
something I can believe in

someone told me a lie
someone told me
I should climb, so I tried
but I'm not that strong

someone found me, yeah
someone found me
He came down, pulled me out, bandaged me

Oh, all I know is
Love found me broken
Oh, all I know is
the Healer has freed me
from all of my shame
legs that were withered
are under me walking
I'm leaving this pain that I built with my pride
hands that were broken, now are waving goodbye

someone sold me a lie
someone told me
I should be in myself, but I'm not that tall
someone showed me
someone showed me
that I fall down
and call out, He will rescue me

Oh, all I know is
Love found me broken
Oh, all I know is
the Healer has freed me
from all of my shame
legs that were withered
are under me walking
I'm leaving this pain that I built with my pride
hands that were broken, now are waving goodbye

Oh, all I know is
Love found me broken
Oh, all I know is
the Healer has freed me
from all of my shame
legs that were twisted
are under me walking
I'm leaving this pain that I built with my pride
hands that were broken, now are waving goodbye
They are waving goodbye.

and the Hands that just healed me
draw me close to His side

I was broken, I was broken
Oh, this Hand has healed me, came and touched me, came and made me whole.
I said now I have to dance!
I lift it up
Oh now, all of my life I will sing!
Oh now, join me, join me, join me
Oh now, join me, join me, join me

Oh, all I know is
Love found me broken
Oh, all I know is goodbye lonely!
Goodbye, goodbye broken!
Goodbye, goodbye to blackness!
Goodbye to lonely!
Goodbye to hear my sin all in my mind
This Hand come around my left and
this Hand come around my right and
draw me close to the face of God!
I feel the kisses, I feel the holy something, the kisses from the mouth of my God!
And the sweet tears rolling and they hold me closer, sweet tears roll, hold me now.

whoa

If anyone knows me they know that 48 hours is more than enough time for me to become totally into something new. MISTY EDWARDS. I can't speak for the weird dance going on but this song is SO UNBELIEVABLE. It seriously makes me want to freak out- not many songs make me want to kickbox and pray in tongues at the same time, in fact this might be the only one. It's like some of the most powerful ideas and scriptures all rolled into one song. You have to listen to it to understand how crazy incredible it is.

People Get Ready
Misty Edwards

I can hear the rhythm
of the Lion of the tribe of Judah

He's doing a new thing
So we're singing a new song

He's not a baby in a manger anymore
He's not a broken man on a cross
He didn't stay in the grave
And He's not staying in heaven forever!

He's alive
He's alive
He's alive
He's alive!

People get ready!
Jesus is coming!

We join in the song of the ages
It's a new song
It's a new song
It's a new song

We say to the One who was slain,
"You have proven Your love,
And You have shown us, shown us
That You can be trusted."

So take the scroll and open
And open, and open the seals
We trust You, Jesus
And we want you to come back
So take the scroll and open the seals
So take the scroll and open the seals

I can hear the rhythm
of the Lion of the tribe of Judah

He's doing a new thing
So we're singing a new song

He's not a baby in a manger anymore
He's not a broken man on a cross
He didn't stay in the grave
And He's not staying in heaven forever!

He's alive
He's alive
He's alive
He's alive!

People get ready!
Jesus is coming!

People walking around
With their fingers in the their ears
Singing, "Da da da da da."
"I don't want to hear the sound of the coming King."

But He says, he says,
"Well, I have held my peace for
A long, long, long, long time
And in my silence you thought
That i was all together like you.
And in your heart you were settled in complacency
You said, 'He won't even respond.'
You said, 'He's not interested."
You said, 'He's dead and gone."
But I've been silent for such
A long, long, long, long time
But I'm about to gasp, to pant,
To cry out, to cry out,
I'm going to shout!"

Once again I'm going to shake
Everything that can be shaken
Once again I'm going to break
Everything that can be broken

Are you ready?
Are you ready for this?

Are you ready?
Are you ready?

People get ready!
Jesus is coming!

He's coming!
He's coming!
He's coming!
He's coming!!!

songs that stick

New Shiny Shoes
Sandra McCracken

It's been almost two years now since I saw you last
Sorry I remember you anyway 'cause you won't escort me out of your past
So you'd better just leave me here
'Cause I knew you when
Just take your new shiny shoes
You don't have to be my friend

Go ahead and walk away
Sever these last ties
I am nothing but a breath
And you're nothing but a lie

You got the last word when you left
to put me in my place
and you went off to your wild dreams
gone without a trace

While you follow that yellow brick road
to thine own self be true
and when you choose to go that way
in the end there is only you

Go ahead and walk away
Sever these last ties
I am nothing but a breath
And you're nothing but a lie

high on the sound of your own name
and this fleeting fanfare
the common ground is falling down
as if it was never there

while I'm still wearing this same old dress
my heart has come alive
and i will wait for your return
if you'll ever change your mind

Go ahead and walk away
Sever these last ties
I am nothing but a breath
And you're nothing but a lie

I wish I could find a way for you to actually hear this song
. Don't you love (and sometimes hate?) when there are songs that wrench on you again and again? Sometimes because they're too close to home and other times because it's so far from where you are?

I once went to a poetry reading to raise money for the situation in Darfur and two poets quoted Czeslaw Milosz, "Poetry doesn't change anything." Both poets, of course, attempting to disagree. I have to say perhaps the highest aim of art is to do just that: change something. Sometimes it's a subtle change in the way we approach something, sometimes it's picking up the phone to fight seeming inevitability, sometimes it leads us to more art or prayer, or conversation, and the ripples continue.

This song does all of that for me.

even if your hands are shaking: john mayer and more thoughts on conventional romantic ideas...

So part of me really likes this song. I mean, oftentimes I find it incomprehensible when people don't like the same music I do so maybe that should be taken into account but really it's a theme commonly expressed in the young(ish) and angsty- it's better to say too much than to never say what you need to say

And I couldn't disagree more, John. I will go ahead and speak as a young(ish) and angsty person and declare that I have often really resonated with this sentiment: I don't believe in having regrets, I'm probably more passionate about things than is prudent, and I'm (sometimes brutally) honest to a fault. So I speak from experience when I say that, really, sometimes, it is better to keep your mouth shut. Seriously, not everything that we feel like NEEDS to be shared, really needs to be shared. I genuinely think we have an unhealthy societal obsession with the dramatic, romantic, last-ditch, everything-hangs-on-this-moment, sort of confrontations and monologues that make for good TELEVISION. Not so good real life. Why have relationships and communication deteriorated to the point where this is necessary?

I'm not totally against the sentiment in "Say." Once you've screwed up a relationship and need to apologize or have been untruthful in some way, sometimes it does come to the point where you have to risk something for things to be made right. If your brother has something against you and you are getting ready to make a sacrifice- go leave your sacrifice and make amends with your brother.

But there is still something about this song that feels emotionally manipulative. Actually maybe I just resent that John Mayer feels emotionally manipulative. He is a classic example of why I usually steer clear of reading interviews with musicians/actors of a certain celebrity: I always end up disliking them. Or worse, sometimes they come off as someone cool who you might have a good conversation with, drink a few beers on the swing and really connect. Then you have this good feeling toward them and then the next interview you read you're like, ONLY A JERK WOULD SAY THAT, YOU ARE SUCH A JERK! Is consistency too much to ask?

Or perhaps that's the whole crux of any kind of artist: the first person you portray in your music isn't necessarily "you." Even the "I" of one's own work isn't necessarily "me." It's who I choose to be, it's what I choose to portray, and most of us prefer to portray ourselves with our best foot forward. Maybe that's why I like really confessional songwriters, because it resonates as more authentic or something.

While I'm in the vein of pop music of a confessional nature, maybe the aforementioned is why I like Kelly Clarkson. As a group of my friends used to tell each other with mock-serious, knowing looks, "Kelly understands." This song DEFINITELY qualifies as emotionally manipulative, but DAMN, if you're going to manipulate me the dizzying changes of keys and octaves HAS to be the way to do it.

I think these songs have some dialogue together. Listen to both of them- am I the only one who thinks there are threads woven between the subjects?

high fidelity, natasha bedingfield, and "soul mates"

What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music? (Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity")

(full video here, it's interesting actually.)

I read an article at BustedHalo.com the other day about the obsession in our culture with finding your "soul mate". I was intrigued by the discussion, statistics cited, etc. Back when my sister got me to listen to Natasha Bedingfield's hilarious and all-too-true "I Wanna Have Your Babies" I made my friend Marci listen to it because it's so ridiculous and yet hits close to home (if you knew what I was thinking/it would make you like, "whoa!") and she was looking at the other videos from Natasha's new album and said that she liked "Soul Mate" better. I watched the video (v. intelligent, imo) and listened to the words and found myself more disturbed than entertained. I think the chorus kind of says it all:

who doesn't long for someone to hold?
who knows how to love you without being told?
oh somebody tell me, why I'm on my own
if there's a soul mate for everyone?

It's a difficult lyric because I think Ms. Bedingfield speaks the truth: who doesn't want those things? At the same time the other half sort of infuriates me; the suggestion that there is someone out there who can love you effortlessly, "without being told." I'm sorry, my general idealism loses out for a moment, this is just pure fantasy. Relationships take time and effort. My friend Nick holds that anyone can marry anyone else because love is a decision (he also claims his two non-negotiables for a wife are that she doesn't want a diamond and will let him wear jeans to the wedding, but I digress.) I won't go so far as Nick but I believe there is a grain of wisdom in his thinking here. Love IS a decision and requires sacrifice, so the idea that there is this ONE person out there who it will be easy to love. None of us are easy to really love.

Anyway, all this came back to mind because I heard this song overhead while reading at a Barnes & Nobles and I was just thinking in the midst of stupid "chick lit," unbelievably improbable romantic comedies, ADVERTISING, and just the whole facade our culture tells us is the "good life"I wonder how much we buy into it. How much we should buy into it. I speak from the middle, I think. Any friend of mine can tell you how vehement I am against girls "settling" for relationships that aren't good for them but at the same time expecting perfection from ANYONE (including oneself) is just a recipe for disaster. On the other hand I am one of those lovers of books like "A Severe Mercy" and really believe in the tremendous power of two people becoming one person.

One of the questions the article brought up was how comfortable you are with being someone else's "soul mate." The object, I suppose you could say, as opposed to the subject of such a tight relationship. I thought that was an interesting question. Lots of pressure, huh?

I told my friend Lauren last night and concluded by saying that I think the idea of seeking out "The One" (as LG says, we're really looking for "The Two" anyway) is totally unrealistic and this is the crux of my issue with the "Soul Mate" song. I genuinely believe in a relationship of becoming with the other. One of my favorite people, TomNeal, who taught me Christian Tradition in college gave us one Friday off because he and his wife were going away to celebrate their (12th?) anniversary and he commented that the more he knows his wife the more of a beautiful mystery she is. Now that's what I'm talking about.

if Lindsay influenced the liturgy...

I would have somehow worked Over the Rhine's song "The Trumpet Child" into the mass for today's feast of the Ascension.

more mix CD goodness

I met a Catholic musician recently who expressed his frustration with the lack of artistry and authenticity in most Christian music, a genre he's pretty much given up on. I decided to make him a mix CD to remedy this. He's primarily a pianist, and I knew he liked Burlap to Cashmere and admired Rich Mullins. So here's what I came up with:

1. I Don't Wanna Waste Your Time: Over the Rhine
2. The Dress Looks Nice on You: Sufjan Stevens
3. The Things We Can and Cannot Keep: Alli Rogers
4. She Held My Hand: Steven Delopoulos
5. Mercy Moves Me: 100 Portraits
6. Springtime Indiana: Sandra McCracken
7. Mansions: Steven Delopoulos (from his live album)
8. On a Night That Felt Outdated: Waterdeep
9. May I Always Keep My Feet Upon the Ground: Steven Delopoulos
10. A Savior on Capitol Hill: Derek Webb
11. Have You Fallen on the Cornerstone: Don Chaffer
12. Eve: Sandra McCracken
13. Work to Be Done: Steven Delopoulos
14. Used to Love: Judd & Maggie
15. Lonely Sometimes: Waterdeep
16. For the Morning: Alli Rogers (from "At Sea")
17. Ohio: Over the Rhine
18. To Be Alone With You: Sufjan Stevens
19. Pieces: Enter the Worship Circle
20. 18 Bullet Holes: Waterdeep

which leads us to.... chair and microphone, vol 1 review

I downloaded Chair and Microphone, Vol 1 from emusic.com about a week ago and, gosh, the more I listen to Robin and Ben Pasley just...do what they do... the more I like them.

The first time I was mesmerized by their style of music and worship was through the songs "save me" and "improv" from their collaboration with Waterdeep on the first "Enter the Worship Circle" album. The improv song left a big impression on me- especially when I learned that its title says it all; it's literally an improvised song that wanders through some of the best bits of Song of Songs, Isaiah, and Hosea. Then it weaves that with personal responses to the promises offered in those places, really poignant and more beautiful for its spontaneity.

So, back to the project at hand (it's not newly released or anything, just new to me, I've been eyeing it for a while now) the song that stands out the most is the first one, "Pieces." The imagery is wonderful, it immediately caught my attention with the first line I swallowed the key/to the door painted red/that leads to the big room filled with regrets. I just love how concrete it is, and poetic.

I suppose that highlights one of the Pasleys talents which is managing to make really strong emotional connections with really specific images while at the same time constructing choruses that are accessible but not trite.

My other favorite tracks are probably "Rescue Me Deep", "Wedding Days" (I like the straightforward simile running through the song), and "Answer Me." I also really love the whole construction of "Crown Him."

But in the vein I've come to expect from these projects almost all the songs speak to me in different ways, at different levels as they play through.

They really have managed to continuously capture the spirit of the psalms. I say that in the sense of containing pieces of your personal journey even if it's not where you are at the moment. The Catholic Church participates in the ancient Christian tradition of praying the psalms everyday and we all pray the same psalms. Obviously the millions of people praying the same psalms are not all in the same place in their emotional and spiritual lives and yet these words resonate with all of us somehow. So to say that Ben and Robin have managed to create pieces of art that can have that effect is high praise.

wikipedia lets me down again

no entry for "100 portraits", "enter the worship circle", OR "ben/robin pasley" as individuals?! WHAT THE HECK??

I am LOVING this song recently. I actually really really love the random version of them just getting the idea out there. Their voices are just amazing and unique. Makes me happy.

nytimes blog on music & lyrics

Once again Morgan pulling through for me... she gchatted me this article by Rosanne Cash about songwriting: craft, art, poetic license and other good things.

Also good notes for wannabe music interviewer like myself...