Music with a Mission & Joe Zambon

This past friday I hosted a concert to benefit a church in Peru I visited last year. This mission in Chimbote, Peru is incredibly poor but filled with faith. It was a privilege to visit the people there. I vaccilate heavily about why to go on a trip like that and ultimately I believe it is to return and share the plight of others with people here. So I decided to invite some friends to play some music to raise money for the people I met down there.















My roommate, Jeremy, and my friend Michael agreed to play and they sure did. It was a beautiful experience from classic Jesuit tunes (Take Lord, Receive) to covers of Gnarls Barkley (an insane acoustic version of "Crazy"), Sufjan, Decemberists, all kinds of good stuff. One of the highlights for me was one of Michael's original songs about loving your enemies. It was really beautiful to be in a room full of both Christians and non-Christians singing the radical words of Jesus about doing good to those who hate you.

Since then I have been craving something deep and acoustic, meaningful and intimate. Thankfully Jake over at the blah blah blog posted an interview yesterday with Joe Zambon, and after reading it I immediately went and downloaded it. It was exactly what I had been wanting. I already want to share it with pretty much everyone. I listened to it for the first time while making quacamole and baking tortilla chips and several times just said, "damn." It's that good. And I started to laugh out of joy at one point. I am being honest, here. It is a beautiful beautiful album. I am going to post a youtube video but I have to tell you this doesn't even come close to how smooth and warm the album is, you really just need to get it for yourself. Heartily recommended.

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.

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.

the local "scene"

Nick Carleton Band at the Steaming Bean

Last night I went to see the Nick Carleton Band at a Christian bookstore and coffee shop in Parker and it was a good night. I was introduced to their music by one of the girls I work with. She made me a mix CD that included their song, "Father of My Dreams." Which, despite some unimaginative lyrics, is really touching and honest. Anyway, I found out they are a local band and I had wanted to go see them and it worked out that I could go last night. I was really impressed. Nick has a really remarkable voice. They were just sound checking and he started singing "Here is Our King" and sounded excellent! I love David Crowder and the way he writes worship songs but, for better or worse, many people have a hard time sounding good when they sing his songs because his voice is so distinctive and unique. I don't believe that someone has to necessarily sound like the original writer or recording artist but Crowder's songs do present a unique set of problems. But I have never heard anyone sound as clear and on key! They were really personable, I liked their other original songs, and it was a really excellent low-key environment. My only gripe was that they took forever to transition between songs.

Vigil Praise

One of the great things we do here in the Archdiocese of Denver is have vigil praise once a month at the John Paul II Center for the New Evangelization. The seminarians do the music and, I suppose, plan the liturgy. Anyway, it consists of Eucharistic adoration, Night Prayer, confession, readings, exhortation, and music. Tonight a priest from the Community of the Beatitudes gave an AWESOME exhortation. The guys who do music do a really good job, too. When we chant it's so lovely to have hundreds of people participating, they play acoustic style: guitar, congas, and keyboard. I love the atmosphere at vigil praise because, as we prayed tonight from Psalm 24, I genuinely feel like it is a community of people who want to be purified and see the face of the Lord.

Recently we've been singing Chris Tomlin's "Wonderful Maker" and it's a song I really love to sing. I especially love the parallelism at the beginning and the little contradictory phrase "how majestic Your whisper." It's sort of a healing kind of song.

You spread out the skies over empty space
Said "let there be light"
Into a dark and formless world Your light
was born

You spread out Your arms over empty hearts
Said "let there be light"
Into a dark and hopeless world Your Son
was born

You made the world and saw that it was good
You sent Your only Son for You are good

What a wonderful Maker
What a wonderful Savior
How majestic Your whispers
And how humble Your love
With a strength like no other
And the heart of a Father
How majestic Your whispers
What a wonderful God

No eye has fully seen, how beautiful the cross
And we have only heard
The faintest whispers of how great You are

Matt Maher, Identity Politics, and some final thoughts

Identity Politics

I was talking to one of my friends about this album yesterday and she brought up a contradiction of sorts. She was annoyed that in a review she had read of this album the reviewer had specifically noted that Matt was a worship leader at a Catholic Church. She felt like that might turn some non-Catholic Christians off by the possibility of their prejudices. At the same time she said she was disappointed that this album wasn't more "Catholic." I thought that was an interesting set of responses.

First, I am a proponent of Matt's affiliation with St. Tim's being known. I pointed out that, for most people, it's a major plus for a worship leader to actually have a home church where they are actually involved with leading an actual congregation in worship. So I think Matt's credibility is strengthened by that being known and celebrated.

Second, while there isn't a "Litany of the Saints" or a "Lamb of God" or "Adoration" on this album it seems laughable to me to question Matt's Catholicity. Apart from his extremely close relationship with organizations like LifeTeen, ADORE (and with that CRS), YouthArise, the Steubenville Youth Conferences, etc he is just totally Catholic! I don't know what else to say! It's so much a part of his identity and work, it seems like a step in the wrong direction to demand that his work have some sort of "Catholic" boundaries. I feel this way in general about all Christian artists: let's let them be ARTISTS instead of demanding some sort of saccharine, boxed-in, idea of what it means to express one's faith.

My point is that this brings up well the place Matt, his music, and his band find themselves in as minorities in the CCM scene. I rejoice, though, because it's so exciting to have the opportunity to build bridges in the way something as unthreatening as music allows us. I really celebrate the opportunities Matt has had to dialogue with people like Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, JD Walt, and other influential Christian artists. Jesus prayed that we would be one and I think we're all called to find our commonalities and celebrate our shared faith in Jesus Christ.

A Few More Things

Here is the first part of an unabashedly Catholic (and candid, I did NOT need to know anything about Kenny's bowels...) discussion of Matt's new record; he talks with LifeTeen's Greg Iwinski. The thing this interview reminded me of was that a LONG time ago Matt had mentioned this album would have some thinking centered on Augustine and his Confessions. The first time I heard the album streaming on his website I thought, "I didn't hear anything about Augustine. Am I missing something?" Then I promptly forgot all about it. I was looking forward to hearing that song. Someday I think we will.

When I opened my jewel case and saw the actual CD I think I actually said, "Oh. Cool." out loud. I really like the design!


This recording is downright awful but it's SO "Catholic" that I couldn't resist adding it- Welcome to Life's thunderous opening of TRANSUBSTANTIATION! complete with band in front of crucifix and Our Lady of Guadalupe print? I love it.