Blog.

I’m a little behind on Derek Webb‘s music since he left Caedmon’s Call in 2003, (apparently he rejoined in 2007.  Shows how behind I am) but I’m finally getting around to soaking in his solo albums. (Mostly thanks to Spotify)  This song sums up many of my feelings about the state of the contemporary church.

“T-Shirts” from the I See Things Upside Down Album:

they’ll know us by the t-shirts that we wear
they’ll know us by the way we point and stare
at anyone whose sin looks worse than ours
who cannot hide the scars of this curse that we all bare

they’ll know us by our picket lines and signs
they’ll know us by the pride we hide behind
like anyone on earth is living right
and isn’t that why Jesus died
not to make us think we’re right

chorus
when love, love, love
is what we should be known for
love, love, love
it’s the how and it’s the why
we live and breathe and we die

they’ll know us by reasons we divide
and how we can’t seem to unify
because we’ve gotta sing songs a certain style
or we’ll walk right down that aisle
and just leave ‘em all behind

they’ll know us by the billboards that we make
just turning God’s words to cheap clichés
says “what part of murder don’t you understand?”
but we hate our fellow man
and point a finger at his grave

chorus
they’ll know us by the t-shirts that we wear
they’ll know us by the way we point and stare
telling ‘em their sins are worse than ours
thinking we can hide our scars
beneath these t-shirts that we wear

You need to check this girl out.  She has some serious God-given talent and a voice that will rock your world.  Listen here.  (Be sure to listen to the accoustic version of “You’re Not Alone” at the bottom of the list, it’s absolutely stunning) Check out her blog.  That accoustic track is joining a small list of “test tracks” that I consider are exceptionally well recorded songs that I use to check the sonic properties of sound systems.  If you follow contemporary Christian music, you’ll definitely be hearing more from her…

This Sunday, my church is doing a baptism service at this little camp in the middle of the country at a small pond they have there. Amazingly, as of this writing, there are 80+ people signed up to be baptized, and we expect to have over 100 by Sunday. We’re also expecting 600+ people to show up, which makes for quite a few watermelons and smores!

I thought you guys would like to hear a glimpse of the music set that we have planned for the evening. The following are four of the five songs we will be doing and were recorded by Paul Kordon (our worship leader) and I last week, with both of us doing the vocals, Paul on guitar, and me on mandolin. For the actual set on Sunday, we will add an acoustic bass guitar, a lead electric (country-fied) and a small percussion/drum setup. Needless to say, I’m very excited about this.

Enjoy the audio. (Click on the triangle on the far right of each player to play the song…)

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Sorry for the lack of updates lately, a friend from Texas came to visit and said she checks this blog daily, so I will try to do better for her and my other faithful reader, whoever that my be. (probably my mom) Anyway, the other night I was bouncing from blog to blog, and myspace page to myspace page and found an artist that I am highly impressed with. Also, I have been blessed to get to know another talented independent artist in my area that I would like to share with you. Both are finalists for a couple Momentum awards, which are kind of like the Dove awards for independent artists.

First, my friend Alyce Metallo is a talented pianist, vocalist and woman of God. Her personality is contagious and she’s married to an Italian guy that runs the mafia. Ok, maybe he doesn’t run the mafia, but he’s really cool.  I should probably put a “shout out” (the terminology these days…  ~sigh~) to their daughter too, who is every bit as awesome as her parents.  We’re supposed to get together for dinner soon and I’m excited to continue to get to know her and her family. Her music is hard to describe as it covers a wide variety of styles, but if I had to put a Genre to it, I would call it hip-latin-hop-pop. Check her out here and here. Buy her music, support her, send her messages telling her how much you like her music…

One of my new favorite independent artists, Brad Reynolds, is based in Nashville and instantly captured my interest with the song titled “Anyway”. Here’s the first verse and chorus to that song, just to give you a taste of his writing: (emphasis mine)

He’s been sleeping on the sidewalk
since the money went away.
Can ya love him anyway, really love him anyway.
He lost his mind but finds the time to bum a dollar everyday,
but my Jesus says to love him anyway.

Cause love is the only evidence against us
that tells the world we’re guilty of a change.
There’s not a one who lives among us
who wasn’t lost somewhere along the way.
Judgment turned to mercy and mercy took our blame,
but it all comes down to loving anyway.

You can check him out here and here. Check out his biography here. Buy his music, support him. We need more artists like this.

Also, if you like them, please vote for Brad and Alyce here through the end of February.

I was reading up on a friend of mine who leads worship at a little church in College Station, TX, where I moved from. He’s a singer/songwriter and truly has a gift for lyrics and an unbelievable heart for the Lord. I found this post by Ross, and was overwhelmed when I read it. That is what a family looks like.

By the way, check out his music here: www.rosskingmusic.com and here: Ross’ myspace