Music Spectrum

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Key:
“Get a Job” by The Silhouettes; “Earn Enough for Us” by XTC; “Birth, School, Work, Death” by the Godfathers; “Hung the jerk who invented work” from “Big Rock Candy Mountain” by Harry McClintock; “Whistle While You Work” by Churchill/Harline; “Take This Job and Shove It” by David Allan Coe (cover by Johnny Paycheck); “Work is a Four-Letter Word” by Cilla Black (cover by the Smiths); “Bang on the Drum” by Todd Rundgren; “Playing six-string sounds good to me” from “Good Work” by the BoDeans; “Career opportunities” by the Clash; “Working My Way Back to You” by the Four Seasons (also the Spinners); “Hard Day’s Night” and “We Can Work It Out” by the Beatles; “In the Highways (I’ll Be Somewhere Working for My Lord)” by Maybelle Carter

We interrupt this music review Website with a word about television. . .

With the fall television season beginning, remember that God knows you like one of scientist heroes on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or Numb3rs.

In this month’s The Atlantic, Virginia Postrel says these television crime shows have made juries expect real-life crime investigators to be as capable about discovering the truth.

Postrel quotes Larry from a Numb3rs episode talking about how sabermatics (baseball math) proved that “Shoeless” Joe Jackson didn’t throw any of the games in the 1919 ‘Black Sox’ series. Larry says, “Math restored a man’s good name and reputation after 70 years. I find that rather beautiful.” Postrel continues, “Science, these shows promise, will see you—innocent or guilty—for who you really are.”

That’s the kind of promise we’ve usually left for divine beings to make. We are intrigued by stories about astrologers, psychics, and mediums who are able to see the truth through some sort of supernatural power. Now, though, the CSI-effect means that we are intrigued by investigators touched by scientific powers.

My favorite CSI hero is Lieutenant Horatio Caine (CSI: Miami). With his signature cocked head, he can look a criminal in the eye and say, “Here’s what I think,” and then lay out how the crime really happened. We don’t see Horatio doing the scientific experiments; he leaves that to his crack staff. However, when they bring new evidence to his attention, Horatio reacts as if he knew that answer all along. He has so absorbed the scientific method that he can process the answers in his mind.

More than the cocked-head, cocky surety of Horatio, Jesus comes to us saying, “Here’s what I think,” and then lays out our entire life of sin, pursuing our own thoughts and desires, and committing the crime of setting aside God’s Law. Horatio shows care for victims, a long list of people he promises to watch, but Jesus cares for us, the criminals.

When Jesus sees our sin, He doesn’t send us to jail with a witty one-liner. He offers forgiveness, love, and His Spirit. He offers us the full Truth of the cross and resurrection, death and new life, judgment for sin and forgiveness. He sees us for who we really are, but He says, “Here’s what I think. I think that you are guilty but innocent in my sight. I think you deserve eternal death, but I will make sure that you life forever in peace with God.”

This article is reprinted with kind permission from the Manitowoc Herald-Times Reporter, Saturday, September 8, 2007. www.htrnews.com

A recent bio sheet accompanying a new Christian singer/songwriter’s CD to be released this spring says:

Sometimes the most meaningful art can come from life’s most tumultuous storms, which [this artist] can cite through a season of internal wrestling, outward struggle, and eventual resolution.

This singer/songwriter—who will remain unnamed—has employed a bio writer—who will also remain unnamed—who has captured the essence of art: something that speaks a truth about life from the realities which face us in life. However, there’s been too much history of Christian artists feeling uncomfortable exposing their storms without immediately trying to counter it with resolution. This bio falls right into that category as it continues:

While the burgeoning troubadour admits experiencing multiple emotions like doubt, despair, and even a sinking self-esteem, that questioning has all been erased by the embrace of God’s unconditional love….

I do not question whether this artist has experienced God’s love, and I certainly do not doubt that God’s unconditional love can lift us up from dark emotions. However, the bio reveals how Christians artists, the Christian music industry, and really the Christian music audience are very nervous in the in-between. If music (or any art) speaks about the gritty ups-and-downs of being a Christian in this world, it also needs to be neatly wrapped up with a “Jesus loves me” bow at the end.

Christianity as Worldview
Ken Heffner is not about to let conversations about Christians doing art denigrate to such simple answers. As Student Activities Director at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is playing host to the second Festival of Faith and Music, March 30-31, Heffner hopes to encourage artists who are comfortable with the first part of that above bio: “the most meaningful art can come from life’s most tumultuous storms.”

While discussing those storms, the Festival of Faith and Music (FFM) is ready to take the world by storm. As the counterpart to the every other year Festival of Faith and Writing, Heffner and his team had a goal to make this year’s FFM even bigger, anchoring it with concerts from Emmylou Harris, Neko Case, and Sufjan Stevens. Having already reached the registration cut-off, a special limited registration was just opened up to allow 150 participants to attend everything except the Sufjan Stevens concert.

The conference brings together artists, writers, industry types, academics, and fans in order to have conversations about what it means to find Christ in art—not Christian art. As shown by the discussions at the 2005 FFM, the distinction is very important.

“It is exceptional that Christians are getting together to talk about art—not for evangelism—but art for art sake,” Heffner explains. “It is a kingdom vision that allows them to talk about a wide range of art, a Christian worldview that shapes an aesthetic, and original ideas come out of the worldview. Worldview precedes aesthetic. It tells you what you see and hear and imagine.

“[The Church has] suffered, because we don’t see Christianity as a worldview. [Christianity has become] an answer to a particular question, an answer to a moral question. It’s not a cosmic scope. A relationship with Christ escapes you out of this world, as opposed to Christ coming to make a whole world new.”

To borrow from Heffner, the above press release poises us to see a Christian singer/songwriter who has escaped out of this world because of his relationship with Jesus (“that questioning has all been erased”), rather than remaining with the uncomfortable in-between of living in this world while also knowing Christ, of seeing how Christ changes how we view the world (finding truth in “life’s tumultuous storms”).

Heffner keeps coming back to his observation that American Christianity has locked itself into a dualism which divides the sacred and the secular. The dividing line has led to things such as the Christian music industry, meaning that Christians often define a music by record label or whether there is an altar call during a concert. Anything outside of that circle gets lumped into the secular world. The FFM is about transcending that dualism. Christians are making art in all realms regardless of faith statements of producers, labels, publishers, or promoters.

Of course, encouraging this Christian worldview that dismantles the dualism also means recognizing “truth telling” in the so-called secular world.

“We are not just celebrating the work of Christians, but we are trying to encourage Christians that there are other ways of doing art,” Heffner continues. “God works through anyone He needs to. The best and brightest work is not being done by the body of Christ. The work still needs to get done. We see telling the truth in [the work outside the Church] perhaps better than others.”

This is why the FFM invited Neko Case and Emmylou Harris to perform and speak at this year’s conference. “We are unique as a Christian festival, because we invite artists in who aren’t necessarily Christian and even invite them to speak. We want them part of the conversation.”

I will presenting a workshop titled: “There is a Light That Never Goes Out: Saint Morrissey and the Gospel.” Morrissey, as lead singer of the Smiths and in his solo career, has written lyrics that cut deeply—even piercing the soul. While Morrissey has never claimed the Christian faith as his own, his lyrics show a reoccurring conversation with God. This presentation will take a look at the echoes of the faith in Morrissey’s words as he approaches the subjects of temptation, God, death, and Gospel-type metaphors, while also seeing Morrissey’s “pastoral care” and Morrissey as prophet.

Thanks to Ken Heffner for taking the time for this conversation.

Like a novel where a really good first line compels you to keep reading, I wondered if I could compel you to check out some discs by just giving you the first line of a review. (In other words, I didn’t have time to write to whole thing, but I’m offering a nugget of what I think about the album).

Forget Cassettes
Salt
Theory 8 Records

Forget cassettes, because you’re liable to stretch out the tape from listening to Forget Cassettes’ Salt over and over again with its indie basement hollering rock that comes out of murky dream intros/interludes. Another album made immediate and enveloping by Jeremy Ferguson’s touch at the recording desk (Battle Tapes Recording).

Sufjan Stevens
The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album
Asthmatic Kitty Records

Sufjan Stevens’ face on a flying superhero replaces the outlawed Superman image on the original, original cover of Illinois; this set of demos, extras, and more prove that Stevens is the Inide Rock man of steel with X-ray vision into our souls.

Fatboy Slim
The Greatest Hits: Why Try Harder
Astralwerks

Fatboy Slim’s The Greatest Hits: Why Try Harder should be endorsed by the American Disabilities Association as it serves beats, samples, dance rhythms, and raps for two differently-abled groups: 1) the Dance Club Challenged—those of us who are either too old, too poor, too angular, too shy, or too rock ‘n’ roll to hear the DJs at a nightclub (this includes those who are too far from a dance club that knows something besides 80’s hits and “Who Let the Dogs Out?”), and 2) the Urban Challenged—those of us who live far from the city pulse but want to find out the common man’s blood pressure.

World/Inferno Friendship Society
Red-Eyed Soul
Chunksaah Records

This is the soundtrack I imagine for a Jam Band Cirque de Solei where instead of trapeze wires everyone is swinging on else.

theESource is a monthly Web magazine geared toward youth workers. They’ve been picking up some of my CD reviews in recent months. Now they are also featuring a Bible study I wrote called “Can Music Move Mountains?” Using songs from Third Day, Casting Crowns, Evanescence, and Switchfoot, this is a 4-part series about music and how it strengthens our faith. Check it out! It’s a free download.

Through the Word, the Holy Spirit works in us to strengthen our faith, to grow our understanding, and to constantly remind us of God’s forgiveness, love, and grace. Is it possible for Christian rock music to be a part of that studying, strengthening, teaching, and reminding? Certainly. When the song speaks God’s Word in truth, points to Christ, and by the Spirit turns our attention to the things of God, Christian music helps us grow in our faith.

The Holy Spirit works whenever God’s Word is spoken. This study will help you and your students have “Word-focused eyes” that look for the Word in the world. This study urges you to compare songs with Scripture and discover whether the songs provided speak God’s truth.

Can music move us toward a deeper, richer faith in Christ? By the work of the Spirit, can music grow a mustard seed-sized faith to the size big enough to command mountains? That is for you and your students to decide, but do watch for how these songs can illuminate Scripture, pointing to Christ through melody, rhythm, poetry, and rock-classic-pop-dance-funk-distortion-smash-rap-punk-surf-electric passion.

To read and print Bible study, CLICK HERE.

You can find the best-of year-end lists in most music publications. Rather than rehashing what was already reviewed and discussed this year, Music Spectrum is going deep into the stacks of CDs received this year to take a look at some of the ones that got missed.

Blues

Like a Smithsonian Folkways discovery from the dustbowl record bin in some abandoned general store of the South, John Agnello’s Baryon Records enters Michael Powers’ Onyx Root into the archives. Yet, the album is a new release this year, and Powers recorded the album in New York City. While Powers’ voice and guitars arrive 60 years late it seems, Steve Jordan (drums), Neil Jason (bass), and Jimi Zhivago (guitars/keys) bring today’s jamming possibilities to the project without trying to overshadow that timeless feel to these blues.

Featured Year-End Blues List Title

You can just hear the Blues ooze from David Jacob-Strain’s voice. You can find so many blues CDs that say on the cover something like, “The Real Blues.” Ocean or a Teardrop doesn’t say anything like that; the picture of David Jacobs-Strain on the cover doesn’t even really make him look like a blues musician. However, none of that matters. What you have in each of these songs is genuine—a full, deep, blues-etched voice; jangling, harmonizing, crying guitars. He’s in the Spectrum near Keb’ Mo’ for that voice and that ability to carry years of the Blues in his contemporary voice. “Take My Chances” rocks like a careening train towards a bridge that’s out. Having always loved Bruce Cockburn’s version of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Soul of a Man,” Jacobs-Strain jumps right up there with his swampy stomp through this spiritual crossroads. “Earthquake” brings in a South of the Border feel, exploring how the Blues transcends borders and finds equivalents in many cultures. Ocean or a Teardrop is released by NorthernBlues Music.

The opening track, “Winter Birds,” of Villanelle by Paul Reddick has a bluesy-romp, work song beginning, but the vocal sounds a lot like David Wilcox. Other tracks find Reddick in similar territory of Chris Smither, and that’s great territory to discover. The album, inspired by the work songs and pre-war blues, is an impressive collection of songs able to invoke times gone by, like dusty backroads and vacuum tube radio sets. Villanelle is released by NorthernBlues Music.

Grace of the Sun by Richie Havens is acoustic folk blues dipped in the 1960’s. His melodies are punctuated by eclectic percussion and his own percussive guitar strumming style. He lands near Taj Mahal, another blues explorer drenched in the 1960’s, but Havens often is reminiscent of the bluesy side of Gordon Lightfoot (American Folk), such as “Black Day in July.” Grace of the Sun is released by Stormy Forest.

We’ll give another little shout out to Taj Mahal here for leading the way in exploring the Blues through African, Caribbean, and other world beats. Such may have been part of the inspiration behind Dan Treanor and Frankie Lee’s project, African Wind. The album combines Frankie Lee’s stunning, soulful vocals with Treanor’s wide selection of African instruments. The Colorado Blues Society says the album has a “Mississippi hill country style,” which it does albeit with an incredible backdrop of flickering torches, tribal rhythms, African dances and drumbeats. African Wind is released by NorthernBlues Music, and the liner notes include some background information about some of the African instruments that Dan Treanor builds and uses.

Blues Rock

While there’s a country blues, stripped-down feel to many of these tracks, Janiva Magness is tapping into the full-throated Blues Rock found in the Spectrum around Janis Joplin, Susan Tedeschi, Tommy Castro, and John and His Sisters. At times on her album, Bury Him at the Crossroads, Magness sounds like a jazz songstress, a more traditional R&B diva, or a lonely blues singer huddled in the corner of bar, singing her heart out. Jeff Turmes (bass/guitar/sax/banjo) and Colin Linden (guitar/co-producer) turn in some fine originals which Magness breathes life into—life that is broken, weary, defiant, and hopeful. Bury Him at the Crossroads is released by NorthernBlues Music.

Thanks to all of the labels for the review copies.

American Band Rock: Barenaked Ladies’ Barenaked for the Holidays

Irreverent. Can I really set up the manger scene while the Barenaked Ladies play “O Holy Night” like the drum machine/organ combo from a baseball stadium? Can I really bring this album into my Bible class on Sunday morning, saying that one of the best versions of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is by a band whose name immediately makes you think of. . .naked women?

For everything that will keep many Christians away from this album, there’s some great moments of insight into the true meaning of Christmas, pointing to Christ. This, of course, despite three Hanukkah tunes. But the jazzy “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings” with vocal help from Sarah McLachlan really brings forth those “tidings of comfort and joy” through the beautiful, homey harmonies, along with acoustic guitar and double bass that really insert that “star of wonder” into your soul.

Besides, they’re the only ones as far as I know to record “Happy Birthday to Jesus” on a Christmas album aimed at adults. That’s getting to the heart of the matter.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Barenaked Christmas without plenty of humor and fun. The inspired “God Rest Ye” immediately goes into another baseball stadium organ song, this time “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The scat singing on “Sleigh Ride” continues the fun and games. Finally, “Deck the Stills” really takes care of the fact that I grew tired of “Deck the Halls” and the fa-la-las a long time ago. Instead, the Barenaked Ladies use the song as a dedication to Crosby, Still, Nash, and Young, replacing the traditional words with just the name of the group.

Originals include: the bouncy “Green Christmas,” the swinging pop of “Elf’s Lament” (includes concerns about illegal doping and creating a union among the elves), and the jaunty “Footprints” about following someone’s tracks in the snow.

The Barenaked Ladies deserve all of my stocking stuffers for their version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” When I remember the Bob Geldolf-Midge Ure penned tune, sung by the pre-We Are the World supergroup called Band Aid, when I hear this song in my head, there’s no way to hear it without remembering that Bono sings the line, “Well, tonight, thank God it’s them, instead of you.” You know it is Bono, and here the Barenaked Ladies deliver a pitch perfect imitation of Bono. Even though you know the Barenaked Ladies are here, always one step away from turning this into a farce, still you can almost see Bono in his usual rock singer stance, belting out his line with more passion than anyone else. And in that, the Barenaked Ladies have captured one of my favorite memories of Christmas. (I know, Christmas is about Jesus, but Bono is always there when I remember Christmas as a youngin’, hoping WLOL 99.5 in Minneapolis would play that Band Aid song again).

Garage Rock: Relient K’s Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand

Like those commercials that show Mom in high-speed running around the mall getting all of her Christmas gifts with some kind of fast Christmas tune as soundtrack, Relient K’s frantic skate-grunge version of “Angels We Have Heard on High” would make the perfect audio accompaniment to a time-lapse film of the practices and performance of a children’s Christmas program. Everyone’s in a hurry to practice, have fun, hand out presents, decorate, perform, take pictures, eat cookies, and go home.

That same frenetic pace appears throughout Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand. Packaged together with 2003’s Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right…But Three Do and available at relientk.com, this holiday CD also has with plenty of tongue-in-cheek cheekiness to be a great follow up to Barenaked for the Holidays. “Deck the Halls” gets the added lines: “What’s a partridge/And what’s a pear tree/I don’t know so please don’t ask me/Have to admit those are terrible gifts to get.” It sounds more like your house is about to get TP’d when they sing, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Speed metal accompanies St. Nick on “Santa Clause is Thumbing to Town.”

In keeping with Relient K’s ability to keep heart-on-sleeve in the midst of their skate punk Garage Rock, “I Celebrate the Day” is really a tender melody, turning Michael English’s “Mary, Did You Know?” on its head as here Relient K really ask, “Jesus, Did You Know?” what it meant to be the Savior on the day He was born.

Schmaltzy: James Last’s Holiday Classics

OK, so Schmaltzy isn’t a category in the Spectrum, but last year Eagle Records released this collection of holiday tunes “composed in the distinctive James Last style.” Think Lawrence Welk orchestration with 60’s snyth-symphony pop overlaid with the instrumentalism of Manheim Steamroller. There’s sweeping strings, a choir/synth of “oohs and aahs,” and enough saccharin sweetness to get you pulling out the aluminum Christmas trees.

That said, I’ve been listening to James Last this year, because there’s just times during the Christmas season when you need some Schmaltz in your life, something to remind you of how commercial Christmas has gotten, something to keep yourself from getting to serious about how to hang your twinkle lights.

Favorites of Christmas Past

Setting aside this year’s selection of more irreverent Christmas albums, the CDs which I eagerly get out from storage each December are Bruce Cockburn and the Blind Boys of Alabama.

Bruce Cockburn’s Christmas remains true to the center of Christmas throughout: a celebration of the birth of Jesus. Acoustic-folk interpretations of traditional tunes, World Music offerings, and an approach that makes it a very worshipful album.

The Blind Boys of Alabama presented Go Tell It on the Mountain last year—a Gospel-filled, soulful injection into the dryness of caroling. The album is made that much more energized due to the incredible guest artists. Among the collaborations that stand out are Chrissie Hynde’s voice and Richard Thompson’s screaming guitar on an impassioned “In the Bleak Midwinter”; and nothing can beat being sent out to preach the Gospel by the gravely voice of Tom Waits on the title track. Should your Christmases have gotten away from celebrating the birth of Jesus, pick up these two Favorites of Christmas Past.