Tune My Heart To Sing Thy Grace

I love listening to NPR's show All Songs Considered.  A few music geeks get on the radio & play new music they've discovered or by artists they enjoy and they talk about them.  This time of year, they always have a Holiday music episode where they play mostly Christmas songs.  The show isn't particularly reverent of Christmas, several of the shows contributors are Jewish, so there are always a few funny Hanukkah songs.  The contributors each make several song selections & they describe what they like about it, & the whole group will discuss it.  Halfway through the show, Stephen Thompson (I think that's his name) introduces a song from Sufjan Stevens 2005 Christmas album.  This didn't surprise me in the least in that Sufjan Stevens is a favorite among music geeks.  What surprised me was the song choice.  I would've guessed one of the few secular songs on the album like Get Behind Me Santa or We're Going to the Countryor even one of the better known traditional songs like Oh Holy Night or Away in the Manger.  Instead, Thompson picks Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, not a Christmas song at all.  This version has Sufjan playing the Banjo, the rest of the instrumentation is acoustic, & is exactly the arrangement of the hymn.  He plays it straight, no additions, no flourishes or wild cacophonous noises that Stevens loves to throw into his songs.  It was exactly the treatment I love to hear applied to old hymns, artfully & simply done. 

I'll tell you what I love about this little experience of listening to this in the car.  The show isn't religious in any way, it's a show for people who love music by people who love music.  I'm not sure if the gentleman who picked Come Thou Fount is Christian or not.  For those who heard this show, it didn't matter.  The message of that song came through all the same.  He played the song because it's a great song, better than any other he could think of. 

Sufjan Stevens is a Christian.  His music is enjoyed by Christians & non-Christians alike.  His music isn't promoted by a Christian music label.  Sufjan Stevens has made a name for himself because he makes great music, not because he is a Christian.  It matters not whether he makes any great statement about being a Christian, the message comes through in the song.  I believe we are called to do the same.  We are called to do what we do to the best of our abilities to show God's love to others.  This performance fits the bill, it cuts through the smoke & the darkness & shines brightly for all to see. 




Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Do You Hear What I Hear?-Sufjan Stevens



Silent Night-Huey "Piano" Smith & the Clowns



White Christmas-Charlie Parker



Silent Night All Day Long-John Prine



Greensleeves-John Coltrane



Merry Christmas, friends. 

andrew

Don't Waste Your Words

I voted for President Obama, & will vote for him again.  I've had a job since I was 16 years old & don't depend on the government for anything except for roads, bridges & schools just like everyone else.  I don't think I'm entitled to anything other than a president who doesn't deem me "dependent on the government" because I don't agree with his political beliefs.

 http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye-John Coltrane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8Jmcynp9d0

Lulu's Back in Town-Thelonious Monk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzT0bytg4-w

That Lucky Ol' Sun-Bob Dylan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0SHh5LARcA

Angel From Montgomery-John Prine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CDLCr0fxOQ

 Would You Come & See Me in New York?-The Welcome Wagon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2CMoENiClI

Happy Monday, friends...

andrew

You're Old Enough to Know Well...

Picking the song of the week isn't as easy as I thought it would be, I'm always looking for a song in my collection that holds some great truth that the world needs to know. It's not always easy to find, every song has it's own perception of the truth, some songs don't tell the truth at all. One of the reasons I started collecting music is that I thought at some point I would find a record that would say everything that needed to be said. Twenty years on, I haven't found it. I'm not sure this is what Dawes is getting at with this song, but it sounds that way to me, "as if something that's written should be taken as true". I love the idea that you have to break something else to make something new. It reminds me of the line from the Alejandro Escovedo song Down in the Bowery, "I hope you live long enough to forget all the stuff I taught you, 'cause when it's all said & done I hope you got your own set of rules to hang onto". Music is an incredible growing organism in this way, nothing is completely unique, it all builds on from what's been done before. "You can judge the whole world by the sparkle that you think it lacks..." That line makes the song for me. People complain about all matter of things, one of my biggest pet peeves at work is when someone will complain about something that they could fix in the amount of time it took them to complain about it. I think that's what the song gets at. There's nothing more dull than the guy that points out how dull everything is. I like the ambiguity of what "When my time comes" means. When my time comes to die? When my time comes to make the world sparkle a little bit more? I don't think it comes to a conclusion & it certainly doesn't have an answer. It's more interesting that way. That's the way life is, the answers don't usually come easy, if they ever come at all. There were moments of dreams I was offered to save I live less like a workhorse more like a slave I thought that one quick moment that was noble or brave Would be worth the most of my life. So I pointed my fingers and shout a few quotes I knew As if something that´s written should be taken as true But every path I have taken and conclusion I drew Would put truth back under the knife. And now the only piece of advice that continues to help: Is anyone that´s making anything new only breaks something else. When my time comes Ohhhhh oh oh oh. When my times comes Ohhhhh oh oh oh. So I took what I wanted and put it out of my reach I wanted to pay for my successes with all my defeats And if heaven was all that was promised to me Why don´t I pray for death? And now it seems like the unraveling has started too soon Now I´m sleeping in hallways and I´m drinking perfume And I´m speaking to mirrors and I´m howling at moons While the worst and the worst that it gets. Oh you can judge all the world on the sparkle that you think it lacks. Yes you can stare into the abyss but it´s staring right back. When my time comes Ohhhhh oh oh oh. When my time comes Ohhhhh oh oh oh. Oh you can judge all the world on the sparkle that you think it lacks. Yes you can stare into the abyss but it´s staring right back. When my time comes Ohhhhh oh oh oh. When my time comes Ohhhhh oh oh oh. I did a lot of hiking in Kauai. There's a lot of mountains & it gets kind of addicting because you want to keep going to see what might be around the bend. The farther up you go, the better the view. Pictures don't do it justice. It makes me wonder why I didn't do more hiking when I was younger, when I had more time. Then again, I never had the chance to be at a place like Kauai when I was younger. I knew at every turn that I'd probably never see anything like it ever again. The song On Up the Mountain by Jakob Dylan kept popping in to my head. "You're old enough to know well, the better things are all uphill. Bitter songs are never sung in the highlands where you belong." I love the way the song starts "you're old enough to know well". Whatever follows that phrase won't be easy to say & it won't be easy to hear, but it desperately needs to be heard & said. It sounds like a father talking to his child at a time when he knows that life won't be as innocent for them as it once was. It's about the journey being more important than the destination. When you're a kid you have a sense of permanence about things, an expectation that maybe things will be the way you want them to be for a long period of time.

Song(s) of the Week

Kyle's Pick-Lantern by Josh Ritter

I've probably heard this song dozens of times, usually in the background. It's got a catchy melody & hook, but I never gave a thought to pay attention to any of the lyrics that aren't "be the light of my lantern, be my light". After the first couple of listens this week, I had a preconceived notion of what I thought the song was about. I need a light in the dark world. It's a theme Josh Ritter's visited before, in one of my favorite turns of phrase from him, he says "save all of your light for those who can't sleep at night". I think the song is about the symbiotic need humans have for each other. They need what others give them, but maybe more importantly, they need to give something up to the other person to survive. Where we cock it up is when we care more about what we're getting than what we're giving, & the song gives lots of examples in nature when that happens.

"tell me what's the point of light that you have to strike a match to find?"

I think the point of that line, is that the light's no good when you create it for yourself, it's better to get it from someone else, "hold it high for you, I'll hold it high for me".

Andrew's Pick-Keep Eye on Other's Gain by Bonnie "Prince" Billy

Some songwriters have a distinct voice when it comes to their songs. I'm not talking about their physical voice, I'm talking about their persona as a songwriter. Great songwriters can take on their own voice as well as sing as another character. I think "Keep Eye on Other's Gain" takes on a character he doesn't like, or at least one he doesn't agree with. At first listen, it sounds like the words are coming from someone who may have a compassionate perspective on wealth & possessions.

"others don't have a bed like mine, they sleep out in the rain. others hearts are guarded from the blows of random pain."

Letting this one soak in a bit, though, it becomes clear that the singer sees that as being by design. The song is seen as advice, most likely to a son or daughter. The person who sleeps out in the rain didn't have the same advice that he's giving his child. The advice, ultimately, is to "stay ahead" of everyone else, especially the guy who sleeps out in the rain. He's not cruel enough to say, "tough luck" to the guy, but he's not going to help him either. The writer of the song ignores that symbiotic need for humans to help each other as explained in the first song. It's a cynical view of the song, I know, but in many ways I think Oldham is a cynical songwriter. The song ignores what I was always taught as a kid to not worry about what other people have, it says the opposite, to keep eye on what everybody else has. Otherwise, they might have something you don't.

That's it for this week, I like how if you look closely enough, you can find correlations between the two songs.





(sorry I couldn't find the original)

This week's song of the week: The Fairest of the Seasons by Nico. Enjoy.



now that its time
now that the hour hand has landed at the end
now that its real
now that the dreams have given all they had to lend
i want to know
do i stay or do i go
and maybe try another time
and do i really have a hand in my forgetting?

now that i've tried
now that i've finally found that this is not the way
now that i've turned
now that i feel its time to spend the night away
i want to know
do i stay or do i go
and maybe finally split the rhyme
and do i really understand the undernetting?

yes, and the morning has me
looking in your eyes
and seeing mine warning me
to read the signs carefully

now that it's light
now that candle's falling smaller in my mind
now that its here
now that i'm almost not so very far behind
i want to know
do i stay or do i go
and maybe follow another sign
and do i really have a song that i can ride on?

now that i can
now that its easy, ever easy all around
now that i'm here
now that i'm falling to the sunlights and a song
i want to know
do i stay or do i go
and do i have to do just one
and can i choose again if i should lose the reason?

yes, and the morning has me
looking in your eyes
and seeing mine warning me
to read the signs more carefully

now that i smile
now that i'm laughing even deeper inside
now that i see
now that i finally found the one thing i denied
its now i know
do i stay or do i go
and it is finally i decide
that i'll be leaving
in the fairest of the seasons

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Big Kick, Plain Scrap-Nick Lowe, Labour of Lust

Tryin' to Get to Heaven-Bob Dylan, Time Out of Mind

Five Hearts Breaking-Alejandro Escovedo

Drifter's Escape-Bob Dylan



Fairest of the Seasons-Nico

Happy Friday, friends...

andrew

Song(s) of the Week

My ol' pal & I decided to swap songs of the week, songs that mean a lot to us that we want to share with each other. We may or may not have heard the song the other chose to give us. At the end of the week, we tell each other what we feel about each others' songs. This is the first go at it, we'll see if it sticks.

Kyle's Pick-We Will All Be Changed by Seryn

We Will All Be Changed by Seryn is a big, ambitious, "conquer the world" type songs. I like songs like these, especially when the craft of the song lives up to the scope of it. A big song has a big sound to it, & has a subject matter that is open to different interpretations to it, at least for the listener if not for the writer of the song. It can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. I can only speculate on the writer's motivation or inspiration for this song, I can only tell you what it might mean for me as I listen to it. It doesn't stop there, though, I can hear it couple months from now & it might mean something completely different.

Our Pastor always says that when you read & study the bible, it changes you. This is the first thing I thought of when I heard this song. I hope this is happening, but I'm not always so sure. If I am, I don't feel like I'm changing too much. I feel like I'm always falling into the same old habits & the same old paralyzing mindsets. One of those paralyzing mindsets I have is the thought that people don't really change. My father in law, in his infinite wisdom, always gives the analogy that women marry men because they like the shell of the man, but they hope to shape him into something more. Men marry women hoping that they'll always stay the same. I wonder who comes out on top in that transaction, I'm not sure anybody does.

I think when we're at our best we make the best of what doesn't change or what we can't change, & I think that's the point of the song. There's a lot of that prayer that they say at the aa meetings about changing what can be changed & accepting what we can't change. The song's ultimate message is changing myself first. Maybe if I change myself first, others around me will change accordingly. Maybe they won't change, but maybe at least in my mind they will be the best of themselves that I see before all the bad things that I choose not to see.



Verse 1
Bb
Somehow we've gone and lost our way
Eb
This is where we are
Bb
Oh you lift your rusty brow
Eb
Little thoughts have weighed your vision down
Bb Eb
We move slowly, sewn in time

(We can only hope for this)

Chorus
Bb
We can shape but can't control

These possibilities to grow
Eb
Weeds amongst the push and pull

Waiting on the wind to take us
Bb
We can write with ink and pen

But we will sew with seeds instead
Eb
Starting with words we've said
Bb
And we will all be changed

Instrumental
Bb Eb
Oh, oh, oh--- Oh, oh, oh---

Verse 2
Bb
Speak now don't tarry on like it's
Eb
Always gonna be
Bb
Hold child this expectation
Eb
But don't forget to love

Chorus 2
Bb
We can shape but can't control

These possibilities to grow
Eb
Weeds amongst the push and pull

Waiting on the wind to take us
Bb
We can write with ink and pen

But we will sew with seeds instead
Eb
Starting with words we've said

And we will all be changed

Bridge 1
Bb Eb Bb
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh (Break)

Banjo/guitar solo with Bass

Bass
Eb Bb G Bb

Bridge 2 2x
Eb Bb
We look for home
G F Bb
But we'll never know
Eb Bb
Distance will grow
G F Bb
But I'll always know

Bridge 3 (just bass drum)
Eb Bb
We look for home
G F Bb (A capella)
But we'll never know
Eb Bb
Distance will grow
G F Bb
But I'll always know

Andrew's Pick-Hello In There, By John Prine

John Prine's music, to me, has always had the sound of a Saturday afternoon. You know how everyday has it's own kind of feel to it, some stronger than others. Saturday afternoon & Sunday morning have a strong feel to them, maybe it's because they are different from every other day. John Prine captures the feeling of Saturday afternoon, it's slow & poignant & usually lonely. It holds your attention very well. When I say Saturday afternoon, I'm not talking about football games or barbecues or anything like that, I'm talking about after the thrill of not working is gone & wondering how your going to fill the hours. Hello in There feels just like Saturday afternoon, some lazy kind of a.m. radio station that might put something interesting on because they know nobody's listening that could give a shit, but they might reach one person.

Hello in There's about getting old, obviously. It's a small song. There's no ambiguity about what it's about. When sung by a young person, it might sound condescending. "Hello in there!" sounds like "anybody home?". That old person might not know what's going on, they're wits are gone, they might be crazy, talking about some person that nobody knew to begin with. When sung by the cancer ravaged voice of John Prine, it touches upon a spark that burns deep & is not easily felt. The refrain could go either way, too.

you know that old trees just grow stronger?
and old rivers just grow wilder everyday?

The song has a "what about me?" feel to it. Am I like the old tree & the river, or am I some relic left on the shelf to be forgotten?

The song always reminds me of my grandpa. He was always on top of his game mentally, if not always physically. As he grew older, he'd sit in a chair just close enough to everybody to be seen, but too far away to be heard or to hear anybody. He always had some kind of wisdom to impart, the key was whether or not you chose to get close enough to him to pay any kind of attention. I know I didn't always listen to him as I should. As I'm writing this, I remember that Gramps died five years ago this month, & I sure wish I'd had a couple more conversations with him. I'm not sure if it's better to be there mentally while your body is failing you or vice versa. It must be hard to have, to quote a song, "a head full of ideas driving me insane", or to be not all there for a while before you go. I guess everybody's worth listening to & paying attention to. I know Gramps sure was.

Happy Monday, friends.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Buckets of Rain-Bob Dylan

Cruel to be Kind-Nick Lowe

Last Leaf on the Tree-Tom Waits

Baseball-Breathe Owl Breathe

Mutineer-Warren Zevon

andrew


andrew

You do what you must do & you do it well...

I've been thinking a lot lately about work. I happen to be in a men's bible study called Winning at Work & At Home & I'm reading Working by Studs Terkel. Subconsciously, I suppose doing both of these at the same time isn't really a coincidence, but Working has been sitting on my shelf for a long time & I didn't think to read it when we we started the section on work a few weeks ago. I just happened to pick it up the other night while I was playing with Lillian. Both ask the question, one implicitly, the other explicitly, why people do what they do.

Mostly what got me to thinking about work, though, are the pictures of my Grandfather that my sister posted on the computer. I always knew that my Grandpa worked in paint, I often boast about how he was one of the scientists that worked on the first exterior latex paint. Then it got me thinking about Opa, & how he gave me my first paying job (other than the money to go to Bud's party store my ol' man gave me for mowing the lawn) painting the cow palace. It probably took me a month to do a job that should've taken me four days, but luckily for Opa, I got paid by the job & not by the hour, not counting the life lesson & the lunch that Oma made for me everyday.

I can't say as though I'm extremely proud of my profession as a paint salesman. It pays fairly well, it's a relatively safe job, & for the most part, I think I'm pretty good at it. I usually enjoy it, although I'm not crazy about working for a big corporation & all the silly things that go along with that. Two of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to work are when people try to make their job out to be more important than it really is, or, on the other hand, when people just show up to collect a paycheck & don't give it their all. The most important thing for any man at his job, in my opinion, is if he has anything to show for himself the end of the day, & I usually can say I got something accomplished when I go home. I think I'm a pretty hard worker most of the time. I hate leaving work with unfinished business. My two favorite things about my job are shooting the breeze with my customers & putting paint away & cleaning & organizing the store. You get to know people pretty well doing my job, or at least as well as you want to know them. Getting to know them is good for business, but I'd like to say I'd get to know them even if it wasn't. Who knows? As far as putting paint away, there's something to be said about manual labor. Just about every man I know, or at least the ones I respect get an odd satisfaction out of manual labor.

Take my old man, for instance. He's a pastor, & a good one at that. I don't think he'd be half as good at what he does if he didn't grow up on a farm. He still works at the farm a lot. I think he gets his energy for being a pastor from working the land. Some people get their energy from talking to & being around other people, not my dad, he gets his energy from work. I never asked my dad how he came to the decision to be a pastor. The idea of pastors being "called" always intrigued me. I know in some way he was "called" by God to be a pastor, but I never knew how that actually happened, maybe it's a series of events, maybe it's God's voice actually entering his ears. Maybe he doesn't even know, but I do know that the world wouldn't be the same without him as a pastor. The reason I know he was "called" to be a pastor, is because, if given a choice, if it were up to him, I'm quite certain my old man would've chosen to be a builder or a farmer, or something where he works with his hands.

So maybe we are all "called" to do what it is we do. My mom & my sister are on this kick where they go on ancestry.com & figure out where are relatives come from. It's fascinating to me to reflect on my own life & all the tiny little decisions I've made that have greater consequences. For example, if I didn't know my friend Mike, & had we never went to Grand Valley State University, I never would've worked in the paint business. Had I never worked in the paint business, I never would've met my friends Dan & Kelly & they wouldn't have introduced me to my wife Christie. Had they never introduced me to Christie, Lillian wouldn't be here. So maybe our "calling" has nothing to do with what we want, maybe we're just God's vessels. Think of all the small, seemingly inconsequential decisions all of my ancestors made that led to me sitting here right now. Maybe the fact that Gramps was a paint man, & Opa hired me to paint was just the writing on the wall.

This may sound corny, but my biggest aspiration in life right now doesn't have much to do with a career, but rather to be Lillian's Dad & Christie's husband. Maybe Lillian will do something great, but that reminds me of a song, where a guy talks about his son, & he wonders how can he expect more out of his son than he did for himself. Have you ever seen that Cosby Show clip, where Theo gets bawled out for having bad grades? He tells his dad that he doesn't want to be a doctor or a lawyer like his parents, he just wants to be a regular person who drives truck. He tells his dad he hope he would love him anyway. His dad tells him that's the dumbest thing he's ever heard. The older I get, the more that scene bothers me, I know they were trying to say you should strive to be the best you can in life, but it implies that truck drivers & janitors don't strive to be their best. I like the poem where the guy tells his friend's newborn daughter that he hopes she turns out to be normal, if that what it takes for her to be happy. I hope I never give Lillian a big speech about how she needs to do something big & important with her life, & I don't want to be one of those parents who lives vicariously through their kids. That's just sad. I just hope whatever she's called to do, she does it the best she can. I think the world needs teachers & nurses or even janitors just as much, if not more, as they need CEO's or doctors or senators.

I'm not sure what I would do if I could do whatever I felt like. I've always dreamed about owning a record store or a book store, but in 20 years, there probably won't be anymore of those, besides, Grand Rapids already has a great record store. I've always dreamed about being an English Teacher, but those aren't exactly in high demand, either. Besides, I'm not sure I have the time or the patience to go back to school for that long. I always thought it might be something to be a congressman, but I'm pretty sure I don't have the personality for it. Besides, Ottawa or Kent Counties never elect Democrats, & I don't plan on moving. So, for now, I'll just keep on selling paint, after all, it's what I was called to do.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

I Was Meant for the Stage-The Decemberists



Angel From Montgomery-John Prine



Rivers & Roads-The Head & the Heart



America!-Bill Callahan



Moody's Mood For Love-King Pleasure




Have a good week, friends...