tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-95930912024-03-14T00:46:26.984-04:00Bob's bloggeryThoughts about books, music, faith and lifeBob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.comBlogger542125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-92085540732483431392011-07-21T09:07:00.003-04:002012-11-04T15:50:34.675-05:00Numen by Phil Keaggy and Kyle Jones<a href="http://www.philkeaggy.com/store/images/D/Numen%20CD%20Cover%20500.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.philkeaggy.com/store/images/D/Numen%20CD%20Cover%20500.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 329px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 345px;" /></a><br />
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Phil Keaggy has been recording albums on his own or with others for about forty years now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has something like 70 albums in his catalog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So how do you make that much music and keep it fresh and creative?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Phil does it by looking for new collaborators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just over the past few years he has worked with Randy Stonehill, Jack Giering and John Sferra (known as the Phil Keaggy Trio), Jeff Johnson, Mike Pachelli, and Glass Harp in addition to a steady stream of solo albums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These collaborations have paid off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His album with Jeff Johnson, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frio Suite</i>, is one of my favorites and is still in heavy rotation on my playlist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His Phil Keaggy Trio album, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Interdimensional Traveller</i>, is a lot of fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both of these albums stand out as being something quite different from the stuff Phil does on his own and have encouraged him to stretch out in new ways. </div>
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His latest album, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Numen</i>, is a duet album with percussionist Kyle Jones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jones is a percussionist who uses lots of non-Western instruments and techniques.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He brings these world-music sensibilities to this instrumental album giving it an Indian feel that is a welcome addition to Keaggy’s sound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The album starts out with the sound of the tabla and acoustic guitar in “Ebullince,” a fine opening to the album (and one of my favorite tracks) that sounds different than anything Phil has produced before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Indian percussion that Jones brings to the sound of this album has inspired Keaggy to go to places he usually doesn’t go on his own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are some moments where it is obvious that you’re listening to a Phil Keaggy album – the tapping in “Ruach,” the electric riff in “Ziggarat” or the acoustic opening to “Dia Logos” for example – but then there are moments just a few minutes later where it is hard to give examples of similar playing in any of his other albums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Clocking in at nearly an hour, this album might be a little too long, especially the nine-minute track “Kahawa” that appears near the end of the album and, generally speaking, I like the tracks that sound more composed as opposed to improvised but that may only be my interpretation of how they came about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It sounds to me like many of these tracks happened because Keaggy and Jones sat in a room together, played what they felt and then created fully produced tracks after the fact (something that Phil did to good effect on his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roundabout</i> album.) This gives a sense of adventure to the album – you can hear the fun that they had at times as they found new things - and Keaggy’s innate sense of melody makes even improvised things interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The addition of electric guitar and even violin on some tracks makes for good variety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Numen</i> is a fun album and it is great to see Phil Keaggy still exploring and finding new things to play even after all these years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This album has not seen wide distribution (I don’t think it is on iTunes or Amazon, for example) so look for it at <a href="http://philkeaggy.com/">PhilKeaggy.com</a>.</div>
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Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-67289539095755627362011-06-24T11:56:00.004-04:002011-06-24T12:04:37.639-04:00Memorable McCartney Solo Songs<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ticketsinventory.com/images/last_photos/concert/P/paul-mccartney/tour_2011_dates_paul-mccartney_13032711205172.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 253px; height: 169px;" src="http://www.ticketsinventory.com/images/last_photos/concert/P/paul-mccartney/tour_2011_dates_paul-mccartney_13032711205172.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"MS 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"MS 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; 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mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --> </style><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> </span></span><p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:arial;" class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:100%;">Earlier this week I stumbled across <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/143960-the-12-most-memorable-paul-mccartney-solo-songs/">this article</a> about Paul McCartney’s 12 Most Memorable Solo Songs and thought the list was interesting.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">There were a number of things on the list that I would not have included.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The deal is to pick<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:arial;" class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:arial;" class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:100%;">McCartney’s best recordings without the Beatles or Wings or the Fireman.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Granted, this is a bit artificial since Paul’s input on the Wings stuff is so strong that it could be thought of as solo work but, whatever … this puts the emphasis on his work credited to just “McCartney.”</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">So that means his first two albums (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >McCartney</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> and </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Ram</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) and then everything from</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" > McCartney II</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> on except the Fireman stuff.<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:arial;" class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:arial;" class="MsoPlainText"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" face="arial" class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:100%;">I thought the list on the aforementioned website was quirky and that my list would be different so I could not resist the challenge.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The hard part for me is to keep it to just twelve.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I will also admit that the popularity of a song tended to work against its inclusion in the list.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">No good reason for this except that familiarity breeds contempt.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">So hits tended to not get on here with a few exceptions that I just could not resist.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">So here are my admittedly quirky picks presented in no particular order, along with my list of honorable mentions.</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" face="arial" class="MsoPlainText"> </p><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> </span></span><ul style="font-family: times new roman;"><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Maybe I'm Amazed (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >McCartney</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – perhaps is best ever solo song is from his first solo album.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The album itself is quirky and uneven but it has a couple of fabulous songs on it – three of them made my list!</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Pipes of Peace (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Pipes of Peace</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – McCartney is not only a very good writer but the man knows how to make records.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The arrangement of this song is just spectacular.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Every Night (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >McCartney</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – the second song on my from the first solo album is another prime example of a great tune and a fine recording.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Tug of War (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Tug of War</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – This was McCartney’s return to making a fully produced album with George Martin after Wings ended and his </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >McCartney II</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> experiment.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">At the time Rolling Stone called it his masterpiece.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">It’s one of his great albums and the title song is just great.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Through Our Love (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Pipes of Peace</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – I am a sucker for the big ballads that McCartney often puts at the end of his albums.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">This is one of my favorites. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Junk (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >McCartney</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – another wonderful song from his first solo album – this one comes in two flavors, with or without vocals.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Ram</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – A song made up of lots of snippets that somehow hangs together and works.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">A big hit besides.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Waterfalls (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >McCartney II</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – This is a wonderful song which needs a better recording.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">McCartney even mentions that in the book that comes with the new deluxe edition of the remastered version of the album.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But even without a nicely orchestrated version this song is very good.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Wanderlust (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Tug of War</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – This is a pretty obscure song which features one of McCartney’s favorite gimmicks – countermelodies that are introduced separately and then combined near the end of the song.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">(See “With a Little Luck” for another example.)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Beautiful Night (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Flaming Pie</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – another great piano ballad.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">This one sat in his archive for a while until he rerecorded it for </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Flaming Pie</span><span style="font-size:100%;">.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The earlier version (available as the b-side of one of the Flaming Pie singles) is not nearly as good – apparently he knew there was a good song in there and that the first recording didn’t quite get there.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;font-size:100%;" > </span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Back Seat of My Car (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Ram</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – an early version of the big piano ballad – this one from Ram.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Once Upon a Long Ago (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >All the Best</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) – this one was a single in the UK and we in the US only got it when All the Best came out but it’s a great song and worth finding if you don’t have it.</span></li></ul><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> </span></span> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"> </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:100%;">The Honorable mentions</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"> </p> <ul style="font-family: times new roman;"><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Too Many People (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Ram</span><span style="font-size:100%;">)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Only Love Remains (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Press to Play</span><span style="font-size:100%;">)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Motor of Love (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Flowers in the Dirt</span><span style="font-size:100%;">)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Coming Up (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >McCartney II</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> – although I prefer the live version that is on the US release of </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >All the Best</span><span style="font-size:100%;">)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">C'mon People (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Off the Ground</span><span style="font-size:100%;">)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">The Song We Were Singing (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Flaming Pie</span><span style="font-size:100%;">)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Calico Skies (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Flaming Pie</span><span style="font-size:100%;">)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Your Loving Flame (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Driving Rain</span><span style="font-size:100%;">)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">English Tea (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Chaos and Creation in the Backyard</span><span style="font-size:100%;">)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Average Person (</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Pipes of Peace</span><span style="font-size:100%;">)</span></li></ul>Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-10422272703837065912011-06-21T19:43:00.004-04:002011-06-21T20:08:52.156-04:00Country Music<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://djshelpline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Brief-History-Country-Music.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 422px; height: 291px;" src="http://djshelpline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Brief-History-Country-Music.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"MS 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --> </style> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">This spring I’ve flirted with listening to country music.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This is something that is a bit of a surprise to me since I’ve been a pretty serious non-country music guy for a while.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The vocal style got to me and I had a prejudice against the music that made me resist it.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But I had a long appreciation for 70’s country rock (early Eagles, Poco, Flying Burrito Brothers) and I’ve reacquainted myself with Poco lately so I was in a mood to appreciate it.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I actually owned a couple of actual authentic country recordings – one Dixie Chicks album (<span style="font-style: italic;">Home</span>), one Little Big Town album and a couple of Allison Krauss albums.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But I considered them anomalies – ones that, for some reason I could enjoy despite my dislike for the genre as a whole.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">But then last spring I stopped in Nashville for a couple of hours on a spring break trip and had a great time.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I enjoyed touring the Ryman Auditorium, visited Gruhn Guitars and walked up and down Broadway where I heard six or seven bands each of which impressed me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’d go there again in a minute.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">So that left me thinking about why I don’t listen to this stuff – the players are great and there are some cool songs there.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Meredith had sent me the latest Carrie Underwood album (<span style="font-style: italic;">Play On</span>) so I listened to that and I realized that she is a wonderful singer – really good.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So I decided to dig in a little bit more.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Our local library is part of the “Freegal” system allowing me to download songs legally from the Sony catalog so I did some research and discovered a couple of albums that were highly reviewed.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I then started listening to country music.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">I started with <span style="font-style: italic;">Revolution</span> by Miranda Lambert, the album of the year for many in the country genre.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I also got albums by Sara Evans (<span style="font-style: italic;">Stronger</span>), Allison Krauss (<span style="font-style: italic;">Paper Airplane</span>), Taylor Swift (<span style="font-style: italic;">Speak Now</span>), Brad Paisley (<span style="font-style: italic;">This is Country Music</span>), <span style="font-style: italic;">Court Yard Hounds</span> and Carrie Underwood (<span style="font-style: italic;">Carnival Ride</span>.)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Here is what I learned.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">1.<span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>I still have some issues with some of the vocal styles.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The ones I like best are the ones that are least “twangy.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I am a huge fan, though, of Carrie Underwood’s singing.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She appeared alongside Steven Tyler at they ACM Awards and and sang “Undo it” and “Walk This Way” and they brought down the house.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Watch it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbbIvGVQqKk">here </a>.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">2.<span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>There are amazing musicians who play on these albums.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And Brad Paisley is a great guitar player.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">3.<span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>The themes in country music still surprise me – lots of good ole’ boy talk with drinkin’ and hard livin’ right next to sappy songs about home and Jesus.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">4.<span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Novelty songs appear more often on country albums than they do on rock albums; “Camouflage” by Brad Paisley, “White Trash Wedding” by the Dixie Chicks, “Only Prettier” by Miranda Lambert to name three off the top of my head.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">5.<span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>There are some really good writers in Nashville.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">6.<span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Sometimes country music is basically pop music with fiddles.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That’s OK with me.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">So my time of country listening might be diminishing as I get back to the stuff I listen to most of the time (I still listen to the Beatles and U2 a lot) but I’m a lot more open minded now and I’ve enjoyed listening to this stuff a lot more than I expected.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-25657117634848675332010-12-19T21:47:00.003-05:002011-06-26T06:58:52.452-04:00Favorite albums of the year<span style="font-family: times new roman;">I’ve not updated this blog very much this year – my job has kept me especially busy lately.</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">But I have been listening to a lot of music (I still have my 45 min commute) and, as I have done for the past few years, I have compiled a list of my favorite music for the year. So here they are, in no particular order - the albums that especially got me excited this year.</span><p style="font-family: times new roman;"></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText">Robert Plant / <i>Band of Joy</i> – This album surprised me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I listened to <i>Raising Sand</i>, Plant’s duet album with Allison Krauss and, while I liked it, I didn’t spend much time with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i>Band of Joy</i>, though, is a bit moodier and the production is airy and interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Plant’s singing is, of course, great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I was a fan of Led Zeppelin in the 70s but haven’t listened to much of his solo work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Plus it is fun to hear Plant singing in his lower register. </p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText">Elvis Costello / <i>National Ransom</i> – <i>Momofuku</i>, Costello’s album two albums ago was great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I thought it was up there with his very best.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> But </span>I was disappointed with the follow-up, <i>Secret, Profane and Sugarcane</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I found the melodies on <i>SP&S</i> to be not as intriguing and the sound of the album didn’t move me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i>National Ransom</i> is like an extension of <i>Secret</i> except Costello branched out a lot more in style so, where <i>SP&S</i> was somewhat one style throughout, Ransom is quite varied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Every once in a while, when I’m listening to Costello, I realize what an amazing writer he is – his songs have interesting chord progressions and his melodies, which are catchy, are not obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’ve noticed that on many of the songs on <i>National Ransom</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It ranks up there among my favorite Costello albums.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText">Sufan Stevens / <i>All Delighted People</i> / <i>The Age of Adz</i> – This year, Sufjan Stevens put out both and EP and a full album, although the EP was nearly an hour long so calling it an EP was a bit strange. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Both of them are among my favorite albums of the year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i>All Delighted People</i> features a lot of what we’ve come to expect from recent Sufjan albums, twittering flutes, interesting arrangements and heartfelt (if not a bit obscure) lyrics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is great. Some of the eight tracks are long but the arrangements are complex enough to hold my attention throughout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This album (OK, he calls it an EP so that we realized it wasn’t meant to be his BIG STATEMENT) is great - maybe the lowered expectations helped me see as just a nice collection of songs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Then a few months later he delivered <i>The Age of Adz</i>, a big electronic serious album about schizophrenia and identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When I heard it I realized that, indeed, <i>All Delighted People</i> was just the warm up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The album is complex and fascinating in it’s combination of quirky Sufjan flutes and other wind instruments mixed with the beeps and blurps of electronica.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText">Fistful of Mercy / <i>As I Call You Down</i> – Fistful of Mercy is Dhani Harrison, Beh Harpur and Joseph Arthur, all three interesting indie artists who have their own projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I became aware of them because of Dhani Harrison, George’s son, and because I liked his album of last year with his band thenewno2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In fact, I named their album one of my favorites of the year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their new project, Fistful of Mercy, is quite different – part Crosby Stills and Nash, part Traveling Wilburys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not the most elegant or serious album in my collection but it features fine (although a little quirky) three part harmonies most of the time and a nice acoustic vibe throughout.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText">Eric Clapton / <i>Clapton</i> – Releasing a self-titled album more than 45 years into your career says something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In this case it says that this is a very personal album.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>While not as emotionally raw as <i>Pilgrim</i>, as radio-friendly as <i>Slowhand</i>, or as guitar heavy as <i>Journeyman</i>, <i>Clapton</i> is a warm relaxed tour through much of the music that Eric Clapton has found himself drawn to over the last few years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There are few songs with drums playing flat-out, for example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Most of them feature brushes or at least drums that are gently played or pushed to the background.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But this isn’t an earthy acoustic album – this is a jazzy album that is a combination of blues and standards featuring Clapton the singer as much as Clapton the player.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some of the songs would be at home on an album from the 1940s while others would sit nicely on Clapton’s duet album with J J Cale and still others would be on a slightly softer version of one of Clapton’s blues albums like <i>From the Cradle</i> or <i>Me and Mr Johnson</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Don’t come to this album expecting to have your socks rocked off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Clapton apparently isn’t interested in that right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> But for a mature album by a veteran musician, this one is great.</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText">Peter Gabriel / <i>Scratch My Back</i> – The reviews of this album are all over the map from “best ever” to “what was he thinking?” so I hesitated before getting it but when I did I quickly joined the “best ever” camp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Gabriel, who famously instituted a “no cymbals” rule for one of his early solo albums put in a “no guitars or drums” rule on this album and gave us a lushly orchestrated album of cover versions of songs by other artists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The arrangements are hauntingly beautiful and a few of the songs are slowed down to the point where you hear them in a whole new way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> His cover of Arcade Fire's "My Body is a Cage" is gripping and Lou Reed's "The Power of the Heart" is just beautiful.</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText">Phil Keaggy and Jeff Johnson / <i>Frio Suite</i> – Phil Keaggy has released a number of albums over the years but lately he’s been doing some interesting work with other artists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He’s released albums with Randy Stonehill, with Jack Giering and John Sferra and soon he’ll be releasing an album with percussionist Kyle Jones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(He gave me a copy of that album, called <i>Numen</i>, which may well end up on my next year’s list – it doesn’t seem fair to put an album on here that isn’t out yet so I'll wait on that one.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i>Frio Suite</i>, with keyboardist Jeff Johnson is a beautiful, new-age-type album that is subtle and moving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> The two of them recorded this at a distance, each adding their own parts in their own studio, but you'd never know it by listening. It sounds like a wonderful journey down a metaphorical river.</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText">Finally, two albums that I really haven’t taken the time to dig into yet but I want to add to this list because I think they belong here:</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText">Arcade Fire / <i>The Suburbs</i> – Another great Arcade Fire album – they’re three for three now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I like how they manage to tackle big issues while at the same time being not uber-artsy and inaccessible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I find their music often takes me a while to really understand and this one is no exception.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoPlainText">The Rescues / <i>Let Loose the Horse</i>s – The Rescues was my big discovery last year and Let Loose the Horses is their first major label release.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I don’t like it quite as well as their earlier stuff – yet, at least – but I’m a fan of their harmonies and their sound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Also of note, their cover of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” (unfortunately, not on this album – but available as a single on iTunes) is awesome.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-11026813406021624592010-07-23T16:02:00.003-04:002010-07-24T07:37:01.593-04:00Buy Bethany's Book<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pioeONsvL._SS500_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 500px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pioeONsvL._SS500_.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />You should all buy <i>The Book of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks</i>. It is based on her popular <a href="http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/">blog</a> and is now available though <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Book-Unnecessary-Quotation-Marks/dp/0811876454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279915439&sr=8-1">amazon</a> and other fine booksellers.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-31160681325811105342010-06-11T09:42:00.002-04:002010-06-11T09:52:24.175-04:00Worship Songs<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Recently on a friend’s facebook wall I engaged in a discussion about the lyrics to a song for worship. I argued that we need to choose songs well – that with the thousands of worship songs available we can only use a few and it is good for us to choose ones that work well and avoid the ones with questionable lyrics. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">With that in mind when a song from Michael W. Smith’s recent worship album, <i>A New Hallelujah</i>, came on my iPod I started this discussion in my head all over again. The song is “When I Think of You” and I love to sing along with it. It has a great beat, the arrangement is very cool (it is sung with an African Children’s Chorus) and it’s really catchy. The problem is that I’m not really sure what it means. Here are the lyrics:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span></p><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When I think of you, I see you dancing, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">You’re dancing.<br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When I think of you, I hear you singing to me<br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When I think of you, I see You praying<br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">You’re Praying<br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When I think of you, I hear you calling for me </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yahweh, there is no one like You, Lord </span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span> </span><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yahweh, Hallelujah, we sing </span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span> </span><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yahweh, there is no one like You, Lord </span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span> </span><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yahweh, Your banner for me </span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span> </span><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Your banner for me is Love </span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There is no one like,<br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There is no one like my Yahweh, my Yahweh </span></span></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This all gets repeated multiple times. As I said, it’s real catchy and by the second time through I’m usually singing along. Here’s my question, though: what is it about? Who is “you” in this song? Who is thinking about whom? In the chorus, "you" is clearly the Lord - but what about in the verses? After thinking about it for a bit I’m beginning to think that this is just another example of a worship song in which the composer strings together a bunch of nice sounding spiritual words, which really don’t go anywhere. This was reinforced when, before the next song MWS sings “faith is rising tonight” a couple of times – I’m not sure what that means either. Now I like Smith a lot – I have almost all of his albums over all these many years and when he records a worship song it often becomes the definitive version. So, tell me what you think about this one.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Calibri;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-86073991700591278352010-05-23T12:09:00.001-04:002010-05-23T12:18:25.644-04:00Glass Harp’s best album<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Recently Glass Harp released a 2008 concert CD that, initially I was less than excited about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That was before I heard it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>You see, I figured I’d heard all these songs before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have the original three albums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have <i>Hourglass</i>, their reunion CD.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I have the <i>Carnegie Hall Live</i> CD, the <i>With Strings Attached</i> set and also the massive <i>Stark Raving Jams</i> and they’re OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But none of them (with the possible exception of <i>Carnegie Hall</i>, recorded in the early 70s) really caught the excitement and the improvisational power of these three guys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I finally got to see them about five or 6 years ago and I was thrilled – they rarely tour together anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But <i>Strings Attached</i> was just too calm and too scripted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i>Stark Raving Jams</i> was too unfocussed and the recording quality wasn’t great.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">So when I saw that <i>Live at the Beachland Ballroom</i> was being released I thought that this was just another live Glass Harp album with the same songs (they mostly still play the stuff from their three original studio albums) and that it was totally redundant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I was wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i>Live at the Beachland Ballroom</i> is the one Glass Harp CD that you need to have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I haven’t heard Phil Keaggy playing with this sort of abandon and fire on a recording in years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And Glass Harp is not just Phil and a rhythm section – Dan Peccio and John Sferra are totally on target here too and the connection between these guys while they play is amazing. They’re totally in sync and the band turns on a dime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is clear in a number of places on the album but no more so than in the nearly 16-minute “Beachland Jam.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The band jumps in and out of multiple jams, mostly started by Phil on guitar but within seconds Dan and John jump in and join him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Vocally, they’ve never been better and instrumentally they’re at the top of their game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is probably the best Glass Harp album yet. Buy it <a href="http://www.glassharp.net/Pages/order.html">here</a>.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-3077207386853930872010-05-07T19:14:00.003-04:002010-05-07T19:24:39.750-04:00Thinking about U2’s Zooropa – exile and restoration<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.atu2.com/files/releases/19-t.jpg?04be4912ad"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 100px; height: 100px;" src="http://www.atu2.com/files/releases/19-t.jpg?04be4912ad" border="0" alt="" /></a><div>I found myself awake a lot last night so I popped in my earbuds, hit play on my iPod and listened to<i> Zooropa</i>, perhaps the U2 album I have had the least affinity to. That may have changed after my careful listen last night.</div><div><br /></div><div>I realized that you can view this album as being two halves – the first half about the shallowness of the world and the second half about restoration, a theme that shows up in scripture as exile and restoration in the overarching story of Israel and in smaller stories like the Prodigal Son. </div><div><br /></div><div>Let's take a quick walk through the album and see what's there. (You can find all the lyrics <a href="http://www.atu2.com/lyrics/tracks.src?VID=19">here</a>.) In “Zooropa” we hear “And I have no compass and I have no map / And I have no reasons, no reasons to get back / And I have no religion and I don't know what's what / And I don't know the limit, the limit of what we got” which indicate that the singer has no direction. </div><div><br /></div><div>“Babyface” reduces the woman that Bono sings about to little more than tinfoil and lace. Perhaps the most obvious example is “Numb” with its litany of excesses in the current age. “Lemon” is a reflection on how the image is preferable to the actual person. Building the car itself becomes the destination – we’re really going nowhere. “Stay” tells the story of yet another aimless person: “Red light, grey morning / You stumble out of a hole in the ground / A vampire or a victim / It depends on who's around.”</div><div><br /></div><div>This brings us through the first half of the album – a half that’s frankly, pretty depressing. It is an unflinching look at a world that has little going for it except an onslaught of excess. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the second half things start to look up. We begin, surprisingly enough, with a song about a crashed car. Who “Daddy” is is never explicit but it must be a song about grace. We crash the car and God pays for it. When I first heard “some days are better than others” I thought about the bad days that are referred to. Now I think that it’s a song about the good ones. “Some days you hear a voice taking you to another place / Some days are better than others.” </div><div><br /></div><div>“The First Time” is a song with the Trinity built into it, the Holy Spirit in verse one, the Son in the second verse and then the Father in the third. I was puzzled by the throwing away of the keys in the third verse for a while, thinking that Bono was talking about leaving the church. Now I don’t think that’s the case. The key in question is not the key to church – in all three verses we see that God has reached out and the singer has not been able to fully grasp what’s being offered – in the third verse it’s the keys to the coming kingdom but the singer is too caught up in the stuff from the first half of the album to accept them. But he still recognizes that he feels loved. </div><div><br /></div><div>I wonder if the voice of “Dirty Day” is the voice of Jesus. Here’s why: the father to son talk, the talk about “kissin’ time” and this verse: "Get it right / There's no blood thicker than ink / Hear what I say / Nothing's a simple as you think / Wake up / Somethings you can't get around / I'm in you / More so when they put me in the ground."</div><div><br /></div><div>If, in “Dirty Day,” redemption is made explicit, then it’s made personal in the “The Wanderer.” This album is a journey – a journey from the crassness and excesses of society to the redemption offered by Christ and accepted by flawed people. It’s a story of grace. I like this album a lot better now!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-87771221542022140522010-03-27T11:08:00.003-04:002010-03-27T15:41:39.087-04:00Peter Gabriel's Scratch My BackMusic is pretty important to me. I have it on most of the time and I listen pretty intently quite often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Every once in a while an album comes along that just stops me in my tracks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The latest one to do that – and the first one in a while – is Peter Gabriel’s gorgeous <i>Scratch My Back</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i>Scratch My Back</i> is a covers album but it is unlike any other covers album I’ve ever come across.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Gabriel likes to make rules for an album – the rule for his third solo album (<i>Melt</i>) was “no cymbals.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>OK – that sounds weird but what happened was the drummers and producers came up with the gated drum sound that went on to define Phil Collins’ drum sound on his first few solo albums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The rule for <i>Scratch My Back</i> was “no guitars and no drums.”<p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The result, and apparently Gabriel did not necessarily start out looking at it this way, is an album of voice, piano and orchestra.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These are not flimsy pop orchestrations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These are some of the most robust and exciting string arrangements I’ve heard lately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Of all the songs that Gabriel covers there are only a few that I was familiar with before the album.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The album starts out with David Bowie’s “Heroes” and right off the bat you hear the strings announce that this is an album that you don’t want to listen to in a hurry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not every song sends chills up my spine but an awful lot of them do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Elbow’s “Mirrorball” is amazingly haunting and Lou Reed’s “The Power of the Heart” is breathtaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Gabriel’s slow take on Paul Simon’s “The Boy in the Bubble” allows us to hear the lyrics in a new light – “the way the camera follows us in slo-mo” indeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Neil Young’s “Philadelphia” is actually not much of a departure from the original but Gabriel’s voice gives it a different feel and gives it a new interpretation.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I looked at the reviews on Amazon and I find that people either love this album, giving it 4 or 5 stars or hate it, giving it 1 or 2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I totally get that – this album is going to either make you think Gabriel is a genius or it will bore you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I am firmly in the first category.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-31871590264798670032010-02-10T20:20:00.004-05:002010-02-11T17:50:16.646-05:00Fun with GaragebandI've been having fun with Garageband lately - <a href="http://www.sendspace.com/file/8fqrd2'">here is my latest recording</a>, a cover of Phil Keaggy's "Days Like You." If you download it (it is an itunes file) and listen to it let me know how much you like it. If you don't just pretend you didn't hear it. :-)Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-20642011391012574102010-01-03T09:16:00.005-05:002010-01-03T09:25:55.748-05:00Paul McCartney: Good Evening New York City<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"> When I heard that McCartney was releasing a CD/DVD of his NYC run of shows last summer I thought that this was probably one too many live releases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After all, Paul’s pattern lately has been tour after releasing a studio album (or, as he’s started doing lately, do a mini-tour) and then release a DVD of the show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He has been using the same band since the 2001 tour to support <i>Driving Rain</i>, his first album after his wife Linda passed away and he’s released four DVDs with this band (not even counting the shorter things like the<i> Memory Almost Full Deluxe Edition</i> or the third disc of the <i>McCartney Years</i>.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So I did not rush right out to buy this one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, a friend told me that Meijer had <i>Good Evening New York City</i> for $10.99 – that’s for 2 CDs and a DVD – and I couldn’t resist it so I asked Laura to get it for me for Christmas and that’s what happened – it sat waiting for me for as a present along with other DVDs this Christmas.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">So I’ve been watching it over the past few days about a half hour at a time and I’ve come to believe that this is perhaps the best live McCartney DVD yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Here are my reasons:</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"></p><ul><li><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;"><span style="mso-list:Ignore"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>Paul’s in great form – he and the band are playing and singing great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(There has been some Internet complaining about his use of auto-tune but, frankly, I don’t hear it.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They’ve been playing together for nearly a decade and it shows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They’re tight and playful in their playing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’ve never noticed that Brian Ray is a fine bassist before – a nice bonus for when Paul plays guitar or piano.</li><li> He does excellent versions of songs he’s done before with some nice twists like jams at the end of “I’ve Got a Feeling” and in the middle of “Paperback Writer.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The version of “Something” is like the one on the <i>Concert for George</i>, where Paul starts with the ukulele but then the band comes in part way through – very nicely done.</li><li> The set list is very good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Lot so Beatles, of course – nearly the entire second half of the concert is Beatles – but also a very nice selection of solo stuff taken from a large number of his albums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i>Band on the Run</i> is, of course, well represented with four selections but one of those is the seldom-played “Mrs Vanderbilt.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There are also a few songs from McCartney’s recent Fireman album <i>Electric Arguments</i> as well as <i>Memory Almost Full</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even the Beatles songs have some surprises like “I’m Down” and “A Day in the Life” ended with Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(Credited just to Lennon, by the way, even though the original was officially listed as a Lennon/McCartney song.)</li><li> This is one of the first DVDs of Paul’s shows that actually just shows the concert rather than having lots of intercut interviews, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And this time the focus is on the band rather than showing how much the fans are loving it, unlike some of his other videos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Another annoyance in some of the early videos is the frenetic editing – you never get more than a few seconds on any one band member. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This time the pace is about right.</li></ul><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In nearly every way this video is superior to others that he has released lately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even if, like me, you have many of his videos in your collection, this one is worth getting and if you don’t have any then this is the one you should consider getting, especially considering the price.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-2315132742281207392009-12-19T17:49:00.007-05:002010-01-16T10:00:34.186-05:002009 - albums of the year.<div style="text-align: left;">This has been a strange year of listening for me – not many new albums have really grabbed my attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Plus, for a couple of reasons, I spent time rediscovering old albums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Beatles remasters of course were released in September and, while I’m getting the stereo remasters for Christmas, the mono remasters have been in my rotation for a couple of months and they’re spectacular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I can’t wait for the stereo ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>U2 came out with a remastered <i>Unforgettable Fire</i> which was a great thing to listen to. Between old U2 and the Beatles there isn't a whole lot of room for new music to creep in.</div> <p class="MsoNormal">On top of that I spent part of the summer deliberately going back and listening to old classic albums that I had somehow missed the first time around, albums like <i>Blue</i> by Joni Mitchell and <i>Electric Ladyland</i> by Jimi Hendrix. They are clearly on my best listening of the year list. I also continue to enjoy <i>Electric Arguments</i> by the Fireman (Paul McCartney) which was on <a href="http://drbobk.blogspot.com/2008/12/top-albums-of-year.html">my list last year</a>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">But none of those are new albums – there actually are only a handful of new ones that got me excited, two of the are live albums of bands playing old stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One that surprised me is Over the Rhine’s <i>Live from Nowhere, Vol. 4</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I had low expectations for this album since it was all songs from my least favorite OtR period, their earliest days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But the playing and singing on <i>LfN4</i> is just wonderful – it’s a reunion concert of the early band and Ric Hordinski’s playing is great. Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood (who made up half of Blind Faith in the 60's) released <i>Live from Madison Square Garden</i> which is a very good live album with both Clapton and Winwood at the top of their game. I got to see their tour last summer and Clapton was clearly playing very very well. I never dreamed that I'd actually ever see the two of them playing Blind Faith songs together live. It was great (although they were playing even better when I saw them than they did on the album!)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Three new bands caught my ear this year. Owl City’s album <i>Ocean Eyes</i> is a lot of fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The song “Fireflies” grabbed me right away and the rest of the album followed suit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> It might sound too much alike over all but I'm not sick of it yet. </span>I discovered another new band, the Rescues – I think they’re great and their album <i>Crazy Ever After</i> got a lot of play last summer too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Rescues is a collection of four solo artists who together have catchy tunes, lush harmonies and interesting arrangements. Dhani Harrison’s band thenewno2 (the new number 2) released <i>You Are Here, </i>an album that has glimpses of his father George’s melodic style but cast in a fresh way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is not just a son cashing in on his father’s name – I think Dhani might have a real future ahead of him. Even though I got it early in the year I keep going back to it.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Finally, my number one album of the year has to be U2’s <i>No Line on the Horizon</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This album is adventurous and risky but there are moments of sheer brilliance like “Magnificent” and “White as Snow.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I even like the lead single “Get on Your Boots.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Whenever I don’t hear the album for a few weeks and listen again I get excited because it’s just so good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I remember when I first got it I listened with my ipod in a hotel in Troy, MI and was just blown away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> That was when I realized what a very special record this was. </span> I got to see U2 in Chicago this fall and I will again in East Lansing next summer. The clear high point to my musical year!</p> <!--EndFragment-->Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-47649321636892327642009-12-14T20:17:00.003-05:002009-12-14T20:31:02.621-05:00Thoughts on "River" and ChristmasI haven't blogged for a very long time and it seems trivial to make this my first post in a while but I've been listening to a fair amount of Christmas music lately - no big surprise, seeing it's December 14 - but I've noticed more and more artists including Joni Mitchell's beautiful song "River."<br /><br />Here's the thing - what does that song have to do with Christmas? The first couplet references Christmas:<br /><blockquote>It's coming on Christmas<br />They're cutting down trees<br />They're putting up reindeer<br />And singing songs of joy and peace.</blockquote>That's it - it's a song about a broken relationship that happens to reference the idea that it's getting close to Christmas when Mitchell is writing the song. It's not a Christmas song! Just because a song has the word Christmas in it doesn't mean it should be included on ALL new Christmas CDs. OK, that's an overstatement but it's being treated like a Christmas standard and it should not be - it's not even a Holiday song (like "White Christmas") or a seasonal song (like "Winter Wonderland.") <br /><br />It's a beautiful song - I like it a lot and enjoy it when it pops up in my playlist. But there is no reason why it should be on Christmas CDs but it appears on recent Christmas CDs by Rosie Thomas, Sarah McLachlan, Sixpence None the Richer and James Taylor. Enough is enough.Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-34175817470148162322009-08-28T21:43:00.002-04:002009-08-28T21:48:54.636-04:00The Great Albums ProjectThis whole thing started with Eric Clapton. I was looking on Wikipedia for information about Jimi Hendrix’s album <span style="font-style: italic;">Electric Ladyland</span>. I had never really listened to Hendrix before and since Clapton and Steve Winwood played a killer version of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” on their live album and tour when I saw them in Chicago this summer I thought it wise to check out the album that it came from. So I went to the library and I had <span style="font-style: italic;">Electric Ladyland</span> reserved for me – actually they shipped it from another local library. While I was looking they had Hendrix’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Axis: Bold As Love</span> actually in the rack so I took that home first. I listened to it and I liked it. While I was doing some reading about the album’s background I stumbled across the <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938174/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time">Rolling Stone list of greatest 500 albums</a>, which had Electric Ladyland listed at #54. Hey, I thought, this is a cool list. Any list that has three Beatles albums in the top 5 has to be good. Then I noticed that while I had a fair number of these albums or at least I was pretty familiar with some there were others that I frankly hadn’t ever listened to. So I decided to spend part of the summer using the library to get and listen to some of these albums so I could see what I was missing.<br /><br />Here is a preliminary report.<br />4. <span style="font-style: italic;">Highway 61 Revisited</span>, Bob Dylan – the jury is still out on this one. I already knew most of the songs so it wasn’t like I was completely unfamiliar with it. It’s classic Dylan and you either love it or you don’t – I am a moderate Dylan fan so I get why it’s cool I just don’t know how often I’d want to listen to it.<br /><br />6. <span style="font-style: italic;">What's Going On</span>, Marvin Gaye – this is one of the first albums I tried that I did not already know and love. I really like the title track and though I’d like the whole album a lot more but I found that it all sounded too much the same for me. I, frankly, don’t see how it got so high on the list.<br /><br />7. <span style="font-style: italic;">Exile on Main Street</span>, The Rolling Stones – I’ve heard about this album for years, of course but I have never been as much a fan of the stones as I think I ought to be. While I like listening to them on occasion I usually don’t last for a whole album.<br /><br />11.<span style="font-style: italic;"> The Sun Sessions</span>, Elvis Presley – this one struck me as being only of historical interest. I frankly didn’t even get all the way through it.<br /><br />15. <span style="font-style: italic;">Are You Experienced?</span>, The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Great stuff. Although I think I like Electric Ladyland better.<br /><br />19. <span style="font-style: italic;">Astral Weeks</span>, Van Morrison – very nice – I’ve only listened once so far but I’m looking forward to exploring this a bit more.<br /><br />30. <span style="font-style: italic;">Blue</span>, Joni Mitchell – another nice album that I’ve only heard once – but I like it a lot – this and the Van Morrison feel similar to me. Both delicate, recorded with limited instruments and very personal. I’m going to enjoy hearing this a few more times.<br /><br />So that’s it so far – what a great summer of exploring old music!Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-54097724106315401382009-07-30T19:41:00.005-04:002009-07-31T14:25:54.509-04:00New BookThe new book, which I wrote with Laura, <span style="font-style: italic;">Celebrating the Milestones of Faith: A Guide for Churches</span>, arrived at our house today - here is a picture of it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JA_5kaKGPNY/SnIwqk3SMqI/AAAAAAAADTg/YBNzHXk96Ww/s1600-h/milestones.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JA_5kaKGPNY/SnIwqk3SMqI/AAAAAAAADTg/YBNzHXk96Ww/s400/milestones.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364403614159876770" border="0" /></a><br />You can get it from <a href="http://www.faithaliveresources.org/">Faith Alive Resources</a>Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-91545857563106192102009-07-27T10:49:00.006-04:002009-08-04T16:10:44.937-04:00Sustainable Youth Ministry<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://thechristianmanifesto.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/devries-sustainable-youth-ministry.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 196px; height: 294px;" src="http://thechristianmanifesto.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/devries-sustainable-youth-ministry.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I’m just finishing Mark DeVries’ book <span style="font-style: italic;">Sustainable Youth Ministry </span>and I like it a lot.<span style=""> </span>I’ve not written as much about books here lately but I’ve been reading lots of books about faith formation in preparation for the book I’m editing this summer and fall on the topic.<span style=""> </span>I hope to write a little about some of the other books I’ve read but I’m writing this today because I’m so enthusiastic about Mark’s book.<span style=""> </span> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This book is an incredibly valuable resource for Youth Leaders but also for churches.<span style=""> It </span>should be read by church staffs and volunteer church leaders too – anyone who connects with a church youth program would benefit from this book because Mark has seen what works and he’s seen what doesn’t work and he lays then out nicely in this book.<span style=""> </span>It is written in his whimsical style (which is even better in person – he’s a great speaker) and there is a lot of practical wisdom in here that I really appreciated.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I hope to read this book with our church ministry staff and discuss it soon. I highly recommend it.<br /></p> <!--EndFragment-->Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-30135172091372367552009-07-24T08:58:00.003-04:002009-07-24T09:16:44.710-04:00Eric Clapton - better than everI’ve watched Eric Clapton in three different videos so far this summer and seen him live once (with Steve Winwood – an absolutely amazing show) and I am convinced that he is playing and singing as well as he ever has.<span style=""> </span>What’s more, his personal life seems to be in such good shape that he has been able to sustain this level of playing now for quite some time.<span style=""> </span>In his recent Live DVD with Steve Winwood, Steve talks about how Eric is now a really fine singer and band leader – two things he did not want to do in Blind Faith.<span style=""> </span>That’s been true now for about 20 years – since he got sober and straight.<span style=""> </span> <p class="MsoNormal">It is interesting to watch the arc of Eric’s career before that point.<span style=""> </span>He was always a great player but he seemed to have lots of near misses.<span style=""> </span>For every album like <i style="">Slowhand</i> there was the lesser <span style="font-style: italic;">No Reason to Cry</span>.<span style=""> </span>His fans, me among them, were waiting for that killer album that would blow us all away like Layla did.<span style=""> </span>We had a long time to wait because, even though <span style="font-style: italic;">Layla</span> was recorded under “enhanced” conditions, the drugs soon took their toll on Clapton and for a while he did absolutely nothing.<span style=""> </span>Then came the string of albums in the late 70’s and 80’s, which were quite uneven.<span style=""> </span>He seemed to not want to do what we really wanted him to – play the guitar in a way that made us realize what all the fuss was about.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I find the live album <span style="font-style: italic;">Just One Night</span> to be a good example of where he was during that period.<span style=""> </span>There are great moments on that album but much of the album is spent playing the songs that were OK but not the ones we really really wanted to hear.<span style=""> </span>He’s got some great solos but the whole album just often leaves me cold.<span style=""> </span>For one thing, he seemed intent on using a really thin sound on his guitar, one that didn’t let him take control of the band the way he did back in the 60’s and early 70’s.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Then, in 1989, I remember getting his <span style="font-style: italic;">Journeyman</span> album – the one that, for me shows him getting back to who he really is – and realizing that this was the Clapton that I had been missing all along.<span style=""> </span>The live album that followed that, <span style="font-style: italic;">24 Nights</span>, was, according to his autobiography, almost a throw-away because of his grief over the loss of his young son.<span style=""> </span>But you can hear that he’s playing better than he has for quite a while and his song choice harks back to songs from Cream and Derek and the Dominoes as well as the great new songs on <span style="font-style: italic;">Journeyman</span>.<span style=""> </span>And to show that it wasn’t a fluke, his <span style="font-style: italic;">Unplugged</span> album, which was released right after <span style="font-style: italic;">24 Nights</span>, showed him to be a fine acoustic player and highlighted his singing voice. It also featured the song “Tears in Heaven,” which won him the first of his THREE Grammy Awards for pop VOCAL.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Since then he’s released a number of really fine albums including the amazingly personal <span style="font-style: italic;">Pilgrim</span> and what I think is his definitive live album, <span style="font-style: italic;">One More Car, One More Rider</span>.<span style=""> </span>His latest studio solo album was, frankly, the weakest one he’s released in a while, but even that one has great playing on it.<span style=""> </span>I was also really impressed, both times that I’ve seen him this decade, with his professionalism and his fine playing.<span style=""> </span>He’s come through the rock and roll excesses and emerged a winner.<span style=""> </span>If you get the chance to see him now you’ll be seeing one of rock’s premier players and singers at the top of his game. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-43348884026669089482009-07-23T10:13:00.004-04:002009-07-23T10:24:55.515-04:00The Concert for George<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.home.no/across/concert%20for%20george.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 356px; height: 475px;" src="http://www.home.no/across/concert%20for%20george.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I watched some of The Concert for George this morning again, the George Harrison tribute concert.<span style=""> </span>Especially with the recent Michael Jackson tributes I was struck with how the tone of this is just about exactly right.<span style=""> </span>First of all it was a year to the day after his death.<span style=""> </span>His friends, primarily Eric Clapton, not just entertainment industry folks who wanted to show that they knew George, put it together.<span style=""> </span>The people who appear in the concert represent many parts of George’s musical life – Paul and Ringo, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty (from the Traveling Wilburys,) Billy Preston, Gary Booker, Ravi Shankar, Joe Brown (for whom the Beatles opened in the early 60’s) and even Monty Python’s Flying Circus.<p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The night did not feature any over-the-top tribute speeches proclaiming him the greatest entertainer who ever lived – OK, the Monty Python bit featured one that was SO over the top that it was hilarious but it soon morphed into “The Lumberjack Song.”<span style=""> </span>It was a bunch of musical friends playing George’s music or music that George loved.<span style=""> </span>Even the video was done well featuring two discs, one with the feature film “The Concert for George” with performances from the concert and the rehearsal as well as interview footage from the participants. The other disc has the entire concert.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The bottom line, though, is that the music is great.<span style=""> </span>George was a good composer who was often great and this concert features the best of his work performed by Clapton’s crack band and some of his very talented friends.<span style=""> </span>Highlights for me include the McCartney/Clapton version of “Something” which starts out with Paul’s ukulele version and shifts to be a full band version with Eric singing and playing – just beautiful.<span style=""> </span>The version of “I Want to Tell You” is really cool.<span style=""> </span>The Ravi Shankar composed “Arpan” suite performed by his daughter and an orchestra of Indian instruments is also wonderful – I listened to this a bit three years ago on my trip to India.<span style=""> </span>Overall the DVD is well worth it – I truly enjoy watching it and listening to the CD.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-67477755048338821202009-06-10T09:49:00.004-04:002009-06-10T10:17:04.280-04:00summer report #1I've been lax about posting here because I was asked to post over at <a href="http://www.thinkchristian.net/">ThinkChristian</a> and I figured that many of the things that I had to write about I could put over there. But then I haven't put anything there for quite a while and stopped writing here too - too busy with work I guess.<br /><br />But I have been doing a lot of listening and watching of DVDs as well as doing some reading and thinking and I have reported on none of it. I've been rewatching some old shows and enjoying them. I've been trying not to ram through a series - one season after another. I've taken a break between seasons. That means I'm simultaneously in the middle of many many things. So right now I'm rewatching<ul><li style="font-style: italic;">The West Wing, Season 1,<br /></li><li style="font-style: italic;">The Simpsons, Season 3,<br /></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Alias, Season 1</span>, (NOW I remember why I got so hooked on this show!) </li><li style="font-style: italic;">Everybody Loves Raymond Season 3</li></ul>and I'm watching <span style="font-style: italic;">Burn Notice, Season 1</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Boston Legal Season 2</span> for the first time. Excellent. Clearly, it will take me a while to get through all of these. I don't get through them very quickly.<br /><br />I'm also listening to thenewnotwo (Dhani Harrison's band), the new Elvis Costello, U2's <span style="font-style: italic;">Medium, Rare and Remastered</span> (the CD you get if you join U2.com) and many other things. I've gone back and gotten out my old King Crimson and Rick Wakeman albums. That has been fun too.<br /><br />I'm reading <span style="font-style: italic;">Book, Bath Table and Time</span> by Fred Edie and <span style="font-style: italic;">The First Year Out</span> by Tim Clydesdale and enjoying both of them.<br /><br />I've also started working on a new book - I'm editing an as-yet-untitled book about Faith Formation. The book that Laura and I wrote on Faith Milestones should be out in about a month. Here is the page from the catalog.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JA_5kaKGPNY/Si-_p5iMpeI/AAAAAAAADK4/fP-de8LV5P0/s1600-h/Picture+3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JA_5kaKGPNY/Si-_p5iMpeI/AAAAAAAADK4/fP-de8LV5P0/s400/Picture+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345702009251866082" border="0" /></a><br />So it's been a busy summer so far!Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-14857776091084754362009-03-31T10:33:00.001-04:002009-03-31T10:34:59.988-04:00New post over at Think ChristianI've been invited to do some of my posting over at <a href="http://www.thinkchristian.net/index.php/2009/03/31/american-idol-from-pulpit-to-stage-and-back/">ThinkChristian.ne</a><a href="http://www.thinkchristian.net/index.php/2009/03/31/american-idol-from-pulpit-to-stage-and-back/">t</a> and my first one was put up there today. It's about American Idol. Please go read it and comment!Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-16675482031518633472009-03-06T07:25:00.003-05:002009-03-06T07:41:30.144-05:00More thoughts on No LIne on the Horizon - Get on Your Beautiful FeetI woke up at 5:00 AM this morning, 50 minutes before my alarm and 30 minutes before I allow myself to get up so I reached for my ipod (which I keep by my bed for such a time as this) and figured i would listen for half an hour. I put it on random album knowing that I have a lot of single songs on the ipod right now from Paste samplers and free itunes downloads. I thought about listening to U2 but figured I would experience a little variety - after all I had been listening to the new album a lot lately. After one song (by Tina Dico) <span style="font-style: italic;">No Line on the Horizon</span> started (it's only a 1 GB ipod so it's not THAT unreasonable that it would pop up.) Even though I'd listened to it a LOT lately as it started it sounded good to me and I haven't listened with earbuds in a while so I let it run and enjoyed it a lot - again. I heard lots of sounds I had not heard before - the time spent on making this album really shows when you listen intently.<br /><br />I got to the halfway point - almost time to get up - and "Get On Your Boots" came on. Now I've been listening to this song for a month now but in the context of the album it seems to play differently. Bono got to the "You don't know how beautiful you are" part and I suddenly had a realization. I thought of Isaiah 52:7,<br /><blockquote>How beautiful on the mountains<br /> are the feet of those who bring good news,<br /> who proclaim peace,<br /> who bring good tidings,<br /> who proclaim salvation,<br /> who say to Zion,<br /> "Your God reigns!" </blockquote>As soon as I thought of it I knew that I was on to something. Bono is a scripture nut - he knows it and he quotes it a lot. It oozes out of him. He's singing a song about feet and then riffs on "how beautiful." There has to be a connection.Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-57955250170009573662009-03-05T08:26:00.003-05:002009-03-05T08:34:08.032-05:00Incomplete thoughts regarding No Line on the HorizonYesterday I learned that the forthcoming companion album to U2's <span style="font-style: italic;">No Line on the Horizon</span> will be called <span style="font-style: italic;">Songs of Ascent</span>, a reference, no doubt to the set of Psalms (120-134) that the people of Israel sang as they made their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the passover.<br /><br />With that thought in the back of my mind I finally this morning read the lyrics to "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight." The chorus (which I have a hard time understanding without the lyric sheet) begins "It’s not a hill, it’s a mountain / As you start out the climb." Now I'm not sure if there is a connection between this mountain and the hills that the people of Israel climbed on their way to the passover but I'm going to keep my ears open to see if there is.Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-17876678236277506782009-03-03T20:24:00.003-05:002009-03-03T20:43:01.547-05:00More on U2's No Line on the Horizon - reflecting on "Unknown Caller"I’ve been listening to the new U2 album by trying to think about what each song might be about in the overall context that I pointed to in my <a href="http://drbobk.blogspot.com/2009/02/no-line-on-horizon-u2s-new-album.html">previous pos</a>t. Today I thought a bit about the song “Unknown Caller.” <br /><br />In “Until the End of the World” Bono takes the point of view of Judas. In “Unknown Caller” I think he may be taking on the point of view of Jesus – just after the resurrection on Easter Sunday. <a href="http://www.atu2.com/lyrics/lyrics.src?VID=167&SID=868">Here</a> are the lyrics.<br /><br />Here’s why I think this interpretation could work. When Bono sings “Sunshine, sunshine” I can imagine Jesus stepping out of the tomb on that Sunday morning.<br /><br />The first verse puts Jesus before the resurrection:<br /><blockquote>I was lost between the midnight and the dawning<br />In a place of no consequence or company<br />3:33 when the numbers fell off the clock face<br />Speed-dialing with no signal at all</blockquote><br />Lost between midnight and dawning could refer to being in the garden or to his time between being on the cross and Sunday morning. 3:33 might well refer to Jeremiah 33:3, which Bono hid on the cover of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/All-That-Cant-Leave-Behind/dp/B00004Z0LW"><span style="font-style: italic;">All That You Can’t Leave Behind</span></a> and calls God’s phone number. Here is what it says: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” <br /><br />When Jesus calls on God he says "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me." This is the speed dialing with no signal. (As a note, I think that Jesus' words are a clear reference to Psalm 22 in which the Psalmist starts out saying that God has forsaken him and realizes that God has not. I think this is the point Jesus is making by quoting the Psalm and it seems that Bono might have taken this at face value instead - thinking that God the Father had indeed forsaken Jesus on the cross. So I think Bono is referring to this word from the cross but I think he interpreted it incorrectly.)<br /><br />The song continues<br /><blockquote>Go, shout it out, rise up<br />Oh, oh<br />Escape yourself and gravity<br />Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak<br />Shush now</blockquote><br /><br />This sounds to me like Jesus telling us to celebrate his resurrection. Especially later when he sings<br /><blockquote>Restart and re-boot yourself<br />You’re free to go<br />Oh, oh<br />Shout for joy if you get the chance</blockquote><br />I could go on for the rest of the song like this but I'll let you do a little digging for yourself. It all seems to fit the overall idea. I'm amazed at the number of songs on this album that have a pretty distinct Christian theme. There are <a href="http://www.bobflayhart.com/2009/03/theological-review-of-u2s-no-line.html">others</a> on the net who are saying similar things about the album (much of what I like) but sometime I think they're stretching a bit to make every song fit a larger theological theme. I've tried really hard not to do that here. I really think this is what Bono had in mind. There is a lot of cool stuff on this album and I don't intend (at least not at this point) to go through it song by song but I'm listening to this album a lot and the more I hear it the more I like it.Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-88985368348452872082009-02-27T23:05:00.005-05:002009-02-28T07:40:00.515-05:00No Line on the Horizon – U2’s new albumI am a huge U2 fan. I already knew I would like their new album, <span style="font-style: italic;">No Line on the Horizon</span>, before I heard it. Why? Because 12 albums into a career there is not a single U2 album that has not paid off for me on repeated listens. These guys are thoughtful, creative and better at doing what they do than anyone else. I'm a fan and I'll admit it. So if you expect me to be lukewarm on this album you'll have to go someplace else.<br /><br />Five years ago U2’s <span style="font-style: italic;">How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb</span> grabbed me on the first listen. The songs on the album were spectacular and accessible – I understood them early on and continued to find new things to like in them as I played (and replayed and replayed) the album. That album stayed in my player for a very long time. I saw the tour and what little remained of my U2 skepticism went right out the window.<br /><br />So, now that my confession is out of the way and I’ve given up any pretense of impartiality I can address their new album, <span style="font-style: italic;">No Line on the Horizon</span>. My first taste of it was the single “Get on Your Boots” which, sure, is a little dopey in spots but, frankly, I played the single a lot. iTunes keeps track of the number of plays and I was well over a dozen by the end of day two. I thought it was creative and fun and had a killer riff. But when I finally got the chance to hear the whole album I realized that there was really nothing else quite like that on the whole album. In fact my initial response was that the album was quite subdued overall. This will take repeated listening to really get, I thought. And I was right. After a number of plays I have come to see this as a wonderful U2 album, and sounds to me very much like the natural successor to either <span style="font-style: italic;">Zooropa</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">The Unforgettable Fire</span>.<br /><br />Steve Harmon, in <a href="http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3889&Itemid=9">his review of the album</a> suggests that this is the horizon line referred to in the song and tha albm title is the line separating heaven and earth and that Bono is looking at the horizon for a day when earth will be more like heaven. I am still hard pressed to get that out of just looking at the lyrics to the song but his argument makes a lot of sense to me. But that’s the thing about U2’s writing – the theological stuff is sometimes only there for those who have ears to hear. And in this case the whole album seems to be about trying to find what Bono had been looking for since the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Joshua Tree</span>. Even without the context for of the whole album I thought that “Get On Your Boots” was a call to arms – a call to the church to get out of it’s too complacent ways and do some work – these are work boots Bono is calling sexy. In context, it makes even more sense. This is how we can usher in the world where justice reigns – the world in the future (which needs “a big kiss” according to Bono.) This interpretation works for me.<br /><br />There are times in this album where the point is pretty clear, as in the amazing “Magnificent.” Those of us who look for Christian subtext in U2’s music found it immediately in “Magnificent” – a song with a stirring sound and soaring melody. I can’t wait to hear how this one goes over live. But in this one Bono sings about how he was “born to sing for you.” The occasional reviewer missed the point here but Bono is pretty clearly talking about God – especially when he says that his first cry was a joyful noise. Bono also calls on some pretty familiar Christian imagery in “White as Snow.” You can't ignore this stuff and you can't just assume that Bono is playing with words - he is clearly evoking something in using these scriptural references. It all seems to point to an how Bono is still looking for peace and justice and love - and, in some cases, listing how we've all fallen short. This may be one of their more coherant album-long statements yet.<br /><br />Musically I find this album has lots of things to enjoy. Eno and Lanois’ influence in pretty clear and this album really doesn’t sound like any other U2 album – but it still sounds like U2. It may not be as packed with hits as <span style="font-style: italic;">Atomic Bomb</span> was but <span style="font-style: italic;">No Line on the Horizon</span> is every bit as good. Bono still hasn't found what he's looking for but it's good to know that he and the rest of the band haven't stopped looking.Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9593091.post-70073961397445380892009-02-17T09:28:00.002-05:002009-02-17T09:56:37.041-05:00OuchEarlier this year (early January, in fact) I had dug up some old CCM albums and was listening to them again for the first time in a few years. Among other things, <a href="http://drbobk.blogspot.com/2009/01/revisiting-old-ccm-albums.html">I wrot</a>e this:<br /><br /><blockquote>Considering Lily, the band, is one of my guilty pleasures from the 90s and also one of my great disappointments. This pair of sisters made a folky album as Serene and Pearl and, when that didn’t work out commercially for them, they rocked it up a bit and formed the band Considering Lily. Their self-titled album is dorky and obvious with mundane images and lightweight tunes. But I liked it and there was something about its quirkiness that caught me back then. The reason that this band was such a disappointment for me is that, for their second album, one of the sisters quit and the newly reformed Considering Lily released an album that was not really at all like their first one. They got more normal and lost their charm. After that they never released another album. While this first one was a lot of fun my patience for the pedestrian writing and playing on this album isn't what it used to be. After two listens it ended up getting deleted from my itunes.</blockquote><br />Over this past weekend I received this comment on that post: “Ouch. Serves me right for "Google"ing Considering Lily trying to find some audio clips of "The Pieces Fit" to link in an email.”<br /><br />The comment came from Jeanette. Clicking on her blogger profile revealed nothing. But I seemed to remember that the woman who was added to the new Considering Lily was named Jeanette. I did some quick googling and I was right – Jeanette Herdman.<br /><br />I have to admit that my heart fell when I read her note. It was not my intention to hurt her or anyone with my musings about those albums and I felt bad that she had read it and had been hurt by it – even if only a little. I went back and reread what I had written to make sure I hadn’t been especially mean – and I don’t think I was. But it reminded me that music that I review doesn’t just happen – it’s made by people. <br /><br />I have read some reviews and critiques of my recent book (<span style="font-style: italic;">Helping Our Children Grow in Faith </span>– quick, go <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Helping-Our-Children-Grow-Faith/dp/0801068290/ref=sr_1_2/102-8767305-3899347?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185482768&sr=8-2">order it</a> and read it and then say nice things about it) and, while they’ve been mostly positive there have been a couple of comments that were lukewarm or critical. As I read them I know that it goes with the territory - something that I'm sure Jeanette knows too. In fact – I was quite nervous about that before the book came out. Once you put a book out there you are opening yourself up to people reading it and saying “this guy’s crazy and what’s more he can’t write.” I’m also a musician and I know that reviews can be rough. And, truth be told, when I occasionally write in a particularly snarky manner with humor I get good comments from people who think I’m really smart and witty and clever in the way I put down whatever it was that I was reviewing. That positive reinforcement encourages people to be mean in reviews.<br /><br />But I also know that I enjoy writing and reading reviews of music and other things and that I will read, watch and listen to things that I just don’t like. Should I not write about them?<br /><br />I think I will continue to write about them BUT Jeanette’s note reminded me to do it with a spirit of humility and to speak the truth (or at least my opinions) in love. And, Jeanette, thanks for your note and for reminding me of the faces behind the art. I’ll go back and listen to <span style="font-style: italic;">The Pieces Fit</span> again – who knows maybe I’ll now hear things that I didn’t hear all those years ago.Bob Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10092719932619292581noreply@blogger.com0