"The Wedding Song"

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This past Saturday evening I officiated my 150th wedding.

At the bride’s request, I did something I hadn't done at the previous 149: performed a song. The song was "The Wedding Song", by Noel Paul Stookey.

(The video posted below is from the Thursday before the wedding, when I sang the song at Munger during our Thursday evening service as a way to practice.)

The bride helped us start Munger 11 years ago and the groom was a widower from our church with 3 boys. Their wedding was an occasion I had been praying for literally for years.

God is so good.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone.

 
 
 
 

Saturday Song: "When the Ship Comes In"

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Every Saturday for the next few weeks, I’ll be posting a favorite song. Video below.

This week’s is about the Day of Judgment:

“When the Ship Comes In,” by Bob Dylan.

(Be sure to watch to the end, when an unexpected visitor lets herself into my fancy recording studio. Apparently, she needed to tell me “sumpin.”)

I’m sure I’d heard this song before, but it was actually Tom Wright—of all people—who recently turned me onto it when he played a version of it on his podcast. (I’ve included the link to his version below as well.)

I particularly love the ending:

And they'll raise their hands sayin'
"We'll meet all your demands"
But we'll shout from the bow "Your days are numbered!"
And like Pharaoh's tribe they'll be drownded in the tide
And like Goliath they'll be conquered!

 
 

Every Saturday for the next few weeks I’m going to be playing a song that’s important to me. This week: “When the Ship Comes In,” by Bob Dylan. (If you watch to the end, you'll see I have a special visitor let herself into my fancy recording studio. Apparently, she needed to tell me "sumpin.")

 

When the Ship Comes In

—Bob Dylan

Oh the time will come up when the wind will stop
And the breeze will cease to be breathin'
Like the stillness in the wind 'fore the hurricane begins
The hour that the ship comes in

Oh the seas will split and the ship will hit
And the sand on the shoreline will be shakin'
And the tide will sound and the waves will pound
And the mornin' will be breakin'!

Oh the fishes will laugh as they swim out of the path
And the seagulls, they'll be smilin'
And the rocks on the sand will proudly stand
The hour that the ship comes in

And the words that are used for to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they're spoken'
For the chains of the sea will have busted in the night
And be buried on the bottom of the ocean

Oh a song will lift as the mainsail shifts
And the boat drifts onto the shoreline
And the sun will respect every face on the deck
The hour that the ship comes in

And the sands will roll out a carpet of gold
For your weary toes to be a touchin'
And the ship's wise men will remind you once again
That the whole wide world is watchin'!

Of the foes will rise with the sleep still in their eyes
And they'll jerk from their beds and think they're dreamin'
But they'll pinch themselves and squeal
And they'll know that it's for real
The hour that the ship comes in

And they'll raise their hands sayin'
"We'll meet all your demands"
But we'll shout from the bow "Your days are numbered!"
And like Pharaoh's tribe they'll be drownded in the tide
And like Goliath they'll be conquered!

 
 

New Testament scholar Tom Wright pulls out his guitar to sing Bob Dylan's 'When the ship comes in'. Hear the story behind the song on the podcast where Tom a...

Saturday Song: "Holy Is His Name"

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Every Saturday for the next few weeks I’m going to be playing and posting a song that means a lot to me. This week’s song is “Holy Is His Name,” by John Michael Talbot. The video is below, followed by some brief remarks on why this song matters to me.

 
 

Every Saturday for the next few weeks I’m going to be playing a song that’s important to me. This is “Holy Is His Name,” by John Michael Talbot.

 
 

When the Angel Gabriel tells Mary she is going to be pregnant with Israel’s Messiah, she sings this song. The music is from John Michael Talbot, but the words are from Mary herself, as given to us in Luke’s Gospel.

I sing this song every year during our Lessons and Carols service after Christmas; I think its power comes from the way Mary so perfectly understands what the coming of the Messiah means to God’s people:

He has cast down the mighty in their arrogance

And remembered the meek and the lowly.

It’s not Christmastime, but I think we could all use a bit of Christmas cheer right now.

May this song bless you as much as it blesses me.

 
 

Holy Is His Name, by John Michael Talbot

Verse 1:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

and my spirit exalts in God my Savior.

For he has looked with mercy on my lowliness,

and my name will be forever exalted.

For the mighty God has done great things for me,

and his mercy will reach from age to age.

 

Chorus:

And holy, holy, holy is his name.

 

Verse 2:

He has mercy in every generation.

He has revealed his power and his glory.

He has cast down the mighty in their arrogance,

and has lifted up the meek and the lowly.

He has come to help his servant Israel;

he remembers his promise to our fathers.

Some New Music for You to Check Out

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How could you not take to a guy like this? Meet David Crowder, in his own words:

I was born half Baptist (the East Texas, King James carrying, pipe organ, hymnal singing, Southern, type Baptist) and half Pentecostal (the Holy Ghost, jumpin? and shoutin?, hand-waving, prophecying, Southern, type Pentecostal). Later, I was born again.

crowder

Crowder Math

I've been a fan of David Crowder's music for over a decade; nobody sounds like him. Here's my summary of his unique style:Texas gospel rockabilly+Electronic dance beats+simple, piercing lyrics

= David Crowder

Hee Haw, Aqua Net, and Olivia Newton John

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUwXo0jgORI[/embed]David on his musical influences:

The son of an insurance salesman and a social worker, fructifying in the piney woods of Texarkana, I was as muddled as the name of my town. We drove a light blue Ford Thunderbird; not the old, classic kind, but a brand new one that had a sticker on it. The one with the electric windows and mirrors and the headlamp covers that flipped open when you turned on the headlights and an in-dash eight-track player. My dad and mom both used Aqua Net hair spray. He parted it on the right side and always carried a comb. She got permanents and had curlers that heated up every Saturday night while we all watched The Lawrence Welk Show and Hee-Haw. The eight-tracks in rotation were Elvis, Willie Nelson, Olivia Newton John, and Bill Gaither. Everything I‘ve ever done musically can be traced back to there that Ford Thunderbird, those sounds, the view out of those windows, and my brother punching me in the arm on the way to Sunday morning Church. That is all metaphor and all true.

After 6 albums, the David Crowder* Band broke up in 2012. But, David has kept making music under the name Crowder? and released his first solo album, Neon Steeple, in May 2014.

Neon Steeple

Like previous David Crowder albums,?Neon Steeple has a story to tell from start to finish. Although there are a few standout songs that work well on their own, the best way to listen to the album is in one sitting, beginning to end.Here's David describing his work on the album:

Neon Steeple is a collection of songs and sounds looking forward to the past and counting the present as sacred. It is a longing for belonging, a search for home. It is a collection of choruses that believe that this is not all there is. There is more, there must be. It is the sound of the Appalachians and Ibiza. Folk music and EDM. The music of the People. Folktronica. Digital and Analog. The Ones and Zeros and the Handshake. The Banjo and the 808.

Four Year-Old Dance Party, etc.

Neon Steeple is a beautiful album that tells a beautiful story in an unsentimental and creative way. It's also a lot of fun.The song My Beloved? is a favorite of a four year-old in my household. (The video is embedded above, but the album track is a much better version.) It‘s a clap-your-hands-stomp-your-feet happy hoedown.One of my favorite tracks is Come As You Are? (embedded below) that is an invitation to the weak, weary, broken-down to lay down their burdens and shame.[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE6QXWFL6jY[/embed]Another standout track is the southern throw-down Lift Your Head Weary Sinner (Chains). It‘s an aggressive, growling song.But to pick out those three tracks is to give the impression that the rest aren‘t worth hearing, an impression I don‘t want to give.?I Am? is another favorite of mine; I love the ambiguity in the central hook:

"I am holding onto you;In the middle of the storm,I am holding on...I am."

Who's holding whom? That's the question, isn't it?Another great track is the duet with Emmylou Harris (?My Sweet Lord?): just achingly beautiful.

?Blind is the fool, I see that now;I broke the rules, and let ya down.I walked alone; now I have run dry:I need my sweet Lord to help tonight.

The entire album is really strong: I recommend it.

"Making Dead People Alive"

As much as I appreciate David Crowder the musician, I think I appreciate David Crowder the writer and theologian even more:

Neon Steeple is both a critique and a hope. The meta-narrative of scripture is about innocence lost, it is about displacement, about things not being right and a search for belonging and home and forgiveness and reconciliation, the tension of death and life, what it means to be alive. The story is not about making bad people good, it is about making dead people alive. The story sold is rarely that.What if we started believing??

 What if indeed?