From Summer Wakes the Bear Who Sleeps by Chicago church planter Aaron Youngren, in the chapter "Exposition: Thoughts on Modern Fundamentalism"...
The strangest modern dogma is found in these four words: "I could be wrong."
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How pitiable the 21st Centry martyr, who is stoned to death with nothing to say, but, "Behold! I believe that I see what my experience leads me to think is the opening of things that some call heaven, and what our theologians call the Son of Man, who seems to be standing at the right hand of what, in the Christian worldview, is commonly called God. I could be wrong."
Bob Boilen at NPR Music has been a worthy guide to good music for me for years now. So when he said today that King Creosote and John Hopkins: Diamond Mine is the best album of 2011 so far, I had to listen. I'm listening now and very much enjoying it. It's quite magical. Go stream it in full before the May 24 release.
From Boilen...
If the year ended right now, I'd know my favorite record of 2011. Out May 24, Diamond Mine does what audio does best: It takes me far from the here-and-now.
This labor of love, seven years in the making, opens on a café terrace in a Scottish town. Jon Hopkins sets his field recordings, rich in regional accents and casual conversation, against a lovely, spare piano. It's a few minutes before these soundscapes give way to the quivering vocals of King Creosote, at which point the scope of this collaboration becomes clear. This is storytelling through sounds and with song — bring your own pictures.
Creosote, a.k.a. Kenny Anderson, and Jon Hopkins describe this unusual record as the "soundtrack to a romanticized version of a life lived in a Scottish coastal village." Hopkins is a sharp musician: Electronics are his tools, dance music is how he fills nightclubs and textures are how he fills songs. Creosote is a prolific songwriter based in Crail, a small fishing village in the northeast of Fife, Scotland.
There's acoustic guitar and melodic-yet-ambient accordion holding these tunes together. The words to the songs seem to reflect big dreams — perhaps unfulfilled — set against the wonders of the everyday. This is a record for your late night or your quiet Sunday. Put it on when you when you need calm or you're prepared for a mental journey, and be grateful that in a fast-paced world, King Creosote and Jon Hopkins stopped and took their time.
Okkervil River's new album, I Am Very Far, is quickly becoming a 2011 favorite of mine. Their past albums are all $5, and all worth having. It's some of my favorite music. Here they are playing Letterman with "Rider"...
Elbow makes some seriously cool anthemic rock songs. I'm a big fan of their previous album, The Seldom Seen Kid. Here's "Open Arms" from their new album, Build a Rocket Boys! (only $5.99!). Lyrics are below the video. Prodigal son, anyone?
You're a law unto yourself And we don't suffer dreamers But neither should you walk the earth alone
So with finger rolls and folding chairs And a volley of streamers We can be there for tweaks and repairs Should you come back home
We got open arms for broken hearts Like yours my boy, come home again
Tables are for pounding here And when we've got you surrounded The man you are will know the boy you were
And you're not the man who fell to earth You're the man of La Mancha And we've love enough to light the street 'Cause everybody's here
We got open arms for broken hearts Like yours my boy, come home again We got open arms for broken hearts Like yours my boy, come home again
Everyone's here Everyone's here The moon is out looking for trouble And everyone's here
Everyone's here Everyone's here The moon wants a scrap or a cuddle And everyone's here
We got open arms for broken hearts Like yours my boy, come home again We got open arms for broken hearts Like yours my boy, come home again
Everyone's here Everyone's here Everyone's here Come home again
The moon is out looking for trouble The moon wants a scrap or a cuddle The moon is face down in a puddle And everyone's here
Twitter friend pointed out Redemption Hill's version of "Rock of Ages." As always, the banjo makes the band. :) Here's a bunch more info on the song, and please enjoy the sort of making-of video...
...if you make preaching central to your ministry, you are indeed expecting that the public ministry of the Word will be attractive and draw people in. At this point the Doctor takes the main objection—"they won't come"—head on. He says bluntly, "The answer is that they will come, and that they do come…" Now the Doctor was speaking of his own ministry at Westminster Chapel in central London after World War II. Church attendance throughout Europe plunged after the war, for a mixture of reasons. In that situation, he began preaching his long, theological, expositional sermons, and slowly the huge auditorium filled. His evening services were twice the size of the morning services, since people from all over London came to bring their non-Christian friends. I dare say that something similar happened to us in New York City over the past two decades, and in an analogous context. (emphasis mine)
New live album from Brandi Carlile is out today: Brandi Carlile Live at Benaroya Hall. This is one of my favorite singer-songwriters in the business, probably my wife's favorite and most-played music, and we have seen her twice in concert. Go get it!
“Ah, now I see. For this she sleeps. She sleeps the winter gone, as do all of her kind. She sleeps for rest.” “No. The sleep she has chosen is a sleep without rest, a sleep tormented, a sleep that ends in death.” So begins an exploration of human frailty through the lens of fairy tale, image, one-acts, ritual, and poetry. Along the way: volunteerism as modern indulgence and doubt as modern fundamentalism; a father who tries to be a brother, and a brother who won't let him; a heretical text; a ship's captain who wants nothing more than to leave his wife and children. “So you have done all, you have sent all, and still she did not turn. There is nothing more to be done.” “No. There is still one more to send.”
Hard to list all my recommendations. I've narrowed to the best of the best, but go peruse the whole list of 1,500. Let me know what you found among the 1,500 that I haven't listed and you think it great. I'm always up for new recommendations.
