July Music

This edition of the Muxtape goes out to my community group at church.

1. Xavier Rudd: Better People
   You guys rock.
   My respect to the ones making changes
   For all the lives they’ll give their all.
2. Over the Rhine: Born
   I was born to laugh
   I learned to laugh through my tears
   I was born to love.
   I’m gonna learn to love without fear. (all the lyrics)
3. The Innocence Mission: Speak Our Minds
   This song reminds me of community group meetings.
4. The Bad Plus: 1980 World Champions
   Instrumental interlude.
5. Pierce Pettis: Nod Over Coffee
   This is one of my favorite songs.
   I think I’m going to write more about it in a later post.
   All the unsaid words that I might be thinking
   And all the little signs that I might give you
   They would not be enough
   No they would not be enough
       So we nod over coffee and say goodbye
       Smile over coffee and turn to go
       We know the drill and we do it well
       We love it, we hate it
       Ain’t that life. (all the lyrics)
6. The Dexateens: Neil Armstrong
   A quirky weird song I can’t get out of my head. And it has the word July in it. So that’s why it’s here.
7. King Straggler: Good Man
   Yeah, one day.
8. The U.S. Military Academy Band: When Johnny Comes Marching Home
   Happy Fourth of July everybody, everybody.

June Muxtape

The theme for the June Muxtape is “Hopeful Melancholy.” There something about the cathartic song, isn’t there? It can identify with us in our down times and still raise us up with a sense of comfort. It’s like rubbing a bruise. It’s hurts, but it strangely makes things feel better. In some way these songs take seriously the sins in our lives and their consequences. But they still offer hope. Some of my favorites:

1. Vigilantes of Love: Certain Slant of Light
   One of my all time favorite songs, especially after falling down so hard.

2. Karen Dalton: Something On Your Mind
   A new song I just heard. Thanks viz.

3. Jennie Stearns: Season of Dreams
   It’s the trumpet I love especially in this one.

4. Jason Harrod: Waiting For My Day
   A very honest song about unbelief and longing.

5. Low: Laser Beam
   “I just need your grace…”

6. The Innocence Mission: July
   We all need friends with sparklers.

7. Don Peris: Spin
   Another honest song about the struggles. But there is the Shepherd.

8. Jay Ungar: Ashokan Farewell
   What is it about the violin?

9. Sandra McCracken: Shelter
   “…the questions we have left unspoken…”

10. Over The Rhine: It’s Never Quite What It Seems
    I could’ve picked about a dozen songs from OtR for this list. In this one, I’m reminded that faith looks beyond just the appearances of things: “…those that burn with thirst will lift their glass…”

11. Ticklepenny Corner: (reprise)
    I love the picture of losing an arm and gaining extra legs. It reminds me that even though we’re scarred by life and sin, God can use even our deformities for his purposes. Even these things won’t cause him to erase us from his plan.

Well, I had plans to write so much more about these songs. But by the time I do I know that it’ll be the end of the month and it’ll be pointless. So, for what it’s worth, this is the month of June. Maybe I’ll get better at this as time goes by. The new job has been stealing all of my energy from me lately.

Half-Life

Well, today I’ve reached my Mosesian half-life.¹

That’s probably exaggerating a bit. Modern medical technology is making the average life span ever longer. But on the other hand, we are never guaranteed another day or even minute.

It’s strange to think about all the same. By one measure, my life is half over. Aren’t I supposed to be having a crisis now? I said this to a friend the other day and his reply was, “You are. You quit your job and came back to school.” If that’s so, well, it’s kind of tame, isn’t it. No Harley or leather jacket or tattoo or anything. Oh well. Such is me.

There are many regrets, of course. How could there not be when I sin like I do? But I’m not dwelling on them. Mostly today I’ve been thinking about the Lord’s kindness and mercy to me despite all of those things. I’ve been praying for the coming years: that God would help me shake off the burdens and redeem the years I’ve lost and make me fruitful as his follower (to the praise of His glory).

The following song really sums up how I feel right now. It both looks forward to the end and aims for what might be accomplished in the interim. It’s very others-focused. [listen]

The Invisible Choir by Kris Delmhorst

lyrics adapted from: George Eliot, “The Choir Invisible“

Oh may I join that invisible choir
I want to join that invisible choir
Made of those sweet immortal voices
That lift our hearts up higher

I want to live after I die
I want to live after I die
I want to make a bit of beauty
And leave a little light behind

Or be the balm to someone’s sadness, the song for someone’s gladness,
A cup of strength to someone in their fight
Or maybe sweeten an existence, inspire a persistence,
Or breathe the breath that makes the spark of love burn bright

Oh may I reach the heaven most high
I want to reach that heaven most high
And be a little star a shining
In someone’s darkest night

———————————

¹Psalm 90: A PRAYER OF MOSES, THE MAN OF GOD

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

3 You return man to dust
    and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
    are but as yesterday when it is past,
    or as a watch in the night.

5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
    like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
    in the evening it fades and withers.

7 For we are brought to an end by your anger;
    by your wrath we are dismayed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
    our secret sins in the light of your presence.

9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
    we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
    or even by reason of strength eighty;
    yet their span is but toil and trouble;
    they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger,
    and your wrath according to the fear of you?

12 So teach us to number our days
    that we may get a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord! How long?
    Have pity on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
    that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
    and for as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be shown to your servants,
    and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
    and establish the work of our hands upon us;
    yes, establish the work of our hands!
(English Standard Version)

Back

Well, I’m back home after my quick road trip to Atlanta and Tennessee. I got to see the family for a while and catch up with some friends. It was good, but it was also tiring. I’ve driven more in the past four days than I had in the previous two and a half months. And the traffic in Atlanta drives me bonkers. I don’t miss that at all.

My quick camping trip was enjoyable. It proved how out of shape I really am, however.

I plan on posting some pictures from it all over the next week (I have about 500 to sort through). And to describe things in a bit more detail. For now, however, I have many things to do for school next week and need to get busy on that front. In the meantime, I posted a couple of travel songs I really like for your enjoyment. Hopefully I can write more this weekend.

Firefly

In my old house I had a window beside the kitchen table that opened onto the back yard and the shade of a pecan tree. I used to really look forward to rainy days in Springtime, sitting beside the window with a fresh coffee, thinking and writing to the sound of the patter of the drizzle. I liked the thunderstorms even more. This song reminds me of those days.{ Listen ; Download }

———————

Don’t cry
The sound you hear is just a car going by
The light you see is just an aeroplane

Good-night
You’ll wake up in the morning with the sunshine
You’ll wake up in the morning with the bells of the earth

And hey
I can say the world is beautiful

Sometimes
I sit up in the kitchen while the rain falls
I sit up in the kitchen with my radio
And hey…

Don’t cry
The sound you here is just a car going by
The light you see is just a firefly

Muxtapes

There’s a new way to share music online. It’s like a mix tape from the “old days”. You just upload the music you want to share and your friends can listen in. There’s no downloading, so hopefully it’s all legitimate. It seemed a little slow at first, but maybe that will get ironed out over time.

Mine is here: http://glennal.muxtape.com/.

And you can sign up here.

[Thanks for the tip Alaina!]

Obviously Almost Nothing

I had a topic in mind to write for my first music post, but waking up with a splitting headache and the makings of a rather fine sinus infection have caused me to postpone that one. It was making my head hurt to think about it. But since I don’t want to stumble just out of the gate, I thought I’d write instead on my own musical history and my qualifications for writing about music. Ready? Here goes…

6th & 7th Grade Orchestra - Trumpet
For about six months in college - Piano
Randomly - Harmonica
Present - Guitar

So, yeah. You can tell from that list just how much I know about music. The answer is obviously almost nothing. I used to listen to the guys in the church band talk about their songs and it was literally like another language. (Yes, literally. Why else would people talk about reading music?)

But, for all that, I still love to listen to music. Maybe I love it more because it’s such a mystery to me how the musicians pull it off.

I love the voices and the instruments and the way they combine to create an atmosphere and bring out emotion. I love trying to figure out what the lyrics mean (sometimes the more puzzling the better). But I also love it when the song says exactly what I’m thinking and helps with that stuttering attempt to say just what I want to say.

I’ve seen through the walls of this kingdom of dust…
   felt the crucial revelation.
But the broad streets of the heart and the day-to-day
   meet at a blind intersection.

I don’t want to be lonely, I don’t want to feel pain.
I don’t want to draw straws with the sons of Cain.
You can take it as a prayer if you’ll remember my name.
You can take it as the penance of a profane saint.

   Knock the scales from my eyes.
   Knock the words from my lungs.
   I want to cry out;
   It’s on the tip of my tongue     [here]

Sometimes a song can do just that. I guess I just want to think more about it, and write about it if I can.