Music Day

So last night our church hosted a Fraser Campbell concert. So, of course, I went, even though I really only knew one song. (In this province, you take what you can get.)

It was good. I liked the first half especially, where they put out all the rock stuff (no surprise). They played some stuff from their album and rocked up a few old 'church-y' songs. They're pretty good with a crowd, and then they pulled a couple volunteers from the audience to drum up some more excitement for the one song. Actually, it was a contest between the two volunteers who got the most out of their half of the crowd, and the winner would get a prize.

Never underestimate the youth groups in this town, and especially don't underestimate those specific volunteers. Both the lead singer and the drummer said later that they'd never seen a conga line in a church before (to say nothing of the fact that said conga line included willing participants in their sixties).

Personally I enjoyed watching the bassist, introduced only as Dan. He had that Bob Hartman head-bob thing going on and for some reason that fascinates me (mostly how they can move their heads side to side while moving their hand up and down). The drummer was pretty phenomenal too.

Fraser Campbell himself reminded me of Peter Furler -- maybe it was the bald head and the guitar, but his singing voice was similar and the lyrics are definitely in line with Peter Furler's style.

All in all, it was a good concert. I'd definitely go again, even if it wasn't free.

And just listen to the passion in this song...

Title: Arms Of Love
Artist: Fraser Campbell
Album: We Love You
Year: 2009
Independent release.
iTunes here; YouTube here.
Website: frasercampbellmusic.com

Today I listened to the album we picked up after the show... it's rather more low-key (in fact, I think I enjoyed the concert more than the album), but it's still worth a listen. Like I said earlier, he's got a very Peter-Furler-like writing style (I'd put this album on about the same level as Newsboys' Devotion), but there's also a definite Delirious? vibe on it.

And they're Canadian -- what could be better?

Music Day

This band recently broke up, but in their seventeen or eighteen years together (something like that), they popularised quite a few songs that are sung pretty widely in churches today. Shout To The North; I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever; Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble? and others were either written by them or covered and brought to wider attention by them. This isn't one of those songs that typically gets sung in churches, although I think it would be great fun to sing in church.

This was one of my sister's favourite songs when we were younger. Every time we went out with our father to the workshop she would ask him to put on this CD and we would dance around any clear space we could find and sing along, although not very accurately. For almost a decade we were convinced that the song contained the line See his smiling overalls (rather than ...and see Him smiling over us).

Title: The Happy Song

Artist: Delirious?

Album: Cutting Edge

Year: 1997

Label: Furious? Records

Here it is on iTunes and here's a version on YouTube.