First-Person Faith

Originally written September 18, 2022, 6:51pm. 

 

Something I've noticed about Christian music that you don't really see in any other genre is second-person songwriting. The big late-'80s arena rock bands were especially bad for this (Petra, Stryper, and DeGarmo & Key all loved this approach).

Don't get me wrong, I love Petra. But this approach to songwriting creates the tiniest 'holier-than-thou' feeling. It's always 'you feel lost and confused, your life feels empty, oh look, here's Someone who can take all your pain away.' (This also feeds into the insidious prosperity gospel that is the foundation for modern Evangelicalism, but that's another blog post.) This is why we look back now and feel a slight cheesiness in the music of Petra and Stryper, while bands like Prodigal and Daniel Amos (you knew I was going to bring them into this) still sound lyrically fresh some forty years later.

Why?

DA and Prodigal wrote in first person. Prodigal was especially good at this; it was even noted as one of their strengths by critics of the time. Pick literally any Prodigal song and you have a masterclass in first-person characterization. Their cheesiest song happens to be one of only two songs that they wrote in second person (Emerald City). (The second song was Bobby, which was written with such immersive detail that it feels like you are living that life, in first-person.)

But look at a song like Masks or Answering Machine or I Don't Know Who You Are or The Big Sleep -- all of those are emotional heavy hitters, and every one of them is in first-person. Daniel Amos has songs like Here I Am; Big Time/Big Deal; Dig Here Said The Angel; Props; Half Light, Epoch, And Phase; and perhaps the most devastatingly tender song ever written, The Twist.

 

Where Petra and every late-'80s-solo-male-CCM-radio-vocalist-ever wrote songs that kept the listener at arms' length until they repented, DA and Prodigal were taking their listeners by the hand and whispering I know. I understand. I'm here.

 

And isn't that really what Christianity is based on? Jesus, Emmanuel, God-With-Us, coming into our lives and taking our hands and saying I know. I understand. I'm here? 

 

Being held at arms' length makes you a project. Being sat with while you cry makes you loved. And if God is love and we are supposed to be reflect Him, why are we holding people at arms' length? That's not at all what He did. My theory is this is why a lot of the late-'80s-solo-male-CCM-radio-vocalist songs feel cheesy or hollow today... they feel so far away, so distant, so not how the God they preach really is.

Music Day - Somebody's Gonna Praise His Name

In light of Girder Music's announcement today that they will be reissuing Petra's PHENOMENAL On Fire! album for the first time EVER since its 1988 release, I decided to feature one of the best cuts from that album (and believe me, it is not an easy choice. The whole album is -- as the kids say -- fire). Petra had some 15 years of songwriting experience by this point, plus they were coming off their mega-hit album This Means War! the previous year. They knew exactly how to write a hard-hitting, high-energy song with well-crafted dynamics.

On Fire! was very much the musical and spiritual successor to This Means War! The theme of spiritual warfare continues as well as the guitar-heavy arena rock sound. John Schlitt was really settling into his role as lead vocalist, and songwriter Bob Hartman and the rest of the band had fully gelled with his no-holds-barred vocal style.

This song in particular seems to flown under the radar, which is where all the very best songs seem to go. It is hard arena rock at its absolute zenith. Big shining keyboards, bombastic drums, growling guitars, and thundering bass -- all were in full force on this entire album, and on this track in particular. This is probably one of the (musically) hardest worship songs you will ever hear in your entire life (a theme Petra brought to bear the very next year with their The Rock Cries Out album, whose title was probably inspired by this song), but it starts out deceptively calm. A soft, leisurely synth builds and Schlitt sings a simple praise chorus, backed by an angelic choir of '80s band harmonies (which Petra was no slouch at).

After forty seconds of Baptist-church-worthy solemnity, the drums kick open the door and you're hit with a wall of Bob Hartman's very crunchiest guitars as Petra cranks church up to eleven. The music would absolutely have gotten any church-going fifteen-year-old grounded for a month, but the lyrics come either straight from the pages of scripture (mostly the psalms, but the song does take as its refrain the words of Jesus from Luke 19), or as a direct response to said scriptures. They even take the song down a notch at the end with a gentle acoustic guitar and what almost sounds like waves on the beach (although it could just be cassette noise from my imported copy. I guess we'll all have to buy the CD to find out for sure).

Title: Somebody's Gonna Praise His Name

Artist: Petra

Album: On Fire!

Year: 1988

Pre-order the album here (special sale price for the next four days!), YouTube here, live version here.

As long as I draw breath my lips will praise You

As long as I have strength I want to praise Your name...

Music Day - For Annie

Trigger warning: suicide.

It's quite nice when a rock band puts out a song that features a string section and even a bit of brass (tasteful brass -- not those Sheila Walsh-esque saxophone solos). Of course, I wouldn't want them to do that all the time -- if I wanted that I'd just listen to classical music -- but every once in a while it's a nice departure.

Here, the strings adds a poignancy to a tragic story that's replayed every day.

The song is about a young person called Annie. It details the loneliness and quiet despair she lives in until she decides to do something about it (which, of course, we've all been told to do through inspirational Facebook pictures, right?). Her solution:

Locked inside the bathroom

She grabs a jar of pills

The medicine that cures

Becomes the poison that kills...

The lyric climaxes here, with that juxtaposition of irony. Without even two measures to let you catch your breath, Greg Volz tells you straight up: it's too late for Annie. She's dead. She's gone. You will never see her again.

And now that they have your attention, they tell you the silver lining (if there can really be one in a situation like this): we each have the power to stop other people's stories from ending this way. There is another Annie somewhere, who hasn't grabbed the pill jar yet... and she could be sitting beside you right now. Your next words to her could be the last she hears.

What would you tell her? What would I tell her?

Title: For Annie

Artist: Petra

Album: Never Say Die

Year: 1981

iTunes here; YouTube here.

The End Of The Rattletrap

Last Sunday I drove the rattletrap for the last time.

It was only a matter of time. Regular readers of this blog will recall the myriad of posts about its voracious appetite for engine coolant (to be regaled with one such tale, click here). It had no air conditioning to speak of, and the heat only kicked in if the vehicle ran for more than forty consecutive minutes. The door covering the gas cap clung to the side with a lone rusted hinge, flapping like a flag at highway speeds but try as we might, we couldn't pry it off of that last tenacious hinge. The thing was so run-down that I could probably leave it unlocked with the keys on the front seat in downtown Edmonton and nobody would bother to steal it. Somewhere in the back it had a chronic rattle -- hence the name. My mother hated driving it mostly for that reason, but I found that if you turned White Heart and Daniel Amos up loud enough, that usually fixed the problem.

It started out as a family minivan in September 2001, after my mother totaled our green Spirit. After carting around three, then four, then five, then six children, it entered retirement in early 2010 when the family grew too big to fit in its grey bucket seats and a larger van joined the vehicular ranks.

Retirement was temporary though... six months later I totaled my car, and my parents decided to dust off the minivan, rename it 'The Little Van,' and give me one of the keys. I had learnt to drive on this van... my dad would take to me to town and then tell me 'turn at those lights,' 'turn here,' and so on until we somehow magically wound up at Tim Horton's.

And so I become the proud driver of the Little Van, although I privately and affectionately christened it 'The Rattletrap.' It was in the rattletrap that I took the left turn that almost killed me for the first time since that accident, and it was the rattletrap that acted as taxi for my younger friends at church until they got their licenses. I was at the wheel when the odometer hit 200,000 kilometres, and I was also at the wheel this spring when it rolled over 300,000 (as I write, it sits at 307,329).

The rattletrap became a bit of a haven for me. The house is absolutely not soundproof at all, so the only time I felt comfortable enough to sing (something I enjoy but in which I am absolutely not confident in my 'abilities') was alone, in the rattletrap, listening to Petra, White Heart, Prodigal, and in the past year and a half, Daniel Amos. I memorised a ridiculous amount of song lyrics on my one-hour-each-direction commute to dance class and/or dance team every week. The rattletrap had a phenomenal sound system, and believe me, I took full advantage of it. It sounded better than every CD player in our house (trust me... we've got a few), and I grew to love driving. Because driving meant music, and I could pay (almost) undivided attention to the glorious music if the only other thing I had to focus on was driving.

I drove to ballet class, Bible study, and worship team practice most frequently. In fact, the rattletrap and I conquered the drive to the dance school so often that I could put in almost any album I owned and know exactly which part of which song I would be listening to at certain points of the journey. If I got delayed, the music and the scenery would be incongruent. To this day I cannot listen to White Heart's album Don't Wait For The Movie without seeing the city lights, the overpasses and the skyline (and the construction) during Dr Jekyll And Mr Christian. I would often pull up to the dance school exactly as the last notes of How Many Times was fading out. Driving home from Bible study and worship team practice would often have me driving during dusk or early darkness, and I relished every second of it.

But the rattletrap was aging. The aforementioned budget for coolant was growing. Even the faithful and much-used CD player started to get a little bitter and grumpy. At first it simply refused to play the CDs I've burnt on the computer. It was a blow to not be able to listen to my Prodigal albums (I haven't been able to get the new deluxe re-release package yet because of financial constraints -- however, you, dear reader, are in need of this collection), but hey, I still had a few factory-pressed DA albums. So I contented myself with listening to ¡Alarma! all summer long. But then, one day when I returned to the rattletrap to drive home from my grandmother's house, it simply refused to pick up the CD where it had left off. I argued with it for half the drive home and even put in DA's Darn Floor - Big Bite, which it had played without complaint only a few days earlier. It shot me an error message before the disc was even fully loaded in the player, and then refused to return the disc to me. I eventually got the CD back, but I knew the rattletrap was now in its final days.

Two weeks later it started to 'overheat' even with the coolant tank full. We could only drive it for about ten minutes (if that) before the warning light would come on. We could no longer tell whether to heed the warning or ignore it.

It was over.

I cried as I nursed it home for the final time, in silence. It still handles beautifully -- it was almost like a ballroom dance partner. People tell me all the time I'm such a smooth driver, but I think most of it was the rattletrap.

I knew when I first became its primary driver four years ago that its days were numbered, but you're never quite ready for the day when it comes. And now that I'm back at college, I will never see it again; never again share with it a dark magical highway with streetlight-stars and skylines lighting my way to dance, friends, or home.


I miss you already, Little Van. Thank you for the good times, and always for the music.

Music Day - Album Review

Preamble: So when I said this would be up 'next week,' (*cough* several weeks ago...) I apparently forgot that I was doing NaNoWriMo, a full college class schedule, a book report, and rehearsing for/participating in a musical which ran four times over three days. So, obviously, this review was not real high on the priority list there for a while. But it's here now. I still feel it doesn't do the album total justice, but if I wait till I have time to really listen to it another four or five times, we'll probably be into mid-February. So here you go. Enjoy.

Remember John Schlitt? The voice of Petra since 1986's Back To The Street? Yeah, well, his new album came out a few weeks back -- a Christmas album.

I have to be honest: though I supported the Kickstarter campaign, I wasn't entirely sure if I would like this. I've heard Christmas rock music and so far it has all sucked. Remember the band formerly known as Newsboys? tobyMac? Yeah... some artists/bands just weren't cut out for Christmas music. I doubted John's gravelly voice could take these stalwart carols and not take something away from them. Rock is one thing, Christmas is another.

What first struck me when I got the advance download was the track list. This is not your run-of-the-mill Christmas album. No Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, no Jingle Bell Rock, not even Joy To The World or Angels We Have Heard On High or Away In A Manger. (Can this legally be sold in Christian bookstores?)

Nope, he went way back to the beautiful old Christmas songs that are familiar but, by and large, haven't been bludgeoned to death yet by hundreds of mediocre CCM arrangements. In addition, there are two original songs (That Spirit Of Christmas and What Christmas Needs To Be).

And now, for the track-by-track fangirling *cough* I mean breakdown of John Schlitt's The Christmas Project.

Hallelujah Chorus -- The following is my word-for-word reaction to hearing this song for the first time: 'HOLY DEUCE WHAT THE CRAP WAS THAT AMAZINGNESS THAT MY EARS JUST WITNESSED?' (Seriously.) This. Is. Perfect. This may border on sacrilegious, but I think I like this version better than the original Handel arrangement (though that may be because of my predetermined taste for rock music). It opens with John singing And He shall reign forever and ever a cappella, and then repeating the phrase again and again, singing the different parts and then they start to be layered. Even if he had done the whole song like that, that would have been lovely enough. But it gets better.
As he sings those parts, some kind of harpsichord or something fades in (it's all very Christmas-y), and then suddenly the rocker voice all Petheads know explodes through the speakers: King of kings! and then the electric guitar and the drums come in behind the choir parts. (Also, I'm a soprano and I'm a tiny bit jealous of the notes he hits here. Simply impressive.) Then it becomes a solid rocker of a song, fancy electric guitar work, rollicking drums, stuff that will get you headbanging.
Phenomenal opening song. Ladies and gentlemen, make way: The Christmas Project has arrived.

Do You Hear What I Hear? -- Then with the sound of barnyard animals, we hear a juvenile voice reading the classic Luke passage. Then turns into an upbeat rock sort of thing. It feels quite current, actually (though I'm not exactly on the cusp of current music, CCM or not, so I may be completely out to lunch on that assessment). I've never really liked this song (lyrically) to begin with, so I'm finding it hard to judge this version objectively. But it's easy to move around to and it does feature a pretty decent guitar solo (and the verse right after that is backed by only drums, which is cool, and then a little bit of bass work).

Little Drummer Boy -- This is perhaps the most mainstream song used on the album. Yes, it starts with a drum roll. And the drumming continues with a nice open feel to it, and a melancholy keyboard (or perhaps it's strings), and the vocals come in low and gentle. The song is done faster than most artists do it, and it actually works rather well. After the second verse, it builds a little and yes, there's some guitar, but it's not as in your face like most rock versions of this song. The focus is John's versatile powerhouse voice. Does it top the White Heart version? No... but it's pretty darn good.

O Holy Night -- This one is really pretty. Nice and gentle. John has quite a nice not-rock voice, though the processing it's given in the 'chorus' of this song seems a bit unnecessary. This is a guy who actually can do the full-on screaming rock songs (Mine Field with Petra being perhaps the best example) and the gentle Christmas carols and be equally powerful on both fronts. That takes more skill than I think a lot of us realise. This song doesn't stand out as 'holy crap this is spectacular,' but it is exactly what this song should be (unless you're in the Christmas musical that I was a part of this past weekend, where we did this song with dancers and a full orchestra and a hundred-ish voice choir and there may or may not have been fireworks involved). Gentle but quietly powerful, building a little, now softening a bit, the dynamics just naturally following the contour of the lyric. This is a great song/version of it for just sitting and staring out the window on a clear winter night and looking up at the stars (or at the Christmas tree in the front window of the house across the street, as the case may be). And it even closes with the sound of distant church bells. What more could you ask for?

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen -- It starts out as what could be called a brooding rock song, but with more energy and a deceptively light and airy vocal. You just know it's going to explode, and it does after the first verse with guitars and strings and drums and it's beautiful. This feels a lot like his previous album The Greater Cause. This song actually works well as a rock song. The strings in the background take it from mere 'rock song' to 'symphonic energetic Christmas rock song.' Then with one last cry, the song screeches almost but not quite to a halt and fades out as daintily as the snowflakes dancing in the night.

Good Christian Men Rejoice -- Ah, yes, traditional jingle bells opening the song. But then it turns into a great rollicking, toe-tapping, hand-clapping song with some pretty nice guitar work weaving through the background. The choreographer in me would like to add that this has 'tap dance' written all over it.

That Spirit Of Christmas -- Then we take it down a notch with a mellow, almost bluesy sort of tune (disclaimer: I know exactly nothing about blues). It reminds me of the filler tracks from Petra's mellower years in the late '90s. It's probably a good sitting-by-the-fireplace-with-some-hot-chocolate kind of song. Decent, but not my proverbial cup of tea.

We Three Kings -- The piano riff that starts this is beautifully warm and haunting. It makes me think of the cold winter nights with the clear sky in a wide expanse above a snowy landscape. Nice moody electric guitar work. And, of course, the strings in the interlude. I can't put it into words, but the instrumentation is just perfect for the song (until the last chorus, when it somehow feels a little harsh, but then it melts back into that pretty piano riff again).

What Christmas Needs To Be -- It just sounds happy and fun. I like the guitar riff. Not so much the backing vocals. I don't know why, they just don't work for me.

What Child Is This? -- More pretty piano! I've never heard so much piano on a rock album (or even some Christmas albums). It's really nice. It builds subtly in the chorus -- subtly but powerfully. For the third verse, everything stops and then John's gentle voice comes back in with only a little piano, which makes the final chorus stand out more

Overall, this album far exceeded my expectations. Finally, another Christmas album that won't wear out within one year of purchase. (The list of year-in/year-out classics is almost devastatingly small.)

Buy the album on his website here (you can also preview the entire thing on that page). Available on iTunes here.

Music Day

People, you need this band in your life.

I finally tracked down a copy of their album Incandescent and proceeded to listen to it four times in three days (with great restraint). Their take on the old stalwart church-organ hymn Sweet By And By is nothing short of brilliant. Let's see Matt Redman pull that off.

Unfortunately, Incandescent is not on iTunes and apparently a re-release depends on if they can track down the masters. So today I'm going to feature something from their second album, Escape From The Fallen Planet.

Title: Solo Flight
Artist: Crumbächer
Album: Escape From The Fallen Planet
Year: 1986
Label: Frontline
iTunes here; YouTube here.

It's not quite as intense as the stuff on Incandescent, but it'll have to do. I like the atmospheric feel of it though -- it sounds like something John Lawry (former Petra keyboardist) might have done around that same time.

Things that make this band awesome (or at least the album Incandescent):

- Two -- count 'em, two -- keyboards.

- Eighties music. Do I really have to go on?

- You cannot resist dancing to this music. Seriously. I dare you. Even the most hardened Baptist will find themselves tapping their toes to this stuff (and I should know, I was raised hardcore Baptist).

- They play at a breakneck pace and they do not relent for a minute. There are no ballads on these albums -- no namby-pamby fake sappy 'Christian love songs' to mess up a good record.

- Every song actually sounds different from the one before it -- a practice which apparently is sacrilegious today (heaven forbid we actually use more than two chords!).

- The harmonizing on a lot of their songs -- maybe it's just the male-female vocal mix, but it just adds a fresh, sparkling quality to the band's sound.

- This is such a 'tight' band. You just don't get such skill and chemistry together anymore -- nowadays it's always some 'worship pastor' and a bunch of studio players. These guys were amazing at what they did. Sometimes you listen to some of the songs and you wonder if they all shared a brain or something. Even on their first album, one wrong note would have completely messed up the entire song. But there are no wrong notes, even at such a breakneck speed. It's just fun to listen to them and try to pick out all the instrument tracks (I still don't think I've caught them all).

(You can listen to most (if not all) of the tracks from Incandescent on YouTube if you search the artist and album name. In fact, if you clicked the link to Sweet By And By above, you'll probably find most of them in the YouTube sidebar.)

Music Life (And Links For Us To Support It)

Music life is so, so sweet right now.

Petra's recording a new single.

John Schlitt (the legendary Petra singer) has got a Kickstarter campaign going for a Christmas album. There's still a month left on this one, but they're getting pretty discouraged about where the support level is. If you can, definitely go help them out. (Check out John's official YouTube channel here and a great Petra channel on YouTube here. Anything done by Petra after 1985 features John as the lead singer.)

Also, here's Daniel Amos' Kickstarter page for their new album (if you want in on this one, get on it quickly because I think they're almost done...). This one's already funded and in progress, but they're still taking donations for covering travel costs and publicity and generally making the album the best it can be.

And now... Carman (of The Champion and Satan Bite The Dust fame) just put out a Kickstarter campaign for a new album and a music video project.

There we go, ladies and gentlemen. We just went from one end of the Christian music spectrum to the other in two tab-returns. Because I'm just that talented. (And please don't sue me for putting Daniel Amos and Carman in the same post.)

Music Day

HOLY CRAP PEOPLE GUESS WHAT?

(You: "What?")

Petra's working on a new single! Apparently it's due out in June (which seems a rather long time for a single, but whatever). Note that this is not Classic Petra, this is Petra (or at least John Schlitt and Bob Hartman -- haven't seen a reference to any of the others yet). Rest assured that I'll be reviewing it here as soon as I hear it.

Dude -- I thought last year was epic. This year it's only March and we've already got a Petra single, a Daniel Amos album and it sounds like another John Schlitt album in the works. And there's still enough time in the year for White Heart to pull something together if they get cracking... (you just knew I would bring that up...)

And with that little tidbit of excitement, on to today's song.

So all I really know of this band are two songs (this one and another track from the same album called I'm Just A Man). I don't know any history, nothing. Only the fact that they're '80s and they can rock.

This is such a great song, musically -- just blasts out of the gate, drums galloping along and then the electric guitar comes rushing in. And then the vocals. Holy cow. This dude can put it out there. Just listen to the power and the desperation in that hold ('I need to see You there...').

I also love the electric-organ/keyboard sound. And the crashing cymbals in the interlude and the winding guitar leading back into the next verse.

Lyrically, it almost reads like a psalm -- like one of David's psalms when he was on the run from King Saul and was getting discouraged and fearful. It's honest without being beaten to death -- well penned and well performed.

Enjoy.

Title: Darkest Hour
Artist: Undercover
Album: Branded
Year: 1987
Label: Innocent Media/Intense Millenium (according to iTunes... and we all know how trustworthy they are about this stuff...)
iTunes here; YouTube here.

Music Day

Just when I'm starting to run out of music to buy on my wish list, I find this:

http://ccms500bestalbums.wordpress.com/

Pretty sure my iTunes wish list alone has doubled in the past twenty-four hours. Music Day is about to become insanely awesome (pending another iTunes card).

Today's is kind of thrown together (I type this at 10.48 pm and have yet to pick a song), so said awesomeness will probably be starting next Friday.

So... *scrolls through iTunes madly* ... how have you all been? Any cool stuff going on in life? Any moments that just made your day? Any life-altering realisations?

Okay, found a song.

This is, I think, one of this man's finest vocals, both solo and with Petra. It's one of my favourite performances from him, at any rate. (The guitar work is pretty good too.)

Title: Can't Get Away
Artist: John Schlitt
Album: Unfit For Swine
Year: 1996
Label: Word
iTunes here; YouTube here.
Support the artist -- CD available on his store here. (Full lyrics, production credits, and album preview also available on this page.) I personally have purchased several items from this store at different times, and the service has always been excellent. The CDs are top quality too... no namby-pamby Staples-special blank discs with a cheesy single-sheet track listing in a cheap case. These things are store-quality.

So there you go. Tune in next week (assuming I happen to remember what day it is on Friday) for music that's new and exciting in my world...

Music Day

I had my favourite Christmas song in the world (that's available on iTunes) lined up for today, but now, after that shooting in Connecticut... I picked a different song. There's always next Friday.

This song may admittedly seem a little unorthodox. (But then, I'm not known for following the 'say-all-the-right-things-whether-you-mean-them-or-not' herd.)

I picked it, though, because though there is heart-wrenching grief now and I'm not going to deny that -- there is hope. That man did not escape judgement. When he killed himself, he thought he was off the hook. But instead he found himself standing before the throne of God. And God, the perfect Judge, judged perfectly. Make no mistake, justice has been served today, far better than even the best court on the planet could.

And as for this world, this terrible, broken world... it will be fixed one day. And then the tears will be stopped and gently wiped away, the cries of the children (and the adults) being hurt physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually every day will be silenced. Justice will be served in full. And the world will be right again.

Title: All The King's Horses
Artist: Petra
Album: This Means War!
Year: 1987
Label: Star Song
iTunes here; YouTube here.

All the King's horses and all the King's men
Gonna run down from Heaven from where they've been
All the King's horses and all the King's men
Gonna put this world back together again
Gonna put this world back together again...

Tap Shoes

Today I bought my first ever-pair of tap shoes.

Let me say that again -- TAP SHOES! :-D

Ninety-four dollars (ninety-eight with sales tax) (for comparison, my pointe shoes are $80 per pair), but they're TAP SHOES!

And now, all that choreography; all those brilliant ideas I've had -- dances to songs like His Heart Was Always In It, Invitation, Let The Children Play, Bye Bye Babylon, More Sold Out (and that's just the White Heart)... Save Your Life, Ready Or Not, Somebody's Gonna Praise His Name, Walk Away From Love, Don't Waste Your Life, the 2010 remake of Angel Of Light, I Want To Be A Clone, New Earth, everything -- all that is now within my reach!

The ultimate goal? Independence Day by White Heart. That will take SO much work and practice, but it will be SO worth it.

Classes start on Monday...

TAP SHOES! *squeals*

(I am such a dance nerd.)

Music Day

You know, it was really easy to do this when it was White Heart month. Now I have to take at least a week off of White Heart or else the whole point of designating it White Heart month in the first place is moot.

Ah, but I will make it. Somehow. There are '80's rock bands other than White Heart... and hey, this one has some new stuff on the iTunes Store! (Anniversary re-releases are the best.)

This entire album is phenomenal. I can't even recommend just one song, so I'm picking one at random here. (I'll probably wind up featuring another two or three songs from it eventually.)

I really like the intro on this song (synth work), and the vocals are probably one of his best (though there's a lot of that). And the drums in the 'pre-chorus' -- I've always liked those. After the fantastic opening, the chorus actually seems kind of anti-climactic. But the verses and the bridge are a treat.

Musically, it has kind of a haunting sound... I like that. And I like how the vocals bring it back to earth a little.

This is one of the best of the era.

Title: You Are My Rock
Artist: Petra
Album: This Means War!
Year: 1987
Label: Star Song
iTunes here; YouTube here (you may have to turn up your speakers a bit at the beginning).

Through the desperate night my soul cries out to You
Longing just to hear Your voice...

Ponderings -- Rock, Ministry, And Church Problems

The other night I was watching a video on YouTube about Petra's ministry.

From both a musical and ministry standpoint, these guys were a huge deal back in the '80s and early '90s. Many, many people came to know Christ through the work they did. You still see testimonies on Petra's Facebook page from people who got saved (or realised their existing commitment to Jesus had to be deeper) at a Petra concert in such-and-such a place during this tour in this year.

Today we have no equivalent in the Christian music industry. Today, pastors and youth leaders lament dwindling attendence and widespread lack of passion in those who do attend church. Why?

Perhaps a question to ask is what did Petra do differently? How was it that five guys on a stage led so many people to Christ, and today we have an entire Christian rock industry and the youth groups and churches are still shrinking? What was Petra doing then that we're missing today?

They presented the Gospel.

I personally have never had the privilege of attending a Petra concert (unless owning the cassette copy of Captured In Time & Space counts). However, it's widespread knowledge (among the fans at least) that they shared the Gospel, carefully and explicitly, at every concert. This goes back to the earliest days of the band, even before Greg X Volz came on board the first time (and that was a while ago).

However, I have been to concerts of today's 'Christian' rock bands. I've seen the Newsboys twice, plus Flyleaf, Starfield, downhere, and what is possibly one of the most recognisable bands in Christian rock today, Skillet.

Not once did I hear them explain the Gospel. In fact, by and large they toned down the 'Jesus factor' so much that their songs are more likely talking about a girlfriend than the Creator of the universe and Saviour of our corrupted souls. I could go into a long discourse right here on how Larry Norman (sort of accidentally) launched the 'Jesus rock' movement precisely so that more people would hear the Gospel and live in accordance to it.

The fact is, somehow we Christians, both inside and outside the arts, have forgotten somewhere that in order for people to be transformed by the Gospel, they need to hear the Gospel first. How shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear... unless someone tells them?

You Know You Need To Go To Bed When...

...you're making a playlist and humming Fool's Gold and you wonder what that song would have sounded like if John Schlitt had sung it.

And then you remember John Schlitt did sing it.

That's when you need to go to bed.

National Choreography Month - Day 30

Finished The Gift!

It's definitely my best work so far. I wish I could see it on the stage right now.

Also, not only do I have the dance complete, I also have backdrops and lighting figured out (I may or may not have been procrastinating at the time...)

So, with all three of my planned NaChoreoMo dances done, I'm now in the process of picking my next project. I don't expect to finish it by tomorrow at 11.59 of course, but now that I've found my way back in the groove again after basically going artistically MIA for two weeks, I'd like to milk the momentum The Gift has given me for all I can. I feel like I kind of cheated myself out of NaChoreoMo during those two weeks and now I'm trying to make it up to myself. Because really, I could have accomplished so much more than just three dances but I didn't because I let Apathy Alert pysch me out for two and a half weeks.

It's kind of weird having free time, actually. I hadn't realised how much I'd been holding NaChoreoMo over my head until I finished The Gift and sat back and thought, 'so what do I do now?' So for the past two days I've been importing cassettes (White Heart's Redemption and Petra's Captured In Time & Space -- and oh, is a live album ever a nightmare to split into tracks).

I intend to start work on another dance tomorrow (or possibly later tonight). I'm a bit undecided as to which one, though. Usually I have one that jumps to the forefront of my mind and won't let go, but this time I had to scroll through my iTunes library a bit and compile a list.

It's about five songs long, but the two that really attract my attention are PFR's Them and Farrell & Farrell's Hosanna Gloria. As of this moment I think I might go with Them.

Also, for those who care about statistics...

Seven minutes forty-five seconds of music. Seven pages of notes. Fifty-four pages of choreography, at a minimum of sixty frames per page. This equals approximately 3,240 frames, since I know for a fact that there are a few pages which had more than sixty frames on them.

Note that those are the numbers for just the three dances I had originally planned on doing at the beginning of May (King Of Kings, Apathy Alert, The Gift). This does not count the rather sizeable chunk I composed for part of Kerry Livgren's Liquidity, the intro to White Heart's The Cry, or the ending sequence to Petra's Counsel Of The Holy. Take that all together and you could probably add a good minute and a half onto that first number.

That Moment (Music Day)

So I finally bought Classic Petra's album Back To The Rock the other day.

Basically it's Petra (the Greg X Volz mid-80s Petra), but they redid a bunch of their Greg-era hits -- 'modernized' them a little. Since the original Petra was technically disbanded a few years ago, they now call themselves 'Classic Petra.'

On the Petra Zone forum I'd read quite a few 'meh... I didn't like it' reviews, so I was a bit unsure of what to expect. In fact, I probably wouldn't have bought the album if I hadn't already heard the redone versions of Rose Coloured Stained Glass Windows and Adonai (two of my all-time Petra favourites) on classicchristian247.com and loved them both. (Seriously, you wouldn't think mixing strings and an electric guitar would sound like anything, but they do it on that first track and it sounds AMAZING.)

Anyway, so I bought the CD and the next Saturday afternoon my mother and I went birthday shopping for my sister so we listened to it.

It's good.

Usually I'm a total 'original-version-is-always-best' purist, but these are some good remakes.

The first couple of songs have some seriously kicking bass. Clean, formerly an eighties synth track, is now a thumping growling electric guitar extravaganza. Let's just say now I finally understand why people call songs 'crunchy.' This is it.

I don't know if the extra guitar brings it out, but in Bema Seat and More Power To Ya, you can really tell how much Greg's voice has matured. At one point I actually said "He sounds like Steve Green" (which only warps your mind until you remember that Steve Green was once the lead singer of White Heart).
(I just messed with everything you ever thought about Steve Green).
(You're welcome.)
It's not a bad thing though. At least he (Greg, that is) can still sing. Even twenty-five years after his last Petra concert he still hits all the notes.

Grave Robber took a little warming up to, but the use of strings really amps up the drama.

They also added two new tracks -- Back To The Rock and Too Big To Fail, the former written by Greg and the latter by Petra founder/guitarist and songwriter extraordinaire Bob Hartman.

Back To The Rock starts out a little slow and to me it seems almost off-rhythm, but it picks up well in the chorus. And oh man is it ever catchy. I was singing it for the rest of the day. Here again you can really tell how Greg's voice has mellowed.

Too Big To Fail -- Bob Hartman does it again! This is brimming with the 1980s/early 90s enthusiasm that all Petheads know and love. I love how the bridge loops back to the pre-chorus and the chorus again and then they rock out for a while and then they go back to the bridge and do it again. It's a fantastic, soaring song. This is one of those you turn up and sing along with no matter how bad your singing voice may be.

But what I really wanted to talk about was the remake of Angel Of Light.


It's another one of my favourite Petra songs. In fact, I featured it on Music Day a while back.

They put in some pretty sweet guitar for the remake, but there's this moment where (in both versions) all the instruments drop out and they all sing, a capella:
Angel of light
I see you glow in the night
But you only bring darkness to my soul...


On soul, in the original 1981 version, the guitar slides back in and draws in the other instruments for a full-on musical experience by the time they sing the next line.

In the new version, they layered all the members' voices and added an echo so the a capella already has more resonance. Then, starting on but, there's a couple slaps on the drums and on soul, the guitar comes screaming back in and BAM! a wall of sound hits you and almost knocks you off your feet.

When I first heard it, I was actually stunned breathless. It was so epic.

My only problem now is this: how to choreograph something even half as epic to go with that moment...

Title: Angel Of Light
Artist: Classic Petra (yes, iTunes lists them as just 'Petra,' but iTunes isn't exactly known for their accuracy)
Album: Back To The Rock
Year: 2010
Label: Classic Petra LLC (independent release)
iTunes here; YouTube here.

And, of course, I recommend buying the whole album... (also I recommend pumping up the bass and turning up the volume).

Missing Out...

John Schlitt's new album comes out this Tuesday. Lecrae's dropping a 'mixtape' on 10 May. And Michael W. Smith is here in concert on Saturday (at forty freaking dollars per ticket. Seriously? I saw the Newsboys for like ten bucks at the same venue two years ago).

SUCH an epic week in eclectic music -- and I have no money. I'm already missing the Pethead Convention in Indianapolis (because it's in Indianapolis and I'm... well... not).

And even if I did have money, I'd have to put it to college.

Sigh...

Day 3 - New Personal Best!

For the start of our self-proclaimed National Choreography Month, I decided to knock off the shortest song on my set list first, to give me some momentum.

The lucky winner was Petra's King Of Kings (from Petra Praise... The Rock Cries Out, 1989 Word Records). I already had a strong idea for it and it was only one minute and forty-five seconds long. Perfect.

I just finished writing the end pose about ten minutes ago. That's three days, start to finish. I had no choreography written beforehand (as per our mutually agreed-upon rules for the contest), this was all from scratch.

Things learnt:

1. A song that does not end with a fade-out is about ten thousand times easier to choreograph an ending to. Both of my previous pieces had fade-out exits and each took me at least three days to figure out.

2. 'Echoes' (in which one dancer does a movement, copied by the next dancer a beat or half-beat later, copied by the next dancer a beat later, etc... also called a 'ripple') are a pain. in. the. neck. They look fantastic on stage, but choreographing them is a common cause of being admitted to the local insane asylum. This is why you hardly ever see them despite their effectiveness.

3. You can give the illusion of a different rhythm by holding a beat between steps. This is especially effective in a song with a quick tempo (not that I've ever really tried it in a slower song, but I would imagine it would be more obvious that you're holding a beat when the beats come slower).

4. Writing a dance for pointe is actually harder than you'd think. You can't just do any old thing like you can in jazz or something -- you have to be conscious of where the dancer's weight will be and how it would have to move to change to the next position and you have to be especially careful about the ankles -- one awkward move and you could snap your foot off.

Onward now to DeGarmo & Key's Apathy Alert. (Commander Sozo & The Charge Of The Light Brigade, 1985 Power Discs)

I hope to finish it by the fifteenth, worst-case.

One More Week!

In case you haven't heard, John Schlitt is putting out a new album.

Yes, the John Schlitt. The Grammy-award-winning former lead singer of Petra (sometimes he still does concerts with them, actually), and, if you go far enough back, former lead singer for a band called Head East. He's released three solo albums since 1995.

That John Schlitt.

And the new album is due to drop on 8 May -- next Tuesday (so excited!).

As such, the two singles from the album have been getting decent rotation on classicchristian247.com -- Hope That Saves The World and Where I Wanna Be.

His Facebook fan page promised a rocker of an album a while back, and if these two songs are any indication -- this is going to be a GOOD album.

Initially I liked Where I Wanna Be most of the two. It's amazing how addicting that echo is in the chorus. The rest of the song is actually rather slow, but that echo in the chorus (if love (love) could set the world on fire (on fire)...) sunk itself deep into my mind, even when I first heard it. It soars into your mind. It feels dramatic and epic.

In Hope That Saves The World -- try to imagine Peter Furler (of Newsboys fame) about twenty years from now. That's what John sounds like here. (At least that's who I thought of.) It's not a bad thing though.
It's a good solid rocker of a song. Whoever played drums here is fantastic (actually the guitar is pretty sweet too, now that I hear it again). This one is definitely growing on me.

You can hear previews of them both on his official website (it starts cycling through the two when the homepage loads, beginning with Hope That Saves The World).

But now I'm in a bit of a spot -- do I order an actual physical CD and wait two weeks for it to get here, or do I jump on iTunes and download cold soulless MP3s and be able to hear the album right away? (I could stop by the Christian bookstore on Tuesday but I can pretty much guarantee they won't have it in... heaven forbid they actually have a new CD the day it drops.)

Music Day - Easter Sunday Edition

He is risen!


Title: He Came, He Saw, He Conquered
Artist: Petra
Album: This Means War!
Year: 1987
Label: Star Song Records
iTunes here; YouTube here.

Come and see the things the Lord can do...