Contemorary Christian Music

[Phil Wilson]

Nicole Nordeman

Simply some of the most honest lyrics about Christian life you can find anywhere. Both the good and bad times. She also has a beautiful voice and is a superb piano player.

Rich Mullins

One of the most gifted songwriters in the history of Christendom and I don't say that lightly. The World as Best I Remember It Vols. 1 & 2 and A Liturgy, A Legacy, & A Ragamuffin Band contain some of the best lyrics that can really touch the mind and heart.

Caedmon's Call

Picked up Rich's mantle after his death. Fun songs and thoughtful ones too. Forty Acres is a CD that everyone should listen to, particularly for the song Shifting Sand.

[Bon Voyage]

Blah blah blah wrong because its just entertainment. blah blah blah blah full of false teachers.  blah blah blah not authorized.  LOL.  Blah blah blah where's the bcv for this concert.  LOL.

I do like SCC quite a bit.  It seems to come from his heart.

[janine]

Yes!

Call it "Free Christian Therapy".  Or perhaps The Poster Formerly Known As B.H. would call it "brain washing".

Heck, my brain needs frequent washing! :p

I'll set my little inexpensive stereo to repeat & leave it that way for a while, same song(s) for a while.  Or I'll pull several songs by theme or style & put them together on a tape for car trips or household projects.

"No Scenes of Stately Majesty" by Graham Kendrick, as performed by Maire Brennan, is amazing.  Celtic, fife & drum, bagpipes...  The video features Maire simply singing, barefoot on the sand, going down to the water; interspersed throughout are flashes of funerals of dignitaries and Unknown Solders and assassinated presidents, pomp & solemn mourning and wreaths and horsedrawn hearses and walking widows... then back to the singer, wind & spray & her singing.

He had his friends and followers to mourn Him, of course, but they were so few, when all Creation owes Him everything, you know?  It's our job, then, to mourn and dance for Him until He comes to take us home.

"No scenes of stately majesty
for the King of kings,
no nights aglow with candle flame
for the King of love;
no flags of empire hung in shame
for Calvary.
No flowers perfumed the lonely way
that led Him to
a borrowed tomb
for Easter Day.

No wreaths upon the ground were laid
for the King of kings.
Only a crown of thorns remained
where He gave his love.
A message scrawled in irony,
"King of the Jews",
lay trampled where they turned away...
And no one knew
that it was their first Easter Day.

Yet, nature's finest colors blaze
for the King of kings,
and stars in jewelled clusters say,
"Worship Heaven's King".
Two thousand springtimes more have bloomed.
Is that enough?
Oh, how can I be satisfied,
until He hears
the whole world sing of Easter love?

My prayers shall be a fragrance sweet
for the King of kings,
my love the flowers at His feet
for the King of love.
My vigil is to watch and pray
until He comes,
my highest tribute to obey,
and live to know
the power of that first Easter Day."

(p.s. Karen... email or pm me w/ your snailmail addy & I'll send you some music)

[Fate]

Janine,

Girrrlllllll ya taken me back....

I'm a "funkateer" from back in the day.... :D  ;)  :D  ;)

two middle fingers down, two side fingers up... Yo Ho!!!

[marc]

I picked up Steven Curtis Chapman's latest a few months ago and agree, it is a fantastic cd.  My favorite on it (which I've quoted a couple of times on this forum) is "God is God".

Janines' comments are valid.  Any radio format you listen to, though, you'll eventually find the same songs repeated.  And I agree that this provides  a much better "soundtrack" for our lives than we would find elsewhere.

Though the quality may seem to be a bit short of what we like at times, it has improved greatly.  A decade and a half ago, when I worked in Christian radio, even though there was a certain amount of quality product, a good deal of what I heard made me think the music was put out by artists who couldn't make it in secular music.  I find this much less now.  As I listen I hear real talent and real quality production, something that was lacking in earlier years.  The genre has grown enormously.

[marc]

Ok, good. Rocketman's posted the "God is God" lyrics.  GGGus, isn't one of the tribesmen heard chanting on "No Greater Love"?  Is this the same one he brings out for the concert?

[Emily]

Julie said...."Rocketman,  Do you live in the DC area?  I do and am going on November 9th to the same concert..."

Julie...the youth group from our congregation is also going to the Third Day, MWS, and Max L. concert on 11/9 in DC.  (I snuck in as a chaperone LOL)  I'm really excited about it, and maybe I will see you there! Hopefully the sniper will be caught by then :(  
BTW, how are you doing with all the craziness here; can you believe it happened again last night?  I am pretty stressed out as are most people I know.
Em

[marc]

bcv=book-chapter-verse, I assume.

[janine]

blub... blub... blub

What's that Steven Curtis Chapman song about

...diving in
I'm goin' deep
in over my head
I wanna be
caught in the rush
lost in the flow
in over my head
I wanna go
the river's deep
the river's wide
the river's water
is alive
so sink or swim
I'm diving in...