Breaking News: Andrew Osenga Sneak Attack!
In the past few months we’ve already seen new albums from the likes of Jason Gray, Randall Goodgame, Eric Peters, Andrew Peterson, and Andy Gullahorn and for most of them we let you know they were coming long in advance. We took pre-orders. We wrote early reviews. We gave you behind the scenes looks at the making of the albums. Then finally we clapped and waved and launched them off into world and like misty-eyed parents dabbed our eyes as we stood back to watch them take on lives of their own.
But just when we thought we’d got all the kids off to college, Andrew Osenga sneaks past us like a guitar-wielding ninja and lets us know that he’ll have a new album out in–I’m not kidding here–two days. He is sneaky and wily and henceforth must be watched carefully. That was last Friday.
It’s taken us a few days to catch up with him and get it into the store but I’m happy to report that not only is it now available, but it’s a fantastic collection of songs. From soaring rock anthems likes “She Finds A Way” to the bluesy, ambling guitar work of “Rest” and “Waiting” this record is unlike anything else you’ll find in the Rabbit Room (except maybe some other Osenga awesomeness.)
Here’s one of my favorites off the album. It’s a song called “The Arms Of Love” and I simply can’t stop listening to it. You can, and should, buy the album right here.
Note: We’ll be updating the Square Peg Bundle and the Osenga Onslaught Bundle to add the new item. If you ordered either of those bundles in the past week and want to have the new version with this album, send an email to orders@rabbitroom.com and we’ll work something out.
A.S. Peterson has crafted a work of compelling historical fiction which begs the question, “Can this really be a debut novel?” With dogged fidelity, Peterson captures the spirit, manners, and social conditions present during the American Revolutionary War. We meet colorful, credible characters who navigate the high seas of life and love, dependence and independence, war and peace, truth and consequence, and despite forays into dark places, The Fiddler’s Gun is beautiful, lyrical, and redemptive.
Walt Wangerin, Jr. strikes again.
Janner Igiby lives in Glipwood, a nothing little village in the land of Skree, on the edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. Manhood is on the horizon, but Janner finds it hard to feel much hope for the future. Skree is ruled by foreign oppressors, snake men called the Fangs of Dang, servants of a shadowy emperor named Gnag the Nameless. The Skreeans are weak and weaponless. They’re even tool-less. Any Skreean who needs to use a hoe has to borrow one from the Fangs (and fill out the requisite paperwork). And from time to time, the Black Carriage arrives in Glipwood to carry young Skreeans toward an unknown fate across the Dark Sea.
I am not a fan of Civil War literature; in fact, I have always thought of it as one of those weird sub-genres for obsessive types. They’re almost like Trekkies with their re-enactments and maniacal devotion to detail. It’s just not my thing (although I’m secretly jealous that they get to dress up and shoot cannons).
A Randall Goodgame song is like a great independent movie. Characters deliver lines like they were lifted from a break room, a truck stop, or a downtown diner. Seemingly incongruent scenes are juxtaposed and plot isn’t obvious; in fact, narrative–a good story–is often more evident than linear plot lines. An indie movie, like a Randall Goodgame song, seems to tell itself. Rather than being rudely yanked by a chain through a sequence of contrived events, with a Randall Goodgame song, I have the sense that I’m being allowed a willing, but vicarious sneak peak into the real lives of his real characters.
Sara Groves irritates me just a little bit. With each album she makes, she moves from strength to strength and is always raising the bar with the quality, depth, and lyrical ambition of her work. And as a fellow artist, that’s just a little irritating since it means the rest of us are going to have to work harder if we hope to keep up.
I am outside on my front porch. The yellowed leaves are methodically falling from the black walnut in the yard, my breath is chalky visible in the recent cold snap, and lately I have been exploring the unpleasant nuances of the dark night of a soul - my own, to be exact. It is a strange passion we live out on this over-glorified orb of rock hurtling through space at some rate that I’m sure would astound me were I to know what it was. It is an odd series of days, I am realizing, when you question your own faith more than you question your own doubt. And, indeed, it is these nagging questions which have prompted me to share my thoughts on Andrew Peterson’s 2003 album, Love and Thunder.
11-year old Reuben Land, a character in the 2001 book Peace Like a River, provides narration that is clear-eyed and insightful, yet retains the magic, wonder, and innocence of youth. I found it easy to entrust my imagination to the author’s clever method of telling the story through the sensibilities of a pre-teen boy. An author with lesser skill would have either made the boy too smart-alecky for his own good or impossibly cute.
I just finished a book that upon closing it, I felt like it finished me in a sense. A quiet meditative book that reached down and stirred the deep waters in me. It’s Marilynne Robinson’s 2005 Pulitzer prize winner Gilead, given to me by my friend Andrew Peterson.
Eric Peters’s body of work addresses a diverse range of topics, but hope is a recurring theme that gently percolates in the midst of it all. And yet, somewhere between the 2001 masterpiece Land of the Living, and Scarce, the flavor of hope that Peters’s work emits has evolved closer to a tone that is more resolute than what came before. And though the complexion of hope has a broad range, the lyrics from Scarce–while intermittently contrite and timorous as in previous efforts, are now strengthened and bolstered by roots that have grown deeper, radiating an underlying grit and security.
Having read The Great Divorce many times over the years, I’ve found this classic from the great C.S. Lewis to be full of startling clarity and depth on the differences between Heaven and Hell. The only thing both have in common is that both begin in the human will; we can either let Heaven enter us and rule in us to blossom into love and goodness, or allow Hell to infect and reign in our hearts by the daily refusal to submit to Heaven.
Even if you haven’t heard Room to Breathe, its still likely you’ve heard Andy Gullahorn. He’s what I’d call a heavy lifter by trade. He writes lyrics, plays guitar, arranges vocals and adds production help to the work of artists like Jill Phillips and Andrew Peterson.
Allow me to preface this by telling you that I am a great despiser of gushing reviews. I’d much rather write (or read) a scathing dismemberment of the latest Brett Ratner film or Terry Goodkind book than suffer through four hundred words of overblown hyperbole about even the best of things. But when asked to write some thoughts on Frederick Buechner’s Godric, no amount of distaste for high praise was able to intervene. I hope you’ll take what I say with the understanding that I do not say it readily or lightly.
And I can’t stop listening to “She Finds a Way.” Literally, I can’t stop listening to it. The demo version of that song is the second most played song in my iTunes, and now the full band version on this album is playing on repeat.
It’s worth noting, too, that the artwork and graphic design is by David Van Buskirk, who also did the album design for Eric Peter’s Chrome.
Smokin’ hot guitar-wielding ninja song. I will be picking up this album tonight at BTLOG in Lincon. What a fine day this is turning out to be… And if my copy of The Fiddler’s Gun should happen to arrive in the mail today, I will perhaps explode with rabbity happiness.
Wow! I’m enjoying “The Arms of Love,” and I’m looking forward to getting the whole album. Thanks Mr. Osenga.
Wow. I have been both snucked and attacked. So as the last two Osenga acquisitions came in mp3 format, sans hard copy unless you made one yourself, I’m going to have to hold this one in my hands.
Am I a total geek for saying that this stuff is where Guitar Hero wanted to go? Probably, but I’m sticking by it. ….checks to see if anyone behind him saw him type “Guitar Hero” and covertly clicks “post”…
If you haven’t seen the video Andy made with his girls about the new CD, stop what you’re doing and watch it here. Seriously, go watch this.
Silly Whipple. Andy Osenga IS the Guitar Hero.
i love it. this song is like experiencing an airplane take-off.
I did not see this coming, nor did I foresee my enjoyment being so…there are no words to describe my enjoyment. That Andy is a sneaky one he is.