On Andy & Jill
The musical bumper sticker on my car during the ol’ college years would have definitely read “I’d Rather Be Listening To Acoustic Music.” Therein was my initial foray into the early careers of Square Peg artists like our own Proprietor. I found great enjoyment in the Texan college worship scene (early Crowder, Robbie Seay, Justin Barnard, anyone?). And the great unknown (acoustic) rock over which I stumbled came in the form of Jill Phillips.
The destination? A Caedmon’s Call show just outside of Columbus, Ohio with some friends. Opening was a young man who called himself Bebo. I didn’t even know there was another opening act. But out steps this young woman to warm up the crowd. The place was serving refreshments and, since she wasn’t Bebo, I went to get more punch.
If you’ve ever heard the music of Jill Phillips, you know what I’m referring to when I say that back at the refreshments table, I froze . The initial, inviting strums and rhythm of “Steel Bars” began to play and I thought, “Wow, this is really pretty good.” But then she started singing. I’m glad I never went back to my group of friends because it would have been embarrassing to cry in front of them.
“So this is how it feels at the rock bottom of despair
When the house that I built comes crashing down
And this is how it feels when I know the man that I say I am
Is not the man that I am when no one is around
This is how it feels to come alive again
And start fighting back to gain control
And this is how it feels to let freedom in
And break these chains that enslave my soul”
The song explores the slow, freeing realization of grace and forgiveness in such beautiful ways and I was moved while I myself was just trying to move away to get something to drink.
I’ve been hooked ever since. I bought a copy of the album right there and my journey has continued through all the rest. On the brilliant God and Money, again I found myself transfixed by the very first song, “Last Time,” written by Jill and co-writer/collaborator/husband Andy Gullahorn. It’s another song of sin management and our attempts to get things right with God and really echoed where I was at in my own life. Other beautiful songs like the title track, “You Don’t Belong Here” and “Falling into God” only further served to cement my love for their music.
Overall, Andy and Jill’s music have been a vital part of my spiritual soundtrack. It was in a period of absolute depression and devastation that I found Writing on the Wall, which included my favorite Jill Phillips track: “Wrecking Ball.”
“Piece together these little mysteries
It isn’t hard to see the writing on the wall
Triumph and tragedy, only God can be
Both the builder and the wrecking ball”
It was the story of the Israelites who found that God safely leads through both the wilderness and the Promised Land and sometimes trust in Him is all you have. It was a beautiful reminder during a period when I was completely alone, isolated and angry at the cosmic being who put me there.
It’s been a beautiful ride thus far with these two in my (now) iTunes. On her latest, Nobody’s Got It All Together, the sonic trend continues toward vulnerable, authentic artistry of one sinner/saint singing amidst the rest of us. It’s another fantastic effort in a catalog I was lucky enough to find. It’s amazing to me how God uses simple acoustic shows to begin to weave a thread into your life so that he can deliver the perfect song at the right time years and years later.
From the Proprietor: Records by both Jill and Andy are available in the Rabbit Room Store with FREE shipping. Support these gifted writers. You won’t be disappointed.
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.
bravo! amen! with a birthday coming up, i’m definitely going to complete my jill/andy collection. thanks so much for posting your thoughts.
“It’s amazing to me how God uses simple acoustic shows to begin to weave a thread into your life so that he can deliver the perfect song at the right time years and years later.”
i echo this wholeheartedly. God used andrew peterson’s “carried along” to gently bring me back to His side in college. i wasn’t straying too terribly, but my heart was pouting, if you will. every concert i go to of his (of every square peg, actually) turns out to be more of a worship service and a reminder of how tenderly and fiercely my papa God actually loves me than just an entertaining concert. i continue to be beyond thankful that these people are willing to use their creativity as their living!!
Matt,
Such good memories from the Jill/Bebo/CC tour. I think I was in the second row.
Thanks for name dropping the less known, but no less talented Barnard.
-ry
Good review. Don’t forget Kingdom Come. I love that CD.
I love Jill’s music, she is great. Buy her CD’s!
Oh, and let’s not forget that in addition to the great music, Jill is one of the kindest, sweetest people I’ve ever met. And that husband of hers isn’t too bad of a guy either.
I was at New City Cafe in Knoxville for one of the last shows there before it closed. I don’t remember the details of the show, but Jill and Andy were there with our Proprietor. They played 2 shows that night, and I was slipping inside the room as they finished up the early show. Jill’s final song was “I Am.” I’ve heard her sing that one many times before, both live and on the CD, but that time she sang it, the whole room came to a complete silence. It was like hearing it for the first time all over again. And though I really liked that song before, now it’s one of my favorites. It’s rare that I’m so physically moved by a song I’ve heard a thousand times before.
Thank you so much for this. Jill’s music in particular has meant so much to me over the past year or so since I first discovered Nobody’s Got It All Together. When I first got that album, I must’ve listened to the title track 10 times a day (I really mean that.) It was just what I needed to hear at that time in my life. That entire album can still move me to tears, and I’ve listened to it many times.
I’ve since been trying to complete my Jill Phillips collection, and my husband and I both continued to be moved by her music.
“It’s amazing to me how God uses simple acoustic shows to begin to weave a thread into your life so that he can deliver the perfect song at the right time years and years later.”
I don’t think you could have said it any better. Several years ago I heard “love and thunder” for the first time. Even after all these years of listening to that album (and other albums) a certain song or phrase will sink in for the first time and encourage my faith in God and love for life. For example, the song “tools” was the only track on the album that my friend who owned “love and thunder” skipped. It was only till a couple years later that I realized that AP was singing about the life tools his grandpa gave him. My grandpa (I call him Bapa) lives next door and has given me those same types of tools. The song really put words and a tune to my own experience and helped me to even better appreciate the living example that Bapa has given me. Recently I found some of Jill’s songs and have found them comforting and encouraging in lonely and discouraging times. “I Am” and “Nobody’s Got it All Together” are my favorites. Whether you want to call it cross promotion or God’s leading it doesn’t matter ’cause it’s opened me up to more of His musical treasure. Good music and God’s truth are truly a gift and the great thing is that the gift just keeps getting bigger along the journey.
Justin Barnard… Where is he these days? Good to see the Shanes still making some awesome music as well.
It was that first album/cd that got me hooked though it would be years before actually seeing Jill sing a song in concert and not one of her own but rather singing the lyrics of another as she moaned the ache of the mother giving birth to our Savior while I listened with a thousand others on a wooden bench beneath the glow of an auditorium’s stage that has stood for a hundred years in a little Tennesee town called Nashville. It also took me a few years before I could buy another one of her cd’s as that first one had said so much I felt like I would be betraying an old friend by purchasing the possibility of its replacement…and yet, I find myself going back to that original scratched up disc time and time again. And it’s my cd…one of the few I won’t lend out… Buy your own… It’s worth the trip back in time…