Tokens: Theology, Music, Books, Stories
I’m going to tell you about a Cool Thing.
What is this Cool Thing, you ask?
It’s a radio show in the vein of A Prairie Home Companion, put together by Lee Camp, a theology professor at Nashville’s Lipscomb University. Jeff Taylor, the musician who you may have seen playing with Michael Card, Buddy Greene, Ricky Skaggs, the Chieftains, or–if I say so myself–myself, is the band leader for the show, and told me about the concept months ago. He asked if I’d be into playing on it and I immediately said yes.
The house band is a who’s-who of great (and I mean great) Nashville players, like the aforementioned Jeff Taylor and fiddler Aubrey Haynie (the genius who played the mandolin and fiddle on Carried Along way back in 1999–remember that killer mandolin/fiddle romp at the end of “The Ninety and Nine”?). But in addition to a great band, the show featured taped interviews with authors such as Brian McLaren, plus skits that were–I know this is hard to believe–actually funny. The show was a delight. Ben and I stood in the wings listening to the rehearsal with the feeling that we were witnessing the beginning of something very special.
The show I was honored to be a part of was titled “The Appalachian Longing for Home”, and I played “Let There Be Light” and “After the Last Tear Falls.” There was also a lady named Odessa Settles who sang some goosebump-inflicting negro spirituals. It was beautiful.
Well, the first show hasn’t aired yet, but the second taping is in a couple of weeks and you might still have time to reserve a few tickets. Jamie and I will be there in the audience, and I’ll be wearing my nicer jeans and my less-wrinkled button down shirt. This is a classy affair, mind you.
Here are a few clips, just to pique your interest. This first is the intro to the show (theme song written by my buddy Jeff Taylor himself):
And this one is Jeff, Aubrey, the great Buddy Greene, and the rest of the band being amazing together:
Be sure and visit www.tokensshow.com to find out more about the show, and to reserve tickets for the upcoming taping. You’ll be glad you did.
So I was having a bad day. I woke up, for no apparent reason, at 5:30 in the morning, and my brain was already two hours ahead of my body. It was the kind of day that usually lands me in front of the mirror with a mental baseball bat. But on this day, I did not have the wisdom to walk away in defense. Instead, I moved in closer for a beat down. My arms would not reach up to fight, but remained stubbornly, helplessly at my sides. My face, totally unprotected from the oncoming head blow, narrowly dodged clear at the very last second, and I closed my eyes in relief. A minute or two passed and I gained strength enough to push away from the glass and head for the safety of my computer. I put my head down and got to work, hoping to shake off the shadows, but an hour later I found myself crying through the proofread because I hated every single letter on the screen.
Here is a small excerpt from John Piper’s excellent book Don’t Waste Your Life (which you can read here for free, or buy here for a pittance) wherein he expresses thankfulness for Clive Staples Lewis and details some of the ways he has cleared a path for us all. I’ll only add that I vigorously concur, and that JP is among the very few men who rank with CSL for impact in my own life. -sam
Heaven knows why it has taken me so long to write a little something about this album, the newest EP from friend and soul sister, Julie Lee. Julie and I met several years ago at a friend’s house and found immediate ease in conversation and a unique connection; sparks of light and magic hung lightly in the air around our collision. It was one of those instances where you know for sure that the God of the Universe meant for you to meet this one particular human being out of the millions that He created. I know that sounds a little dramatic, but I like drama (the good kind only, please) and am grateful when I find it happening in my little life.
Browsing the shelves of wicked-cool used bookstore here in Nashville, McKay Books, I happened upon Kathleen Norris’s (The Cloister Walk, Dakota, Amazing Grace) latest, Acedia & Me. Though I had no idea she had a new book out, the cheap sticker price for a primo first edition (Note: you will recall from a previous post that I have a more than slight affinity for used bookstores and, especially, first editions) was an easy decision. The title itself was mildly intriguing since I was vaguely familiar with the word, “acedia”, but of which I knew very little. The subtitle, “A Marriage, Monks, and A Writer’s Life”, though hardly an enticing, round-em-up, gather-em-in slogan, is true to Ms. Norris’ midwestern style, neither flamboyant nor melodramatic.
I’ve been hearing about this children’s Bible called The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones for a year or so now, first from Ben Shive, then from a smattering of others whose opinions I respect on such matters. One night last week Jamie and I were putting our sweet Skye to bed (she’s 6 now), and we were talking to her about Christmas. I’d been gearing up to leave for tour and with the first Sunday of Advent fast approaching we wanted to find out what she thought. Jamie asked her who was born on Christmas morning, and Skye answered, “Um…Noah?”
Russ Bremeier at Christianity Today:
Is there a qualitative difference between learning a song from your Grandfather and downloading a song from iTunes, from getting a recipe online and pulling out the yellowing paper of an old, family recipe? Ken Myers answers in the affirmative, channeling C.S. Lewis when he discusses the need for thoughtful Christians to consider not only content in what we appreciate in art, but also how we receive it.
The other night my wife and I had the opportunity to see Charlie Peacock in concert. The Art*Music*Justice tour, featuring Sarah Groves, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Brandon Heath and Charlie, had an off day in Kansas City. So Charlie set up a house show with just him and his piano in the upstairs art gallery of the world’s most perfect Christian bookstore, Signs of Life, in downtown Lawrence, Kansas. (No kidding. Not a Scripture mint to be found, but huge sections on art, history, classics and local writers. There’s one wall devoted to the puritans, and another to Walker Percy, Flannery O’Connor and the like. Dangerous.)
Mystery. Intrigue. Drugs, dark secrets, the decay of the will, and the transforming power of God’s love sown by a single man to a harvest of redemption.
My favorite book I’ve read this year was initially only a curiosity piece I perused while killing time in a Barnes & Noble. I had recently bought Unchristian – a book that offers an insightful look at how outsiders of the faith view the church – by David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons, but decided I needed a mental break and started looking for something a little lighter. I’m not inclined to reach for humor books, but the cover of a book featuring a man dressed in Old Testament garb and looking earnestly heavenward with the ten commandments in one hand and a Starbucks cup in the other proved irresistible. I picked it up, thumbed through the pages and found myself laughing out loud in the aisle at Barnes & Noble – another uncharacteristic behavior for me.
The Yellow Leaves: A Miscellany, the new book from my favorite author, Frederick Buechner, was released on June 16th. I added it to my Amazon shopping cart when I first heard about it from the Proprietor and Eric Peters, after they heard Buechner read a couple excerpts during the grand opening of the Frederick Buechner Institute back in January (which also featured a concert by Michael Card, with AP opening for him).
Walt Wangerin, Jr. strikes again.
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.
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.
Andy Gullahorn is funny, but he’s also one of the more serious lyricists I’ve come to enjoy in a while. Listening to Reinventing the Wheel, you come to understand that he is more than a good songwriter. He is a craftsman. He knows what he’s doing, where he’s going, and where he’s taking his hearers.But as I said, people say Andy Gullahorn is funny. They say that, I think, because he makes them laugh. But as for me, I’m calling it nervous laughter.
For all who haven’t checked it out, you can go the music section of the Tokens website and check out AP singing “Let There Be Light”… way to not toot your own horn AP, but it is a pretty darn good version of it
A great performance of Poor Wayfaring Stranger is on there.
Your song is good, too, Andrew.
Oh this is a rare new pleasure, one that I haven’t much confidence will be showing uip on my local Christian station. Thank heaven for the internet. Thanks for letting us know about this. it will become a regular part of my listening life.
We initially brought up the link for “Let There Be Light” on my computer (a dinosaur of sorts) but it wouldn’t play, so my hubby brought it up on his across the room. He built the computer himself, and his brother had contributed the speakers which just-so-happen to be dinosaurs, too. Only they are Bose dinosaurs. So I’m sitting over at my desk and from across the room the most beautiful music begins to reverberate itself through our little German living room lined in acoustic floor tiles. Thank you so much for sharing what you are doing here on this blog. I know (from experience) that maintaining relationship with folks all over the world takes a lot of time and sometimes you may wonder if anyone cares about all the investments you make in this blog. I want you to know that we read them, and appreciate them. This is a beautiful rendition of “Let There Be Light” and the experience of listening to it was only second to being front and center at an AP show… I think I’ll borrow his speakers more often. Many thanks to you and Jamie for all you do!
Incredible. How do we get this quality work on the air to larger audiences?