Jesus said, "every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Matthew 13:52). Well, here is something old:
The Word in the Wind consists of mostly guitar-based songs and a few instrumental tracks (fourteen tracks in all), written in seminary and during my first pastorate, and recorded about ten years ago (2001). Several of the poems recently published in The Just, Quiet Wind are set to music here (see, e.g., Psalm 1, Living Bread, There is a Reason); the songs are inspired by texts from the Advent/Christmas/Epiphany cycle of the liturgical year, while their sequence reflects the progress from prophetic (Isaianic) expectation (Your Desert Snow, Strange Bedfellows) through the nativity (Grace Upon Grace, The Oxen, Christmas Joy, Innocents' Day) to the call to discipleship (Baptism at Nuweiba, The Response, There is a Reason, Deep Blue Heart, Believers Leap). Like its precursor, A Soundtrack for the Close of the Age (1991), The Word in the Wind may be only loosely described as a concept album, but here the concept, if it is discernible at all, will be most apparent to those who are accustomed to reading, telling, living, and rejoicing in the gospel of salvation according to the Christian year; in the case of instrumental tracks, however, even listeners who have this leg up will have little more than a title, a mode, and a mood, to go on.
This record, by the way, is really of demo quality, so don't expect, you know, Abbey Road. If you compare the vocals to Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen, and the production quality to all those archived demos that old bands from the 60s and 70s are cleaning out of their closets, then perhaps your expectations won't be dashed to smithereens. And if you can listen as those do who consider Disc 1 of the late, great Rich Mullins' Jesus Record far and away the most moving and poignant of the two (as I do), then perhaps you'll hear and receive these tracks in the Spirit in which they were intended.
I'll tell the story of Soundtrack in a separate post. As for The Word in the Wind, all work on mastering and post-production — to the extent all this was even possible in the cramped little corner of our living room on Farber Road (in Princeton Seminary's married student housing, since razed and replaced) — was preempted when, on returning from a lovely morning walk along the canal one beautiful September day, we were greeted with the news that the twin towers were down. "Down!?" That was the word on the webpage, and it took several attempts to even begin to imagine what was being said. For the next few weeks thereafter, we, like the rest of the world, could think of nothing else. In short, the record sounds pretty much as it did on the evening of September 10, 2001. It seems like a lifetime ago. For all that, I hope you like it. More specifically, I hope it brightens the dark days of the year for you with the light of Christ, the light of faith, hope, and gospel promise. Who knows — it may even yield a new song or two ... or even three for the canon of contemporary praise and worship songs. May it be so.
My own favorites tracks: Your Desert Snow, Strange Bedfellows, Grace Upon Grace, Living Bread, Christmas Joy, and Turn Around. Meanwhile, someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know this is the first time Thomas Hardy's poem, The Oxen, has been set to music. Perhaps that is a text and a track that should make it over the threshold into worship at Christmas? I'd like to think so. [UPDATE: But what was I thinking? "The Oxen" was set to music as Part VII in Vaughan Williams' Christmas cantata, "Hodie." Duh.]
[NB: MP3s should be available at Amazon in a week or so. Meanwhile, to request a free review copy, just leave a comment with your mailing address.]
[UPDATE: The MP3s are up. The samples are somewhat rough and not always the most representative snapshot of the track in question. The samples for Soundtrack are better.]
The Word in the Wind consists of mostly guitar-based songs and a few instrumental tracks (fourteen tracks in all), written in seminary and during my first pastorate, and recorded about ten years ago (2001). Several of the poems recently published in The Just, Quiet Wind are set to music here (see, e.g., Psalm 1, Living Bread, There is a Reason); the songs are inspired by texts from the Advent/Christmas/Epiphany cycle of the liturgical year, while their sequence reflects the progress from prophetic (Isaianic) expectation (Your Desert Snow, Strange Bedfellows) through the nativity (Grace Upon Grace, The Oxen, Christmas Joy, Innocents' Day) to the call to discipleship (Baptism at Nuweiba, The Response, There is a Reason, Deep Blue Heart, Believers Leap). Like its precursor, A Soundtrack for the Close of the Age (1991), The Word in the Wind may be only loosely described as a concept album, but here the concept, if it is discernible at all, will be most apparent to those who are accustomed to reading, telling, living, and rejoicing in the gospel of salvation according to the Christian year; in the case of instrumental tracks, however, even listeners who have this leg up will have little more than a title, a mode, and a mood, to go on.
This record, by the way, is really of demo quality, so don't expect, you know, Abbey Road. If you compare the vocals to Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen, and the production quality to all those archived demos that old bands from the 60s and 70s are cleaning out of their closets, then perhaps your expectations won't be dashed to smithereens. And if you can listen as those do who consider Disc 1 of the late, great Rich Mullins' Jesus Record far and away the most moving and poignant of the two (as I do), then perhaps you'll hear and receive these tracks in the Spirit in which they were intended.
I'll tell the story of Soundtrack in a separate post. As for The Word in the Wind, all work on mastering and post-production — to the extent all this was even possible in the cramped little corner of our living room on Farber Road (in Princeton Seminary's married student housing, since razed and replaced) — was preempted when, on returning from a lovely morning walk along the canal one beautiful September day, we were greeted with the news that the twin towers were down. "Down!?" That was the word on the webpage, and it took several attempts to even begin to imagine what was being said. For the next few weeks thereafter, we, like the rest of the world, could think of nothing else. In short, the record sounds pretty much as it did on the evening of September 10, 2001. It seems like a lifetime ago. For all that, I hope you like it. More specifically, I hope it brightens the dark days of the year for you with the light of Christ, the light of faith, hope, and gospel promise. Who knows — it may even yield a new song or two ... or even three for the canon of contemporary praise and worship songs. May it be so.
My own favorites tracks: Your Desert Snow, Strange Bedfellows, Grace Upon Grace, Living Bread, Christmas Joy, and Turn Around. Meanwhile, someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know this is the first time Thomas Hardy's poem, The Oxen, has been set to music. Perhaps that is a text and a track that should make it over the threshold into worship at Christmas? I'd like to think so. [UPDATE: But what was I thinking? "The Oxen" was set to music as Part VII in Vaughan Williams' Christmas cantata, "Hodie." Duh.]
[NB: MP3s should be available at Amazon in a week or so. Meanwhile, to request a free review copy, just leave a comment with your mailing address.]
[UPDATE: The MP3s are up. The samples are somewhat rough and not always the most representative snapshot of the track in question. The samples for Soundtrack are better.]
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