Strange Bedfellows

I mentioned in an earlier post, Strange Bedfellows is the one track on The Word in the Wind that I think may be the best candidate for use in worship. The chord sequence is borrowed from the closing section of the second movement of a guitar suite entitled Along the Great Western Road (Parts I-III). This suite itself has only been recorded in fits and starts over the years, rarely all in one session, but that's a story for another occasion. 

Here, the imagery of the text (Isaiah 11), which is read on the Second Sunday of Advent (Year A), suggests this common expression for something odd, and in this case, something oddly holy: "strange bedfellows," by virtue of his vision of diverse species – "predator and prey together" – living in such harmony under a future messianic reign that they may all safely take a nap together. By connecting the word "delight" with "fear," specifically, "the fear of the Lord," the prophet fairly insists that we set this fear apart as "like no other fear," as "something else." This qualitative difference that distinguishes "the peaceable kingdom" likewise requires that we think of such things as peace itself in fresh terms that transcend our mundane understanding of such things: "Don't measure peace in safety."

The percussive guitar sequence is not nearly as tricky as it sounds, though it does lend a nice texture, if I may say so myself. It's merely a matter of hammering the open string to get the syncopated effect. Meanwhile, the  electric guitar, though generally the sort of thing that seems to me incompatible with a worship setting, here evokes just that sense in which "something else is here." Certainly it has an awakening effect in an otherwise acoustic track.

Strange Bedfellows

1.  Don’t judge by what you see

Or decide by what you hear.

Don’t measure peace in safety.

But His delight is in the fear of the LORD,

In the fear of the LORD.

2.  Your eyes do not deceive you:

Wolves and lambs live in one accord.

Predators and prey together

Take their delight in the fear of the LORD,

In the fear of the LORD.

 Bridge It’s like no other fear.

   No, something else is here,

    Falling everywhere,

  Filling the pregnant air ...

3.  Consider well these strange bedfellows!

An everlasting peace restored!

Jesse’s issue, a child, shall lead them.

They take their cues in the fear of the LORD,

In the fear of the LORD.

New Kensington, PA;  November 27, 1999;

bridge added December 3, 1999

(Tuning: Standard; capo on 2nd fret)

The Word in the Wind

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.]