I’ve realized I have an incredible amount of backlog… I am about to flood the living crap out of this Tumblr for the next few weeks (maybe?)
You’ve been warned.
Came up with this little acoustic thing and then hit record and started mumbling a melody overtop of it.
Joe and I have like totally slacked off on this. Maybe we shouldn’t? haha.
I have some SoundCloud items that I’ll be posting.
Blue Skies by joeday
Back in the saddle again! Feels good. Needless to say, the last month was a very busy one while I was working on putting together the Good Friday music for Mars Hill West Seattle. Hopefully, the recording from that will be available soon, it features two songs written in this blog in their full-band glory and I’m pretty stoked with how they came out.
Nevertheless, here is Blue Skies, a song about creating. Some artists go through a very long season of inactivity or writers block before becoming madly prolific again. This song is about the transitional moment that occurs between those two seasons.
I really like this song. I like how seemingly simple it is, how the harmonies come together on the chorus, and the lyrics. Specifically, there’s one line that really sticks out to me:
You’ve spent seventeen years in a busy-ness spin
But the heart doesn’t care if there’s dust on the pen
What I like about this is that creating is in many ways an act of remembering. You might think that if you’ve had a long period of inactivity (even decades) that your talent may have vanished or that there’s no way you’d be able to pick it back up. Sure, you may be out of shape, but if that talent was there, it’s there because you are created in the image of the Creator. My encouragement would be to start by remembering the Creator and see what happens to your heart. You’ll not lack for creativity.
Go. Do.
As a songwriter, I’ve always been drawn to darker themes and sounds. This has always been a source of tension for me. I remember working on the last Mindhead album explaining it to my mom, how I was proud of the darker theme’s it was exploring and her response, “But you’re a Christian. What does dark have to do with light?” Touché, mother. Touché.
There is one place, however, in the Christian faith where darkness is not only appropriate, but needed. Good Friday. It needs to be dark, hopeless, and jarring because we must wrestle with the implications of a dead Christ. Paul says, “If Christ is not raised…your faith is in vain.” Between Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, the disciples and followers of Jesus lived this reality. Imagine the broken hope. The confusion. The total devastation.
That was where my mind was when I wrote the following version of In Christ Alone for this year’s Good Friday service at Mars Hill West Seattle.
In Christ alone my hope was found
He was my light, my strength, my song
This cornerstone, once thought was sound
Crumbled and crushed and crucified.
Was he a lie? What could this be?
What has become of Israel’s king?
The comforter, now on a cross
In Christ alone all has been lost
In Christ alone who took on flesh
Torn from his back by barbs and hooks
A crown of thorns he’s made to wear
Scorned by the ones he loved and healed
Now on that cross, Jesus has died
The Son of God now cast aside
Wrapped in cloth, laid in stone
Placed in a cave not on a throne
There in the ground his body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
What now of faith? What hope remains?
Behind the stone the savior lays
The broken hearts, the broken faith
What hope can rest upon the slain?
This disbelief, this painful awe
How could he be the Son of God?
Here’s some more lyrics written for The Battle of Midway. Song is titled “Widow’s Walk”.
More after the jump.
First off, so stoked to see Jim’s recent posts. Keep ‘em coming Jim!
Secondly, some of you have pointed out I have missed the past two weeks. Gasp! Let me just say life has been ridiculously busy these past few weeks and at the end of the day my family wins.
However, this doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing, I have. I just haven’t been recording. Bear with me as I catch up.
