Nice to meet you

Just a quick note to introduce myself. I'm the Fifth Friday girl who will only blog every once in a while. I'm typing from the first and foremost colony of Virginia. There's lots of historic sites and beautiful scenery here for anyone who cares to visit.

I studied music at Gateway under the auspicious guidance of Joyce Scott and Ann Ahrens (a fellow blogger). On Sundays I get to play and sing in my church and on Tuesdays I attend rehearsals for the Virginia Symphony Orchestra Chorus where I sing tenor. My former choir director used to joke that she had "high" hopes for me, but my vocal chords just wouldn't cooperate. (Sorry, Sis. O!) Anyway, I probably get special treatment since I'm the lone girl in that section :)

The Music is the Message

Two metal crates jam-packed and running over with circular hard objects fill my tiny personal space with music. Compact Discs? Are you kidding? I am speaking of my rapidly expanding record collection.

Let me admit that I own as many CDs as the next twentysomething, which I am still uploading to my iPod. I appreciate the clarity and convenience of modern technology, but there is something about the shiny, black vinyl in those dusty record sleeves that gives my musical nervous system a special jolt.

I’ve rooted through thrift stores from St. Louis to Virginia in my search for the unique. My library holds everything from Rimsky-Korsakov’s classical Scheherazade to the soundtrack from The Muppet Movie, but one of my favorites never came from a bargain bin. It sat for years in my parent’s pile of long-forgotten recordings that they bought when records were the latest thing. This The World of Pentecost Crusades album holds songs that I never heard, let alone sang. Some of the lyrics make me smile with their healthy supply of corn:

The congregation is bored
The preacher’s starting to snore
We’ve got to do some holy-rollin’

Others hit a simple, sincere note that reasonates in my soul:

For just one look in my Savior’s face
And when I feel His warm embrace
I’d trade a lifetime for just one day in paradise

I remember my graduate classes when we delved into the crazy theory of Marshall McLuhan -- “The Medium is the Message.” To him it was more important what you were playing your music on, rather than what message was coming out. The theory was far more complicated and substantial than my simple explanation conveys, but it held merit. Was he right? Does the progression from vinyl 45s to the latest MP3 player matter most because it reflects the deeper changes in our culture?

The truth is . . . I don’t care. I like my records. I like my iPod. And I like the musical message that comes from both. It’s the marriage of notes and words that wraps a fuzzy sweater around my heart on the days when the world seems a bit too chilly. Music’s ability to lift the spirits or open a heart to worship is heavenly. God didn’t have to share it with us, but he did. So it doesn’t matter to me which piece of plastic my music is coming from, as long as it keeps on coming.

Even Virtuosity Needs A Holiday

I apologize if this piece comes across as disjointed. I’m writing this on the heels of an extreme workload/hours Iditarod at my day job.

Last Sunday morning, I was riding my bike past a local, circa-1930’s-and-fully-restored theater that sits a couple of blocks from my house. I do this every Sunday, knowing fully that a local “city church” has the venue sequestered for their services. A couple of casually-dressed, oscillating, over-caffeinated cherubim beckon me in every single time they see me. And every time I demur—primarily because I know the things that will ultimately spill from the pulpit fall far short of what I know to be true. Still, I always thank them and move on.

But this time, I decided that I was going to at least check out how they’d used the refulgent (a term I heard one of the theater’s androgynous underwriters use) high ceiling and acoustics to their musical advantage.

First, let me give you the lineup. One set of drums. One bass. Two guitars; an acoustic, and one electric. Two praise singers. The mental image makes for a thin musical backdrop, but I can assure you, such was not the case. I listened as these musicians—some of them novice at that—managed to become complements to each other’s playing; their sound full and bright, definitely becoming greater than the sum of their parts.

Here’s an odd little thing I noticed in contrast.

I’ve seen situations where our Apostolic “who’s who’s” in music have taken the same platform in what could be referred to as an impromptu “super group.” And I've many times watched the music die—or at any rate enter into a persistent vegetative state. And I have a feeling I know why this is the case—why the advent of apostolic “bands” has been phlegmatic at best.

Just simply look back thirty years, where the sum total of musical duties was carried out by a single entity—be it the accordion, the piano, or the organ. Devoid of a rhythm section, a Pentecostal piano player is not only conscripted for chord progressions, but also a style that requires one to be “all over the place” in order to galvanize a perceivable tempo and rhythm. One look at the archetypical apostolic pianist should prove to anyone that our keyboard heritage is a highly percussive one—one that plays every musical base and manages to catch as well.

This is all fine and good until the time comes to actually play in harmony with other musicians, and make the concessions necessary to bring a song over fully. I’ve noticed that pianists and organ players with these hallmarks have a very hard time applying the “less is more” doctrines to music. Band-like situations require delegation—a distinct openness to allowing others access to backbeats, counter rhythms, and chord voicings. Add a few inexperienced guitarists and bass players, and you’ve got one massive musical Hoagy to choke down. What would be an otherwise clever little double-stop on the guitar becomes an irritating, bellicose intrusion—primarily because someone’s already occupying that space.

Such is the same for many in the vocal department as well. There are times when a descending, three-octave vocal shred over a musical swell is warranted. There are also times when the contortionist choir caterwaul can start running with a wheel in the sand—and people for the earplugs. Even Mariah Carey knows when to rein in the Neapolitan Coyote.

And maybe that’s my point overall. I think my work-related coma may have me sounding like I meant to engage in a pamphleteering campaign against keyboardists and singers, when in reality it’s just my fractured attempt to remind those (myself included) who play with other musicians to listen to what they’re playing—and get a better idea of when to not play as well.

Thanks!

Thanks to all who participated in the music download experiment. AND Keep coming back weekly (every Friday) for a new "notes" post. Have a wonderful week!!

Check it out!

The following free promotional tracks come from the PAVE: Never Will A Rock… project, released January, 2007. They are complete tracks for you to listen to and critique. So, here is what we would like you to do: download the tracks, listen, and then in the comments at the end of this blog, leave YOUR TAKE. If you think it is great, ok, bad, indifferent, cool, or “I think it needs…”, post a comment. In other words, we want EVERYONE to get in on the free music and opinion “fest.”

This is a first-time experiment on 90&9, and depending on the results, we might make free music and your thoughts a regular feature.

Downloads removed.

Free Music Downloads!!!

Ninetyandnine.com and PAVE (Praise And Victory Experience) are joining together to give away four (yes, 4!) free music downloads from the PAVE: Never Will A Rock… project, which was released at the beginning of this year.

The purpose is two-fold: to give away some free music (that’s cool), and encourage listeners (that’s you) to respond quickly.

You'll be able to download these songs, right here, Thursday, August 16 - Sunday, August 19, 2007 only. What a great way to supplement your play list and encourage non-believers to sample some excellent Apostolic music!

This is a first ever experiment…so if you'd like to get some more free downloads via ninetyandnine.com and some top-notch Apostolic artists, we need to hear back from you in Comments!

Good or bad, be specific, and be numerous. If we get less than 25 different people sharing their thoughts, it'll be considered a failure. But if you care, and get your friends to share (leave your first name w/your comments) then we'll do our best to make this a regular feature on ninetyandnine.com, your source for everything Apostolic!

Landing the plane....

I've been challenged to think about some things that have been rumbling around in my spirit for a few years. I hope you'll allow me to share my thoughts. Since a few people were offering opinions regarding what is appropriate for listening where music is concerned, I thought I'd jump into the fray.

So, is music selection a heaven or hell issue? Maybe, maybe not. But I believe it can affect things that are. II Corinthians 4:7 (NLT) states:

"But this precious treasure -this light and power that now shines, held in perishable containers, that is in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own."

Rev. Tim Dugas, Gateway College president, challened me to this thought. If we have a precious treasure, whether a person or an object, we guard it carefully - we do not take any risks with it's safekeeping.

Psalm 19:14 (NKJV) states:
"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer."

Perhaps like nothing else, music can affect the total person. I cannot buy the arguments that it can be compartmentalized to no affect on the spiritual man. Nor do I believe we should have to stretch the meaning of the lyrics in order to justify our right to listen. All of life is worship (thank you Nate Binion). If we have to stretch to justify, then maybe that should be a big red flag telling us to leave it alone! The "meditation of the heart" is perhaps the place we can be the most easily swayed in our convictions.

How easy it is to forget or grow passive about the fact that God is holy!! And he commands us to be holy. It's not an option. A footnote in the Nelson study Bible cought my eye: "Holy implies sacredness, being consecrated to God, or being worthy of God. To be holy is to be free from anything that would offend God." I Peter 2:9-10 refers to us as a "holy nation", a people set apart for God's service and pleasure! Another Nelson reference: "Holy living should be our goal not merely because God commands it, but also because it befits our true identity."

I believe you can argue any point, any "line in the sand" until there is no line at all. Is music choice a heaven/hell issue? I believe the issue here is submission - submission to the Word and its call for holiness. There are no issues when it comes to safeguarding a soul, whether our own or those who have been placed in our care. It's time to "land the plane", to take seriously an issue that has a greater affect than we realize or want to admit, and to draw some lines.

Let me conclude with the passage that provides the clearest direction for me:

"Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation." Psalm 24:3-5 NKJV

What's Going On?

The July blog experiments have been a smashing success! They've fostered a lot of great interaction among readers, and have garnered much positive feedback. In fact, the response has been such that we at 90&9 Headquarters have decided to extend them.

From now on, we'll have the same insightful postings from the same insightful writers, but instead of a new posting every day, we'll scale back to a new one each week on Fridays. So please, continue to read and enjoy and interact, and we hope you'll look forward to hearing more from us every Friday!

Valley Of The Kings

I consider myself fairly musically astute and connected. Hailing from the day that the now-lost art of intricate record sleeves helped foster a connection between the music, the band and myself, I tend to still find myself tracing the career-arcs of musicians. What this means is, that I am still fascinated by the interconnectivity that a single drummer or guitarist can have in a twenty-year period. Many would be surprised to find that the guy who started out playing rock with Michael Bolton went on to have a healthy run with KISS as well.

Which is also why perhaps I had never heard of the Kings of Leon, since they have no secular umbilical scar to which they can point. I had heard them mentioned in a context that implied they are the go-to punching bag for the apostolic de La Mancha—the disenfranchised UPC preacher’s kid, Christian rock band that preaches Jesus from the edge—or, to us that “judge” such things, an existential windmill.

Not wanting to make any assumptions, I sought them out. What I found, in my opinion, was something far sadder. In fact, nothing to me is sadder than high-visibility backsliders, whose cursing betrays them to a degree that one can literally see them pinned to the ground in the public square by their oppressing devils, forced to slap themselves in the face and say, “Jesus is a fairly adequate Savior for most of mankind.”

I could start listing the who’s who of ex-Apostolics that have gone this way, many of them now looking like they should be climbing out of a Volkswagen during rodeo week. But I won’t. It’s just too painful, and I take no pleasure in it.

If nothing else could make an Apostolic’s blood run cold, than maybe this should: Self proclaimed “Ex-Rev” and comedian, Sam Kinison walked out of the faith at some point in his life, hailing the same sexual and alcohol-addled activities our dear K of L talk about here. Kinison, a former Pentecostal preacher, maintained the same, high-volume delivery and crescendoed approach to his comedy that his sermons did. He also took great pains to give his former Lord a good slap from the stage, mocking the blood, the return, and the crucifixion. He even joked that God would wake him up in the middle of the night and stop his heart, for, and I quote, “all those f-ing jokes.”

Seems prophecy should have been listed along side his amazing rhetorical gifts. In 1992, someone came knocking. I don’t think it was the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

So before I’m accused of calling the Kings of Leon blasphemers, please note that I do not make that claim. But as these young ,talented men make their trek through the secular world, it would do all good to remember that there are many toll booths between the church platform and the lyrics to Holy Roller Novocaine (caution: blatant sexual entendres). And when it comes to the Gospel, the world doesn’t accept denial on credit.

Sadly, I’d have a world’s more respect for a band that just walked out on God, and forgot him completely, instead of using him as a sort of comic foil—an Egyptian straw-man from which they can claim to be in exile. But it doesn’t stop there. To name one's album Because of the Times and then galvanize one’s music to be in spite of them is the lynchpin that transforms the erstwhile Kings of Leon and boils them down to the devil’s favorite fundamentals for energetic young men: The Princes of Pathetic.

Comments? Feel free to email me here.

What's the matter, Sir Elton John?

I found it very interesting that Elton John recently complained about the state of music and the internet…and well, people who blog. Some of his comments follow:

“The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff…“Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision…“It’s just a means to an end…“We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet…“I mean, get out there — communicate…“Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet…“Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging…“I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span…“There’s too much technology available…“I’m sure, as far as music goes, it would be much more interesting than it is today.”

Ok, given his statements and the discussion we have been having here on the notes blog, I’d like to respond to some of his grenades.

1) The internet
I agree that the internet has a tendency to isolate people from each other and know that sitting in front of a computer, game station, etc., can be a detriment. I also know he has been very against illegal downloads of music and I agree that is a problem. It is frustrating when you hear, “Oh, man! Loved your stuff…especially such and such track…and if it wasn’t for our good friend Tom, who bought it at a concert…the rest of our social hodgepodge of 152 people would have neeeeevvvvver heard of it!” …alright, so it was 2 instead of 152. However, for me his argument falls apart when he tries to make a link between blogging, sitting in front of a computer, too much technology, not communicating, not getting out there in the streets, not creating stuff, not changing the world…AND musical artistic vision.

2) The Music
Elton sounds like someone holding on to the very ship going down. The music industry is suffering because the formula that at one time worked, has become stale. It is suffering from a disease every business, organization, and even personal individuals suffer from when they reach a certain point of success. “They” start coasting. The internet has spawned MORE individual creativity, not LESS, as the ability to bypass major labels and put out competitive music has increased. The “next movement” Elton is talking about, the one he is wishing would come along, is the very one he is complaining about! The next movement in music is not going to tear down the internet. The “next movement” is presently tearing down the music industry.

To make things even more ironic, Elton played a concert for his 60th birthday to a 20,000-strong crowd at New York’s Madison Square Garden that was streamed live over the internet. He also plans to put his back catalogue of albums on the digital download market. These two examples seem to suggest Elton’s problem is not technology and music, as much as it is “Control.”

Given what he is doing vs. what he is saying, intimates he is confused…………………………………………….................................about the current musical milieu.

News Flash!

Hey, just got the great news! This is my last post on Word, but I am not banned from the 90&9 blogging world. I have been welcomed into the fold over at Colideoscope. Yay! I'm so excited! Look for my first post Monday.

If You Love Jesus, Burn Your CDs

All of life is worship. Being a disciple of Christ means that we must bring every area of our life under his authority. So how does this play out in the area of entertainment, and specifically in the area of music? How do we bring our music under the authority of Christ?

I Fought the Law
One way of course, is the legalistic approach. You make a list. Lists are great. Lists can explain to you exactly what you should and should not be listening to. As long as you follow the list you are a good person. Not only do you make a list, but you periodically reinforce this list with derisive comments about “worldly music” and examples of the filthy lifestyles and lyrics of several “heroes of this world.” Then, in an emotional call to separation, you light a bonfire and ask everyone to throw in all their worldly music.

Of course the problem with lists lies in the details (one could say the Devil is there). How, exactly, do you define worldly music? If a secular artist sings a Christian song is it OK to listen to? Is it OK to buy the CD? What if a Christian artist sings a secular song? What about Christmas music? What about patriotic songs? What about nursery rhymes?

Amazing Grace
As a Christian, every area of our lives should be brought under the authority of Christ. For us there is no such thing as secular and sacred; everything is sacred. So if we cannot rule out music based solely on genres how do we know what to listen to? Curiously enough, the answer is found in the Bible.

Ezekiel 44:23 “And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.”

Even in the Old Testament, when the Law reigned supreme, God still expected his people to be able to discern between clean and unclean. The priests were to teach this acquired skill of discernment to the people instead of simply handing them lists. Now that we live under the freedom of grace, the skill of discernment is even more important.

Learning the difference between holy and unholy is a difficult task. It requires lots of prayer and a deep desire to please God before all else. Discerning between unclean and clean demands sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit. It’s just so much easier to live by lists than it is to do the work of discernment.

So the way I see it, we have a couple of options: 1) we can burn our CDs for Jesus, or 2) we can burn our lists and get a relationship with Jesus.

Post Script-I’m feeling a little off today, so feel free to chalk this up to the ramblings of a madman.