This song has a heart-breaking history. Horatio Spafford, a well-to-do Christian man went through the very trials of Job. His wife and daughters traveled by ship to England ahead of Spafford. Their ship was struck by an iron vessel and sank in 12 minutes. Only his wife Anna survived. Spafford took a ship to England to be with her. As the ship passed over the spot where his 4 daughters had been lost, the ship's captain informed Spafford. He went down to his cabin and wrote this song. The rest of Spafford's story is one of heartbreak and triumph. The Spafford's are buried in Jerusalem where they finished their lives doing mission work.
The song is performed by Acapeldridge, a "group" consisting of just one guy singing all 4 parts, which accounts for the amazing blend of voices. A sad but as hopeful a song as you'll ever hear.
The sun is out and there's new grass on the field. There are some familiar songs about baseball out there and some not so familiar. They range from "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" to Peter Paul & Mary's poignant "Right Field". Right Field is sort of my baseball theme song. But this song by CCR's John Fogarty is the one that gets me charged up to see a game.
Now if only Major League Baseball doesn't shoot its fans in the foot like the NFL did with a load of woke, LGBQT double plus ungood nonsense, I might even go to a game.
I love "I Can Only Imagine". It's very powerful. We played it at Micah's memorial service. The song was one of his favorites. This version is incredible. Masafumi "Masa" Fukuda, a Japanese-American songwriter, composer and music arranger is the choir director and founder of One Voice Children's Choir. He gifted and does incredible things with the children he draws together from across American culture. His music includes religious and non-religious numbers, but there is always a kind of spiritual kind of reverence for the well-chosen pieces the choir performs. I sat through this song tonight and had tears running down my face and I'm not ashamed.
This piece is nothing short of awesome (and not the sort of awesome people throw out for something that is merely pretty good).
Of all the acapella groups out there these days, Home Free is probably my very favorite. Here they've gone and done my favorite folk genre proud with this driving medley of sea shanties including the song that rehooked me on them - The Wellerman. Enjoy!
One
of my very favorite Christmas Carols. When Longfellow wrote the lyrics
the Civil War had been raging and Henry had experienced loss as had so
many families at the time. It's a song with sadness and triumph and
faith in God. I love John Gorka's version best.
I particularly like the Tommy Makem/Liam Clancy version of this gospel song, but I think I've already posted that one. In case I haven't, I'll put it down below. Here are the browns with a more American gospel version. This song was a favorite with my Sabbath school primaries, juniors and earliteens. If I can scare up the recording they made for me, I'll post it here too. It's a great campfire or kids song. It's fast and lots of lyric, so you'll have to practice a bit to deliver it.
This version (below) is by the guy that wrote the song - Bill Staines. Bill tells the story behind the song in this clip.
Here's a version by Celtic Thunder. These rowdy boys and girls have a lot of fun into this energetic version.
This is one of those songs people just make their own. Below is a recording that my kids from Tyler Sabbath School sent me so I wouldn't miss them so much after I moved far away - bless 'em! My daughter Meg is on the guitar and leads. It's their own impromptu version. We used to add animal sounds when we sang it for church song service.
I'll have to put it in a video and post to Youtube to put it up here. It'll be a new something I have to learn, but a useful skill.
This song expresses something lodged in my heart and more so as I'm looking toward the end of my life. Friends and family are going to their rest right and left as I get older. Many I look forward to seeing again when Jesus comes. At the same time I worry that the dust and wear and tear of life has left some old wounds in my family that stubbornly refuse to heal. I have a son and brother who have gone on ahead to their rest. Both I'm sure I will see again. Both of them were close and I knew their hearts. We'll all do a little happy dance when we find ourselves together again looking up to see Him coming in the clouds.
Like the song talks about, the difficulties we run into in life can distance us from those we love. With family, you hope these things can "wash out in the water." At the same time you fear that what will wash out is the bond of blood that once held you close together.
Things sadly can happen, hurts deliberate or inadvertent push us apart. We don't talk for years. We stop getting together at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Sometimes that's because of distance. Sometimes it's ruffled feathers or old offenses. It might be politics. It might that someone can't stand your religion.
It's heartbreaking that people who loved each other once can find themselves standing off to avoid stirring up old hurts. Myself, I can't think of anyone I share blood with that I could not throw my arms around and be thrilled to see. I fear that it's not shared. Perhaps I'm such an awful person I can't be forgiven. If so, God forgive me. I've tried to be kind and fair and decent to everyone I come into contact with. I certainly hope that love and forgiveness is "In the Blood".
Someone once said that family is the place you can go for refuge and they can never turn you away. I hope that's true. It's certainly true for Sheila and I. Each day I pray that God leads us all home. I have big plans for family get-togethers in The Earth Made New. I plan to build a schooner and take everybody sailing. Then we'll have a big potluck and a jam session. We'll drag out guitars, banjos, harmonicas, flutes, drums, mandolins and a washtub bass and sing wonderful old songs we remember and new ones we've made up.
Forgive me guys if I've offended. I never meant any harm.
Roger Miller wrote a whole bunch of songs I really enjoy. This quirky songwriter did some really happy stuff including stuff for the soundtrack of Disney's animated "Robin Hood". His hits were a perky lot including, King of the Road, England Swings, Chug-a-Lug, Walkin'' in the Sunshine, Dang Me, Do Whack a Do, and Ooh Da Lally,
Well you get the idea.
Roger's wry take on country music was unique back in the 60s when everybody seemed desperate to take themselves sooooooo seriously.
So, enjoy this gentle, light and funny musical voice singing in the midst of riots, upheavals, assassinations, and pointless wars the ruling power didn't really want to win.
The Blues Brothers came out of Saturday Night Live - a retro blues band featuring Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi. In this sequence from the movie, Jake and Elwood and the boys wind up at a cowboy bar trying to make a few bucks to keep gas in the car by replacing the band that had been originally booked. When the set went south, they switch seemlessly to the first cowboy song they can think of - the theme to the TV show Rawhide. They pull it off too and end the set singing Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man." I love that the stage is screened in with chicken wire and there's a bullwhip hanging on the wall. The owner says they have both kinds of music, country AND western. I love it. Kinda highlights the advantages of a musician being versatile............or any independent entrepreneur for that matter. Give the customer what he wants, that's my motto.
Radio disk jockeys used to love this song. They could put it on and wander off for 15 minutes to get a snack or go to the bathroom and not have to worry so much about the time. The enigmatic Don McLean classic is here done by the awesome acapella group Home Free with Don McLean joining in with lead vocals.
Kick back and enjoy this oldie-goldie blast from the past and see if you remember what all the lyrics were talking about.
Peter Hollens is an independent musician that has been responsible for some really amazing music in the past few years. He makes his money via donations on Patreon, one of the new independent artists who make music, write books and produce films without permission of the traditional gatekeepers like publishers, music companies and film studios. This selection's lyrics were originally written by JRR Tolkien in his book "The Hobbit" and the music has sort of evolved to sound like something dwarvish. over the years
Enjoy the music. I think Tolkien would have liked this version.
The multi-talented Connie Dover sings this beautiful old hymn. I was privileged to hear Connie at the North Texas Irish Festival back in the late 90s and to meet Ms. Dover afterwards. She's quite a talent and used to work summers as a chuckwagon cook on cattle drives for tourists. I can imagine the campfires were lovely things. She has a wonderful repertoire of cowboy songs as well as Scots, Irish and English folk songs and the voice to go with 'em.
Discovered this wonderful version of the first song I ever learned - Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons". You have to picture a 4 year old singing, "Some say a man is made out of mud, but a poor man's made out of muscle and blood. Muscle and blood, skin and bones. A mind that's weak and a back that's strong."
I sang it with gusto. These guys, though, sing it with talent. I AM impressed.
Madison Rising came out with this powerful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner a few years ago. Fans at ball games and track meets go nuts over this version of the anthem. I believe this and others I shall post later should be played loudly over players who kneel to some bogus Marxist narrative that denies the sacrifice made by our great great great grandfathers made to rid our nation of the vile curse of Democrat defended slavery. My own ancestor, my great great great great grandfather Samuel Harris, who marched with Sherman and died in the appalling misery of a Confederate prison camp. The party of Jefferson Davis, George Wallace, LBJ and Robert Byrd have a lot to answer for. When I hear the anthem I get a thrill of pride for all the brave men and women who won freedom for all of us. It took a while, but we've got it done, despite those who would take us back and rebuild all the old animosities and hatreds. Instead we Christians must band together and obey His command, and more so as the day approaches.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
This song find a place deep in my heart that is still grieving and gives me hope. This children's choir is directed by a guy who is a genius at putting together just the right voices and locations and a spare just right use of musical instruments to produce music that makes me all weepy.
In my mind I can imagine angels standing behind these kids smiling as they give us a tiny peek at what Heaven and the New Earth will have for us. I plan to spend a century or so learning to play the cello, violin and improve my other stringed instrument skills, just for those Saturday night jam sessions on the back porch with neighbors.
You'll be seeing more of my new favorite group soon.
Sea Shanties from more than a century and a half ago are making a comeback in this age of obscene lyrics, violent talk, abuse of women, strutting strumpets and preening arrogant males. These people young and old using the best capacity of the Internet - the capacity of this amazing tool for creativity and collaboration.
When the Internet first appeared and people became excited about it, the critics and the pundits loudly proclaimed that it was a great danger for human personal growth. People, they opined, would lose their creativity. They would, we were told, sit down beside the flickering tube and become observers rather than active participants - a nation of couch potatoes. It was a near thing to but it was the Internet that seems to have saved us.
The pundits were wrong. We all went the other way instead of the way we were going when we were passive consumers of material created by a tiny few. All we had back then was 5 radio stations, a couple of newspapers and 3 television networks. Back then we had a limited selection of things to watch or listen to passively. Certainly some stout souls were left to make music, movies, television shows and such, but compared to our rapidly growing population, it was a miniscule few. Enter the Internet and the personal computer. Suddenly a world of information was at everyone's fingertips. If you could read, you could soon find something about how to do virtually anything you wanted to do. I remember visiting a guy who wanted to record his own music. He spent close to $50,000 equipping a studio in his house. With the advent of the Internet and personal computers, a talented musician, a band or an independent would-be movie producer can produce high quality music, music videos, indie movies, podcasts and indie news and commentary for a pittance compared to the old days. Rather than stifling creativity, the new technology spawned a prolific creative burst of creation that you couldn't hope to see all of the stuff out there on virtually any subject. Why cat videos alone would cost you years of Internet viewing to even make a dent in the number of samples of that genre. Independent bands now can not only record their music, produce CDs at their desks, but they can also create a website to advertise their music and sell it online.
Even more amazingly, the Internet has created whole new range of media including personal podcasts, flashmobs, personal news and commentary and, of course, cat videos. Let us hope in their zeal to turn the Internet into Pravda, we don't lose the creative joy that is the free market of the Internet where talent can rise if it's good enough and it's a mind to.
I discovered these amazing children and their incredible voices.yesterday. I've listened to their music all day today and my heart is lifted. This song is about loss, but it is all about hope as well. I wept all the way through it for I have experienced many losses in my life; in our lives for Sheila and I lost a son. We lost her parents and my father and stepfather. My dad and brother died in tragic circumstances. This music makes me sad and joyful all at the same time. And they have many more songs.
This music is like a visit to the New Earth. I imagine us all making music like this throughout eternity. Music should bubble up from the soul and increase our joy. The One Voice Children's Choir does precisely that.
I
think this is my new theme song. "On the Water" by Steve Martin and the
Steep Canyon Rangers. I believe there's a reason that the first
disciples Jesus called were a bunch of sailors. I love bluegrass music.
Every musician gets a turn to shine. It's such an unselfish genre of
music.
Cripple Creek is a lovely little song that's in virtually everyone's banjo repertoire. It's almost a right of passage to do that little slide thing on the third string that Earl does and the rest of us make pathetic attempts to copy.
I love this Billy Conolly version Cripple Creek. It's interesting that in the past few decades we've had some comedians show up as closet banjo players. It's not that banjo players haven't always been odd ducks and would-be humorists, but these three kind of stand out for me. First Billy:
Of course Steve Martin had to have given Cripple Creek a whirl along with 5 others including the great Glen Campbell. .
No list of comedian/banjo players playing Cripple Creek would be complete without the inimitable Stringbean picking up his instrument.
I hope you found this enjoyable. I love banjo players. They're so wonderfully subversive.
