I and Love and It: The Avetts new album drops

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Jason
The Avett Brothers "I and Love and You"

I know I promised a series of posts about my favorite U2 songs this week, and I plan on returning to that series tomorrow. But I couldn’t let today pass without mentioning the major label debut of my current favorite band, The Avett Brothers. For a couple of years now, I’ve been hyping the bluegrass-tinged rock and soaring harmonies of this North Carolina indie trio. Their latest full-length release, Emotionalism, with its raw energy and electric vibe, has become one of my favorite albums ever. Their live show last September in Nashville was probably the best concert I’ve been to, which is no small thing. Needless to say, I’ve been looking forward to this new album for quite some time.

Teaming up with uber-producer Rick Rubin, the Avetts have crafted a sound quite unlike any of their previous recordings. The major components are still intact (banjo, guitar, bass, kick drum); its the tone that’s different. Rubin seems to have ever-so-slightly sanded off some of the rough edges that have characterized the Avetts earlier work (like “Denouncing November Blues”, for instance). The album also is a little more ballad-heavy than most of their previous LPs. As a result, there’s no track that’s as immediately arresting as “Go To Sleep” or “Paranoia in B Major”, two of the notable tracks from Emotionalism. I’m sure some hardcore fans will bemoan the more polished sound found on I and Love and You. But I think this album can also be understood as the next step in an organic maturation process. Any band worth their guitar picks and hair gel adapts and grows into their sound as time passes (see The Beatles, U2, The Stones, Radiohead, to name a few). Just because the banjo-rock has been dialed back a notch doesn’t mean this isn’t a really good record.

The standout song is the title track, a piano drenched ballad about wanderlust and love lost. Written while the band was on the road (after a performance in Brooklyn, New York, a place that seemed as far away from home as any place the band had ever performed), the song laments “three words that became hard to say: I and Love and You.” With its tightly wound harmonies and old timey Western-piano plink, “Laundry Room” is another great track. “And It Spread” and the acoustic “Ten Thousand Words” are probably the best of the rest; a few tracks, notably “Kick Drum Heart”, seem out of place. “Kick Drum” just seems a bit too upbeat for this more contemplative, mature set. And even though I wish there was at least one rabid banjo-fest rocker in this set, this is still a really solid album nonetheless. This probably isn’t a five star album, but its a great addition to the Avett canon. I and Love and It.

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Breadspread

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Jason

I think its funny that Abby Kate calls her bedspread a “breadspread”. I thought “breadspread” was peanut butter.

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Hey Cutie!

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Jason

Spoken by Joshua to his twin sister tonight as he walked past her on his way to his bedroom.

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U2: Breathe

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Jason

Next week, I’ll get to cross something off the ol’ bucket list: seeing U2 in concert.

In college, I really fell in love with U2’s music. Of course, The Joshua Tree was already a classic by then and I instantly fell in love with the spiritual yearning and searching the album expresses. I’ve been wanting to see them live ever since and next week, when the 360 Tour stops in Atlanta, I’ll be there.

Leading up to the big night, I’ll be doing a series of posts about some of my favorite U2 songs and the reasons they resonate so strongly with me. I’m beginning this series with my favorite song from No Line on the Horizon, “Breathe”.

16th of June, nine 0 five, door bell rings
Man at the door says if I want to stay alive a bit longer
There’s a few things I need you to know. Three

Coming from a long line of travelling sales people on my mother’s side
I wasn’t gonna buy just anyone’s cockatoo
So why would I invite a complete stranger into my home
Would you?

These days are better than that
These days are better than that

Every day I die again, and again I’m reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street
With arms out
Got a love you can’t defeat
Neither down or out
There’s nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now

16th of June, Chinese stocks are going up
And I’m coming down with some new Asian virus
Ju Ju man, Ju Ju man
Doc says you’re fine, or dying
Please
Nine 0 nine, St John Divine, on the line, my pulse is fine
But I’m running down the road like loose electricity
While the band in my head plays a striptease

The roar that lies on the other side of silence
The forest fire that is fear so deny it

Walk out into the street
Sing your heart out
The people we meet
Will not be drowned out
There’s nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now
Yeah, yeah

We are people borne of sound
The songs are in our eyes
Gonna wear them like a crown

Walk out, into the sunburst street
Sing your heart out, sing my heart out
I’ve found grace inside a sound
I found grace, it’s all that I found
And I can breathe
Breathe now

I simply love everything about this song. Musically, it’s incredible. I’ve loved watching The Edge play this one in their live televised performances (Letterman, SNL, etc.). But what I love most is the lyrical content. This is a song about fearmongering and the courage it takes to rise up against the fear that runs so prevalent in our society these days. Its a song about refusing to buy what they sell on talk radio and the cable news networks every day. Its about finding all that you need in the siren song of grace amid fears of terrorism and swine flu and universal health care and end times apocalyptic literature and….I could go on and on. Ultimately, in these uncertain times, Bono affirms “I found grace, it’s all that I found.”

In a year when my theme word, my root concept has been hope, there’s not been a refrain that’s filled my ears more often than this one. I love the wistful, hopeful line: “These days are better than that.” There’s not a song released this year that has resonated more with me than “Breathe”. I can’t wait to experience it live next weekend.

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Set My Rhythm

Posted on September 26, 2009 by Jason

A couple of months ago, God brought someone very special into my life. Out of respect for her privacy, I’ll just call her “Miss Kay”. Miss Kay is a sweet Christian lady who because of health issues is unable to be a part of her church community in the ways she would like. Specifically, she’s unable to get out and be a part of her church’s times of worship and fellowship. Since she’s at home most Sundays, she watches our church’s televised devotional program. She’s seen me on there several times when I’m filling in for our Senior Minister. A few months back, Miss Kay wrote me a sweet email to let me know how much the program meant to her. Over the past several months, we’ve become cyber pen pals. This summer, Miss Kay found me on Facebook and that’s helped us stay in contact even more frequently.

Miss Kay’s husband was a minister for many years and Kay’s role in the churches he served was prominent. He passed away a few years ago and most of their children live out of town, even out of state. She’s shared with me how difficult it’s been for her to feel sort of forgotten by her church family. Since she’s unable to get out very much, she feels like she doesn’t have much to offer, nothing of spiritual value to share with others. This, in my opinion, is a complete travesty. In the short time I’ve known her, Miss Kay has been a constant source of encouragement to me. I’ve started sharing our weekly church bulletin and prayer list with her and she’s been faithful to send out cards and notes to every single person on our church’s prayer list. What’s more, she’s been faithful to PRAY for each one of these individuals. I asked her this spring to pray for each of my children. Every time we correspond, she tells me she’s been praying for them. By name. Daily. It bothers me that Satan would convince this sweet saint that she has nothing to offer in service to the Kingdom. I’m willing to bet she spends more of her day in prayer than I do.

Last month, Miss Kay shared a poem with me, a poem she had written that has become her prayer lately. I find this to be a beautiful confession of the lordship of Jesus. My favorite line is “Let the pulsating meter of True love Be the pace at which I march.” I wanted to share it with you today so you could be blessed by it, too.

Set my Rhythm, LORD

Set my rhythm, Lord of Life.

Let Thy muted snares direct

My steps.

Open my ears and tune

My heart

To listen to the cadence.

Let the pulsating meter of

True love

Be the pace at which I march.

JESUS,

Thou “Different Drummer”,

May each heartbeat

Echo that measured music

Given just for ME.

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John Locke Rap

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Jason

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a huge LOST fan. As in, I go through serious LOST withdrawal from May to January each year. As we approach the premiere date of the final season of television’s best program, I’ll be blogging some more about the greatness of LOST.

But this, my friends, is awesome. Enjoy.

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God On A Mission

Posted on September 23, 2009 by Jason

From a recent Missional Journal article, “Everything Changes”, written by David Dunbar:

“What is crucial here is that mission is not first and foremost a job description for the church, but a reference to what God is up to in the world – God is on a mission!”

All too often we view “mission” (or “evangelism” or whatever term you like) as just one more church program, like ministry to children or benevolence or (my personal favorite) puppet ministry. But to treat mission as one more thing that the church “does” misses the mark. I’ve argued recently that mission isn’t just something we do; rather, it’s who we are. But I think this statement also falls short. More accurately, we could say that mission is who God is; the mission of the church is simply the overflowing activity of a missionary God at work in the world.

In The Mission of God, Christopher J.H. Wright contends for a missional hermeneutic, that in order for our interpretation of Scripture to be complete, we must recognize the overarching missiological tenor of the biblical narrative. God’s mission is to reclaim the world for himself (2 Corinthians 5) and the church is God’s reconciliatory agent to that end. But make no mistake: the mission is God’s. This takes the missional emphasis off of me and my ability and how comfortable I am at knocking on doors or leading personal Bible studies or my particular skill set…and returns the emphasis where it belongs: on God.

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On Ministry: The Word

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Jason

Today our ministers and elders had our annual retreat, a time of prayer and sharing and vision casting. It was a great time for us to just be together and pray about what we hope God will do in our church in the coming year.

As a part of our time together, I led a session where we asked each other the question: Why do you love ministry? I wanted everyone to think about their passions in ministry. I asked, “If you had to identify, in one word, what fuels your fire in ministry, what would your word be?”

It was a great little exercise for our group: with 30 elders & ministers, it took an hour and a half for everyone to share. But I can’t think of a better use of our time. I’ve served alongside some of these men for nearly 8 years and I heard things today that I never knew about them.

For me, a lot of words came to mind. There were the fairly obvious ones: Love. Grace. Relationships. But those were all taken quickly. But when my turn came, I knew there was really only one place for me to go. My word was “The Word” or simply “Word”. Here’s what I meant by that:

  1. The written Word. Over the past 5 years or so, my appreciation for scripture has grown exponentially. This is probably the greatest contribution graduate school has made to my faith. I can’t get enough of the Word. It means more to me than ever before. I’ll have more to say about that in later posts.
  2. The spoken Word. Obviously, this is where preaching comes in. I see preaching as proclamation of the written Word. Again, I’ll have much more to say about this as we move forward here. But I love the way Isaiah imagined this: For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. — Isaiah 55. I love ministry because it is participation in the work of God, accomplishing that which he has purposed.
  3. The Living Word. At the end of the day, ministry has to be Christ-focused, else it ceases to be ministry. In ministry, as in all things, we look to Christ as our example. I love ministry because its what Jesus was about. The written Word sustained Christ in his ministry (Luke 4:1-13); he came to proclaim the word that God’s Kingdom reign was breaking into the present (Luke 4:43). But the Gospel of John speaks of Christ in a new way, as God’s Word living and dwelling (literally “tabernacling”) among us. This is critical for ministry; without Christ-presence, we’re merely active. True ministry finds its source in the life of Christ.

As I said, I’ll have more to share about ministry in some future posts. But tonight, worn out from a day with my brothers and sisters, I’m quietly giving thanks for the life of service and ministry He has called me to and for the incredible ministers I work with on a daily basis.

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New Beginning

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Jason

I’ve been going through something of a blogging identity crisis lately. A few months back, I officially shut down the public blogspot site I had been maintaining for the past 4+ years. I attempted to maintain a private blog (basically just a private version of the blog I’d had for years), but that didn’t take. I even started another blog that was more niche-focused, but I’ve lost my passion for it after only a few months.

So why do I think this little foray will be any better? I really don’t. But I know I miss blogging. I miss writing. I miss the discipline of writing regularly. I don’t think I’m particularly great at it, but it’s cathartic. Also, I miss the community. And I’m at a point in my life where I realize more than ever how much I need community, even if it’s the virtual community of the blogsphere. So I’m back in the saddle. Or back on the wagon. Or off the wagon. Or whatever the appropriate metaphor is.

What will you find here?A random smattering of topics that vie for my passion and attention: family, faith, music, television, and lots of baseball; more specifically, St. Louis Cardinals baseball. If that doesn’t sound like your cup o’ tea, that’s fine. But these things make up the fabric of my life and this is my outlet to think out loud.

So, to friends both old and new, I’m looking forward to the journey. Here’s to a new beginning.

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I Live and Breathe God

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Jason

Psalm 34:1-8 (The Message)
1 I bless God every chance I get; my lungs expand with his praise.

2 I live and breathe God;
if things aren’t going well, hear this and be happy:

3 Join me in spreading the news;
together let’s get the word out.

4 God met me more than halfway,
he freed me from my anxious fears.

5 Look at him; give him your warmest smile.
Never hide your feelings from him.

6 When I was desperate, I called out,
and God got me out of a tight spot.

7 God‘s angel sets up a circle
of protection around us while we pray.

8 Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—
how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him.

What David is saying here is that God longs to be as close to me as the very breath that I breathe. He longs to be as near as the taste in my mouth or that which I see right before me. As Peterson translates it here, “I Live and Breathe God.”

Lord, may my life be saturated with God-presence.

I want to live and breathe God.

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