New Kid on the Blog

One of my recently discovered new favourite songs:  Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - You Worry Me

Am going through a rediscovery of various things - including some of the music I haven't listened to for a while, and a reconnection with the heartfelt part of faith.  It's easy to get lost in the practicalities of Church, or the intellectual aspects of talking of faith.  This last year has been a journey into a deeper emotional engagement with my own faith and a desire to share and foster that in the community I am privileged to be leading , St John The Divine, Victoria . Anyway, this song works well as part of a theme. J ars of Clay , Silence.  The video is fan made...

It's been an age since I posted a video.  This is British band Elbow with one of the only songs that makes me feel nostalgic!  Grab chances whilst we can, not a bad message.

I seem to be going through a little excitable flurry of activity with this blog rediscovery business... Anyway via the rather excellent Bored Again Christian podcast website I found little gem of a Derek Webb Video, the visuals may be pretty basic, but the lyric is excellent and it's a pretty cracking song too.... And just to prepare you, sometime soon I will try and Audioboo my Thought for the Week.  Is there no end to today's blogfest????

Phil Ritchie , over at Phil's treehouse , has posted a meme at his blog (at the time of writing this it was on the right hand side of the blog in my links) which caught my imagination!  It's a fifteen song meme, and I will cut and paste his intro here: First fifteen music meme 1) Turn on your MP3 player or music player on your computer. 2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode. 3) Write down the first 15 songs that come up–song title and artist–NO editing/cheating, please. So here's my list (If the Song is highlighted, the link goes to the song on Spotify - though some of these may be linked to my own iTunes library and may come up blank - if so, sorry - , if the album is highlighted you can go and have a look at Amazon.co.uk's listing): It's The Sun – The Polyphonic Spree ( The Beginning Stages Of... .) The Last Time – Talk Talk ( The Collection ) We Declare Your Majesty – Kate Miner/Derri Doughtery ( More...Best Worship Songs Ever ) River of Bass – Underworld...

Having shared my rockier side with you, here's a gorgeous piece of music which I find profoundly moving.

I found a guitar piece I love, from Steve Via, one time Zappa, Dave Lee Roth (ex Van-Halen), Whitesnake and Alcatrazz guitarist - not for those who aren't into guitar stuff with a slightly rockier vibe! I'm going to post it anyway, partly cos I love the name Whispering a prayer

Been a good day today, after a grumpy 24 hours or so i apologised to my wife, who bore the brunt of my lack of sleep a couple of nights before - no big bust up just a general bad temper on my part! Services this morning were rewarding - good turnout for the 8.30am Communion and a good response to the sermon (printed below). 10.30 not such a good turnout, but a relaxed yet fun family Communion service which even the traditionalists seemed to enjoy. This evening's duties shared out as mentioned previously I got to go and play guitar for the evening worship session at which the Curate spoke well, as always. I gave her the subject of 'Jesus and relationships', as we continue our series on the nitty gritty of what Jesus said and did, expecting her to talk about juicy stuff to do with sex and sexuality, and she actually spoke on the whole attitude Jesus had regarding his relationships with others as shown through his parables, teaching and lifestyle. Very well done, but it ha...

Been a few weeks since i mentioned any of the music i really like, so here are a few recommendations from another artist that i admire for his musicality and songwriting skills. Having gone through the heavy guitar rock thing in my youth (actually, that's a bit of a fib, have listened to Steve Vai , Yngwie Malmsteen , King's X and Frank Zappa in the past few days) I really appreciate guitar artistry and tend to veer now in my aged state to acoustic guitar based music. I've already mentioned Martyn Joseph in these pages and Bruce Cockburn , so here is David Wilcox . Another great songwriter, both melodically and lyrically, Wilcox's music is passionate, though mellow, thoughtful and spiritual, though not overtly Christian (if the guy is even a Christian, it's not a qualification someone has to have before i listen, see list above!!!!). I love his often understated, but always perfect, guitar playing and his melodies offer the ear something to chew over whilst th...

One of the reasons i have been so terrible at blogging for this past week or so is because i have been ripping all of my cds onto my PC hard drive for easy access, and it has meant that i have been listening to some of the music i've not heard for a very long time and loving it. It's great to rediscover your roots! I am amazed by some of the stuff i used to listen to constantly, as looking back it all seems a bit naff, but at the same time i still love it! Most of it was heavy rock - whitesnake, van halen, dave lee roth, king's x but some prog rock stood out and has stood the test of time, yes (preferred trevor rabin era, but like most of it) and marillion particularly. In fact in the past few days some of my old marillion stuff has been played again and again, both with fish and steve hogarth in lead vocal position. I loved the poetry of fish's lyrics, and the way he tackled tough subjects with depth and some beautiful words. I also remembered how excited i was w...

I did say i would talk a bit more about music, so here is a bit about Martyn Joseph . I have been following Martyn for a very long time, and love his songwriting and the passion of his convictions, which are many and varied but spring from a deeply Christian faith-filled approach to life. I was there when he moved from being a somewhat bland artist on the Christian mainstream in the UK to an impassioned singer-songwriter who wanted to communicate often uncomfortable truths within and without the church. He has been described as the 'welsh woody guthrie'..and lots more besides, but if you like guitar based, thoughtful music then check out, in no particular order... Check out his website for samples, including bits from his new DVD. This is not a sales pitch (despite the links) but hopefully an opportunity for anyone who wants to to discover some new music.

I thought I'd not mentioned any music for a while, so I will take the opportunity to add a few links from a favourite artist of mine who is a wonderful songwriter and musician and whose music i have enjoyed for the last decade. Pierce Pettis: I am in fact listening to this as i write, a masterful exposition of the singer-songwriter craft. Or if that sounds too pretentious a wonderfully written, well played, well sung album filled with intelligent lyrics and excellent melodies, coupled with Pettis' bittersweet observations of life and musical craftsmanship. Highlighting both his songwriting gifts and guitar skills, as well as a cracking cover of the Mark Heard classic 'tip of my tongue' this is a great album for inspiring smiles and tears. Highlights include 'god believes in you' and a wonderful one for parents 'my little girl' - in fact every song is a highlight Possibly my favourite Pettis album - though it depends on what time of day you ask me! T...

Bruce Cockburn Oooh, new vid from the great BC...

Michael Berk Bells This is my first attempt at adding a YouTube vid to my blog, and what an introduction, I love this track - in case you didn're read the post below, this is Michael Berk who I saw at The Bun Shop on Monday of this week

Had a great evening yesterday celebrating our 13th Anniversary of Marital Bliss.... Found a great venue in Cambridge which we've known of for about 12 years but never been to! It's called the Bun Shop , and is a pub come tapas bar come restaurant etc etc. Also on various Monday Nights it hosts and acoustic night set up by the Acoustic Routes group who meet regularly at a little place called CB2. So, good grub, good company (the lovely Jo) and good music, what a great evening. There were two artists, one was Bernard Hoskin a founder of acoustic routes who has a great voice and plays guitar very nicely indeed as well as being an excellent singer-songwriter and the other was a guitarist who rightly deserves the title 'virtuoso' called Michael Berk - I can't describe his style except to say he was amazing - bits of folk, blues, Jazz, celtic, flamenco all wrapped up with some incredible and firework-filled playing. I've not been so impressed since I saw Steve Vai ...

What a day! Had a less positiv experience today of Royston than mentioned in post previously. Was part of an audience of 30 invited to go and see Show of Hands at a showcase in London. It surprises me that i have not mentioned this group before, an excellent acoustic duo whose music is fantastic comprised of Steve Knightley and Phil Beer , multitalented multi-instrumentalists based in the West Countr (God's own land) . Anyway, accolades aside, i thought a leisurely train journey down to London, would be in order followed by a trip up to Stanmore to visit a young boy in the National Orthopaedic Hospital who had recently had a spine straightening operation. This was the plan. i arrived in Royston (op. cit) to find not a single parking space, and tried the roads near the station to no avail. So I belted (at a speed unusual for my volvo, but not illegal) to Stevenage, where all six of the very large car parks were full. These endeavours to find a parking space and make use of our pu...