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Music MAD

My musings on music and all that surrounds it. Please feel free to share your best thoughts.

February 2008 - Posts

  • Music is Difficult

    What I mean here is that making music is not something that just happens when you feel like it.  It takes work, it takes time, it takes discipline.  Oh, how I wish I had more time to pour into my music, but life gets in the way.  I have a friend who recently gave up everything in order to pursue music as a full-time career.  It is something that for me, right now, at this moment in my life, simply doesn't make sense.  I can't justify giving up everything in my career to TRY and make music (and have that sustain my basic needs in life as my current career does).  Maybe I don't have the guts, maybe I know my music isn't good enough for that right now.  But at heart, deep down, in the places that no one else sees, I know that song-writing is my truest gift.  I don't have to sit down and wonder about it, I don't have to get out a paper and pencil and eliminate the other options.... I just know.  So what is it that holds me back, that chains me to the 40 hour work week, forcing me to put in my time so I can get a paycheck.  Why not let go?  Why not give all that up and just make music?  Because, if I had more time, the music I make would be better, and if the music I make gets better, then more people will be interested, and if more people are interested, then I will have something to build upon, and if I have something to build upon, maybe, just maybe I could start a career.  I'm not out to be anyone's hero, but I am out to make a difference.

  • Eye of the Hurricane

    This song by David Wilcox just gets me... you know, really gets me.  It's worth it to purchase if you've never heard it... here are the words:

    The tank is full, the switch is on
    The night is warm, the cops are gone
    The rocket-bike is all her own
    It's called a Hurricane

    She told me once it's quite a ride
    It's shaped so there's this place inside
    Where if you're moving, you can hide
    Safe within the rain

    REFRAIN
    She wants to run away
    But there's no where that she can go
    Nowhere the pain won't come again
    But she can hide
    Hide in the pouring rain
    She rides the eye of a Hurricane

    Tell the truth, explain to me
    How you got this need for speed
    She laughed and said
    "It might just be the next best thing to love"

    Hope is gone, and she confessed
    That when you lay your dream to rest
    You can get what's second best
    But it's hard to get enough

    {Refrain}

    We saw her ride, so fast last night
    Racing by in a flash of light

    Riding quick the street was dark
    The shining truck she thought was parked
    It blocked her path, stopped her heart
    But not the Hurricane

    She saw her chance to slip the trap
    There was just the room to pass in back
    But then it moved, closed the gap
    She never felt the pain

    {Refrain}

  • Music is for Worship

    654361_cymbal The Maker has given us many things.  I have said before that music is a gift, and I mean that.  I also believe music is for giving back.  The Bible makes it clear that God owes us nothing, yet He has given so much (see John 3:16).  One of the wonderful gifts of the Maker is certainly the ability to play and sing music in order to give Him praise.  The saints are encouraged to sing and play in one of my favorite Bible passages, Psalm 150:

    1 Praise the LORD.
           Praise God in his sanctuary;
           praise him in his mighty heavens.

    2 Praise him for his acts of power;
           praise him for his surpassing greatness.

    3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
           praise him with the harp and lyre,

    4 praise him with tambourine and dancing,
           praise him with the strings and flute,

    5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
           praise him with resounding cymbals.

    6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
           Praise the LORD.

    Do you ever let it rip with an old instrument sitting around the house?  Have you taken the time to learn to play an instrument and give glory to God?  Do you feel you don't have musical gifts and therefore you do not play, yet you sing out anyway?  Music is to me an amazing way to express our gratitude toward God and to glorify Him for who He is

  • Oldies Making Their Way

    I'm putting up a new set of songs on the downloads page from my days in the duo Blindman's Cane.  Jason Rekker and I formed this acoustic guitar miniband, played concerts, and eventually made a record.  What are kids going to do later in life when someone says, "We made a record?"  Gosh, that's going to be weird. 

    Anyway, check out the "new" set of old tunes on the blindman's cane page.

  • Music is Memory-Making

    What were you listening to during your middle school years?  Can you remember?  I'll be you can.  I'll bet you can remember specific songs that were played during your 7th grade dance.  Mine included "Right Here Waiting For You," yeah, Richard Marx (http://www.google.com/musicl?lid=1ejL1IyKdaC&aid=n7UbHpOUXmB).  Make you laugh?

    Isn't it simply amazing how we all grow up with music and associate periods of our life with certain songs?  Right, and we go through phases, too, where we like one kind of music, and then a few years later we can't believe we used to like "that kind of music."  Did you dance to country in your past?  Did you thrill in your heart when a certain artist came on the radio?  Did you play a particular record into the ground?  Do you remember a song you used to sing ALL the time?  hehe, you can start laughing out loud at your former self at this point during the blog post...

    This post came about while I was listening to The Choir while working late at night.  They took me right back to my early Christian days in Junior High and High School.  They were my favorite band back then and got me out of the mainstream list of artists that everyone else was listening to.  I've learned from listening that it's possible to be an honest artist in this Christian music thing and still produce popular music.  Thanks for the memories Derry!

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