Friday Night Lights!

Tonight I get to watch one of my favorite television shows.  Friday Night Lights is probably the best TV show you are probably not currently watching.  If you haven't watched it...put the past seasons in your Netflix queue! Now!

I was initially attracted to the show by the music throughout, much of which is composed by a band out of Texas- Explosions in the Sky.  I liked the music so much I went out and bought me some tickets to see them in concert. 

The excellent music in Friday Night Lights begins with the opening credits.  The theme song is written by a Snuffy Walden, long time television composer, with numerous compilations put out by Windham Hill. In this short piece, Mr. Snuffy, seems to be able to illicit emotions ranging from melancholy to thoughtfulness to joy...in 45 seconds!  Oh to be able to write like that!




Just like many other current shows, Friday Night Lights also employs the use of  a variety of other music to create the soundtracks on a week to week basis.  A couple weeks ago I was surprised to hear another favorite artist of mine Sufjan Stevens used in the closing scenes.  Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing-
I love this very raw, live version of it, listen to the crowd singing along!



Check out Friday Night Lights tonight!

New music Thursday

Hammock- Instrumental- sound track for our lives- post rock- love!

Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson make up this duo.  I do believe Marc Byrd wrote the well know contemporay worship song "God of Wonders".   It appears they have a new record coming out on May 18, along with a book of photos.  Check them out!   http://www.hammockmusic.com/

Hammock - Breathturn from David Altobelli on Vimeo.

Listen...Hear... "new" Music Wednesday

Thought I'd try something new, and attempt a weekly post of new music I find, and like, that you might like, so take a listen to Josh Garrels


"The Children's Song" - Josh Garrels from Josh Garrels on Vimeo.

Music for Sunday October 11th

A little recap of the music from Sanctuary1010 this morning.

We are in our 4th week of an 11 week series of Psalm 23. This week: He Restores my Soul

Music choices:

What Wondrous Love is This- (we did this hymn in Dm and added an extended 'worship jam' at the end)

Desert Song- ( we started this song with a drum beat that came out of the previous song- very nice! this is one of those songs that you hear once, and you end up singing the rest of the day! "I will sing praise, I will sing praise, no weapons formed against me shall remain!")

How He Loves (we do more of the David Crowder version of this one, and we do it in C. I really like the version by Kim Walker of Jesus Culture, but sing-ability wise, she goes way to low on the verse for anyone with a normal range to sing along. But her voice can certainly handle it with a cool sound at that. She starts low, so she can 'belt' out the chorus an octave higher, the energy that effect creates is amazing- check out the Jesus Culture arrangement here)

Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone- (I, alto at best, did this one in D, and it works well for me, hope it worked for the congregation! :) )

Additional Worship Notes- We started the service with a meditative feel, rather than our typical greeting each other/announcement/welcome. I enjoyed the peacefulness of it, and the chance to take time to prayerfully enter the time of worship. Pastor asked me to look for some instrumental music. I did some searches for "christian instrumental" post rock, ambient. I didn't come up with anything really. How would one know if instrumental music was Christian or not anyway. (answer- you wouldn't) Either way, the search was fun, and I came across a couple bands that I had not heard of before, and would like to look into more- Foxhole, Mogwai. But low and behold, I actually came across the closest thing to the christian instrumental post-rock sound I was looking for in a band called Hammock. One of the members is familiar name from the Christian Worship scene- Marc Byrd (God of Wonders) Check out Hammock, with lots of full length samples of their music here Enjoy!

And... I had so much fun playing with our newer drummer Chris and new guitar player Bailey. Excellent musicians. Great time! Thanks guys!

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This post is part of an interesting 'blog carnival' where you can read about other worship/music sets from all around the world. Check it out right here

Such Talent!

Check out this video of a talented group of young singers from Texas! Wow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKCVS57j284

Inspiration

I love the videos from the grade school choir at PS 22 in New York City. These kids are an inspiration. As you can see they sing from their hearts, authentically, unashamedly, passionately. Kudos to the director of this group as well, who gives the kids the freedom and direction to learn how to sing like this!


Click here to check out the video

New Music for you

I like collecting and listening to hymn compilation projects, from Johnny Cash to Jars of Clay, I love new arrangements of old hymns! A dream of mine is to create a recording of hymns of my own...

Jadon Lavik's Roots Run Deep is a collection of hymns, just the way I like them. Simple instrumentation, not over-produced, easy to listen to and sing along with. If you have listened to Fernando Ortega's hymn arrangements you will recognize some similarities in the simple style, and you'll even hear Fernando singing on one of the tracks

Check it out!

Enjoy!

PS anyone want to do a hymn project with me?

Peter Mayer at Sanctuary

What a great Sunday we had last week at Sanctuary... Peter Mayer, an excellent singer-songwriter and professional guitar player joined us in leading the music. Sanctuary worship leader Nathan Fisher played along side him and it was great! Peter's music and humbleness fit so well in the service, and made for a worshipful morning. I especially enjoyed the acoustic sound and the amazing warm tone of his voice. Such a gift! Thank you Peter! Come back soon!

Most of the songs Peter shared you can find on his website right here

I really enjoyed:

Still in one piece
Pass it On (an original by Peter, not "...it only takes a spark!")
Mighty this Love

One of the songs he did was, I believe, a new one that he wrote for the National Lutheran Youth Gathering (ELCA) in New Orleans this summer, it was called Changed by Love- great tune! I couldn't find it on his website though...hopefully soon!

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Additional stuff about Sunday

This morning we also showed a great video called Free Hugs, if you haven't seen it, check it out here
Our talented video technician Niki then took still images of the Free Hugs video and had them as backgrounds for the songs later. Nice!

Because we knew it was going to be a full crowd, we moved a station to down in the pit area of the worship space... with lamps, rugs, a prayer journal etc, it ended up being a very nice, peaceful space for prayer for anyone during the worship time. way to go art team!!

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this post is part of a blog carnival where set lists from worship services all around the world are shared. check it out

New Music for you

Great new worship song I just heard. There's so much worship music out there, it's sometimes hard to sift through them to find songs that allow you to hear the message through the trite lyrics or the over processed sound. This one does it with a simple melody, simple accompaniment and heartfelt lyrics. Check out the song at the bands website, on their media player!

I'd Need a Savior- by Among the Thirsty

How many names can I use to explain the love of my Jesus,
the life that he gave and so many times will I praise you today.
I lift up my life cause you are always the same
and my offering to you I bring

Your name is Jesus, Your name is Jesus
You're the wonderful, Counselor, my Friend.
You're what I hold on to; I know that you brought me through
All the days of loss, to the cross you knew
I'd need a Savior.
I need You Savior.

How many songs can I sing to proclaim your wondrous love an beauty so great?
What would I say if you brought down the rain and everyday
I walk through the pain my heart would still say

Love

I love this video of a couple, married 62 years! Playin music...

Check it out here

Greater things are still to be done

So, this years American Idol finale didn't have the finalists singing "Shout to the Lord" or any other of the current top ccli songs, but the winner, Kris Allen, most recently used his musical skill as worship leader at New Life Church in Conway Arkansas, a mega church in the suburbs of Little Rock. This church even has a link, on its website to some kind of voting party held for Kris on finale night, sponsored by someone giving out prizes including HD Tvs, to those who stayed and voted for Kris. Wow, sounds like a good deal!

I hope Kris does well in the music industry, he seems like "the guy next door", which is probably part of the reason he won the whole thing, people were able to connect to him, and relate to him in some way. He is in good company with many other American Idols and finalists, coming from Christian music backgrounds:

Just a few examples:

Chris Daughtry was in a Christian band called Absent Element
Mandisa ('member her?) has recorded 2 gospel albums
Chris Sligh was a worship leader and now has done very well recording and writing music in the Christian music industry
Jordin Sparks was a member of her church's worship team
and here's one I was surprised at- Phil Stacey was a music minister in the US Navy.

Take a look at this video of Kris Allen singing "God of this City" originally sung/written by Blue Tree, a band out of Ireland, and then covered by Chris Tomlin. I've really liked this song, and love the fact that THE American Idol is singing it!

Singing from the heart

Have you heard of Charice Pempengco, 17 years old, raised by a single mom in the Philippines, never had a voice lesson, vocal prodigy, sang on the Oprah show yesterday, and actually 2 other times before that? Feel what you want about Oprah, or the lyrics to the song, "Note to God" by Diane Warren, but this girl can sing, and not only sing, sing with passion. You can hear it in her voice, and see it in her eyes where tears threatened to pour out at any minute during her performance.

Part of me thinks she was probably a bit caught up in the moment, the swell of the music as the choir joined in with the full orchestra backing, the audience, and Oprah Winfrey herself, standing to their feet, tears falling, hands raising... I know I was, but either way, this girl can sing, sing with passion.

Check the YouTube video of the performance out here

(oops, sorry, it looks like the video was taken down for violating Harpo copyrights... too bad!)

That's what I'm talking about!

Recently I watched a documentary on HBO that really inspired me- "The Leopards Take Manhattan" is a 35 minute movie following a real life "music man" Diane Downs and her percussion group, made up of 45 students, ages 7-12 called the Louisville Leopards Percussionists.

Diane teaches the group, most of whom don't have any musical experience, how to play awesome jazz pieces.. completely by ear! The results- Amazing!

The coolest part of her teaching method? Once she teaches a part to a few students, she then asks them to go teach it to someone who doesn't know it yet, and so on, and so on. The kids take ownership in the success of the group, and in teaching and caring for each other. hmm

The most touching part of the movie? Seeing the look on the kids faces when they are invited to play for a special concert in New York city... pure joy!

When I think about being a missional musician, or trying to lead a missional music ministry, music opportunities like the one Diane is bringing to these kids, is something I might imagine.

Check this movie out if you can, its playing on HBO Family the 1st week of May. If you don't happen to have that obscure channel, check out these links:

The movie trailer: here

full length videos: here

The hills are alive

Last Saturday evening I settled down for The Sound of Music... 4 hours long with commercials, on ABC Family channel. From the very first note Maria sings on the top of the hill, the nostalgia kicks in. I know the majority of this musical by heart, and I do not consider myself a repeat movie watcher. In fact, I never quite understand the idea of watching movies over and over again, when you could be watching a new one you haven't seen. But after watching it Saturday night, believe it or not, I looked for it again on TV Sunday night, in its traditional spot, Easter Sunday, but it seemingly was replaced with Charlton Heston's Ten Commandments (which I have never seen, and didn't end up watching, it's no Sound of Music after all!).
Watching The Sound of Music, and singing along with the songs, is a complete joy to me. I'm pretty sure its the familiarity of the thing, kind of like comfort food, in a way. I get the same effect watching The Andy Williams Christmas Special, which my mom picked up from pledging to a PBS fund drive. Thank you mom! I have been listening to Andy Williams sing "Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas" since I was a little girl, sitting with my ear up to the speaker singing along to the record. Just imagine the DVD... Andy Williams and brothers performing my favorite Christmas tunes, on The Andy William's show, with terribly fake sets and backdrops, and saccharine sweetness, and The Osmand brothers, and again, for me, nostalgia, joy, comfort!

What is your comfort TV show/movie/song/record?

PS Anyone know where I can find a "sing-along" Sound of Music?