Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Jars of Clay Contiues to Create

When you join a band at 20 years old, you don't think much about what it might mean to still remain together almost 20 years later. To be true, it's nearly impossible to imagine much after your 21st birthday. At the close of 2011, Jars of Clay celebrated its 17th year of creating together. Over 100 songs written, 10 studio records, international touring, and the genesis of a sustained work benefiting our neighbors in Africa, Blood: Water Mission. Is there still soil to turn in this plot of land? I there something urgent, timely, even startling, left yet to create? In early 2012, we turned our chairs towards one another once again, and agreed that whatever grace of time we still had before us, we would spend finding this out. And so we headed Inland. The journey began like many before it. We wrote songs, and more songs, and when we typically would've stopped we kept writing. We wrote close to 50 songs. We had little concern for what we were looking for. We simply showed up and wrote the song that the day required. We believed that along with us, there were others, faithfully showing up and doing the work of preparing for the opportunity to build something truly great. There are the songs for ordinary days - when life is weighty and uncertain, doubt is the necessary partner of faith; where we see mostly through a glass darkly. It is this middle space that we have inhabited over the years. It's where you and I do the gritty work of actually living. The space in between the way the world is, and even underneath the most cynical exteriors - the way we know the world ought to be. - Jars of Clay

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The Digital Age Leads Worship

Often, endings are just new beginnings in disguise. As 2012 saw the curtain close on a decade of the David Crowder* Band, long-time band members Mike Dodson (Mike D), Mark Waldrop, Jack Parker and Jeremy Bush (Bwak) sought to write a new chapter in the story by continuing to create, perform and produce music together for the Church. It was out of that desire to keep serving the faithful that The Digital Age was born.

     In this high tech age, they remain grounded by the roots they planted long age at University Baptist Church in the small college town of Waco, Texas near Baylor University campus. The members of the band have been leading worship there in some form since its inception in 1995. It's from there that they are sent out to Church at large, a body they believe is beautiful, diverse and alive - qualities they strive to reflect in the music they create.
     The tracks for Evening:Morning were written in a quasi-conceptual, temporal fashion, moving through the night to the morning. The album is characterized by a sound that is both unique and familiar at the same time. They call it alternative Church music, and they blend modern melodic soundscapes and interesting electronic sounds with reverent and personal lyrics. (description provided by Fair Trade label)
     If you were a fan of what made David Crowder* Band music unique, you will also enjoy the music that The Digital Age creates.

New Release

Today's new release is from Jeremy Camp. His new cd "The Story's Not Over" is now in store. Stop on by and grab a copy. 😊...