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My music playlist is full of awesome this morning. (Thanks as usual to Geof for the playlist algorithms.) Here’s the proof:

1. “Just As I Am” - Andrew Peterson, from Love and Thunder
2. “Saturday Sun” - Nick Drake, from Five Leaves left
3. “Winter Winds” - Mumford and Sons, from Sign No More
4. “Springtime Indiana” - Sandra McCracken, from Gypsy Flat Road
5. “Walkin’ Home” - Billy Crockett, from In These Days
6. “Nobody’s Fool” - Avril Lavigne, from Let Go
7. “Four Horses” - Andrew Osenga, from Letters to the Editor, Vol. 2
8. “Heaven Can Wait” - Charlotte Gainsbourg, from IRM
9. “Sad” - Eisley, from The Valley
10. “Please Be My Strength” - Gungor, from Beautiful Things
11. “Furr” - Blitzen Trapper, from Furr
12. “Blue Bayou” - Norah Jones and M. Ward, from …Featuring
13. “Alien Conspiracy, Or, The Cheese Song” - Andrew Peterson, from Appendix A

Within the next 15 upcoming, I’ve got Simon & Garfunkel, Derek Webb, Fleet Foxes, Leigh Nash, Ryan Adams, Coldplay, Adele, and Harry Connick. So good.

This seems to be the story of my music-listening life: catching up with albums years after they are released, and only eventually having them resonate with me . Sure, there are a few records that have immediately grabbed me and then stayed at the top of my favorites list for years. But often it takes time for the music or the particular sound to grow on me. For instance:

Coldplay

My brother Ryan was first trying to get me to listen to Coldplay’s A Rush Of Blood to the Head within the first year after it was released. He’s always been the Brit Rock guy, after all, and I’ve been the slow-to-adopt older brother. I remember giving it a first listen and thinking that I wasn’t fond of it at all. A couple of years later, though, they started to make sense. And without diving into the argument of whether Coldplay’s older stuff is better or the newer stuff is better, let me just sum up their popularity in my household now by saying that whenever Laura requests a song while we’re driving, it’s “Shiver” (from Parachutes), but that if Addie requests a song, it’s “Strawberry Swing” (from Viva la Vida). I guess we’ve covered the full spectrum.

Radiohead

I never did get Radiohead. I remember downloading In Rainbows when the band first offered it for free, listening to it once, and not getting it at all. Then one day a couple of years ago I turned it back on, and BAM!, it made sense. Now I’ve gone back and gained appreciation for Kid A, The Bends, and OK Computer, too. (I’m working on Hail to the Thief… maybe someday I’ll figure it out.)

Jazz

Sure, that’s a big topic. Didn’t listen to a lot of jazz growing up, but in high school somebody gave me a copy of Harry Connick Jr.’s When Harry Met Sally soundtrack. (That was one of those albums that immediately grabbed me and never let go.) So sure, I liked Harry’s big band. But more modern jazz still left me cold. Then one day I picked up Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. (Come to think of it, I think Ryan pointed me to that one, too.) Classic jazz album. Had me hooked.

Then one day somebody mentioned that if I liked Harry Connick, I might like Thelonious Monk. I’d never heard any Monk before, but listening to some album previews… the guy was amazing! And yeah, it was obvious that Harry had picked up some things from him. And Monk led to Coltrane. Coltrane led to Charlie Parker. I think I’ve sort of hit my limit with Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come. I sort of get it, but it doesn’t grab me or leave me wanting more. Maybe someday it’ll click, too, and I’ll move on to the more modern jazz.

Let us now return to where we started this post:

Stravinsky

I vaguely remember trying to listen to Stravinsky back 10 years ago, and thinking that his stuff was a cacophonous mess. Didn’t get it at all. But for some reason I picked up a CD at the library last week of Stravinsky symphonies, and, lo and behold, it’s brilliant! I think it took me progressing through Philip Glass and Steve Reich and Sufjan Stevens’ The BQE to get me ready for it.

Have you had a similar experience with a band or type of music?

As lives the flower within the seed, As in the cone the tree, So, praise the God of truth and grace, His Spirit dwelleth in me.

Christ liveth in me, Christ liveth in me, Oh! what a salvation this, That Christ liveth in me.

-- Christ Liveth in Me, Daniel Webster Whittle, 1891

I’d never heard this hymn before this weekend, but it’s a good one. Such a beautiful picture of what God does in the life of a believer.

I could tell you exactly the point I was going to choke up even the day before. I had been hanging out at worship team practice, saw that this song was on the roster for Sunday, and knew that when we hit the middle of the second verse I was going to have tears on my face and a lump in my throat. Here are the words:

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes We’ll live to know You here on the earth

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?
-- “You Never Let Go”, by Matt Redman

Now, when we do that song and I’m playing keys in the worship band, I can hold it together. But when I’m in the congregation, and I see the faces of my brothers and sisters singing and playing, and know the stories behind those faces, I just about can’t take it. There’s the woman who’s wrestled with difficult family issues for her whole life and who is just finding freedom. There’s the man who is dealing with layoffs at work. There’s the woman who has chosen to stay married to a man who will be in prison for the next decade. There’s the guy who’s dealing with children with substance abuse issues. When we sing with hope about the “end of these troubles”, these people know something about troubles. And yet they sing with a hope and joy that is unquenchable. That’s not natural. That comes from God.

As soon as I get past that, the pre-chorus comes and smacks me in the face - precisely because I am so often a fearful man. And I’m not even sure that I’m so afraid of “evil” - probably because I don’t encounter it so much. But too often I have either this unnecessary fear of other people, of what they will think and whether or not I’ll look stupid in front of them. And too often I have fears about the future, about my family and providing for them, fears that display my need to trust more fully in God and to turn my worries and fears over to Him. So when I sing the words “If my God is with me, whom then shall I fear?”, the Holy Spirit is preaching right into my heart in the way I need it most.

Jared Wilson had a tweet months ago that stuck with me - wish I could find it to link to it directly, but I’ll have to paraphrase. He asked: Why are we so afraid? Jesus is comfortable and confident walking on the streets of the town, because He’s the king. As representatives of the king, we should walk with that same confidence. Dear God, let it be so.

I’m sure I got tagged on this meme somewhere along the way, and then my buddy Dan did it last week, so I figured it’d be an interesting exploration into my music library. 15 records that were influential in my listening history. More or less in chronological order as to when I found them.

1. Harry Connick, Jr , When Harry Met Sally (soundtrack)

This was my introduction to big band. At the time I was a teenager who loved playing the piano, and here was a twenty-something artist who was ripping up the jazz piano and putting together some awesome big band arrangements. I fell in love with it, and I can sing all of the arrangements to this day.

2. Rich Mullins, A Liturgy, A Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band

I had been a Rich Mullins fan before this record came out, but this is a classic, a nearly perfect record from beginning to end. Rich taught me that Christian music doesn’t have to be low-quality, uninspired drivel, and my piano-playing style has been more influenced by his than by anyone else.

3. Jennifer Knapp, Kansas

Jen continued the “Christian music doesn’t have to suck” campaign with her signature record. This one pushed me to pick up a guitar and sing. I’ll never forget the morning that three of us from my worship team in college did “Martyrs & Thieves” as a special… it was perfect.

4. USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir, Rachmaninoff: Vespers

I remember first hearing bits of Vespers on NPR as a pre-teen. As I recall, the program was comparing two recordings of this a capella choral work, one by the Robert Shaw Chorale and one by a Russian choir. The Robert Shaw group was technically perfect, but the Russian choir was so much more alive. When I finally bought a recording, I made sure to get a Russian choir. I own three recordings of Vespers, but this one is the best of the three.

5. Sergei Rachmaninoff, The Ampico Piano Recordings

I first heard this in high school, and I was amazed both from the technical and musical perspectives. Rachmaninoff himself made these piano roll-type recordings back in the 1920’s. Then in 1990 some engineers resurrected the rolls and the piano mechanism and made a modern recording on a good piano. The result is a clean, crisp recording of a master playing his own works. The highlight for me is the final track: Rachmaninoff’s own arrangement of Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesfreud.

6. Caedmon’s Call, Long Line of Leavers

My brother Ryan had been into Caedmon’s for a long time but they never made sense to me. Then I popped this CD in at a Christian bookstore and was hooked within the first 10 seconds. Yeah, it’s those horns on the first track that all true Caedmon’s fans hate with a passion. But I loved them. From there on out I filled out my Caedmon’s catalog. More significantly, I joined an online community of Caedmon’s fans, which has over the past 6 years joined me up with some people who have become dear friends.

7. Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head

Ryan tried again with this one. It took a couple of years before it finally made sense, but once it clicked, it was amazing. I’m not sure I’d count it as my favorite Coldplay record, and not sure that it contains my favorite Coldplay song, but it’s a classic from beginning to end, and was my first Coldplay record.

8. Andrew Osenga, The Morning

I found Andy’s stuff after he joined up with Caedmon’s. When he recorded The Morning I found a record with which I resonated in a way I never had before. Here was the heart of a man my own age, wrestling with the same life situations I was, pouring his heart out in a way I never could. Also: fantastic production, and a great concept from beginning to end.

9. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

I’d been into big band since high school, but had never made the progression further on into jazz until I found this record at the library. From the opening of “So What” I was hooked. Bebop is pretty much my sweet spot for jazz. Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane… they are where it’s at.

10. Jamie Cullum, twentysomething

Along with the jazz kick, here is a young guy who could rip up the jazz piano, swing over to piano-based pop for a song or two, and then come back to the jazz trio without missing a beat. And he does a jazz cover of Radiohead’s “High and Dry” that kicks some serious butt.

11. Andrew Peterson, Behold the Lamb of God

If there is another perfect record to go alongside Rich Mullins’ Liturgy, Legacy, this is it. Andrew Peterson’s ’true tall tale of the coming of Christ’ is an amazing concept, filled with beautiful music and tight lyrics, brought into being by an amazing community of musicians. This is the ‘Christmas album’ that I could listen to year round.

12. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, Once: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack

It took me a while to get to this little Irish indie movie, but once I did, I bought the soundtrack that same day. Intense, emotional, personal stuff, and the only song I’ve heard that actually works in a 5/4 tempo.

13. Iron & Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog

This low-fi, folky thing is a beautiful piece of work. I don’t have a lot to say about it, but it keeps coming back into my listening rotation. That consistency means something.

14. The Khrusty Brothers, Jonas Is Back

This one is the oddball. This brainchild of Don Chaffer (who usually headlines Waterdeep) is essentially a collection of songs that he probably couldn’t have gotten away with recording under his own name. Good lyrics, sticky melodies, and a killer track called “Sympathy for Jesus”. Not linked because I don’t know where you can get it anymore. Here’s their Facebook page, though.

15. Radiohead, In Rainbows

For the longest time Radiohead didn’t make sense to me. I downloaded In Rainbows when it first came out (for free!), listened to it once, shook my head in confusion, and turned it off. But then a year or two later I turned it back on, heard it with fresh ears, and was transfixed. Then I proceeded to work back through the Radiohead catalog and find records like Kid A, The Bends, and OK Computer. While “Fake Plastic Trees” from The Bends has to be my favorite Radiohead song of all time, In Rainbows tops my list as a beginning-to-end record.

A follow-on to yesterday’s post about the superiority of ‘O Canada’:

I was not surprised to read that there are official lyrics in both English and French for the anthem. I was surprised a bit, though, at the stark difference in the message of the two versions.

First, the familiar English version:

O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

But compare that with this English translation of the French lyrics:

O Canada! Land of our ancestors,
Thy brow is wreathed with a glorious garland of flowers.
As is thy arm ready to wield the sword,
So also is it ready to carry the cross.
Thy history is an epic Of the most brilliant exploits.
Thy valour steeped in faith
Will protect our homes and our rights
Will protect our homes and our rights.

A very different flavor to those, eh? An “arm ready to wield the sword”, but also “ready to carry the cross”. And rather than the English version standing on guard for the country, the French version stands in protection of “our homes and our rights”.

Fascinating how they’ve chosen to keep the tune and meter the same between both versions, and accepted the inevitable difference in lyrical content.