Collide Magazine

One element that has marked many of my friendships has been music.  It is something to be shared.  There are moments in life indelibly marked by the rhythms and sounds of the radio, stereo, or our varied personal music devices.  The past several years my life has been carried along by Spoon, Wilco, and Jerry Jeff Walker, to name three.

When it comes to Christian music, as of late I’ve been in love with the sound of Mike Crawford and His Secret Siblings.  Maybe you’ve heard of them, but, for many of you, I doubt that you have.  Mike is the worship leader at Jacob’s Well in Kansas City.  I’ve recommended, “Songs from Jacob’s Well Vol. I & II: Even the Darkness Will Not Be Dark to You” since before it became available on iTunes or Amazon.  I’m someone that has had a tenuous relationship with music in the Christian genre, but this collection possesses theological depth, gritty and broadly varied sound, and is filled with biblical imagery.  Of all the songs in this collection, “Words to Build a Life On” is my undeniable favorite, an epic ballad that transitions beautifully between the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and a number of the contemporary challenges so many of us face.

Pandora and the iTunes Genius have been great for helping me to discover new music, but it still can’t beat word of mouth. I hope you enjoy the sound of Mike Crawford and friends.

Do you have an artist on your playlist you think others are missing out on?  Who are they, how did you discover them, and why are they among your favorites?

Mariners Church is a creative church with a beautiful campus in sunny southern California. For Easter they put together an excellent Glee parody:

Student Ministries Easter preparation from mariners church on Vimeo.

And hey, did you notice that an issue of COLLIDE made a cameo in the video? If you blinked you might’ve missed it, so here’s a screenshot:

Thanks for the love, guys! Keep up the great work!

Let’s be honest … bloggers get a bad rap. Some people see them as dorks in pajamas who live in their mom’s basement. Others see them as melodramatic, self-involved feed-monkeys, and that’s just not fair (whether it’s accurate or not). All that to say, Carlos Whittaker is a blogger who actually does something. He’s an Integrity recording artist and his debut EP drops today. Congratulations, Carlos!

Grab it for three bucks on iTunes here or Amazon here. You can also check out the story of Carlos’ music below and grab the chord charts for the tunes here.

Oh, and Carlos also won a 2009 COLLIDE Reader’s Choice Award for Best Ministry/Theology Blog this month. I wonder which one — the award or his album dropping nationwide — has him more pumped up this week?

I love music, but I’m not big into musicals. Frankly, I don’t fully understand their appeal. I tend to think of the musical as an outdated artform–a medium that suited Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds but that has no place in the 21st century. Like many other things, I’m clearly wrong about cultural and commercial viability of the musical. Just look at the High School Musical empire, the success of Broadway hits such as Rent, or the “Jai Ho” scene from Slumdog Millionaire. (See also the sheer awesomeness that is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.) For whatever reason, artists and audiences keep coming back to the musical. Again, I don’t why, but they do.

Tomorrow night, after American Idol, Fox will unveil its new musical dramedy, Glee. Will it be good? I dunno. But I’ll probably watch, if for no other reason than to see how the show blends comedy, teen angst, and Journey songs. If you’re a video or live event producer, there might not be a better time to consider incorporating some song and dance into your project. Here’s the official Glee trailer:

Are you a fan of musicals? Will you take a chance on Glee? Have you effectively incorporated (non-P&W) musical elements into your videos or live events?

I woke up this morning to find an interesting email newsletter from Derek Webb in my inbox. Here it is verbatim:

friends-
i haven’t sent many personal emails to this email list but we’re in a situation that has gotten a little out of control and it’s time to fill you in.  as some of you may know, i’ve been working for months on my new record, ’stockholm syndrome’, which i’ve recently finished and turned in to the record label.  they’ve been very supportive over the years, but this time we didn’t get the response we expected.  it seems i’ve finally found the line beyond which my label can support me, and apparently i’ve crossed it.

i consider this my most important record and am adamant about all of you hearing it.  we had originally hoped to have ’stockholm syndrome’ out this month (next week even), but at this point we’re not sure when the record will come out and in what form.  the majority of the controversy is surrounding one song, which i consider to be among the most important songs on the record.  so we’ve decided it’s an appropriate time to break the rules.

but because of various legal/publishing issues we’re having to be rather careful with how we do what we’re going to do next.  that’s really all i can say for now and i’ve probably said too much.

we have a plan and we’re moving ahead, but we’re not sure what kind of trouble we might be getting into.  we’ll let you know as soon as we know our next move-
derek

I don’t have any insight into what all the fuss is about, but David Sessions at Patrol has an idea. Personally, I’m a big fan of Webb’s and can’t wait to get my hands/ears on this new material. If Sessions is right about Webb’s new album featuring “the s-word,” would that discourage you from buying it?

(By the way, you can check out a lengthy interview I did with Webb last year by clicking here.)