Open Blogging
It’s all yours today…
I’ll start off with some thoughts about phenom Oliver Anthony who is having unprecedented success on the music charts with “Rich Men North of Richmond”.
The song has been as controversial as it is popular…my guts told me that Anthony was actually doing was following in the great American tradition of country music that was often the equivalent of biblical lament.
Just for the record…I love country music that predates 1999…and absolutely loathe everything that has come after.
Anthony’s song was co-opted at the Republican presidential debate by the RNC and I hoped that wasn’t the direction the artist was going…in the video below he makes it really clear it’s not.
Why am I bothering to write about this?
Music can carry ideas with power that goes beyond words…my hope is that the great American tradition of using music to change hearts and minds can somehow return and be part of healing our divisions…and Anthony’s laments are a good place to start.
This is some cussing in these videos, so move on if that bothers you.
Michael,
Agreed…
Michael,
I get his sentiment, but it doesn’t really move me. It just seems to be another rant about what is wrong with America, and there are lots of those. My personal choice would be to see communities come together to do real problem solving. Examples would be schools who put together weekend food packets for students that they know go hungry Saturday and Sunday, folks who start community gardens, my local school district that uses parents (low-income and often moms) as crossing guards and as in-class tutors, churches that provide services to their neighbors…Just my thoughts.
Linn,
I will be the first to admit that my taste in music is…base.
I can’t handle classical music or contemporary Christian music…but I bow my head when someone says Tammy Wynette’s name.
We recalculated how many times I’ve listened to a version of “Whole Lotta Shakin” by Jerry Lee Lewis and it was a little over 68, 000 times, not counting today.
Music can both reflect and change culture…and what I heard this guy singing moved me…provoked me, and in some small way, changed me.
It brought to mind the Guthries and Jimmie Rodgers, the blues greats that I love, the folk singers of the 60’s, and the wondrous country laments of George Jones…music that spoke to and for people.
All those things you mentioned are excellent…but first people have to want to do them…music is the only thing left that can do that.
I dunno…
Listening to a pastor from Maui speak about the fire in Lahaina.
I like him. But his message is totally contrary to my Christian experience.
He talks a lot about God’s love for humans and that everything that happens in life is the result of His love. I get that he’s trying to be positive and proffer some sort of hope in the aftermath of such a great travesty.
But among so many Pastors, especially CC guys, there this ideal about God’s love that can be confusing
Life can be crappy—Jesus told us that in this life there will be tribulation—but we pastors seldom talk about that or about God’s wrath
As I listen to sermons, I feel like the Eloi in the H.G. Wells book, “the Time Machine” they were being fattened up for the Morelocks
I dunno….not very positive post, I know.
I just want reality from a pastor’s sermon. I want the whole truth from a pastors sermon.
Officerhoppy,
I’m probably a little too honest about these things when I teach.
You have to address the reality…which is often brutal.
You also have to give reasons for hope…for future grace as Piper called it.
It’s a hard line to walk.
Michael
Yep! But for the sake of the body, it’s Aline we pastors have to walk.
Thanks for preaching the truth
I’ve just dragged my poor congregation through the books of Daniel and Revelation.
It is a dismal picture of the immediate time and the future.
Honestly, what I found shook me up.
Today, though…we finally arrive at the New Jerusalem…and it all was worth it.
I have half a mind to retire when I’m done…but I haven’t been given permission to do so.
Michael
As a retired pastor, I’ll give you permission!
Officerhoppy,
Thanks…but I’m figuring out that I’ll die in the saddle…which ain’t a bad way to go.
“livin’ in the new world with an old soul………….”
pstrmike,
You heard him too…amen.
I just listened to his “I WantTo Go Home” and it sounded like the voices of the people I talk to every day…I hope the attention doesn’t ruin him…
Michael,
I love music. I can still sing most of the protest and folk songs from the 60s. I actually went to several protests as a kid/teen. My parents loved Guthrie and taught me those songs and the history behind them. This particular song just doesn’t do it for me. It could be that my love of protest songs stopped with Willie Nelson. If someone comes out with a song that works for me, I’ll adopt it as my own! 🙂
I am glad you like it. We all need something to give us a bit of hope right now. I thought I’d seen everything until I saw the Great Orange One fundraising with his mug shot! That I found very depressing!
Linn,
What I’m hearing in him are the voices of the normal people I know…and that voice has been silenced for years.
I’m hoping he is the first of many who put their gifts to work to amplify those voices.
I think I like him as a person…
Good thoughts, Michael, and you are definitely right that a lot of people in this country have been forgotten.
Linn,
Woody, Arlo, or both?
#anythingyouwantatAlice’srestaurant
Music is my thing.
Love it
Been playing guitars ever since I was able to pick up a tennis racket and play along to songs on the radio
My last 2 shows have been cancelled due to smoke in the valley. Major bummer for a guy who likes to perform.
Officerhoppy,
The best rendition ever (my opinion) of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ was played on an electric guitar in up-state New York in August of 1969.
Muff
Agreed!
But Bruce Hornsby and Winston Marsallis’ version is pretty good too!
Pstr MIke,
Both!
I was raised on protest songs growing up in a diverse neighborhood in the 60s/70s. We have a photo of me as a four year-old sitting on my dad’s shoulders surrounded by protest signs against freeway construction that was going to cut off the view of the San Francisco Bay. Our neighborhood was about 50% black, so I grew up with “say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud” and “black is beautiful.” If I’d saved my Huey Newton for President button, I might have enough to retire tomorrow!
I’ve never been a great country music lover, except for the old stuff (probably pre-1980). But, as Michael has explained so well, if something strikes a cord for some people, you need to give them room to appreciate their music. Meanwhile, I’ll keep humming along to Peter, Paul, and Mary and the Kingston Trio, as well as the Supremes and the Jackson 5.
Linn,
Ahh, the East Bay, as a friend once described it, “a hotbed of liberalism!” LoL !!!!!
Actually, San Francisco is where I’m from. I loved it, and was actually shocked when I found out what the real world was like outside my city.Li
oliver Anthony = two thumbs up
Linn,
I lived there for the first few months of my life and then my dad was transferred. The regional office that I worked out of in the late 90’s-early 2000’s was in S. San Francisco. Haven’t been there—except SFO—in over 20 years.