At the Name of Jesus
Spurred on by Bruce Benedict’s post Songs for Epiphany, here is an arrangement of At the Name of Jesus to Ralph Vaughan Williams’ outstanding tune, King’s Weston. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] At the Name of Jesus
O Holy Night: “People stand up! Sing of your deliverance!”
On the Worship Reformation Network mailing list, some recent discussion has revolved around “O Holy Night” and its appropriateness as a congregational song. Leeanne White posted a translation of the original French poem on which “O Holy Night” is based. Midnight, Christians, it’s the solemn hour, When God-man descended to us To erase the stain [...]
Sojourn Music – Over the Grave Review, part 4
In previous posts, I’ve discussed Sojourn Music’s new album, Over the Grave: the hymns of Isaac Watts, volume 1. This final post is a brief discussion on which songs would work best in a congregational singing situation. Before we look at a few songs from Over the Grave, however, let me make a few comments [...]
Sojourn Music – Over the Grave Review, part 3
When I originally sat down to do this review, it was set to be one post. Later, it had grown into three, which I advertised on the @psalmsandhymns twitter feed. By now, we’re at at least four posts. Today, we’ll look at the second half of the album.
Sojourn Music – Over the Grave Review, part 2
Yesterday, I began reviewing Sojourn Music’s new album Over the Grave: the hymns of Isaac Watts, volume 1. Today, we will look at the individual songs more in-depth. Tomorrow, we’ll ask the all-important (and oft-neglected) question, “Can the congregation sing it?”
Sojourn Music – Over the Grave Review, part 1
Travis recently asked me to post some thoughts on the new Sojourn Album, Over the Grave: the hymns of Isaac Watts, volume 1.
This album is the first of a two-album Isaac Watts project by Sojourn Church in Louisville, Kentucky. (Though a Baptist church, Sojourn is also affiliated with the Acts 29 Network, a group seeking to plant gospel-saturated churches worldwide.) This album has been described by the musicians at Sojourn as “Hi-Wattage”, meaning an indie-rock feel, while the next album will be more folk/acoustic influenced, hence, “Lo-Wattage”.
Let’s get the genre out of the way. There’s no way I would describe this as an indie-rock album. But that’s not a bad thing.