Anything to do with patriotism, in general, invites a lot of silliness that we wouldn’t embrace in other situations. No lie, I have been to a Christian “worship service” that included a civil war reenactment and a delivery of the Gettysburg address. (Of course, the battle ended with Lincoln guiding the two sides to stop fighting and shake hands, though I suppose the alternative – John Wilkes Booth playing the part of Judas – would have been even worse.)

Because the ideas of “God” and “country” have become so intertwined, the identity of the church as the transnational bride of Christ becomes obscured. Evangelicals in the US embrace Thomas Jefferson while shunning John Shelby Spong, despite their remarkably similar views on the Bible. Many Americans come into corporate worship on or around July 4 expecting to sing about a Grand Old Flag and amber waves of grain. In fact, many pastors and music leaders get angry calls and/or emails if America isn’t celebrated. (NB: There’s a difference between being thankful for freedoms enjoyed in America and celebrating America in a time that’s supposed to be reserved for Jesus. An Iraqi Christian living in Peoria can be thankful for the freedom to worship freely without having to say the Pledge of Allegiance.)

The wise thing to do isn’t to put up a huge middle finger and accuse everyone of idolatry. Because it’s the air so many of us have breathed for so long (especially our parents and grandparents), dealing with matters of God and country requires gentleness and wisdom. But neither should we cave in and sing My Country ‘Tis of Thee or The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

So what do I do? I cheat. We sing my favorite “fake” patriotic hymn: God of Our Fathers. It has enough civil connotation to evoke some of the nostalgia that hymns to America do, yet the text isn’t about America, it’s about our fathers (and mothers) in the faith. It’s much more Hebrews 11 than July 1776.

As wonderful as they are, the stars and stripes won’t last forever. Jesus’ kingdom will.

That half step has put a stamp on the tune that says “Made in 1868″. It it’s like listening to a Kanye West song, hearing the auto-tune, and knowing immediately that it was “Made in 2008″.

Normally, there’s not a problem with older things – in fact, many older things are glorious because they seem to bear the weight of history (in a good way) – but 19th Century American hymn tunes haven’t aged well.

It’s a shame, too, because the text for the hymn, written by the great American preacher Phillips Brooks, is glorious.

O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.

Last year, I heard Sarah McLachlan’s slight edit of the tune and immediately caught a new vision for the hymn.

You can purchase the mp3 at AmazonMP3.

McLachlan wasn’t the first to do it – my wife has an arrangement in a Christmas piano book she’s had since she was a child that has eliminated the rogue sharp – but she’s probably the most well known on a broader scale.

A change of a half step has breathed new life into a tired, old tune. I wrote out a quick arrangement for our church and have included it below for anyone who is interested.

O Little Town of Bethlehem (modernized)

• Doxology (Praise to God the Father Sing) Lead Sheet

Praise to God the Father sing.
Praise to God the Son, our King.
Praise to God the Spirit be,
Ever and eternally.

I really liked the first album. The band has some great, creative arrangements of Come Thou Fount, In Christ Alone, My Jesus I Love Thee, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Nothing But the Blood, The Solid Rock, and Joy (I’ve Got the Joy along with It Is Well with My Soul). (Did I mention that you can download it free for the next week?)

One of the things that I love about this band is that they’re doing something very different with hymns than most folks (including myself) are doing. They’re using the well known tunes and reinventing them rather than throwing off the old baggage and starting again. And, of course, sometimes the old tunes are so bad or so unhelpful that they need to be thrown off, but not all the time!

The second album looks to be just as good as the first. Here’s the song list:
How Great Thou Art
Praise to the Lord
Jesus I Am Resting, Resting
Rock of Ages
Abide With Me
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Doxology

Except for one song, I’m looking forward to the second album. Why a reservation? Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that. See if you can guess which song I’m not looking forward to and why that is.

At the Name of Jesus

I emailed ACL and asked if they had lyrics and lead sheets available and heard back from them very quickly. ACL is a great church and I’m excited that they’re able to put out this great project.

Before we look at a few songs from Over the Grave, however, let me make a few comments on finding songs that “work” for a congregation. I’ll admit that part of the process is subjective, but there are some criteria that I look for. I’ll only include criteria here that relate to what makes a good congregational song, not a good song in general. (For example, if the lyrics are poorly written, there’s no need to even consider a song for congregational singing.) In no particular order, they include:

1. Vocal Range:
   • This doesn’t mean appropriateness of the key. If it did, 99% of Chris Tomlin’s songs would be disqualified. It means, “Can I fit this song into a key where the vocal range is at most an octave and a fourth?” An octave and a major second is even better.
2. Rhythmic Simplicity/Complexity:
   • This is probably the most subjective of a list of subjective criteria. To put it simply, “Can this song be sung well by folks who have only heard it a few times and do not own a recording? Will they know when the words fall?” If the answer is no, we should reject the song.
3. Melodic Interest:
   • Simply, is the melody memorable and singable? Are there any weird leaps?

On this album, I would recommend (and plan on using) three tunes for congregational singing:

• Only Your Blood
• May Your Power Rest on Me
• Refuge

All three of these songs are very well written both musically and lyrically and meet the criteria that I listed above.

Why not some of the others? As I said, it’s a subjective call. (And for me to want to use 3 songs from a single CD is a large number to begin with.) “Warrior”, for all of its creativity, would not transfer well to a congregation of all ages (think of Aunt Noreen trying to get out all of the words on the verses at the right time). “Living Faith” has a range of an octave and a sixth; one of the reasons that it works well as a song is because of the soaring chorus – but this is precisely the area that would be trouble for anyone in our congregations who isn’t a soprano or tenor. The other songs that I haven’t mentioned just didn’t work as well for congregational singing for me as well as the three noted above.

I’m sure that Sojourn Church uses most, if not all, of these songs in their worship services. Good for them. Indigenous music is a lost art in the church. However, the songs have come directly out of their congregation. They are reflective of that church in a way that they’re not reflective of mine. Sure, I could expect folks from my church to buy the CD if they really want to know the songs we’re singing. But I’m of the opinion that if someone needs to own a CD or listen to Christian radio to really learn a song for corporate worship, the song is too difficult.

My one disappointment with this album was that there were relatively few songs that I felt would work well with a congregation. This surprised me. Of course, not all songs on hymn albums are meant to be sung corporately (there are many songs on the Indelible Grace CDs, for instance, that are not congregational and some on my own CD won’t work for congregations), but I expected that at least half of the album would be adaptable for corporate singing. However, I’m reading my own expectations into a review of someone else’s art and that’s not entirely fair. Just because I would have liked them to have a more corporate focus doesn’t make their work poor because it has a different focus.

To sum up all four parts of a lengthy review, I love Over the Grave. I hope that more churches and musicians will take on projects like this one. Buy it. Listen to it. Use these songs. Support these musicians.

There have been quite a few settings of “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed”, from Hugh Wilson’s MARTYRDOM to the sing-songy “At the Cross”. This is an interesting setting. It’s slowly growing on me. This is the only song on the album that’s a setting of Watts’ original text.

“May Your Power Rest on Me”. Isaac Watts joins Evanescence. That’s probably a bit unfair but captures the feel of this song quite well. Piano-led accompaniment with rock drums and pads supporting a female vocal at the very top of her chest voice register. Hopefully, this doesn’t come across as a negative description of the tune; it’s very good. Lyrically, this is one of the strongest songs on the album.

Though the trial still goes on,
Your grace will be my song.
For I can bear all things when temptation springs,
For you sustain me all my days.

And then we come to “Refuge”. This song was featured on the YouTube video teaser for the album and helped make me impatient over the many months it took to come out. I could describe the simple piano-octaves that open the song or the text of reliance upon God at all times or the use of the choir in the background but that would obscure what I love most about this song: it’s just fun. Think Coldplay meets Wilco meets the Psalmist.

“We Are Changed” takes the jazzy, gospel vibes from other songs on the album and runs with it. Rhodes electric piano drives this song about the work of God in salvation. The chorus reminds me of Gomez’ cover of the Beatles’ “Getting Better”.

The final track on the album is “Savior King”, a rocking 6/8 setting of Isaiah 52.

How happy are the ears that hear this joyful sound,
Which kings and prophets waited for, and sought but never found.
How blessed are the eyes that see this heavenly light:
Our Savior King.”

Musically and lyrically, this is a solid album from beginning to end. The drumming is especially solid. I am already looking forward to “Lo-Wattage”, the next volume in this set.

In part 4, we’ll look at the question that all worship musicians should ask when looking to incorporate songs from this or any other album into corporate worship: “What about congregational singing?”

Yesterday, I said that this wasn’t an “indie-rock” album but that I didn’t mind because of the variety of musics used. (I love the word “musics”, which I got from Harold Best. Incidentally, if you’d like to see an interview with Harold Best and Mike Cosper, one of the producers of this album, you can see it at Sojourn Music.)

My friend Tim Sharpe delivered me a copy of Over the Grave while we were at General Assembly in Orlando. I listened to the first song, expecting indie-rock, and instead got the funky “Warrior”. After the funk influenced verse, we get just a snippet of the chorus, complete with Eleanor Rigby-like strings. Actually, the verse is a little like chant or recitative, in its minimalist reduction to repeated notes and cadences. This is a a fun song. Lyrically, it’s great to hear a song about the Lord as the conquering King!

“Living Faith” is a mid-tempo rocker that boasts a soaring vocal.

For some reason, “How Long” reminds me of Johnny Cash singing gospel. Up an octave, of course. With 21st century guitars, of course. Any settings of the psalms of lament are welcome, though I wonder if this song needed another verse to more completely capture the pleading cries of Psalm 13 (upon which it is based).

“Only Your Blood” is one of my favorites for several reasons. The production, while intricate, never gets in the way of the lyrics, a great setting of the second half of Psalm 51. Like “Refuge” later on the album, the use of the piano in octaves provides a great chime-like texture. Lyrically, the third verse stands out:

No bleeding bird, no bleeding beast,
No hyssop branch, no priest,
No running brook, no flood, no sea
Can wash away this stain from me.

When I first heard the song, however, I heard a mondegreen:

No bleeding bird, no bleating beast…

I like that lyric even more than the original.

To call “Reveal Your Love” high-energy would be a tremendous understatement. The lyrics would have been helped by some variation in dynamics. Even if the song does vary in loudness, it’s all energy all the time.

“Over Death”. Isaac Watts’ called this hymn “Victory over Death”. The song is based upon 1 Corinthians 15.55ff.

Joyful, with all the strength I have
My trembling lips should sing:
“Where is your boast of victory grave?
And where is the monster’s sting”

This is the kind of song that should be sung at funerals, not schlock like “I’ll Fly Away”. Our hope isn’t that we’re going to escape this bad, old world but that death has been defeated. We praise the “God of victory” that death has no power over the Christian, we will be resurrected on the last day.

Tomorrow, we’ll cover the second half of the album. As always, I’d like to hear others’ comments on the album if you’ve been able to get a copy.

This album is the first of a two-album Isaac Watts project by Sojourn Community 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. It’s just an inaccurate genre designation to place on an album with such a variety of sounds. For one thing, producers Mike Cosper and Neil Robins have outdone themselves in making this album different from their other albums. While I enjoyed Advent Songs (especially the new tune for “Joy to the World”), this album is on a completely different level of creativity of lyric writing, composition, and arranging.

This is not a project like Red Mountain Church or Indelible Grace or even my own music. These are not hymn texts with new tunes. They are new compositions inspired by the hymn texts. This becomes clear by comparing one of the pieces. On the left is Isaac Watts’ Hymn 15 and on the right is Sojourn’s “May Your Power Rest on Me”, inspired by that hymn.

I’ll have more thoughts tomorrow. If you’ve heard this album, what are your thoughts?