No Room For Hipsters
I’ve been meaning to blog about this for a couple weeks now, but just hadn’t gotten around to it.
My pal from high school, Levon Walker (not the name I knew him by), is pursuing his dream to become a rock star, and I asked that he send me a demo CD. I first promised I would blog about it because he was my friend, but I’m blogging about it today, because I actually like the CD.
Comparisons to Elton John and Ben Folds are unavoidable, but I think he’s got a nice, unique style that I genuinely enjoy.
So check out two tracks from his CD below.
If you want to keep up with his adventures, be sure to check out his blog. And he should have a website up for his music soon.
Click here to play “Mark Your Words.“
Click here to play “Tired Languages”
Kingdom Coming
Shaun Groves, prolific blogger and Dove Award-nominated softrocker, has done his singer/songwriter thing, writing and singing a beautiful and timely song. And even better? He’s offering it up for a free download.
You can listen here, but I strongly recommend downloading the song for your personal media device.
Here are Shaun’s thoughts about Kingdom Coming:
Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come…” (Matthew 6:9,10)
And the next part I overlooked until only recently. The next part of this model prayer reveals what the kingdom looks like, how it comes. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Whenever God’s will is done below as it is above, God reigns and rules, He is king and His kingdom comes. Jesus called this “good news” (Mark 1:14,15).
The kingdom is good news for me because it means the days I have left on earth don’t have to be spent waiting to die and get to heaven, but instead they can be lived in such a way that heaven comes through me and gets to earth. Every day, every talent, minute, dollar, relationship — it’s all purposed. It’s all a gift to be spent bringing the kingdom, doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus said the kingdom is also good news for the poor (Luke 4:18,19). “The bible is full of exclamations of God’s concern for the poor, his desire for them to be treated justly (Proverbs 19:7) and mercifully (Proverbs 18:23), for His people to give them equality (2 Corinthians 8:3–14).
Kingdom Coming released on election day 2008, as a reminder to me and Christians everywhere that our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20) and it spreads not by sword (John 18:36) but unlike the kingdoms of this world (Isaiah 40:21–24), the kingdom we serve has no borders and no flags and no end.
To the rich lacking purpose and the poor lacking hope, this is good news.
Click here to download the song. (Links to a .zip file)
Have a listen and let us know what you think.
Phil goes for free
Phil Wickham is releasing his new CD, Singalong, today. And it’s absolutely free (no Derek Webb tactics happening here). In no way is this unique to the music industry, but it is fresh for the Christian-music machine. Brody Harper, CEO and visionary behind Skorinc, tells of the struggles they faced trying to pull this project together in his latest blog post. It’s a pretty interesting story.
I haven’t had a chance to listen to the entire album, but I recommend heading over and giving it a download.
Have a great Friday everyone.
The Mobilization
This Saturday night, Hayley and I went to witness The Mobilization’s first-ever Wichita show. And it was awesome. Being the connected* guy I am, I was able to snag three semi-final tracks and I’m posting them here for your listening pleasure.
Check them out and let me know what you think.
Oh, and for all you Wichitan-readers, tonight’s our second Tweetup. Be at The Anchor around 6:00 p.m. to discuss social media and meet some cool, plugged-in folks. Hope to see you there.
*I’m not actually that connected. I just happen to work with the player of the keys and second guitar, Chaney Kimball. You can see how rockstar he is here.