SOUL SURMISE

Patty Griffin – American Kid

I have been listening to Patty Griffin since her late bloomer debut Living With Ghosts in 1996. Griffin’s songs are so poetic, so well made and then that voice is such a powerhouse of emotion. On American Kid she has returned to Craig Ross, the producer of Impossible Dream which was released almost a decade ago. However, even the laziest listen to American Kid will reveal that Buddy Miller the producer of her last two projects, a Gospel album Downtown Church recorded in Nashville’s Downtown Presbyterian and her collaboration with Robert Plant on Band Of Joy, has really influenced this one. It has that organic stripped back rootsy sound that Miller has made his trademark. Plant also features on three of the songs here. He and Ms Griffin are a romantic item and though they were looking very beautiful and very cool on Later With... Jools last week, close ups revealed the aging lines on their faces! That maturity and experience of life and art is also in great evidence here.

The record is based around the life of Griffin’s father who died in 2009. His daughter’s genius is so pure at present that the collection of songs does work as a cohesive whole but is also 12 songs that can stand independently. It is not a concept album in the contrived sense. Every song has a personality of its own and all those hues on life and love and family and God and war all weave into a remembering, a celebration and a catharsis.

As readers of this blog will know I have a strong belief in the power of song. One of those places where I believe it to be more powerful is in the pastoral and even more specifically at a time of loss. Patty Griffin has used her art as her way to deal with her loss. Anyone in a similar situation will find catharsis here. The opening Wherever You Wanna Go with its sense of freedom and release of the loved one in death leads to the loved ones left to deal with the void Gonna Miss You When You’re Gone and That Kind Of Lonely, the latter being one of the saddest songs I have ever heard.

Thirty two years old before she released that debut album 17 years ago, Griffin’s art has always been stamped with the word MATURITY! This collection is her most mature yet, her best album yet and raises the Americana bar to new heights.

FITZROY MUSIC AND LITERATURE - May & June

Gala Concert with Martin Toal

Friday 31st May
Fitzroy Presbyterian Church

£15

A "not to be missed" mix of classical, jazz, opera, Irish ballads and songs from the musicals. We welcome leading tenor "the singing voice of sport" Martin Toal. Martin has sung at many of the UK's top sporting venues including Old Trafford, Twickenham, The Etihad, the Millennium stadium, WINDSOR PARK and for the England football team at Wembley stadium in front of 90,000 people and a TV audience of millions.

BROOKS WILLIAMS in Concert

Hosted by Gary Burnett
Friday 14th June at 20.00
Fitzroy Presbyterian Church
Doors open 19.30
Tickets £12.00

"How soulful a solo guitarist can be when he has talent,
taste and astonishing technique." (Blues Revue)

Ranked one of the Top 100 Acoustic Guitarists, singer-songwriter Brooks Williams writes groove-laden songs and delivers them with an easy-going vocal style and monstrous guitar chops. Walking the line between blues and Americana, Williams has worked stages worldwide for over 25 years, amassing a staggering back-catalogue of songs, recordings and tales. With nearly 20 CDs to his name – and more on the way – this Statesboro Georgia native is, according to Americana UK, “impossible not to like."

TICKET SALES AT:
http://www.amiando.com/BrooksWilliamsBelfast2013

 

Book Readings With Tony Macauley and Bethany Dawson

Friday June 21st @ 8pm - £5 on door

Tony and Bethany are two of Belfast's most exciting writers just now. Tony's Breadboy has topped the local book sales charts and...

Bethany's debut novel My Father's House declares a new emerging talent. Top night of literature, conversation and laughter.

OPERATION TEMPLE TRIM - A Thank You Message

The following message on Facebook put a smile to my face and soul. I have been unbelievably overwhelmed by hearing such stories as this one from Alan Marsh. It is such a great story and so well articulated. Old Testament theologian Walter Brueggeman has said of preaching that it is about inspiring others into the will of God by showing them what is possible and igniting them with the desire to reach for that possibility. I believe that it is proven right in the amazing response to my weight loss and fitness campaign. At times I have felt a little uncomfortable talking about my efforts. At times I have felt that my Facebook statuses and blogs come across as a little like boast posts. Messages from people like Alan, and many conversations and texts and emails have kept me “boasting” as it seems that I have done in weight loss what I rarely see from my sermons; a rally positive and tangible response. If I can bring about stories like this one then I will keep on sharing, no matter how uncomfortable!

Hi there Steve,

I would like to thank you for your unknown (until now...) encouragement and lead.

I was challenged after reading your blog on the 'Tubby Temple', to examine my own lifestyle. However, I conveniently managed to distract myself with some other more pressing issues.

It wasn't until I was preaching fairly recently that I was looking at the area on Spiritual Gifts. (Self Control not being one that I regularly display).

Whilst I was sharing, I inwardly recalled back to your blog, and thought it was time to make a change. So I followed your lead. I started running.

This was easier said than done. After about a minute, I felt that I needed an oxygen tank! It shocked me just how unfit I had become.

However, I persevered. I downloaded the NHS 'Couch to 5k' Podcasts to give my new running habit some structure. Through run-walk intervals, my running built up from 60 seconds now to 30 minutes.

I have found that, not only have I began to tolerate (alas, even enjoy) longer runs, I have felt that I have now much more energy than before. I now have a better relationship with food, and am slowly shedding the pounds.

I have even started in a local boxing gym, training a couple of times a week. (Now that IS a good workout!!)

So thank you for your positive example and encouragement!

Operation temple trim is underway! Weight loss since 5 April....11 pounds (and counting....)

I love it! Keep going Alan! And others... why not join Operation Temple Trim!

VULNERABILITY & COMMUNAL CONFESSION - Thought For The Day

(my Thought For The Day on Radio Ulster this morning...)

The Gospel According To... Christy Moore! As part of the 4 Corners Festival, in partnership with the West Belfast Spring Féile, a bunch of singers and musicians from Fitzroy Presbyterian Church sang Christy Moore songs in Clonard Monastery, off the Falls Road. It certainly caused some intrigue and gathered a crowd. I was the imaginer of the event and the one who threaded the songs with spiritual commentary. Our idea was that we Presbyterians would perform these songs, sometimes labelled Rebel songs, as the yearning cry of a people seeking liberation. From our side of the fence that was a little uncomfortable, what my daughter my describe as AWKWARD. BUT as Reformed theologian and philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff has written “In taking the side of the exploited, Christians find themselves in opposition to some of those who confess the same Lord.” So it was with us that night in Clonard. At the end of the song Irish Ways and Irish Laws, about injustice against the Irish for centuries, I asked if this audience in west Belfast might find it in their hearts to forgive us. Of course many suggested I couldn’t do such a thing as ask for forgiveness on behalf of my side of the Northern Ireland divide. Yet, I don’t think as a Christian I have a choice. Isaiah was aware that he was “a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips.” Nehemiah too said “I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family have committed against you.” Confession was never just individual but always communal in the Scriptures. What amazed me that night in Clonard was the response that our confession caused. Immediately the performance ended the people of west Belfast approached me and asked if we could also find it in our hearts to forgive them too.

In a recent study a Researcher discovered that the most common trait in the lives and attributes of the 250 successful people she researched was vulnerability. Interesting. The heart of the Gospel is confession and vulnerability, never arrogance and pride. We need more vulnerability in Northern Ireland. At the moment it is all about proving that we are right and they are wrong. When we realize that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and in our vulnerability confess such, perhaps success on the road to peace and reconciliation will take the great leap forward.

ROD STEWART: Time

So one of my guilty pleasures is Rod Stewart. You didn’t always have to feel guilty for being a Rod Stewart fan. In the early seventies the Rod was a rocker right on the cutting edge and also fronted the very credible Faces! Rod’s coolness though has waned and his recent American Songbook series might have been a phenomenal success but it made Rod pretty much meaningless in the world of rock. Though not paying much attention to the Songbook series I have never lost my fandom and every now and again will drag out those seventies records and marvel at his voice and swagger. I was totally beguiled by Rod’s recent biography which was simply brilliant reading at every level. Writing that biography it seems gave Rod back his songwriting muse and so we find him now releasing Time which has more Stewart written songs for 25 years.

Time really is a musical autobiography to accompany the book. It in sound covers Rod’s entire career. Brighton Beach nods its hat to Maggie May, Sexual Religion shakes it’s disco hip at Do Ya Think I’m Sexy, Time could have been on Atlantic Crossing and Tom Wait’s Picture In A Frame is that interpretation of other writers that Rod has always been king at. After sitting on a romantic crooner stool for some years there is a lot of noise here too. Finest Woman is a dirty rock out that could have been on a record by his old mate Ron Wood’s band The Rolling Stones, most likely Tattoo You.

Inspired by the book writing it is understandable that the content is autobiographical too. Rod has gone down this personal road before in songs like You’re In My Heart or I Was Only Joking. Time kicks off with She Makes Me Happy one of many celebratory near worship songs to his wife Penny. Can’t Stop Me Now is a career overview but set in the memory of his father. Live The Life and Pure Love seem like advice to his children. Brighton Beach is about the naivety of young love and looking back at old girlfriends. It’s Over is a song of heartache and divorce. It is the wisdom of experience being handed down almost like a last will and testament, maybe realising that if it takes 25 years until he writes more songs he will be over ninety! Being Rod though as well as the seeming wisdom and maturity of a settled family man there is a wee bit of sex in Make Love To Me Tonight, though within marriage it needs added, and a laddish hedonistic drunkenness on Legless. The whole thing is all very personal but maybe the album’s greatest success is that it gives you a peg to hang the love and stories of your own life upon and ponder and reflect.

So, is it any good? Well, actually, yes it is! On first listen I was drawn to some contrived lyrics and clunky rhymes but on second and third listens I came to be charmed by the sentiment and the good fun rocking feel as well as the heartfelt ballads. It will not radically alter twenty first century rock and probably not undo the credibility damage of Rod’s last couple of decades but it is an album he should be very proud of and one he will be very happy thinking that his children might listen to!