GRATEFUL by MARTYN JOSEPH for Thanksgiving

On this day when my American friends sit around, have a rehearsal for the Christmas Turkey and give thanks I am drawn to a song from earlier in the year from Martyn Joseph. For decades my Welsh friend has been writing melodies to the very poetic words of poet Stewart Henderson. 

You can tell a Henderson lyric. It is wordy like Dylan in the 60s but without the drugs and psychedelia. In their place we have words that are like can openers for the soul. Lines leap out at me and send me off in surmises. I am always thankful for them.

The song I am thinking about is Grateful from Martyn’s This Is What I Want To Say record. On such an American day I should add that down the years this co-writing pairing have delved deep into American geography and culture. No different on this one in a verse that crosses the ocean back to Martyn’s beloved Wales:

Grateful for the Rockies and the bobcat's cryptic call

The copper canvas of New England in the fall

Grateful for beloved Wales, the Gower in the spring

The stones of Bannau Brycheiniog from which the poems sing

Do you see what I mean about Stewart’s revelatory wordiness.

As well as love and place Grateful looks at life and its limitations and hope:

I'm grateful there's a countdown on this limited dimension

Grateful for the skylark's hint of infinite ascension

And God is strewn through it too. Having celebrated my own Church building’s 150th Anniversary last Sunday I have particular reason to be grateful and so I was caught by:

“Grateful for the fragrance of the varnished pew

Those long gone chapel Sundays that yearned for "All things new”

Grateful”

Amen. 

So I play this song today and send it out to American brothers and sisters enjoying their pumpkin pie. Stream it right now and have a great and grateful day.