Just wanted to warn you all that I’m transferring my site hosting to another service, so the MP3s will be unavailable for a few days.  Normal people would transfer their hosting and you’d never even realize an interruption in service.  I, however, am reaching my max bandwidth usage at my hosting provider, so I have to shut down the site for a few days so I don’t get charged insane fees.  So while I’m in the process of doing that, you can read posts and all, but MP3s won’t be available for download.

As soon as things get up and running again, I’ll let you know.

I’m not sure if this is a hoax or not, but head over here to see a giant iPod on the surface of Australia, as seen from space.  You have to hit the zoom button once or twice (but not more) to see it.

Apparently, my hatred of iPods is doing nothing to slow their spread.

I posted yesterday about musical genius Don Chaffer.  Today, I thought it’d be fun to pass on to you some live recordings I’ve found of Waterdeep that show off Don’s skills.

I don’t remember where I found these, but there’s a zillion live recordings out there - I’m sure you can find your own easy enough.

All Along the Watchtower - Download - Stream
The Razor Light - Download - Stream

Note: all MP3s will be removed after one week.

I’m sure many of you have heard of Don Chaffer, but for those of you who haven’t, I hope you’ll read on and get hooked on one of the greatest musician story-tellers out there. Don is perhaps best known for his part, along with wife Lori Chaffer, in the awesome folksy, hippy, bluesy, jam band Waterdeep.

Waterdeep is great.  Lori’s incredibly unique yet powerful voice carries the group out of the realm of normalcy and into the legendary.  For years, I ignored Don’s additions to the group, focusing on how much I loved Lori’s voice, but after downloading some solo songs by Don, and listening to what he did on the Waterdeep albums, I’ve come to a renewed appreciation for his musical prowess.

(Side note: When you use words like “prowess,” it makes you sound smart.  If, however, you use words like “prowess” in sentences like “The tigress had great prowess” it makes you sound less smart and more like a chidren’s author.)

Enough of his prowess…  Don is a story-telling artist who’s medium happens to be music and tapestry happens to be your ears.  If you can’t appreciate his acoustic/folk/blues/funk style, I understand, but look beyond the style of music and watch an artist at work.

I’m not gonna say much more than that about Don.

Why? Because I’ve got yet another annoying computer problem to deal with. I bought an external hard drive about 2 months ago from a guy who claimed it was a Seagate drive.  He offered an incredible price, so I bought it, thinking I was getting a name-brand drive for a bargain price.  When it came in the mail, I took the casing off only to discover it wasn’t a Seagate and it had this message written on it, in all caps - “B  A  D.”

Like any Christian with plenty of duh-scernment, I sent it back and rather than taking my money back, I let him send me a replacement.  Bad idea.  The next drive came and I had errors popping up, bad sectors showing themselves, and other weird quirks that should have clued me in that it was a bum drive.  But, my duh-scernment wasn’t operating at full strength apparently, and today the drive has basically failed.  So I’m in the process of recovering any data I can before it crashes for good.

While doing that, I figured I’d take some time to write a post, which my duh-scernment says you’re reading right now.

So check out Don Chaffer.  I think you’ll like him.  He’s an outstanding musician with a great sense for different music styles and an amazing ability to write insightful, honest lyrics.  The 2002 album What You Don’t Know, which both songs today are from, is exceptional.  He plays all instruments other than drums and pulls it off really well.  It doesn’t have that hollow re-recorded sound a lot of albums have where one person plays everything.

Also be sure to take a look at Don’s crazier project The Khrusty Brothers and read an interview on Colossians Three-Sixteen here.

Here’s some Don Chaffer classics for you MP3-crazed fans:

Bring the Sadness Back In - Download - Stream
Man I’m Gonna Sing - Download - Stream

MySpace: www.myspace.com/waterdeepmusic
Website: www.waterdeep.com

Buy MP3s at Emusic.com
Buy CDs at Amazon.com

Note: All MP3s will be removed after one week

Geology.  It was one of those subjects I hated in High School and will probably never really get.

It also happens to be the solo project of Greg Jehanian, the totally wickedly sweet bassist from mewithoutYou.  If you know me or have read much of this blog, you know that I consider mewithoutYou to be one of the few nearly-perfect bands out there.  I say that half-facetiously, but one of the main reasons I really dig mewithoutYou is Greg’s ability to craft powerful bass lines that can carry a song.  If you don’t get what I’m saying, just listen to “In a Sweater Poorly Knit” or “A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains” from their latest album Brother, Sister.  I could go on and on about how great his bass lines are, but I’ll try to contain myself.  If you’re into jazz, just think of him as a Louis Armstrong as opposed to a Dizzy Gillespie.  Dizzy may get more notes in, but Louis hits the few he hits at exactly the right time.

Anyway, Greg is awesome on bass, so it came as no surprise to me that his solo stuff was just as good.

I found Geology maybe 8 or 9 months ago, because someone commented about Greg’s side project on The Blah Blah.  But back then it was known as The Tourist.  I’m not sure why Greg changed the name, but I’m getting used to it finally.  Up until maybe a month ago, every time I wanted to listen to some of his songs, I’d look for The Tourist and stare at my computer going, “Man, did my hard drive fail or something?!  The songs are totally gone!”

The songs by Geology are some of my favorites I have on my hard drive.  It’s a good mix of acoustic guitar-based indie rock and alt-folk, with catchy pop overtones (Did I trick you into thinking I know what I’m talking about?).  It’s just good music that makes me happy.  The songs are generally up-beat, but not in a pop-rock sense, and the lyrics are very well written and interesting, even if I can’t figure out what they’re all about.

I don’t really know what else to say, and I don’t feel like writing much more.  If I don’t stop now, I’ll just keep sounding more and more like a tweener girl talking about Hannah Montana, so I’m gonna close it up here.

Have fun with these two songs, and pray that Greg keeps making music so I don’t go insane:

Golden Morning - Download - Stream
The Deepest Blue - Download - Stream

MySpace: www.myspace.com/thetouristmusic

Download MP3s on MySpace

Note: All MP3s will be removed after one week

Here’s a site I found a while back and have made some use of.  Check out Free Albums Galore for a bazillion free albums.  They’ve got links to all sorts of music available for free download throughout the internet, from surf rock compilations to orchestral arrangements to bluegrass albums to Arabic bellydancing, you’ll probably be able to find something you like here.

Or maybe you don’t.

We’ve been doing some of his songs for worship at church, so I just tend to assume that means everyone else is doing his songs too.

But if not, let me introduce you all to Kristian Stanfill, another worship leader to… uh… lead you in worship.

About six months ago, we started doing the song “Jesus Paid It All” by this mysterious guy named Kristian Stanfill during worship at church.  It’s a really powerful song, so powerful that it made me think, “Hey, I should get more of this guy’s stuff.”

But then Monday rolled around and I forgot all about him.  That is, until I had my “Too Many Free Downloads” crisis with emusic (read about it here and sign up for a similar experience here).  It was during that crisis, where I was forced to download a few hundred free MP3s within a few weeks, that I remembered Kristian Stanfill and downloaded his EP Hello.

Kristian Stanfill is a worship leader, and his music falls pretty comfortably into that mold.  Worship songs with soaring choruses, intense bridges, and straightforward, singeable lyrics.  Guitars, drums, bass, vocals, and lots of programming niceties (curiously, nobody on keys…).  His band consists of Alex Nifong (guitars and vocals), Joe Thibodeau (drums and programming), Matt Melton (guitars and vocals), and Tim Gibson (bass).  Together, they and Kristian create some solid worship music along the lines of Hillsong, Delirious, and the other U2-influenced worship bands out there.

I wanted to give you a short bio in my own words, but I thought he said it really well on his MySpace, so I’ve plopped a bunch of it below:

i am a worship leader/songwriter. i haven’t always been a worship leader. when i was a kid i didn’t even know what worship was, but i knew that i loved music. i remember the first time that music moved me. i was riding with my dad in the car and we were listening to the eagles. the song was hotel california and i had never heard anything like it. more than that…i was fascinated by how this music made me feel. something deep in me was awakened and i’ve been pursuing the song ever since. after i devoured the eagles record i moved on to billy joel (songs in the attic, the stranger).

then i discovered christian music. i started with steven curtis chapman and dc talk. i was and still am a sucker for a good hook.

pretty soon after that i found my dad’s old guitar and he taught me a few chords. i immediately started writing songs…they were awful songs, but i couldn’t stop writing. there is something so special about songwriting…like you’re tapping into the supernatural or something like that.

about that time i ended up at a summer camp with my youth group and God changed the course of my life forever. i felt this inexplicable call be on stage and lead people to love God through music. i didn’t know what that was all about but i started leading (i use the term “leading” loosely at this point…it was more like surviving) songs in my eighth grade sunday school class. it was mostly a disaster scattered with a few really cool “only-God-could-do-that” moments. those few cool moments was enough for me to realize that there was something deeper coursing beneath the world i could see and feel. it was that realization that sparked a huge desire to continue leading worship songs.

i continued leading through middle and high school at my church in marietta ga until i graduated high school and went to birmingham al to attend samford university. i met kerri at samford…whoa momma! it was there i decided i wanted to be a pop signer instead of a worship leader. i started writing songs about life and love. this was a good stage for me because it taught me how to write songs. that lasted for a few years until i had some wise friends say, “i think that maybe the pop singer thing isn’t for you.”

around that time an opportunity arose for me to start leading at north point community church in alpharetta ga. i was 18. i am now 25 years old. the steps that have led me to today have been unplanned and unpredictable. i wake up everyday and shrug my shoulders and say, “what’s gonna happen today God?” it’s been quite an adventure and im almost positive the future is going to be a lot of the same…cool!

From what I can tell, he definitely has kept himself from falling into the rock-star worship leader trap (read more about it here).  I love it when worship leaders act like they’re just regular guys and girls like you and I.  Even though we really know they’re Hindu gods to be worshiped by sacrificing small mammals.  Seriously, he seems like a regular guy.  On his blog, someone asked him how he became a world-traveling worship leader and his answer was “I have no idea.”  I love the down-to-earth honesty.

Kristian Stanfill is great at leading worship.  He seems really passionate about God, like he’s really worshiping and not just singing songs.  Listening to him inspires me to worship God just as passionately.  Read another blogger’s thoughts on that here.  Kristian’s songs may not be breaking any creative/artistic molds, but you can’t beat annointed worship that draws you closer to God.

Have fun with these two songs:

Jesus Paid It All - Download - Stream
From the Inside Out (Hillsongs) - Download - Stream

MySpace: www.myspace.com/kristianstanfill
Website: www.kristianstanfill.com

Buy CDs on Amazon
Buy MP3s on Amazon

Note: All MP3s will be removed after one week

Sandy Ross, author of A Place Called the Bla-Bla Cafe, just sent me a copy of her book to review, since I stole my blog name from the cafe and all.

I haven’t finished it yet. I just got it a few hours ago and there’s not as many pictures as most books I read now (Clifford, Angelina the Ballerina, and Dr. Suess books, to name a few), so it might take me a while, but I plan on doing a full-fledged review sometime in the near future.  Near like before Jesus returns.  Unless he returns soon.  Cryptic, aren’t I?

If you’re interested in reading about the history and life of the real Bla-Bla, head over here and buy the book.  I just glanced through it quickly and there’s a ton of great stuff here.  It’s like she’s a real author or something, as opposed to guys like me who just write blogs for the heck of it and make up facts instead of doing research. 

But, if you can’t wait to get the book, just download an MP3 of me reading it here or stream it here.  You can play it on your way to work, like an audiobook.

Oh, I suppose an MP3 of me silently reading it doesn’t help much, does it?

When I created this blog, I never planned on offering the latest up-to-date album reviews or news releases.  I just wanted to get the word out on some of the music I like, emphasizing artists I listen to who have a Christian faith but wouldn’t necessarily fall into the CCM category.

Today, I offer another not-so-timely review of an album I got about a month ago, though it feels like I’ve been waiting on doing a review for a few months.  Why have I waited so long?  Plain and simple laziness mixed with a little feeling of being overwhelmed with the blog.

So today, I introduce to you Amy Courts and her new album These Cold and Rusted Lungs, set to be released in July.  It’s not a perfect album but it’s definitely worth your listening.

Amy Courts is gearing up to release her new album on July 29th, but you can get some preview MP3s below.  I haven’t been told that I can’t release these, so I’m assuming it’s OK.  If not, the links might be dead by the time you read this.

Besides that, here are my thoughts on the album.  The short version: I enjoyed it.  Small disclaimer first: I don’t normally go looking for music by Amy Courts-ish artists.  I usually like guy musicians more than the ladies (Does that make me a homomusicist?  Sick.  I hope not. (Sorry for the mental image.)  Wow.  That’s the first time I’ve had nested parantheses on The Blah Blah.)…  Anyway, I don’t usually choose to listen to female artists, so they’ve gotta try really hard to win my attention.  And Amy has a little of that “CCM sound,” so normally I’d just dismiss her without a second thought.  End of disclaimer.

So despite my anti-female-vocalist thing and anti-hint-of-CCM thing, Amy Courts is really pretty good.  I almost said she was awesome, but I can’t quite give her an awesome rating.  I need a word that’s somewhere in between ”really pretty good” and “awesome.”  Whatever word that is, it’s her.

Aww, heck, she is awesome.  Amy Courts is awesome!  And her new album is awesome too!  I feel better now that I’ve said it.  Don’t you?

These Cold and Rusted Lungs is pretty heavy and a little dark at times, but the message turns around to hope in the end.  She touches on topics like love, heartache, and a holy but personal God (I stole that line from her promotional materials - you didn’t think I could write like that, did you?).  The idea behind the “cold and rusted lungs” is that even cold, rusted, weary lungs can be made to breathe again.  Even “a heart made plastic by past rejection and love lost can always be made real.”

Since releasing her first EP, Amy got married, became a step-mother, quit her job, started a full-time music career, and launched into work with Mocha Club, an organization that challenges people to give up 2 mochas a month to help transform Africa.  About the transition, she says, “The past two years have been a bit of a whirlwind.  As my life has expanded into marriage, step-motherhood, and lending my voice and passion to the incredible needs in Uganda, I’m constantly aware of the need todeliberately die to myself.  Whether by giving my family an hour of time I might rather spend writing or resting, forgiving someone who hasn’t asked for it, being deliberate about spiritual quietness, or acting on my human and Christian responsibility to care for hte fatherless and the widow simply because I am able, I’m continually challenged and inspired to reach beyond my own issues into a wider sphere and higher calling.”

Amy seems to approach the songs on her album as a form of “inner healing” for people struggling in life, like by listening to stories of other confused, hurt, or rejected people, you might find comfort.  The lyrics can seem a little dark on the one hand, but they’re more an honest look at the real feelings of doubt, frustration, and weariness that come with living in a broken world among broken people.  You can hear people crying and praying and searching for God in her songs, and you feel better knowing you’re not the only one who’s felt that way.  And in the midst of it all you know there’s light coming, because no matter how much you doubt, you still know God is good.

That’s the feeling I have when I listen to her album.  It’s very emotionally complex.

So lyrically I think the album is great.  Complex issues and emotions are dealt with poetically and sensitively.  Musically, the album is solid.  I like the subdued, somewhat dark feel of the music.  It adds to the emotional complexity and makes it feel like the songs are all just in my head, being sung by my own thoughts.  The songs are not all that amazingly new or overly interesting from a musical standpoint, but I think it works well with the lyrics.

The one thing I don’t like from a musical standpoint is she does this thing with her voice that I find annoying.  I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s where instead of singing, “Jesus loves me, this I know” you sing “Jesus loves me, this I know-oh-oh-woah-woooah.”  She does too many of those extended words where she shifts the tone and sings different notes.  What the heck’s the name for that?  Anyway, I can deal with a little of it, but I think she throws it in too often.  It’s really popular among female vocalists (and some guys too) currently, but I wish it would just go away.

If I ignore that shifty-pitchy thing, she’s got a really amazing voice that carries a ton of emotion with it.  Just listen to her singing on “Breathe.”  Wow.  She’s good.  Close your eyes and just listen to that voice.  Almost haunting.  Powerful.

All in all, be sure to get her new album when it comes out.  You probably will find the music side of things just OK.  You might get annoyed with some of the shifty-pitchy things she throws in.  But the emotion-packed poetry of her lyrics is incredible.  And when she’s not doing that weird thing with her voice, her vocals are phenomenal.

Hope you like these two songs off These Cold and Rusted Lungs:

Breathe - Download - Stream
Inevitable - Download - Stream

MySpace: www.myspace.com/amycourts
Website: www.amycourts.com

Buy CDs at Looking Glass Merch
Buy MP3s on Amazon

Note: All MP3s will be removed after one week

I just watched The Devil Came on Horseback last night, about the genocide going on in the Darfur region of Sudan.

If you don’t know anything about Darfur, read up on it here.  Basically, the Arab-run government to the north is sponsoring a genocide against black Africans living in Darfur (located in the south-west of the country).  The government has hired the Janjaweed (translated “the devil on horseback”), an Arabic militia force, to systematically wipe out the black Africans in Darfur.  They burn people alive (even kids), set whole villages on fire, shoot their own countrymen indiscriminately, and use rape as a deliberate war tactic to destabilize families, bring shame to women, instigate fear and hatred, and spread STDs.  What’s going on is sick and twisted beyond belief.

Since 2003, the Sudanese government has sponsored this genocide and killed possibly more than 400,000 people, all in an attempt to win a war against rebel groups that draw support among black Africans in the Darfur region.  Rather than attack the armies like the rest of us do, they’ve decided to just wipe out everyone.  Over 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes, many living in massive refugee camps in Chad.

The movie The Devil Came on Horseback is really well made.  It follows marine captain Brian Steidle, stationed in the region as a military observer.  Brian takes photos, interviews rebel soldiers, talks to Janjaweed militiamen, hears from the victims of genocide, and videos whatever he can get.  The documentary pulls it all together into a nice hour and a half package.  The great thing about it is that Brian isn’t some annoying, liberal, hippy pot-smoking college student jumping on the latest humanitarian bandwagon.  He’s a marine, and he’s seen injustice and wants America do something about it.  It gives him a lot of credibility that guys like Michael Moore don’t have.

Somewhere inside me is a bleeding-heart activist that likes to call attention to the latest international issue that needs our assistance, but I get tired of all the whiny neo-hippies just hopping on liberal bandwagons.  Broad generalization, true, but I’m sure you get what I mean.  Anyway, the movie is great because it’s nice to see a military guy calling attention to something like this.  I feel like I can trust him.

So, moving on, watching this movie has once again caused me to think about how shallow my blog is.  I give away (some might say “illegally distribute”) MP3s.  I promote bands.  I interview artists.  I write about deep issues like “Defining Christian Muisc.”  All while 400,000 people have been killed and countless women raped in a brutal genocide in Sudan.

So, to ease my aching conscience, I signed the petition here to get Bush and the UN to stop the genocide.  Now who’s shallow?

Useful Sites and Links
SaveDarfur - learn about the genocide, sign a petition like me, or do something even more radical
Brian Steidle’s photos - see the photos he took while in Darfur
The Devil Came on Horseback - read up on the movie or watch the trailer
Invisible Children - some guys went to Sudan to document genocide but ended up in Uganda to document something just as creepy