Category Archives: music

Proost- free downloads!

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proostlogo

For those of you who are not familiar with Proost– here is the blurb from the site-

Proost has now been in existence for 10 years, it came in to being as a resource and a service to the church.

In a world dominated by large record companies and publishers, we believed there was a need for a broader range of creativity from independent artists, musicians, authors etc. We also saw the need for an outlet for creative individuals who also had the same desire as us.In the very early days, budget constraints, inexperience and a sense of feeling our way meant that we concentrated on one project at a time, usually an album of music or a worship ‘experience’… we found that people were finding many uses for what we were providing which was encouraging and spurred us on to do more.

Now, several years down the line, Proost has developed and grown. We have built good relationships with a large number of very creative people who share our vision and are happy that we help bring their work into a more public arena. Working with these people has proved to be a real joy and the standard of creativity which they are bringing to us means that we can now provide a whole range of products and tools for you to use in your own worship settings. It is our hope that you will find many things on this website that will be of use to you… and we also hope you will find us to be a helpful partner as you seek to worship in spirit and in truth.

THE PEOPLE
Jonny Baker
Religion has a great tradition of creative characters – prophets, tricksters, mischief makers, etc – that have remade their traditions so that they live again after they’ve become deadened. Jonny works with leaders and churches to help them re-imagine faith and tradition where they have become stuck. And he works with younger creative leaders encouraging their creativity and improvisation as they plant new christian communities in the emerging culture.

Jon Birch
Music producer, animator, illustrator, designer, writer – Jon spends his time trying to be as creative as possible. He describes himself as ‘a person who likes to be on the edge of things, who has made his life doing what he used to get into trouble for doing in the margins of his school books.’ He enjoys using his talents to inspire, challenge and encourage fellow strugglers in their faith journeys. If you can’t find him, he’ll usually be in his studio making something. Jon is a co-founder of Sanctuary, a christian community based in Bath, England.

Aad Vermeyden
Hailing from the land that gave the world Vermeer and Delftware, it is no surprise to us that Aad gets a real buzz out of enabling the artistry of others. When Proost first came into being he was an artist and events manager, responsible for the careers of many of the UK’s leading lights, putting on shows all around the globe and handling their delicate artistic sensibilities. Aad is equally at home in the world of databases and computer systems and has made admin an artform. Jon and Jonny are both very glad to have his wisdom and experience onboard… even if Canada does sometimes feel like a long way away.

Proost have published 44 movies, 22 albums and 11 books (including, a-hem, 2 of mine) and you can have access to the whole lot for a subscription of £60! Thats over £250 worth of stuff.

However, it gets better-

prrost freebies

If you register with Proost, you can access loads of free goodies- a chance to try out all sorts of bits and pieces from the site.

Bargain!


An argument for folk music…

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jwilson2

I have a love of folk music.

There I said it.

In some circles it is a confession that leaves a bad smell. I hope that this is less so than it used to be- people seem to be more eclectic in their tastes these days. But the dominance of mass produced music packaged up with an airbrushed image remains, despite the apparent freedoms brought by the internet.

I like most folk music- even some of the finger-in-the-ear-quavery-voice kind. I think I like it because it carries something authentic along with it- the real voices of generations past and present. Seen this way, folk music is a chance to reflect on who we are, and were we come from.

Here are a couple of quotes pinched from the English Acoustic Collective’s website.

Kazuo Ishiguro
 “The way I see it is like this … There is this kind of treasure chest you have sitting in front of you, and if you were American or perhaps Irish you might have opened it by now, but because you live here it probably hasn’t occurred to you to do so yet. Well, I would urge you to open that thing up and delve inside it, because I believe you’ll find there a sublime vision of life in the British Isles at it has been lived over the last few centuries; and it’s the kind of vision that you can’t readily get from the works of say, Dickens or Shakespeare or Elgar or Sir Christopher Wren. If you don’t open that treasure box I think you are going to miss a certain dimension, a whole dimension of cultural life in this country so I urge you to do it.”
Speaking at the 2003 BBC Folk Awards, London

Dr John Sentamu
“What is it to be English? It is a very serious question. The English are somehow embarrassed about some of the good things they have done. Multiculturalism has seemed to imply, wrongly for me, ‘Let other cultures be allowed to express themselves but do not let the majority culture at all tell us its glories, its struggles, its joys, its pains’. A failure to rediscover English culture would fuel greater political extremism.”
Speaking before his enthronement as Archbishop of York, November 2005

Amen.

I have blogged before about this thing called Englishness– how it has become a word that belongs to football supporters and a particularly loathsome kind of politician. Folk music connects me with another older England- which for the sake of differentiation, I have decided to call Albion.

Albion has roots that go deep into these rocky islands. And for centuries, around the camp fire,

and the haystacks,

and the factory floors,

and the shipyards,

and the old folks homes,

and the nurseries,

and the churches-

The people of Albion have been singing. Singing of their loves and sorrows, of injustice and of good food and wine, celebrating their hero’s- otherwise lost to history. Pricking the pomposity of those in power.

It is the poetry of the people, transmitted on a tune from town to town.

It may be speak of a version of ourselves that is overly romanticised and be shaped by unreliable oral traditions, but for all of that, the voices are real.

I love the folk from other places- where it is often valued more- but most of all, I love the voices of old Albion…

And for those Scottish friends of mine who think that I am forsaking my chosen place of residence, as well as my Irish roots- remember that the old word for Scotland (and parts of Ireland), ALBA- also comes from the word Albion. We share more than would seperate us, we children of these islands.

So, time for a bit of music I reckon…

And I reckon, in this wide world of wonders- there should always be room for the odd bit of Morris Dancing.


Greenbelt here we come…

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Greenbelt

Our preparations for Greenbelt festival are skipping over into the inevitable last minute panics.

We have to spray some fabric and Gazebos with fire retardant solution- which would be fine if we could get hold of some! We ordered it, but it did not arrive. We now wait to see if it will come tomorrow, and then hope we can get it sprayed and dried in time.

I am driving down with my friend Nick on Thursday, so we can pitch our tent in a good place and get started in setting up some poetry banners around the site. We set up a little competition- The first 10 people who collect the titles of all 10 poems and brings them to our worship event will get a free book.

We hope to get along to the Tautoko network pre-Greenbelt gathering in the Gloucester Cathedral on Thursday evening- along with a lot of other Greenbelt contributors, and the weird and wonderful worship of Agents of the Future.

Michaela, and 5 others will be joining us on Friday. It will be great to meet up with old friends who will be there- Simon McGoo and Mark and Dee from Wales…

Aoradh are responsible for a worship slot in the New Forms Cafe at 1.00 PM on Saturday- please come along!

We are also putting up 10 banners with poetry based on the Ecclesiastes 3 passage on seasons/time. Some of them are from my last book.

I am also doing some reading from this book, and an interview at the Proost Unususal Suspects event, also in New forms, 10PM, Friday. Proost have produced some really cool publicity cards for the book, so if anyone fancies spreading a few around, let me know!

I was also asked to be part of a panel on the use of new liturgy, something which I declined as I felt very under qualified, and we will miss most of Monday, as we will need to be on the road back up to Scotland.

So- looking forward to it- hope to see you there.

Worship music, revisited…

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singing

A friend asked me to get involved in playing some worship music recently. He and I used to play together quite a lot, but (as I have blogged about before, here) I have found myself deliberately stepping back from worship driven exclusively by music- or perhaps to be more accurate (if a little jaundiced)- music to pep people up for a sermon.

I think I may have posted this before-

But I do not think I am ready to leave worship music behind altogether. I continue to wonder where are the songs that will carry forward the culture that is emerging in our Christian groups and gatherings, and whether we might yet rescue something from guitar driven worship from the marketing machine that made it a sacred cow.

And wondering too whether the raw creative fun that making music can be might find a new rhythm outside the institution of formal church, and still allow small groups of Christians to worship together in meaningful, authentic and inspirational ways.

And even when we ‘plug in’ and make noise, needing space and greater organisation- I wonder too whether we can do this, but avoid the ego-worship hero stuff. Avoid the search for the next Matt Redman (who was, of course, the next Martin Smith.) I like Matt Redman by the way- some of his songs are great. Some are not. Like all song writers!

On the Tautoko network site, I made these comments ( and asked these questions)-

This is a bit confusing for me. I spent years ‘leading worship’- by which I mean playing soft folk rock choruses. I became increasingly dissatisfied with this, in terms of style, underlying theological assumptions and the exclusive one dimensional character that it brought to our collective worship.

I began a journey that will be familiar to many of you- towards older more contemplative ways to approach God, and into experiments with ‘alternative worship’.

But the love of music was still on me. It’s power to move and to unite. The beauty that comes when people join small talents to make something that is much bigger than the sum of their parts.

And as I look around me, in the wider alt. worship scene, we seem to use a lot of ambient stuff, and the odd bit of singer-songwriter creativity. But we do not sing very much. Is this because it is not cool? Or is it a pendulum swing reaction against the CCM/Worship machine that has made worship music a commodity?

In my group, we have members aged 9 to 75. And people want to sing. I have found myself digging into a 30 plus year backlog of songs and choruses looking for ‘hymns and spiritual songs’ that hold some meaning and truth that fits where our group is at.

So- a few questions…

Do you sing?
What songs still have meaning?
How does music fit with the wider alt worship stuff you are involved with?

There were a few answers. There is a lot of music out there unfamiliar to me. Songs from a Catholic tradition, or from the Iona Community (often by the brilliant John Bell– who, I contend, has also written some stinkers!)

But I am yet to feel that I am building a collection of songs that are I can sing with passion and integrity in my developing context. Sure, some of them I have carried with me- reworked old hymns, or the few songs that connect with Justice issues, and the mission of Jesus. But so much of the love-songs-slightly-reworked-to-be-religious, I simply can not sing any more- even ones I used to love.

I came across this bloke, Andy Flanagan on the Greenbelt website today- who I feel an affinity with as he seems to be a cricket fanatic and Christian socialist too. Must get along to his gig @ Greenbelt if I can.  I liked some of the words of his worship songs.

But if you know of others- songs that gather some of the hopes and dreams of this thing that is the emerging church, I would love to hear them. What songs allow you to reach up towards God and offer him something meaningful and beautiful as you gather together?

I can trade you a few that mean something to me…

Big black CD thing that you can’t even skip to the next track…

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DSCF4142

The quote above is from my daughter, and is a description of my record player.

We have all these old records sitting on a shelf. Like many of us, I have not been able to bring myself to get rid of it, although until recently we had nothing to play them on. I bought a second hand Pro-Ject debut turntable from Ebay, which is perhaps the best quality turntable I have ever owned, and have fallen in love with the sound of vinyl again.

All those blokes (and they are always blokes) who get all dewy eyed about the analogue qualities of vinyl as opposed to the mass produced bland sound of digital music- well perhaps they have something right after all!

I love the way that the playing of a record is an EVENT- full of drama and edgyness- as you unsleeve the LP, blow the dust, carefully place it on the deck, and align the needle. Then comes the crackle and spit of the dust, before the music kicks into bright airy life. And there IS a different quality to the sound- a warmth and vitality that is noticeable. Or am I just becoming one of those blokes?

I have rediscovered some old favourites.

U2’s Rattle and Hum.

Old Christian cheesey music that I grew up with- early Graham Kendrick stuff like Fighter, and Cresta Run.

Joni Mitchell.

Crosby Stills and Nash.

Bruce Cockburn’s ‘Big Circumstance’

Aztec Camera, China Crisis… etc.

Come on round. Wear a tank top and let’s get all retro.

DSCF4140

Regina Spektor- laughing with God…

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So, Glastonbury Festival is here again. Summer must descend into torrential rain…

And I will discover new music via the wonders of the BBC multi screen player, competing with my daughter for the remote control, lest she force me to endure any more Lady Ga Ga or Evanescence.

I enjoyed Regina Spektor this evening- interesting, creative and edgy, with a great voice. One song that caught my attention was this one-

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God
When the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
When it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from the party yet

No one laughs at God
When their airplane start to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love, hand in hand with someone else
And they hope that they’re mistaken

No one laughs at God
When the cops knock on their door
And they say we got some bad news, sir
No one’s laughing at God
When there’s a famine or fire or flood

*Chorus*
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’ve lost all they’ve got
And they don’t know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
That the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughing at God in hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very
poor

No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all laughing with God

One minute guitar lessons…

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Music kinds of ebbs and flows in my life. It is always there in the background, but at times, it moves centre stage.

For a long time, doing music (even doing bad music!) was one of the engines for life in me. I played whenever I could. I played worship music, I played in pubs, in studios, and in various collections of fellow musicians that I hesitate to call ‘bands’. Music and spirituality were intertwined- playing and singing was the way i worshiped, and the primary way I set myself to encounter the Living God.

But then something would happen to make me think that music was over for me. It may have been a constant awareness of my own limitations as a musician. Or when I moved away to Scotland. Or when I began to find ‘worship leading’ restrictive and one dimensional.

Each time, however, I found that music was not done with me.

The guitars would come out at a party and we would find something beautiful amongst all the mess of missed chords and background noise.

Or to my surprise, I would be invited to participate in other peoples events- leading to trips to the USA and Europe.

Or the loose collective of musicians that are part of ‘aoradh‘ will have another outing…

But it has been a while now.

So, time to makes some music.

Anyone else up for it?

By way of inspiration, I found these clips of some Canadian guitar players… enjoy!

Englishness, marmite and folk music…

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Here’s a bit of cockney folk-punk raconteur Billy Bragg, backed by a selection of brilliant musicians- including guitar genius Martin Carthy, and Chris Wood, he with the ‘dark brown voice’.

It manages to combine some stuff that says something right and true about being from a particular English tradition. One that is unsure of itself, and even if it has some awareness of it’s roots, is not static, but takes and incorporates from other cultures, and becomes something new…

And despite all the Empire Building and oppressing.

Despite the dark satanic mills and the miners strike.

Despite the Tolpuddle Martyrs and the Poll Tax.

Despite the Spinning Jenny and the Enclosure Acts

Despite Margaret Thatcher and the death of ideology

England is still a wonderful place.

And because the sound quality of the last one was rubbish- here is a bit more from the collective of musicians called ‘The imagined village.’

Finally, from the same collection- a slice of Benjamin Zephaniniah which gathers some more ideas of Englishness…

Winter (and William) stage a comeback…

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Will with hood up

Will with hood up

William has been away to the Lochgoilhead Feis this weekend, run by Lochgoilhead fiddle workshop.

He has had a ball- lessons on the Clarsach (hence the photo in the earlier post) the fiddle, and whistle, as well as Gaelic singing and pecussion.

He also had a chance to do a high ropes course, go out on a high speed boat, and shoot arrows. We missed him, but he had loads of fun.

We went to fetch him this afternoon, and to watch some of the kids put on a bit of a show. It was great to see so much enthusiasm for making music- which I think is one of those key things that holds communities together. Because Will is at a Gaelic unit in school, he has a chance to get involved in all sorts of Scottish cultural events- and it gives us such pleasure to see him soaking into the stuff of our adopted land.

A few weeks ago he went to a Celtic connections event with school, and seemed to pick up a hero in young singer Norrie MacIver, accordionist, beatboxer and member of the band Bodega. Norrie was one of the tutors at the Feis, and Will has come back full of enthusiasm- wanting to take up learning an instrument again. Thanks Norrie! We all need role models, and people to draw us on…

The weather was dreadful though! The drive down the spectacular Hells Glen is always a challenge- and when there is snow on the road it can be treacherous.

So here are some photos…