Music Notes 2-4-24
This week we welcome back our marvelous band, who will bring us a smorgasbord of musical styles to support the worship. Tell your friends, bring them to church.
Written in 1984, Canadian song writer Leonard Cohen struggled with his song “Hallelujah”, writing as many as 80 verses before paring it down to the song we know. It was named one of the 500 Best Songs by Rolling Stone magazine, in 2005 Chart magazine named it the 10th best Canadian song, and on December 21, 2008 became the first song in 51 years to be both #1 and #2 on the UK Singles Chart. But, it’s John Cale’s soulful rendition used in the movie Shrek that most of us know and love. His passing, at the age of 82 at his home here in Los Angeles, caused a surge in interest in his music, with sales skyrocketing.
On September 26, 1976, 14-year-old Larry Mullen, Jr. placed a note on the bulletin board of Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, Ireland, looking for members to form a band. 6 people responded. They began as Feedback, performing covers of other artists’ music, then in 1977 changed their name to The Hype with 5 members. In March of 1978, they phased out their fifth man and changed their name to U2, playing their own original material. Their 1st big break came when they won a competition on St. Patrick’s Day, 1978, which provided them with the opportunity to record a demo that would be heard by CBS Ireland, a record label. Since then, U2 has gone on to release 13 studio albums and have become one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, selling over 170 million albums worldwide. They have won 22 Grammy Awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. Rolling Stone ranked U2 as 22nd on their list of “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”. Love Rescue Me was part of the album Rattle and Hum, which was released in 1988. The album explores American root music and incorporates blues rock, folk rock, and gospel elements in the music. In November of 1987, Bono met Bob Dylan and they wrote a song together called Prisoner of Love, which later became Love Rescue Me. The original recording was recorded with Bob Dylan singing lead vocals and was recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, which had been home to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison, to name a few. Dylan asked that his version not be included in the album because of previous commitments.
Hailing from the small coastal town of Bangor in Northern Ireland, the Rend Collective is a group of “twenty-somethings” that gathered at Rend, what the band describes as “a ministry for spiritually hungry young adults, desperately seeking an authentic, raw and real expression of church, which was informally pastored by bandleader, Gareth Gilkeson.” Their first album – Homemade Worship by Handmade People – was released in 2012, and was followed by a string of hits in the contemporary Christian music world. Their music is based around older instruments - their native Irish folk instruments, old rock and roll guitars and assorted other whimsical musical toys - and has a raw, uninhibited style that gets the toes tapping and the feet stomping. They don’t call themselves a folk band, but insist rather “We are not actually an indie-folk band - despite all the beards and bow-ties and banjos. We are a celebration band. It’s just a coincidence that folk music and celebration make a great pairing!” Their song My Lighthouse is a classic foot-stomper that never fails to engage the listener.
David Wallace Crowder, who goes by the mononymous stage name Crowder (in the finest tradition of Cher, Madonna, Adele and Prince), was the lead singer in the now defunct David Crowder Band, a contemporary worship band that disbanded in 2012. He has since gone on to a solo career, releasing his first solo studio album in 2014, under the sixsteps/sparrow label, called Neon Steeple. Come As You Are, one of the cuts from that album, peaked at #3 on the US Christian Songs chart and went on to receive a Grammy nomination in 2015 for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song. His song I Am A Seed was released on the 2012 album Give Us A Rest (or A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys]).
Dan Schutte is one of the most renowned of the contemporary composers in the Catholic world and is one of the founding members of the St. Louis Jesuits, who popularized a contemporary style of church music set to sacred texts sung in English. This was a result of the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960’s (also known as Vatican II), which revamped and reformed the Catholic liturgy in an effort to bring it closer to the people (before that, the mass was sung in Latin and the priest kept his back to the congregation throughout). He is based in San Francisco, has written over 120 popular hymns and mass settings, and continues to be one of the most influential figures in the world of contemporary Catholic liturgical music. His most famous composition is Here I Am, Lord, based on texts from Isaiah and Samuel. Despite its Catholic origins, it is found in most Protestant hymnals and has been translated into over 20 different languages. In 2008, a survey conducted by the United Methodist Church found it to be 2nd favorite after Amazing Grace.