""I'd love to go to Santa Fe at some point, Emmett said, but for the time being, I need to go to New York.
The panhandler stopped laughing and adopted a more serious expression.
Well. that's life in a nutshell, aint it. Lovin' to go to one place and havin' to go to another.
Amor Towles in the Lincoln Highway.
Search Me!
Pictures of Memories I
Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23
Last year at this time I commemorated Sir Randy Stonehill's 71st birthday by sharing 71 of my favorite songs of his on this blog. As he is adding a candle on his birthday cake this year, I am upping my 71 song salute to a half gross. I was able to see Randy at 2 concerts since he turned 71. One with Phil Keaggy last Fall, and a few weeks ago I crossed the border into Missouri to catch an epic solo concert.
In tribute to that performance I am including every song I can find on the internet that he performed at that concert. All of the songs he perfformed on March 2nd in St. Louis are listed in Bold Letters (Just in case you don't know what Bold Letters look like, they look like this.)Many of his songs can be found on Spotify. Songs I could not find on Spotify, I found on BandCamp. Songs I could not find in either place I pulled from you-tube or Patreon.
1. Irresistable Future - Mystery Highway
2. Faithful - Until We Have Wings
3. Get Me Out of Hollywood- Get me Out of Hollywood
5. Christmas Song For All Year 'Round - Welcome To Paradise
6. I Love You - Born Twice
7. Norman's Kitchen - Born Twice
8. Bad Fruit -The Sky Is Falling
9. Still Small Voice - Celebrate This Heartbeat
10. Christine - Between The Glory And The Flame
11. Can Hell Burn Hot Enough - Until We Have Wings
12. Light Of The World - Equator
13. First Prayer - Welcome To Paradise
14. Keep Me Runnin' - Welcome To Paradise
15. Stop The World - Celebrate This Heartbeat
16. Sunday's Child - Mystery Highway
17. Love Beyond Reason - Love Beyond Reason 18. Ramada Inn (Live) - Until We Have Wings 19. Everything But Love - Stonehill 20. Didn't It Rain - Until We Have Wings 21. One True Love - The Sky Is Falling 22.Until Your Love Broke Through- Love Beyond Reason 23. Celebrate This Heartbeat - Celebrate This Heartbeat 24. The Hope of Glory - The Wild Frontier 25. Modern Myth - Celebrate This Heartbeat 26. Can't Buy A Miracle - Can't Buy A Miracle 27. Leonard Has A Toaster - Lost Art Of Listening 28. Glory And The Flame - Between The Glory And The Flame
29. Stand Like Steel - Return To Paradise 30. Hand of God - Thirst
31. Barbie Nation - Wonderama
32. Old Clothes - Until We Have Wings
33. Charlie The Weatherman - Stories
34. Try Havin' Some Faith - Spirit Walk
35. Turning Thirty - Equator
36. Lazarus Heart - Lazarus Heart
37. This Old Face - Lost Art Of Listening
38. Baby Hates Clowns - Thirst
39. Strong Hand Of Love - Welcome To Paradise
40. Stormy Winds- Uncle Stonehill's Hat
41. Die Young - Between The Glory And The Flame
42. Who Will Save The Children - Celebrate This Heartbeat
43. Arriving to Depart: Not yet on album
(Pulled from You Tube video from Jan 24 concert, song begins at approximately 19:00)
44. King Of Hearts: Welcome To Paradise
45. That's The Way It Goes (Live) - Edge Of The World
46. Shut De Do (Live) - Equator
47. Jesus - Breath Of God
48. Big Ideas (In The Shrinking World) 49. Beginning Of The Living End - Lost Art of Listening
50. Broken Places - Spirit Walk 51. Hymn - Love Beyond Reason
52. Billy Frank - The Lost Art Of Listening
53. Venezuela - The Sky Is Falling
54. What Do You Want From Life? - The Wild Frontier
55.Brighter Day - Can't Buy A Miracle 56. Get Together - The Wild Frontier
57. Ready To Go - Welcome To Paradise
58.Rachel Delevoryas - Wonderama
59.In Jesus Name - Lazarus Heart 60.Last Time I Saw Eden - Spirit Walk 61. Everything You Know (Is Incorrect) - Thirst
62.I've Got News For You (Paradise Sky Version) Welcome To Paradise -
63. When I'm Afraid Lazarus Heart
64.When I Look To The Mountains - Celebrate This Heartbeat
65.Mercy In The Shadow Land - Lost Art Of Listening
66. Backwards On Her Bike - Mystery Highway 67.Cosmetic Fixation - Equator
68.A Promise Made Is A Promise Kept - Lazarus Heart
69. The Keeper Of The Bear - Thirst
70. I Don't Ever Want To Live Without You - Return To Paradise
71. One Last Song Before I Say Goodbye - Not yet recorded on an album
72. Life is Tough, God Is Good - Spirit Walk
Happy Birthday Randy! I encourage anyone who spends time listening to these songs to buy some or all of them on Band Camp. Also you can sponsor Rand's ministry on his Patreon page.
The beginning of a new year is a time of looking back and looking forward at the same time. In that spirit, I will be writing about the best 2 books I read for the first time in 2023, and also list ten books I am either currently reading or planning to read soon in 2024. The best 2 books I read in 2024 were A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles and Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
In September I wrote a little about Levi here. Levi has been many things in his career a lawyer, an independent singer song writer, a judge, a bee keeper, just to name a few. He weaves many of those experiences into his first novel. My favorite album of Allen's is Rivertown, a musical love letter to the history of Columbus Georgia. Theo of Golden is also about a river town. The fictional southern city of Golden is an additional character among many finely developed characters. But the characters and the setting take a back seat to the story which is about kindness, community and redemption. Theo of Golden and is available in multiple places, including Rabbit Room, Amazon, and at Levi's website.
In preparation for the launch of his book, Levi wrote several pieces on his blog about writing. In one, he talked about the novel A Gentlemen in Moscow by Amor Towles. I was intrigued, so I borrowed it from my local library.
A Gentleman in Moscow is about a man who is under house arrest for over 20 years in a Moscow Hotel. It takes place almost entirely in the hotel, you would imagine this would make for one claustrophobic read, far from it!
Towles like Levi successfully makes the setting a pivotal character in this book. The 2016 novel will soon be a television series on Showtime. I was sad to finish both of these books and am looking forward to rereading them again soon. Which brings us to our Next Ten ....
This will generally just be a list of 10 books, but as I mentioned in a previous post, I will also be entering a small update on my progress in my quest to read Fellowship Of The Ring before my 60th birthday,.
Dreyer's English - Benjamin Dreyer
Eugene Onegin - Alexander Pushkin
Concise Theology - J.I. Packer
1984 - George Orwell
Write Better - Andrew T. Le Peau
Royko - F. Richard Ciccone
Fellowship of The Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
I obtained the book from my local library, although my son has since informed me that he has several copies he could lend me. I have finished the first chapter.
The Periodic Table of D.C. - Melanie Scott
Theo of Golden - Allen Levi
A Gentleman In Moscow - Amor Towles
Note: I have already completed one book on this list since, I started writing this post a few days back. When I have finished reading 4 more books, I will post a new Last 5 Next Ten.
Keith Green would have turned 70 today. Here's a clip of Randy Stonehill talking about the behind the scenes story of the classic tune Your Love Broke Through.
*Note* I originally wrote and published this post on Friday September 8th 2023 and I inexplicably deleted 1/2 of it and then deleted the rest trying to fix it. If I could explic it, it wouldn't be inexplicable.
The post contained below is what I wrote Friday, to the best of my growing faultier by the day memory.
Love, Dave
On the first Thursday of each month, An internet community gathers to explore the spiritual ramifications of a given topic or to make their own spiritual observations off the topic. This months host is Patricia Franz of the Reverie Blog Her entry is Life At The Speed of Grace.
I really enjoyed her post. I liked her idea that grace is shorthand for God. I especially liked her poem featuring an adieuing owl and a blooming cucumber. I spent a good deal of time reflecting on Grace and the idea of God's grace and here are some of my reflections.
Allen Levi is my friend. He is also one of my heroes. I have only met him 4 times and these have always been at concerts he's playing. Yet I consider him a friend and kindred spirit. In my opinion Allen is a jack of all trades, master of all. He is a former lawyer, a former judge (with a 20 year gap between these occupations). He left law in the early 90's to become an independent singer songwriter. During that time he took a year off from singing, writing, and touring to be his brother's caregiver as his brother was dying, of cancer. He wrote an excellent book about his brother called The Last Sweet Mile. He has also written a fine children's book based on his song Oliviatown.
Recently Allen finished his first novel. It is called Theo of Golden and is available for preorder at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and on Kindle. His website has a link to a sample chapter. Levi also is or has been a beekeeper, bird enthusiast, book reader (volunteers each year to regularly read to a grade school class) and blogger. And those are just the things I know of that begin with the letter B.
I say all this because when I began reflecting on Patricia's post the first thing that popped in my head were Allen Levi song lyrics and since Mr. Levi isn't the household name that I think he should be, I needed to answer the question of who Allen Levi is before I could begin in earnest. And earnest I am; so begin I shall.
As I mentioned Allen Levi is one of my heroes. The lyrics that popped in my mind when I started reflection on Grace, is from his song. "Most of My Heroes".
The 2nd verse starts:
All of my heroes are rich in imperfections. All of my heroes are richer still in grace.
Levi continues
They are people who are weak and bruised and broken, But they know somehow they'll make it through the race.
Grace has been defined as unmerited favor. It is one of the main manifestations of God's goodness. We grow in grace as we grow closer to God. This is probably the reason why Franz says grace is shorthand for God. Levi makes a similar point in the song's chorus:
Most of my heroes are very simple people. All of my heroes look a lot like you.
Accepting God's grace in your life is a transformative process. The more grace we receive the more we are changed and the more we attribute that change to God. Consider Levi's powerful yet whimsical bridge, . . .
And if you brag on them like I'm trying to do, I can bet what they might say to you. They'd say "thanks a lot.", and blush as if it's just not true.
The book of Hebrews spends an entire chapter (eleven) talking about the heroes of the Old Testament. The same phrase is used over and over again in the chapter to describe how these heroes operated and that phrase is by faith. Without God's faith in God those heroes would not have done the things God made them able to do.
When I think of my spiritual journey, I think of grace, I think of faith and mostly I think of Jesus, In Chapter 12 of Hebrews, the author segues from the Hall of Faith to Jesus himself :
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The spiritual journey I am on is one of faith and one of grace. I am being perfected on this journey by Jesus. He is my hero and as I grow in faith through his Grace I will grow to look a lot like Him.
On this Day March 12th, 1951 fellow baby boomer and my favorite singer Randy Stonehill was born in California. He turns 71 today and to celebrate I will link 71 of my favorite songs (and yes, I have that many) of his here on this very happy birthday post. Many of these songs can be found on Spotify. All of these songs are available for purchase at Bandcamp. Note: Songs are listed from the album they originally appeared. The song is not always being played from that album.
1. Never Can Repay - Born Twice
2. Faithful - Until We Have Wings
3. Get Me Out of Hollywood- Get me Out of Hollywood
4. Starlings - Return To Paradise
5. Christmas Song For All Year 'Round - Welcome To Paradise
6. I Love You - Born Twice
7. Norman's Kitchen - Born Twice
8. Bad Fruit -The Sky Is Falling
9. Still Small Voice - Celebrate This Heartbeat
10. Christine - Between The Glory And The Flame
11. Can Hell Burn Hot Enough - Until We Have Wings
12. Light Of The World - Equator
13. First Prayer - Welcome To Paradise
14. Keep Me Runnin' - Welcome To Paradise
15. Stop The World - Celebrate This Heartbeat
16. Sunday's Child - Mystery Highway
17. Love Beyond Reason - Love Beyond Reason
18. Ramada Inn (Live) - Until We Have Wings
19. Everything But Love - Stonehill
20. Didn't It Rain - Until We Have Wings
21. One True Love - The Sky Is Falling
22. Until Your Love Broke Through- Love Beyond Reason
23. Celebrate This Heartbeat - Celebrate This Heartbeat
24. The Hope of Glory - The Wild Frontier
25. Modern Myth - Celebrate This Heartbeat
26. Can't Buy A Miracle - Can't Buy A Miracle
27. Leonard Has A Toaster - Lost Art Of Listening
28. Glory And The Flame - Between The Glory And The Flame
29. Stand Like Steel - Return To Paradise
30. Hand of God - Thirst
31. Barbie Nation - Wonderama
32. Old Clothes - Until We Have Wings
33. Charlie The Weatherman - Stories
34. Try Havin' Some Faith - Spirit Walk
35. Turning Thirty - Equator
36. Lazarus Heart - Lazarus Heart
37. This Old Face - Lost Art Of Listening
38. Baby Hates Clowns - Thirst
39. Strong Hand Of Love - Welcome To Paradise
40. Curious - Uncle Stonehill's Hat
41. Die Young - Between The Glory And The Flame
42. Who Will Save The Children - Celebrate This Heartbeat
43. We Were All So Young - Edge Of The World
44. King Of Hearts
45. That's The Way It Goes (Live) - Edge Of The World
46. Shut De Do (Live) - Equator
47. Jesus - Breath Of God
48. Big Ideas (In The Shrinking World) 49. The Gods Of Men - Love Beyond Reason
50. Broken Places - Spirit Walk
51. Hymn - Love Beyond Reason
52. Billy Frank - The Lost Art Of Listening
53. Venezuela - The Sky Is Falling
54. What Do You Want From Life? - The Wild Frontier
55.Brighter Day - Can't Buy A Miracle
56. Get Together - The Wild Frontier
57. Ready To Go - Welcome To Paradise
58. Sing In Portugese - Wonderama
59.In Jesus Name - Lazarus Heart
60.Last Time I Saw Eden - Spirit Walk
61. Everything You Know (Is Incorrect) - Thirst
62.I've Got News For You (Paradise Sky Version) Welcome To Paradise -
63. Awfully Loud World - Can't Buy A Miracle
64.When I Look To The Mountains - Celebrate This Heartbeat
65.Mercy In The Shadow Land - Lost Art Of Listening
66. Backwards On Her Bike - Mystery Highway
67.Cosmetic Fixation - Equator
68.A Promise Made Is A Promise Kept - Lazarus Heart
69. The Keeper Of The Bear - Thirst
70. I Don't Ever Want To Live Without You - Return To Paradise
71. Finish Well - Spirit Walk
Happy Birthday Randy! I encourage anyone who spends time listening to these songs to buy some or all of them on Bandy Camp and give Randy a gift for the wonderful music he's been giving to us for a half-century.
Rich Mullins passed away over 25 years ago. His music is as meaningful and relevant to me today as it was back then. This is one reason why I am so delighted that a recording of a concert he gave many years ago has just been released on almost all of the streaming platforms and is also available on c.d. The Album is called Deep Valley and was recorded at Deep Valley Christian Service Camp in Western Pennsylvania. Rich loved this camp and my understanding is that he performed there often. Here is a recording of the song Finish Line recorded at the camp in July of 1983. (This song is not on the album.)
Rich Mullins's music still has an impact on people today as attested in this New York Times Piece. Bellsburg, the album mentioned in the NYT piece has been available for streaming since November and Deep Valley dropped (as the cool kids say) earlier this month.
Both albums were funded on Kickstarter and produced by Old Bear Records. I received both albums on C.D. by participating in the Kickstarter. I enjoy both albums immensely. I guess if pressed, I would say I like Deep Valley every bit as well as Bellsburg as it is great to hear Rich playing in a concert setting again on a new recording. I highly recommend either album.
My wife and I are going to listen to Deep Valley on the way home from work today.
My Friend Allen Levi is one of the most prolific music artists that no one has ever heard. He performs one song called You'll be famous when your dead" I'm not sure that he wants to be or ever will be famous. But if he ever does catch on, his 16 albums on Spotify will keep the public saturated for a while.
I had been listening to one song from each of his albums on Spotify for the past 15 days now, so today when I was grading papers after work, I put the only one on Spotify that I hadn't heard a song from yet and listened to it in it's entirety.
The album called People in my Town is a kind of a concept album. Levi interviews people in his town (thus the title), writes a song based on the interview and then plays them back to back on the album.
Here is the title track from the album that introduces the concept ...
.
In about the middle Allen interviews a middle school teacher who had been deeply effected by his teachers when he was in middle school.
Levi then performs a touching song about the dedicated teachers who love on students. When I first heard this album, I kind of glossed over this song as I was not a professional teacher at the time. The song resonates much more with me now as I am a long term substitute in a middle school setting. But I think this song should resonate with anyone who has worked with young people either as a parent, an educator, or any type of yout leader.
If these songs or interviews have resonated with you in anyway consider going tot he bandcamp platform and purchasing these songs or perhaps the full album or maybe sample some more of Allen's music. WHo knows? You might make him famous before he's dead.
In the world of Contemporary Music their are few bigger names than Keith Green and Rich Mullins. Admittedly, there are literally bigger names as the aforementioned take up only 5 combined syllables and fit comfortably on the 1/3 of the first line of this text. Their actual names may be small but their impact on the lives of believers has been great indeed,
Keith Green share many of the same attributes including the same birthday, today, October 21st (Keith in 1953, and Rich in 1955). They were both gifted musicians and lyricists. They both were outspoken in their faith and counter cultural in their approach to ministry. They also died very young in vehicular accidents.
Due to a plane crash in 1982, Keith Green did not live to see his 30th birthday and Mullins who covered a Green song on the 1992 tribute album No Compromise died in a car crash in 1997, just over a month before his 42nd birthday.
Green before his conversion to Christianity was headed to a career as a rock and roll teen sensation. The below footage is from a guest appearance on the panel show I've got a Secret when he was 11 years old. After revealing his secret The youngster performs one of the songs he composed.
It is no secret that the music, the vulnerability, and the passion of both Green and Mullins has informed my own journey. It is fitting that they shared the same birthday , the same passion for Christ and the same method of expressing that passion. They also share a place in my heart for how their music and ministry still inspires me to this day.
I saw this on Bob Bennet's website just about 30 minutes too late for Father's day. I worked Father's Day at a K.C. COugars game selling concessions. Kids were playing catch with their Dads. I watched them do it and remembered playing catch on that field with my son just a few years ago.
I really enjoyed this new look at one of my favorite songs.
Yesterday, I was cleaning out some junk from my room and decided to put on some music while doing so. I chose a Randy Stonehill You tube video, that I had previously shared here.
The video is from a series called More than a Song which is part concert and part interview. After the Stonehill segment had ended I found there was another artist form my big 5. Bob Bennet, who was also in an episode. I liked it and thought I'd share it here as well
I just sent a letter to Allen Levi. If you read this blog you know he is a singer-songwriter who lives near the Alabama Georgia border. In the letter, I told him that my favorite song of his is House of Mercy from his album Rivertown. (You can check it out at Bandcamp by clicking here. Or listen to it on Spotify by clicking here.)
After I sent out that letter I realized that I had set up this song to play today. It reminded me that almost every song of Allen's is among my favorites.
We reversed our selves all the way back to the begiining of our Allen Levi concert. Feel free ro listen to just this song or listen to the concert in it's entrety.
Today is January 28th and there are 5 more songs left in the Allen Levi Concert in reverse. Let me see if we can get them out here and begin the concert by February. first. His introduction islonger than the song itself but what an introduction it is! The song is ggreat too and I dedicate it to my wife and I certainly echoe the sentiment.