When good music comes to town...
On Monday night the Lincoln Theatre in downtown Raleigh hosted the one and only Derek Webb, a former vocalist and songwriter for Caedmon's Call who has been going solo for a few years and about 5 or 6 albums. Often introspective and sometimes irascible, Derek has increasingly made it his (at least implicit) goal to shock and provoke his fellow Christians to rethink their understanding of themselves, the Church, politics, etc. Derek gained some measure of notoriety on his first album with what has become by far his most well-known (and arguably most loved) post-Caedmon's song, Wedding Dress. Derek does not shy away from fairly graphic language to contrast the faithful love of God with the fickle response of the Christian:
'Cause I am a whore I do confess
But I put you on just like a wedding dress
And I run down the aisle, run down the aisle
I'm a prodigal with no way home
But I put you on just like a ring of gold
And I run down the aisle, run down the aisle
to you.
Derek begins one verse of the song with the words, "So could you love this bastard child?"
The harsh language upset some Christian retailers, but Derek upped the ante against his own evangelical subculture on the album I See Things Upside Down when, in one song, he took his cue from the Song of Solomon and wrote "better than wine is your love" and used the image of drunkenness to describe love.
As if Derek hadn't done enough for some people to pull his albums off the shelves, after coming here to Duke Divinity School to do a concert he was introduced to the theological work of Stanley Hauerwas. Now I'm not sure of all the details of the story or whether Derek's thoughts were moving in a certain direction beforehand, but the influence of Hauerwas was apparently enough to get Derek to take a firm stand in favor of Christian pacifism. Last year he came out with the album Mockingbird, which is at the same time vicious and beautiful, compelling and, for some, exacerbating. Derek pummels the standard consensus thinking of theologically and politically "conservative" evangelicals as he assaults the morality of war, the death penalty, and the status quo that allows some Christians to ignore socioeconomic differences by focusing on the less challenging mission of "soul-winning." Most will focus on the second verse of the song A King and a Kingdom as illustrative of Derek's forcefulness:
there are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican
and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him
Various concertgoers have reported people walking out in disgust over Derek's lyrics. Now from time to time he has changed the wording to "middle-class Democrat" in an attempt to demonstrate he has not traded in one set of political idolatries for another. Nevertheless because of the tone of his writing many evangelicals will likely not consider what Derek has to say and continue to write him off as just some sort of leftist.
Derek's new album The Ringing Bell is not as (overtly) politically charged as the last one, although it still has some stinging critiques in songs such as A Savior on Capitol Hill. A couple of the songs appear to be semi-veiled responses to the critical voices that have assaulted his work, while one, I Don't Want to Fight, is an appeal for peaceful dialogue over differences that he himself is surely still learning. Derek argues for his pacifism more subtly, and perhaps in the end that may be more influential.
Well, I've been tracing the history of Derek Webb's music and I've said nothing about the concert. In short, it was phenomenal. Derek played a range of his songs from Caedmon's days through the new album. He was supported by a full band and three special guests - his 7-months-pregnant wife Sandra McCracken on keyboard and vocals, producer/musician Cason Cooley on bass guitar, and current Caedmon's member and fellow solo artist Andrew Osenga on guitar and vocals. Andrew and Cason were both members of a phenomenal, and largely ignored, band called The Normals. Cason now focuses on producing while Andrew plays with Caedmon's and also produces his own well-written, largely introspective albums. Andrew remains one of my favorite artists and I would love to get him to do a concert at the Divinity School.
Despite all my talk about Derek Webb, I'm going to end with a YouTube clip from the concert of Andrew playing Early in the Morning off his latest album. I would post it on the site, but I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet. So just follow the link. Go to YouTube and enjoy!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cSmOqZttZxQ
'Cause I am a whore I do confess
But I put you on just like a wedding dress
And I run down the aisle, run down the aisle
I'm a prodigal with no way home
But I put you on just like a ring of gold
And I run down the aisle, run down the aisle
to you.
Derek begins one verse of the song with the words, "So could you love this bastard child?"
The harsh language upset some Christian retailers, but Derek upped the ante against his own evangelical subculture on the album I See Things Upside Down when, in one song, he took his cue from the Song of Solomon and wrote "better than wine is your love" and used the image of drunkenness to describe love.
As if Derek hadn't done enough for some people to pull his albums off the shelves, after coming here to Duke Divinity School to do a concert he was introduced to the theological work of Stanley Hauerwas. Now I'm not sure of all the details of the story or whether Derek's thoughts were moving in a certain direction beforehand, but the influence of Hauerwas was apparently enough to get Derek to take a firm stand in favor of Christian pacifism. Last year he came out with the album Mockingbird, which is at the same time vicious and beautiful, compelling and, for some, exacerbating. Derek pummels the standard consensus thinking of theologically and politically "conservative" evangelicals as he assaults the morality of war, the death penalty, and the status quo that allows some Christians to ignore socioeconomic differences by focusing on the less challenging mission of "soul-winning." Most will focus on the second verse of the song A King and a Kingdom as illustrative of Derek's forcefulness:
there are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican
and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him
Various concertgoers have reported people walking out in disgust over Derek's lyrics. Now from time to time he has changed the wording to "middle-class Democrat" in an attempt to demonstrate he has not traded in one set of political idolatries for another. Nevertheless because of the tone of his writing many evangelicals will likely not consider what Derek has to say and continue to write him off as just some sort of leftist.
Derek's new album The Ringing Bell is not as (overtly) politically charged as the last one, although it still has some stinging critiques in songs such as A Savior on Capitol Hill. A couple of the songs appear to be semi-veiled responses to the critical voices that have assaulted his work, while one, I Don't Want to Fight, is an appeal for peaceful dialogue over differences that he himself is surely still learning. Derek argues for his pacifism more subtly, and perhaps in the end that may be more influential.
Well, I've been tracing the history of Derek Webb's music and I've said nothing about the concert. In short, it was phenomenal. Derek played a range of his songs from Caedmon's days through the new album. He was supported by a full band and three special guests - his 7-months-pregnant wife Sandra McCracken on keyboard and vocals, producer/musician Cason Cooley on bass guitar, and current Caedmon's member and fellow solo artist Andrew Osenga on guitar and vocals. Andrew and Cason were both members of a phenomenal, and largely ignored, band called The Normals. Cason now focuses on producing while Andrew plays with Caedmon's and also produces his own well-written, largely introspective albums. Andrew remains one of my favorite artists and I would love to get him to do a concert at the Divinity School.
Despite all my talk about Derek Webb, I'm going to end with a YouTube clip from the concert of Andrew playing Early in the Morning off his latest album. I would post it on the site, but I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet. So just follow the link. Go to YouTube and enjoy!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cSmOqZttZxQ
Labels: The Pleasures of Life
