May the dark clouds roll away

Here's the Newsletter front cover that I've written for St Martin-in-the-Fields this week:

At the beginning of this New Year, I’ve been writing and talking about the ways faith is expressed in and through pop music in all its many guises. I’ve started writing for Deus ex Musica (https://www.deus-ex-musica.com/blog) and in a HeartEdge series have been in conversation with the composer Delvyn Case to share rock and pop music for Lent, Easter, and Christmas.

For over 50 years, pop musicians in all genres have explored aspects of spirituality and the meaning and significance of Jesus in their music. The result is a rich collection of songs that consider important spiritual questions like faith, doubt, and prayer in unique and often provocative ways.

In my second piece for Deus ex Musica, I share two songs that explore spiritual and redemptive themes by being songs of immense joy and hope. For Van Morrison in ‘Brand New Day’, joy and hope are found in the transition from living under dark clouds while feeling ‘lost and double crossed’ to the sun beginning to shine so that freedom can be seen, and life is lit with love. In ‘New Morning’, Bob Dylan is to be found fully in that moment where life and love bring happiness.

If you are looking for encouragement, inspiration, joy, and hope now that 2021 has transitioned into 2022, you can’t do better than these two songs with their shared hopeful themes and vibe. To pray that in 2022 the dark clouds roll away, the sun begins to shine, and, in its light, we might be happy just to be alive seems to me to be a great New Year prayer and one that many of us – whether in or out of church - might be willing to pray.

(Delvyn Case has set up Rock of Ages, a website where he shares his research into Jesus and Popular songs. I am co-author of ‘The Secret Chord’, which has been described as an impassioned study of the role of music in cultural life written through the prism of Christian belief)

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Van Morrison - Brand New Day / Bob Dylan - New Morning