Peace on earth

Here's the sermon that I shared during Midnight Mass at St Catherine’s Wickford:

One of my favourite rock bands is U2 whose lead singer and lyricist, Bono, is a big fan of the Psalms. He has written that a lot of the psalms feel to him like the blues. Man shouting at God - "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me?" – and some of the songs he has written do the same.

In ‘Peace on Earth’ he writes:

“Heaven on Earth, we need it now
I'm sick of all of this hanging around
Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain
I'm sick of hearing again and again
That there's gonna be peace on Earth …

Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So, what's it worth?
This peace on Earth”

It was over 2,000 years ago that that glorious song of old was first sung by angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold: "Peace on the earth, good will to men, from heaven's all-gracious King." So where is it? Why hasn’t it come? These are good questions to ask. Good questions to shout at God, just as occurs in the Psalms and in the blues.

While the Psalms and the blues pose questions, our carols may provide some answers. The carol I’ve just quoted, ‘It came upon a midnight clear’, acknowledges the lack of peace that we find in the world:

“Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;”

But the problem is then put firmly back in our own court:

“And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing.”

The wars we wage throughout our lives drown out the song of the angels and mean that we pay no attention to the peace that the Christ-child came to bring. That is also what our reading from John’s Gospel said:

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God …”

We have to recognize and receive him in order to access the peace that he brings, as another carol, ‘Joy to the World’, says clearly:

“Joy to the World, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,”

So tonight, on this silent, holy night, the questions turn back to us. Are we hushing the noise of our strife sufficiently to hear the song of peace which the angels sing? Are we preparing room in our hearts for Christ to be born or are we like the innkeepers who said, “No room.” Are we recognizing and receiving him into our lives in order to become children of God?

You’ll probably have heard the slogan of the Dog’s Trust, ‘a dog is for life, not just for Christmas.’ Perhaps we need to adapt that slogan to say, ‘Christ is for life, not just for Christmas’ because it is only when we live as Christ lived that the peace he brings comes in our own lives and also between those we know. It is when we live as Christ lived that we give time and care to those who are housebound or elderly; that we feed those who are hungry, that we provide shelter for those who are homeless, that we open our homes to those who are refugees and asylum seekers. All the kinds of actions that the churches in Wickford and Runwell try to take as we seek to follow in the footsteps of Christ and to live, however imperfectly, as he lived.

It is when we live as Christ lived that he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love. It is when we live as Christ lived that the new heaven and earth shall own the Prince of Peace, their King, and the whole world send back the song which now the angels sing.

If we, like Bono, are sick of all of the hanging around - sick of sorrow, sick of the pain, sick of hearing again and again that there's gonna be peace on Earth – then we need to prepare room for Christ to be born in our hearts so that we will live as Christ lived and bring peace on earth – to our lives, our friends and family, our community and world. May it be so for us this Christmas. Amen.

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U2 - Peace On Earth.

Seen and Unseen: Rock ‘n’ roll’s long dance with religion

My latest article for Seen and Unseen is entitled 'Rock ‘n’ roll’s long dance with religion'. The article explores how popular music conjures sacred space.:

'In Faith, Hope and Carnage, his book of conversations with Seán O’Hagan, Nick Cave said: “... Some music can ,,, lead us to a place where a fundamental spiritual shift of consciousness can happen. At best, it can conjure a sacred space.” 

That’s because, as Elvis Presley stated during his ‘68 Comeback Special, "Rock and roll is basically just gospel music, or gospel music mixed with rhythm and blues". 'Following in the wake of key precursors such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rock ‘n’ roll merged Blues (with its spiritual strand) and Country music (tapping its white gospel) while Soul music adapted much of its sound and content from Black gospel. For both, their gestures and movements, and sometimes the songs too, were adopted wholesale from Pentecostalism.'

The article includes a link to my Spotify playlist 'Closer to the light' which includes a wide selection of the music I mention in this article. 'A day, night and dawn with Nick Cave’s lyrics' is a review of Adam Steiner’s Darker With The Dawn — Nick Cave’s Songs Of Love And Death in which I explore whether Steiner's rappel into Cave’s art helps us understand its purpose.

My co-authored book The Secret Chord explores aspects of a similar interplay between faith and music (and the Arts, more broadly). Posts related to the themes of The Secret Chord can be found here.

Check out the following too to explore further:

• God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You
• Jesus Music - 1 & 2
• The Jesus Rock Revolution and the Jesus Movement
• When Jesus Met Hippies
• A Rough Guide to Christian Art
• Looking down the wrong end of a telescope
• Pop's holy rollers
• Perhaps the most underrated band ever
• Rock gets Religion
• Ed Kowalczyk and Scott Stapp: Angels on a razor
• Hidden Gems - Bill Fay & Michael Morley
• Salt and Sweetners
• The mystery at the heart of music - 1 and 2
• Inspiration from the Psalms
• 'Tryin' to throw your arms around the world' click here - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

My first article for Seen and Unseen was 'Life is more important than art' which reviews the themes of recent art exhibitions that tackle life’s big questions and the roles creators take.

My second article 'Corinne Bailey Rae’s energised and anguished creative journey' explores inspirations in Detroit, Leeds and Ethiopia for Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, Black Rainbows, which is an atlas of capacious faith.

My third article was an interview with musician and priest Rev Simpkins in which we discussed how music is an expression of humanity and his faith.

My fourth article was a guide to the Christmas season’s art, past and present. Traditionally at this time of year “great art comes tumbling through your letterbox” so, in this article, I explore the historic and contemporary art of Christmas.

My fifth article was 'Finding the human amid the wreckage of migration'. In this article I interviewed Shezad Dawood about his multimedia Leviathan exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral where personal objects recovered from ocean depths tell a story of modern and ancient migrations.

My sixth article was 'The visionary artists finding heaven down here' in which I explored a tradition of visionary artists whose works shed light on the material and spiritual worlds.

My seventh article was 'How the incomer’s eye sees identity' in which I explain how curating an exhibition for Ben Uri Online gave me the chance to highlight synergies between ancient texts and current issues.

My eighth article was 'Infernal rebellion and the questions it asks' in which I interview the author Nicholas Papadopulos about his book The Infernal Word: Notes from a Rebel Angel.

My ninth article was 'A day, night and dawn with Nick Cave’s lyrics' in which I review Adam Steiner’s Darker With The Dawn — Nick Cave’s Songs Of Love And Death and explore whether Steiner's rappel into Cave’s art helps us understand its purpose.

My 10th article was 'Theresa Lola's poetical hope' about the death-haunted yet lyrical, joyful and moving poet for a new generation.

My 11th article was 'How to look at our world: Aaron Rosen interview', exploring themes from Rosen's book 'What Would Jesus See: Ways of Looking at a Disorienting World'.

My 12th article was 'Blake, imagination and the insight of God', exploring a new exhibition - 'William Blake's Universe at the Fitzwilliam Museum - which focuses on seekers of spiritual regeneration and national revival.

My 13th article 'Matthew Krishanu: painting childhood' was an interview with Matthew Krishanu on his exhibition 'The Bough Breaks' at Camden Art Centre.

My 14th article was entitled 'Art makes life worth living' and explored why society, and churches, need the Arts.

My 15th article was entitled 'The collective effervescence of sport's congregation' and explored some of the ways in which sport and religion have been intimately entwined throughout history

My 16th article was entitled 'Paradise cottage: Milton reimagin’d' and reviewed the ways in which artist Richard Kenton Webb is conversing with the blind poet in his former home (Milton's Cottage, Chalfont St Giles).

My 17th article was entitled 'Controversial art: how can the critic love their neighbour?'. It makes suggestions of what to do when confronted with contentious culture.

My 18th article was an interview entitled 'Art, AI and apocalypse: Michael Takeo Magruder addresses our fears and questions'. In the interview the digital artist talks about the possibilities and challenges of artificial intelligence.

My 19th article was entitled 'Dark, sweet and subtle: recovered music orientates us'. In the article I highlight alt-folk music seeking inspiration from forgotten hymns.

My 20th article was entitled 'Revisiting Amazing Grace inspires new songs'. In the article I highlight folk musicians capturing both the barbaric and the beautiful in the hymn Amazing Grace and Christianity's entanglement with the transatlantic slave trade more generally.

My 21st article was entitled 'James MacMillan’s music of tranquility and discord'. In the article I noted that the composer’s music contends both the secular and sacred.

My 22nd article was a book review on Nobody's Empire by Stuart Murdoch. 'Nobody's Empire: A Novel is the fictionalised account of how ... Murdoch, lead singer of indie band Belle and Sebastian, transfigured his experience of Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) through faith and music.'

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Elvis Presley - There'll Be Peace In The Valley.

International Times: Gospel Hopes

My latest review for International Times is on T Bone Burnett's 'The Other Side' and Peter Case live in Leytonstone:

'This sense of emerging from the troubles of life into a space and place where love is both the road and destination is a perception and goal that Case shares with Burnett, as both draw deeply on roots traditions that tap Gospel hopes of coming home and being found on the other side.'

For more on T Bone Burnett, see here, here, here, here and here. For more on Peter Case see here, here, and here.

My earlier pieces for IT are an interview with the poet Chris Emery, an interview with Jago Cooper, Director of the the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, plus reviews of Helaine Blumenfeld's Together exhibition, 'Giacometti in Paris' by Michael Peppiatt, the first Pissabed Prophet album - 'Zany in parts, moving in others, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more unusual, inspired & profound album this year. ‘Pissabed Prophet’ will thrill, intrigue, amuse & inspire' - and 'Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord', a book which derives from a 2017 symposium organised by the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art.

Several of my short stories have been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford last Autumn. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'.

My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.

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Peter Case - Have You Ever Been In Trouble?

Tryin' to throw your arms around the world

At the last Unveiled evening I gave a lecture 'Tryin’ to throw your arms around the world' in which I talked about the spirituality of the rock band U2. The talk set out the main characteristics of U2’s spirituality, examines their roots, makes links between their spirituality and themes in contemporary theology and, considers three reasons why U2’s spirituality has connected with popular culture.

To read 'Tryin' to throw your arms around the world' click here - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

My co-authored book The Secret Chord explored aspects of a similar interplay between faith and music (and the Arts, more broadly). Posts related to the themes of The Secret Chord can be found here. 

Check out the following too to explore further:

• God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You
• Jesus Music - 1 & 2
• The Jesus Rock Revolution and the Jesus Movement
• When Jesus Met Hippies
• A Rough Guide to Christian Art
• Looking down the wrong end of a telescope
• Pop's holy rollers
• Perhaps the most underrated band ever
• Rock gets Religion
• Ed Kowalczyk and Scott Stapp: Angels on a razor
• Hidden Gems - Bill Fay & Michael Morley
• Salt and Sweetners
• The mystery at the heart of music - 1 and 2
• Inspiration from the Psalms

Read also my dialogues with musician and poet Steve Scott here, here, here, here, and here, plus my other posts on CCM. In a series of blog posts for Deus Ex Musica I shared rock and pop songs for Easter, Lent, Epiphany and New Year. Also see my Seen and Unseen articles on Nick Cave, Rev Simpkins and Corinne Bailey Rae.

Rock ‘n’ Roll merged blues (with its spiritual strand) and Country music (tapping its white gospel) while Soul music adapted much of its sound and content from Black Gospel. For both, their gestures and movements were adopted from Pentecostalism. Some, such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Sam Cooke, felt guilt at secularising Gospel while others, like Johnny Cash, arrived at a hard earned integration of faith and music. All experienced opposition from a Church angry at its songs and influence being appropriated for secular ends. This opposition fed a narrative that, on both sides, equated rock and pop with hedonism and rebellion. The born again Cliff Richard was often perceived (both positively and negatively) as the only alternative. Within this context the Biblical language and imagery of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison was largely overlooked, although Dylan spoke eloquently about the influence of scripture within the tradition of American music on which he drew.

With the majority of Soul stars having begun singing in Church, many of the most effective integrations of faith and music were found there with Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and the Gospel-folk of the Staple Singers being among the best and most socially committed examples. Gospel featured directly with Billy Preston, Edwin Hawkins Singers and Aretha Franklin’s gospel albums. Mainstream use of Christian themes or imagery in rock were initially either unsustained (e.g. Blind Faith’s ‘Presence of the Lord’ and Norman Greenbaum’s ‘Spirit in the Sky’) or obscure (e.g. C.O.B.’s Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart and Bill Fay’s Time of the Last Persecution).

However, this changed in three ways. First, the Church began to appropriate rock and pop to speak explicitly about Christian faith. This led to the emergence of a new genre, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), with interaction between CCM and the mainstream. Mainstream artists such as Philip Bailey, David Grant, Al Green, Larry Norman and Candi Staton developed CCM careers while artists originally within CCM such as Delirious?, Martyn Joseph, Julie Miller, Leslie (Sam) Phillips, Sixpence None The Richer and Switchfoot achieved varying levels of mainstream exposure and success. Second, the biblical language and imagery of stars like Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen began to be understood and appreciated (helped to varying degrees by explicitly ‘Christian’ periods in the work of Dylan and Van the Man). Third, musicians such as After The Fire, The Alarm, T. Bone Burnett, The Call, Peter Case, Bruce Cockburn, Extreme, Galactic Cowboys, Innocence Mission, Kings X, Maria McKee, Buddy & Julie Miller, Moby, Over The Rhine, Ricky Ross, 16 Horsepower, U2, The Violent Femmes, Gillian Welch, Jim White, and Victoria Williams rather than singing about the light (of Christ) instead sang about the world which they saw through the light (of Christ). As rock and pop fragmented into a myriad of genres, this approach to the expression of faith continues in the work of Eric Bibb, Blessid Union of Souls, Creed, Brandon Flowers, Good Charlotte, Ben Harper, Michael Kiwanuka, Ed Kowalczyk, Lifehouse, Live, Low, Neal Morse, Mumford and Sons, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Scott Stapp, Social Distortion, and Woven Hand.

I've created a playlist on Spotify called 'Closer to the light'. 'Closer To The Light' is a song by Bruce Cockburn that he said "was written addressed to the late Mark Heard ... He was a fantastic songwriter. His death sent a shockwave through our whole community, and what that did in me was that song." As a result, 'Closer to the Light' is a song that straddles both CCM and mainstream artists suggesting that both can bring us closer to the light. Similarly, this playlist, which includes blues, choral, classical, country, folk, gospel, jazz, pop, rap, rock, and soul music, aims to straddle music from both CCM and the mainstream which also brings us closer to the light.

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Bruce Cockburn - Closer To The Light.

Bob Dylan: Springtime in New York

Bob Dylan's Springtime in New York provides an object lesson in the emotive and in the moment nature of much music criticism which nevertheless then shapes responses to the music for decades to come.

Responses to Dylan's Shot of Love were along this lines of Greil Marcus' 'what is this shit?' review of Self Portrait. Shot of Love was seen primarily as a continuation of Dylan's two Gospel albums when in retrospect it is clear that the album is a transition to his next album Infidels. Infidels itself was received as a return to form and as a secular album in contrast to the three earlier Gospel albums. The fact that Infidels is drenched in biblical imagery and allusion means that, while different from Dylan's two Gospel albums, it is lazy, inaccurate and misleading to describe Infidels as a secular album.

There are two main changes to Dylan's work as documented on #16 in the Bootleg Series. One to do with recording techniques, the other to do with the way in which he wrote about faith. 

Dylan has regularly refreshed his work and inspiration by returning to the roots of the music he loves. His first album mapped those roots by including blues, country, folk, and gospel. The Basement Tapes, Self Portrait, the two 1990s acoustic albums, and the series drawing on the Great American Songbook all represent moments of returning to his roots music. While not predominantly covers albums, Dylan's Gospel albums also involve a similar return to a genre which is part of his roots. Gospel is entwined through the blues, country & western and folk music, as well as forming its own genre. Rock and roll emerges out of blues, country and gospel in particular which is why when the Million Dollar Quartet of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash were recorded in an impromptu jam session what they sang was primarily Gospel.

Dylan's Gospel period represents a period of focus on both the genre of Gospel music and the fundamentalist Dispensationalism of many US Evangelicals but biblical imagery and themes are not limited to this period. Instead, the Bible informs much of Dylan's work throughout his career both before and after his Gospel period. In particular, the focus on apocalypse which characterises much of what he writes during the Gospel period and which is, in this period, connected to Dispensationalism similarly extends throughout his career and is generally explored through biblical imagery but without being aligned to Dispensationalism in the same way.

The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979–1981 prompted a critical re-evaluation of the Gospel period with the recognition that the reaction to his Gospel concerts was on a par to his going electric, his band in this period was one of the best with which he played, and his songwriting, although simpler and more direct than in some other periods, was often exceptional. 

By ending with music from the Shot of Love period Trouble No More leads into Springtime in New York. Tracks left off Shot of Love and Infidels were among the highlights of Biograph and The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991, so Springtime in New York returns us to a period when Dylan began to embrace the reality that his best work was often missing from the albums he released following his Gospel period. It is as though the extreme reaction to his Gospel records and concerts unsettled Dylan to the extent that he was trying to judge what would play well with his audience as opposed to simply following his own path regardless.

This showed itself in two ways. First, following Shot of Love, he abandoned his practice of playing live in the recording studio by adopting the practice of recording by working with contemporary producers and then current production techniques and sounds. This approach worked well on Infidels but led to Empire Burlesque being both over-produced and mired in the sounds of the 80's. 

Second, Dylan left classic songs such as Caribbean Wind, The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar, Angelina, Blind Willie McTell, Foot of Pride, and New Danville Girl off these albums. While each album included other classics such as Every Grain of Sand, Jokerman, I and I, and Dark Eyes, had the songs left off these albums been included the reaction to the albums as a whole would have been enhanced. In addition, these dense, wordy yet illuminating songs would have made it clearer that, in this period, Dylan was moving away from the simplistic and direct expression of faith that characterised the Gospel albums to songs where his exploration of faith was both more allusive and open. 

A song like ‘Sweetheart Like You’ from Infidels illustrates this well, as we see here a wonderfully contemporary depiction of Christ's incarnation in a song that was consistently viewed by reviewers as an example of Dylan's misogyny. The song actually expresses the exact reverse of misogyny being written from the perspective of a misogynist male employee in an all-male workplace that is literally a hell of a place in which to work. To be in there requires the doing of some evil deed, having your own harem, playing till your lips bleed. There's only one step down from there and that's the ironically named 'land of permanent bliss.'

Into this perverted and prejudiced environment comes a woman, the sweetheart of the song's title. She is a Christ figure; a sinless figure entering into a world of sin and experiencing abuse and betrayal (is 'that first kiss' a Judas kiss?) from those she encounters and to whom she holds out the possibility of a different kind of existence. Dylan makes his equation of the woman with Christ explicit by quoting directly from Jesus: 'They say in your father's house, there's many mansions' (John 14: 2).

The song's narrator is confused and challenged by her appearance. He wants to dismiss her out of hand and back to his stereotypical role for her - 'You know, a woman like you should be at home / That's where you belong / Watching out for someone who loves you true / Who would never do you wrong' - but he can't simply dismiss her as she is really there in front of him and so he begins to wonder, 'What's a sweetheart like you doin' in a dump like this?' All the time he asks that question there is the possibility that he may respond to her presence without abuse or dismissal.

So, as was the case with Trouble No More, with Springtime in New York, The Bootleg Series represents a significant re-evaluation of a period of Dylan's work which had largely been written off (Shot of Love and Empire Burlesque) or thoroughly misinterpreted (Infidels) by those who wanted back the Dylan that they thought they had possessed rather than the Dylan who was actually evolving in front of them. Springtime reveals the inadequate nature of much initial response to a complex changing artist like Dylan while also showing that such initial misunderstandings of his work by becoming the standard response actively prevented understanding of the work until challenged by unreleased songs the quality and spirituality of which could not be denied.    

Read my posts of Dylan and apocalypse here, Trouble No More here, Dylan as Pilgrim here, and all my posts featuring Dylan here.

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Bob Dylan - Lord, Protect My Child.

Upcoming arts events

Details of arts-related events that may be of interest:

Compassionate Art: talk by Nick Garrard in aid of Hospice Ethiopia UK January 18th, 7.30pm

An introduction to the concept of compassionate art through some famous and lesser- known examples, in which artists provide inspiration, protest, reflection or transformation, expressing grief or offering hope.

To register for your Zoom invite, please phone 01508 538014 or send an e-mail via https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/7440/get-in-touch/. Admission is free but donations warmly welcomed to a locally-based charity supporting Ethiopia’s only hospice via its website www.hospiceethiopia.org.uk.


Faith, Gospel and the Blues: An American Story

As America enters another turbulent period, Bloomsbury Central Baptist church welcomes two guests from the United States to discuss faith, gospel and the blues. They will be hosting two online meetings in January 2021, in which they will consider how songs which have their roots in an era of slavery and oppression can speak to today’s situation.

On Wednesday 13th January at 7.30pm, they will be joined by Rev. Travis Adams, Director of Youth Ministries from Flossmoor Community Church on the outskirts of Chicago. Music plays an important part in his ministry with a diverse, multiracial congregation. He was previously a member of the ministry team at Bloomsbury.

On January 27th at 7.30pm, the special guest to discuss blues music is Dr. Dina M. Bennett, the Curatorial Director for the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville. She will trace the links between blues and gospel.

The sessions will feature videos of well known songs, to which you are invited to listen with fresh ears. Both events will be moderated by Duncan Bartlett, a Deacon at Bloomsbury Baptist Church and a former presenter on the BBC World Service.

To join these sessions, please contact Bloomsbury's Minister Simon Woodman (simon@bloomsbury.org.uk) for the Zoom link.

You can watch again the previous sessions in this series:

• Stand By Me - with Naveen Arles of the London International Gospel Choir - https://youtu.be/Vr-lLoWtRlY.
• Hold On - with Udoka, a member of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church - https://youtu.be/BT5pieSV5Ss.
• Mary Don't You Weep - with The Revd Stephen Hance - https://youtu.be/yx6BTBWu4UA.

Art and social impact: 

Tuesday 26 January, 14:30 GMT. Register for a zoom invite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-and-social-impact-tickets-134763030853.

A conversation with artists whose work has a social impact dimension in order to explore the question of art and social change.

Includes discussion of personal journeys in addressing issues of social concern, approaches used, and expectations in terms of impact. The session will also explore ways in which churches can engage with such art and use it for exploring issues with congregations and beyond.

Jonathan Evens will be in conversation with André Daughtry (http://www.andredaughtrystudio.com/), Micah Purnell (https://micahpurnell.com/), Nicola Ravenscroft (https://nicolaravenscroft.com/) and Hannah Rose Thomas (http://hannahrosethomas.com/).


Lifted: art, faith and mental wellbeing

Art, faith and mental wellbeing are explored through the lives and creative output of:

• Unity Spencer, painter and teacher, Quaker, author of 'Lucky to be an artist' (published 2015)'
• Eularia Clarke, two of whose works feature in the Methodist Modern Art Collection;
• David Jones, First World War soldier, Roman Catholic artist, poet and calligrapher; and, quite remarkably,
• Vincent Van Gogh, who preached in Methodist churches when he lived in London in the 1870s.

James Smetham provides the focal point. A friend of the artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Ruskin, Smetham was Drawing Master at the Wesleyan Westminster College and a devout Methodist Class Leader. His prolific visual ‘squarings’ (postage-stamp-size pen and ink drawings) annotate his personal bible and hymn book, recording his daily activity both in celebration of and search for God’s blessings. He also produced literary ‘ventilators’, which might be described today as a method of therapeutic journalling.

Bible study will be accompanied by the opportunity to create personal ‘squarings’ or other responses to these artists who struggled variously with their mental health.

Weekly for six weeks, starting 22 February 2021. The course will require approximately four hours study a week. Cost £175. Course booking: https://smetham.eventbrite.co.uk.

The Wesley House Cambridge online booking link is at https://www.wesley.cam.ac.uk/study/onlinelearning/lifted/ with the closing date for registration being 15 February.

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Andra Day - Amen.

ArtWay: Jazz, Blues, and Spirituals

My latest piece for ArtWay is a review of the republished 'Jazz, Blues, and Spirituals. The Origins and Spirituality of Black Music in the United States' by Hans Rookmaaker:

'Reading ‘Jazz, Blues and Spirituals’ has revived my gratitude for Rookmaaker’s teaching, writing and passions. It has revived my appreciation for the significant part his ideas and understandings played in my own appreciation of the Arts, and that of many others. It has enabled reflection on the personal journey I have made in appreciating the Arts, both in terms of understanding where that journey began and where I am in the present.

Most of all though, reading ‘Jazz, Blues and Spirituals’ has introduced me to musicians about whom I knew little previously and enlivened my appreciation for the roots of the music with which I am most familiar.'

I interviewed Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, Editor-in-Chief of ArtWay, for Artlyst and asked her then about Hans Rookmaaker, her father, and his legacy. The interview can be read at  https://www.artway.eu/artway.php?id=1019&lang=en&action=show.

My visual meditations for ArtWay include work by María Inés Aguirre, Giampaolo Babetto, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Alexander de Cadenet, Christopher Clack, Marlene Dumas, Terry Ffyffe, Antoni Gaudi, Nicola Green, Maciej Hoffman, Giacomo Manzù, Michael Pendry, Maurice Novarina, Regan O'Callaghan, Ana Maria Pacheco, John Piper, Albert Servaes, Henry Shelton and Anna Sikorska.

My Church of the Month reports include: Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Churches in Little Walsingham, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Metz Cathedral, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

Other of writings for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Church Times can be found here. Those for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here.

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King Oliver - Doctor Jazz.

Peace on earth: Living as Christ lived

Here is my address from last night's Parish Carol Service at St Stephen Walbrook:

One of my favourite rock bands is U2 whose lead singer and lyricist, Bono, is a big fan of the Psalms. He has written that a lot of the psalms feel to him like the blues. Man shouting at God - "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me?" – and some of the songs he has written do the same.

In ‘Peace on Earth’ he writes:

“Heaven on Earth, we need it now / I'm sick of all of this hanging around / Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain / I'm sick of hearing again and again / That there's gonna be peace on Earth …

Hear it every Christmas time / But hope and history won't rhyme /
So, what's it worth? / This peace on Earth”

It was over 2,000 years ago that that glorious song of old was first sung by angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold: "Peace on the earth, good will to men, from heaven's all-gracious King." So where is it? Why hasn’t it come? These are good questions to ask. Good questions to shout at God, just as occurs in the Psalms and in the blues.

While the Psalms and the blues pose questions, our carols may provide some answers. The carol I’ve just quoted, ‘It came upon a midnight clear,’ acknowledges the lack of peace that we find in the world:

“Yet with the woes of sin and strife / The world has suffered long; / Beneath the angel strain have rolled / Two thousand years of wrong;”

But the problem is then put firmly back in our own court:

“And man, at war with man, hears not / The love-song which they bring; / O hush the noise, ye men of strife / And hear the angels sing.”

The wars we wage throughout our lives drown out the song of the angels and mean that we pay no attention to the peace that the Christ-child came to bring. That is also what we are told in John’s Gospel: “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God …”

We have to recognize and receive him in order to access the peace that he brings, as another carol, ‘Joy to the World,’ says clearly:

“Joy to the World, the Lord is come! / Let earth receive her King; / Let every heart prepare Him room, / And Heaven and nature sing,”

So today as we sing carols together, the questions turn back to us. Are we hushing the noise of our strife sufficiently to hear the song of peace which the angels sing? Are we preparing room in our hearts for Christ to be born or are we like the innkeepers who said, “No room.” Are we recognizing and receiving him into our lives in order to become children of God?

You’ll probably have heard the slogan of the Dog’s Trust, ‘a dog is for life, not just for Christmas.’ Perhaps we need to adapt that slogan to say, ‘Christ is for life, not just for Christmas’ because it is only when we live as Christ lived that the peace he brings comes in our own lives and also between those we know. It is when we live as Christ lived that we give time and care to those who are housebound or elderly; that we feed those who are hungry, that we provide shelter for those who are homeless, that we open our homes to those who are refugees and asylum seekers.

It is when we live as Christ lived that he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love. It is when we live as Christ lived that the new heaven and earth shall own the Prince of Peace, their King, and the whole world send back the song which now the angels sing.

If we are sick of all of the hanging around - sick of sorrow, sick of the pain, sick of hearing again and again that there's gonna be peace on Earth – then we need to prepare room for Christ to be born in our hearts so that we will live as Christ lived and bring peace on earth – to our lives, our friends and family, our community and world. May it be so for us this Christmas.

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U2 - Peace On Earth.

Bob Dylan: Shoring up magnificent ruins

With a shuffle that is part slouch, part saunter - both posing and playing - the man in the long black coat and panama hat approaches the microphone to sing ballads and blues. Songs from Tempest are apocalyptic prophecies fashioned as walkin' talkin' blues (shuffles) where the answers are blowin' in the wind of a dirty world; while the songs Sinatra sang are elegiac interludes celebrating lovers in dangerous times.

A genuine legend, but not relient on his past or back catalogue, as most of the songs came from the last two albums. All but three were from the renaissance that began with Time Out Of Mind and, despite this, the show still resulted in a standing ovation - not what would have happened in the 80s or 90s!

These are the albums where he has been accused of plagiarism for fashioning together phrases drawn from an eclectic selection of lyrics and literature. But, as William Burroughs said, "All writing is in fact cut-ups. A collage of words read heard overheard. What else?" Like T.S. Eliot, Dylan has been shoring fragments against his ruins and what magnificent ruins; both the work and the man!

More reflections on Dylan can be found in my co-authored book The Secret Chord or by clicking here.

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Bob Dylan - Love Sick.

New (and old) music

Bill Fay's 'beautifully hymnal fourth studio album' Who is the Sender? 'contains sublime, heartfelt ruminations on nature and the world.' With less light and shade than Life is People but with a more consistently meditative tone, With profound simplicity, like that of Chance in Being There, Fay mourns the inhumanity of our warlike impulses while prayerfully calling for a new world to be manifest.

Carrie and Lowell is a meditation on grief observed that channels the emotional honesty of C. S. Lewis' reflection on his time in the shadowlands. 'I saw intimacy pass by while going about it's business, like something sung and felt by Sufjan Stevens on his new beautiful solitary and rich record filled with faith and disbelief and the resurrection of trust and dreams.'

To mark the 50th anniversary of the freedom marches as well as the Staple Singers’ performance at the New Nazareth Church on Chicago’s South Side, their concert has been remastered and restored to its original setlist and runtime. Pops Staples, patriarch, bandleader and musical visionary, had written a song about the freedom marchers called ‘Freedom Highway’ which was debuted at this concert and which became the family’s biggest hit to that date, a pivotal record, connecting gospel music with the struggle for civil rights, that inched them toward the pop mainstream without sacrificing their gospel message for a secular audience.

'The Staple Singers have left an imprint of soulful voices, social activism, religious conviction and danceable “message music.”' 'Pops and the family were rooted in gospel, blues, and "message music" traditions. He sang about darkness, and he sang about light. He's done it again [on 'Somebody Was Watching' from Don't Lose This], and while the song's arrival might be belated by over 15 years, it's a total gift to hear one of the greats completely owning his lane.'

I'm also currently discovering the music of Krzysztof Penderecki: 'naturally vibrant, sensual and with a very personal sense of architecture': 'If you simplified the last 100 years of music as a war between the forces of the atonal and the lyrical, Penderecki would be on the front lines of battle. He found fame, around 1960, as a forward-thinking avant-gardist, but later defected to the other side, looking back at the Romantics and even Bach for inspiration ... Much of his music is not for the faint of heart. With its viscerally intense drama (even in his non-stage works), this music occupies a sound world that can often be described as terrifying.' 

'The St. Luke Passion, completed in 1966, was a breakthrough piece for Penderecki, proving he was much more than a trendy avant-gardist ... It was also a major religious statement at a time when, under Soviet rule, the church was officially frowned upon.' 'In his music, Penderecki has approached politics, religion, social injustice and the plight of the common man, both in general terms and by considering specific individuals and events.' 

Arun Rath writes: 'Penderecki is not Jewish — he's not a survivor — but he is Polish. Auschwitz is basically in his backyard. A devout Christian writing authentically liturgical music, Penderecki seems to be wrestling directly with the question of how you can make peace with God after such horrors.'

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The Staple Singers - Freedom Highway.

Bob Dylan: Voices are measured by whether they're telling the truth

Following a recent interview in which Bob Dylan spoke extensively about his inspiration, yesterday he also made a revealing speech in accepting the 2015 MusiCares Person of the Year:

'Dylan traced the roots of some of his better-known songs to numerous traditional folk songs, noting that his work blossomed from his spending so much time playing the traditional works. "John Henry" begat "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall." Big Bill Broonzy's "Key to the Highway" led to "Highway 61 Revisited." "Roll the Cotton Down" birthed "Maggie's Farm." "The Times They Are A Changin'" is an extension of what Dylan referred as the "come all ye" songs such as "Floyd Collins." From "Deep Elm Blues," a traditional song recorded by blues artists in the 1930s, sprang "Tangled Up in Blue."

"There's nothing secret about it," Dylan said.

Dylan made a singular point about music and great songwriting, whether he was referencing the work of gospel legends the Blackwood Brothers, folk legend Roscoe Holcomb or bluesman Charley Patton. "Voices are not to measured by how pretty they are," Dylan said, quoting Sam Cooke. "They're to be measured by whether they're telling the truth."

"The Staple Singers were one of my favorite groups of all time," he said. "They were the type of artists I wanted to record my songs."'

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Bob Dylan - High Water (For Charley Patton).

OPEN for music

OPEN is a fresh expression of church in Gants Hill (St George’s Barkingside). Today's OPEN session featured Tom and Simon on lead guitar and bass playing rock and blues, ably supplemented on a couple of tunes by our resident jazz pianist Keith. OPEN sessions regularly feature art, conversation, games, meditations (projected), music, poetry, photography and refreshments. They are generally as interactive as we can make them, although with the fine music Tom and Simon were making this session was more of an extended and intimate jam session.

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Cream - Sunshine Of Your Love.

The real roots of rock and roll

Robert Randolph on T Bone Burnett:

"T Bone opened a lot of doors for me serving as a link between the past and the present. He knows how to take something from the past and bring it into the present while still allowing the artist to make it his own, in the same way that Hendrix took Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” and made it belong to him.

T Bone listens to music that our grandmothers would listen to as children – not even music that our fathers listened to, but songs that go even further back ... some from Gospel and Christian blues, the music that people working in fields across the south likely sang nearly a century ago. Those are the real roots of rock and roll, where everything else comes from ...

Before this record, I didn’t sift through music past the Seventies. I didn’t know about Blind Willie Johnson, or Chess Records. I thank T Bone for being a tour guide into the deepest parts of my musical roots. We connected the last one hundred years of African-American music in the way people used to: You write your own songs, you cover other people’s material, you re-work older songs ...

My goal is to open the door for people, in the same way that musical doors have been opened for me. I want to take this musical history and make it relevant to give people a better idea of who I am and where I came from. I think even though I’m a young guy who was born into the era of hip-hop and contemporary gospel, I can help bridge the cultural gap between people who are seventy-five years old and kids who are fifteen years old by reaching back into this history of music.

We Walk This Road was done in our belief in what we all need right now: young voices saying something positive without preaching in hopes of inspiring people. When you stick to what you believe in, and with the roots of where you come from, things will always work out."

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Robert Randolph And The Family Band - Shot Of Love.

Why gospel's heroes go unsung

This week's Church Times has an excellent article, extracted from Steve Turner's newest book An Illustrated History of Gospel, which if you're not a subscriber you won't be able to read until Friday.

Turner's main point - that the gospel roots of r&b and rock 'n' roll are as strong as those of the blues - is one that I made in my God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You series of posts. His secondary point - that these gospel roots are played down in a way that rock's blues and country roots are not - is similar to that which I am documenting in relation to modern and contemporary art through my Airbrushed from Art History series of posts.

Turner begins with the Dixie Hummingbirds at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival before commenting that:

"Hearing them gave plenty of clues to where American popular music had found a lot of its inspiration. You could hear the beat of Motown, the vocal tricks of people like Otis Redding and James Brown, and the guitar licks of Bo Diddley. You could also see the dance moves of Mick Jagger and the suave uniforms of groups like the Temptations and the Impressions ...

Gospel music, along with country, blues, and jazz, was the main tributary flowing in to rock and roll ...

Yet, of all these forms of music, gospel is the least known about and appreciated by lovers of rock."

As demonstration, Turner points to the way: rock magazines "regularly celebrate the legends of country, blues, and jazz, but almost never the legends of gospel"; the Glastonbury Festival has "featured the country star Johnny Cash on the main stage, as well as the blues guitarist Buddy Guy, but never one of the greats of gospel music"; documentary-makers "go in search of the ghosts of Robert Johnson, Hank Williams and Charlie Parker, but never the ghosts of Thomas Dorsey and Clara Ward"; and when Rolling Stone compiled its list of 'The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time' there was not a single gospel performer:

"Yet, of the artists selected, a third either sang in gospel groups as teenagers or were profoundly affected by gospel. Ray Charles loved the voice of Archie Brownlee of the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi; Aretha Franklin originally modelled herself on Clara Ward; Little Richard copied his vocal swoops from Marion Williams; and Elvis was inspired by the on-stage antics of the Statesmen Quartet's James "Big Chief" Wetherington, who used to quiver his legs."

Charlie Gillett, in The Sound of the City, observed:

"Between 1948 and 1952 the potential connection between the emotions of gospel singing and the expectations of adolescent listeners of popular music occurred to various singers, record-company executives, and composers. Indirectly and directly gospel styles and conventions were introduced into rhythm and blues - and constituted the first significant trend away from the blues, as such into black popular music."  

The downplaying of gospel, Turner argues, has ideological roots:

"People outside the Church can appreciate its authenticity, excitement, vocal skills, and musical inventiveness, but they are left cold, or possibly even offended, by the point of view of the lyrics. If a singer is expressing passion for Christ, uninitiated listeners cannot relate to it in the way they could if the passion was for Johnny or Diana."

Gospel , he suggests, as a result "seems completely opaque to someone unfamiliar with the worship, praise, and instruction that it was intended to promote." Yet he notes that rock musicians themselves often have "a much more informed appreciation of gospel" with Brian Eno, in particular, having argued that gospel recordings "absolutely vibrate with life" and concluding: "My feeling about gospel is that it's about time there was a music that actually moved you enough to make you shed tears again."

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Clara Ward Singers featuring Marion Williams - Packin Up.       

Together Through Life

The period since Time Out Of Mind has been particularly fertile for Bob Dylan's songwriting particularly when compared to the period between Infidels and Oh Mercy. In that period, as he wrote in Chronicles, he "felt done for, an empty burned-out wreck." His own songs had become strangers to him, there was a hollow singing in his heart and he couldn't wait to retire and fold the tent.

What changed him was a moment of revelation that came during a concert in Locarno, Switzerland as he stepped up to the mic, panicked and felt unable to sing. He has said that "it was almost like I heard a voice ... I'm determined to stand, whether God will deliver me or not." That's when he knew, as Larry Sloman writes in the Tell Tale Signs booklet, that he had to "go out and keep playing those songs."

Those songs are the old, traditional songs of Americana: songs that he sang on his first album; songs that he sang on the two solo acoustic cover records that he recorded in 1992 and 1993; songs that he plays thematically on his successful radio show. With the publication of his memoirs and his radio show, there has been a renewed reflection on his own past and his own influences; one that seems to have released a stream of inspiration that is continued on his new album Together Through Life.

In many ways, this stream of inspiration has involved reworking and rearticulating the classic Dylan song, 'Blind Willie McTell', that was left off Infidels. Predominantly blues-based and extending the blues/folk metaphor of the drifter, Together Through Life finds Dylan's characters rambling through apocalyptic landscapes, experiencing life's hardness, grasping and eulogising love with a wry and sardonic irony wherever they can find it before the change that death will bring.

Dylan has said that:

"Those old songs are my lexicon and my prayer book. You can find all my philosophy in those old songs. Hank Williams singing 'I Saw The Light' or all the Luke The Drifter songs. That would be pretty close to my religion. The rabbis, priests, and ministers all do very well. But my belief system is more rugged and comes more from out of the old spiritual songs than from any of the established religious attempts at overcoming the devil."

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Bob Dylan - Beyond Here Lies Nothin'.