My Most Listed To Music of '09

Keith And Kristyn Getty - In Christ Alone (2007)

This will probably not impress or be helpful for everyone, but I thought it would be worthy jotting down what I liked to listen to this year, at least for the sake of posterity. Who knows, maybe after another twenty years pass I might just wonder what on earth I enjoyed to listen to back in 09?

I am going to try to make this list somewhat scientific. Using iTunes I discovered that there is a discrepancy between what I think I like the most, and what I actually listen to the most. So I am not going to make this a list of what I "think" I liked the best, but rather a list of those I actually spent the most time listening to. It makes more sense to me to do it that way.

This little experiment turned out a little weird. First, for some reason some artists I really like, such as the Gettys didn't even make my great eight albums list this year. Then the odd thing is that there are only two genres on the list, Christian Rap, and Christian Rock. And Rap has seven of the eight places.

That is really strange.

It's odd for many reasons. For one, I listen to Classical music almost every day, and throughout the week some country, various contemporary Christian, worship, even country music. Yet, somehow these reformed rappers seemed to have stole the show for 2009. That is especially significant since before last year, listening to Christian rap had never even crossed my mind.

I credit the new change to their strong messages, coupled with heavy emphasis on theology in the lyrics. Starting there, the beats kind of grew on me.

Note: not all the albums were released in 08 or 09, but rather represent the albums I started listening to this year.



Great Eight List 2009



1. Lecrae: Rebel (Reformed Rap, Southern, 2008)


2. G-Notes: Bright Lights Magic City (Christian Rap, Techno-Hip Hop, East Coast, 2009)



3. Katalyst: Death By Design (Reformed Rap, Midwest, 2009)


4. The Ambassador: The Chop Chop From Milk To Meat (Reformed Rap, East Coast, 2008)


5. Tedashii: Identity Crisis (Reformed Rap, Southern, 2009)


6. Flame: Rewind (Reformed Rap, Midwest 2005)


7. House Of Heroes: The End is Not The End (Christian Rock, 2009)


8. Flame: Our World Redeemed (Reformed Rap, Midwest, 2008)

Lyrical Theology

Shai Linne

Another dose of lyrical theology is due. In our last helping, I featured Shai Linne's catchy Q&A catechism. This time around I am going lay down a few more lyrical morsels for us to chew on together.

Since I mentioned Shai Linne, lets start with him.

The Atonement: In Adam All Die (Shai Linne)

We’re cursed from our birth, sinning from the beginning
The womb to the tomb, depraved to the grave
Astray every day, every breath brings death
In Adam all die, In Adam all die

Rebel: Go Hard (Lecrae)

Lord kill me If I don't preach the gospel

Running from my trials thinking everything's groovy
If the Cross don't move me, then I don't wanna breath no more
If I ain't seeing Christ partner, I don't wanna see no more"

Identity Crisis: Make War! (Tedashii)

Persistently attacking me - they're even in the back of me
It's either fight or loose my life and I can't take this passively
So what you think I'm bout to do - I'm bout to do what I can do
Trust the ONE who got me through - and fight like it was after school
Never giving up - steady, standing on the battle field
Feet firm to the ground like I stepped on Chappel Hill

I MAKE WAR! - Cause sin never sleeps
It's got me in a trance - you can see it in my dreams
I MAKE WAR! - Man I beat my flesh
To the death - every breath - like I beat my chest
I MAKE WAR - sun up
I MAKE WAR - sun down
I MAKE WAR - time in
I MAKE WAR - time out
I MAKE WAR - against lust
Against pride - against me - until I die

Any thoughts?

Music On The Mountain

This video represents three week's effort on the part of Steve McGarvey and myself back in the summer of 2006. Neither of us were very familiar with the process of creating a quality music video. Nevertheless we took a crack at it and armed with a guitar and a 3 CCD camera we crawled up the mountain, fought hoards of army ants, wild goats, strange bees, thorns and the blistering heat.

The filming turned out to be the easy part. After climbing down the mountain we spent an hour or two every day for the next three weeks in the recording studio working on the audio. In the end the sound was satisfactory, but still needed some work.

The video was originally filmed in the PAL format. I recently recoding it to match Google's NTSC format so it's a little choppy now, but definitely viewable.

The Ballad of Tyler Bell

Today I feel compelled to post a little something about my good friend Tyler Bell. He has been faithfully serving the Lord in Ponca, Nebraska as a full time worship leader since June this year. It was six years ago now that as we were jogging together on one of those breezy summer evenings he relayed to me that famous statement,

"God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him."

and also

"The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever."

That was a radical concept to me at the time. Although I was familiar enough with the Westminster catechism to know that the chief end of man was "to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever", this "new" idea of glorifying God by enjoying Him took some time to understand. As I recall, I think I spent several months wrestling over it before I started to see the truth in it by God's grace.

The Westminster Standards

So I thank God for that timely introduction to a great truth, and for the wonderful fellowship I have with Tyler, and for the continuing work of God in his life. By the grace of God that little conversation six years ago ultimately made a considerable impact on my soul.

Tyler and Joana will be getting married in a few weeks

Wrapping It Up

Here is a clip where Tyler plays one of his favorite Phill Wickham songs by the light of a campfire along the Missouri river several miles up North from the Ponca landing. Sounds pretty good huh!