Our Rising Sound

September 10 2008

Top 5 voices I wish God blessed me with

Tagged Under : Chris Cornell, Elvis Costello, Jeff Buckley, John Legend, Ryan Adams, singing, voice

Very often I listen to music I love and think, “I wish I could sing like him” or “I wish I wrote this song”. So today I thought I’d start with the top 5 voices I covet.

Jeff Buckley - With this voice the sky is the limit. There’s nothing I couldn’t sing, the pinnacle of flexibility and range. His voice has graced us(no pun intended - his greatest album was called Grace) with some of the most beautiful songs ever written, Everybody Here Wants You, Last Goodbye, Morning Theft to name a few.
Ryan Adams - Ryan’s voice has matured a lot since his early stuff. His tone is so perfect, like a warm blanket in front of a fire, sippin on a decaf Cafe Mocha with extra chocolate hold the whip cream. Live his voice is just as good if not better than on record. I have a problem with lust after this man, pray for me.
Chris Cornell - When I’m feeling quite masculine I imagine I can sing like Chris Cornell. He is my go to shower voice. This guy just embodies rock star, he sings down and dirty, but yet when he sings softly the raspiness comes across very gently and adds a bit of sincerity to his emotional songs. If I could yell like him I’d be screaming my entire life. Can you imagine how effective a father he’ll be disciplining his children? His yell would strike fear into any grown man much less a child.
Elvis Costello - This is a bit more fantasy than anything. He has just the coolest, wacky voice, it would be fun to sing like that. If you are in the camp that says Elvis has a terrible voice, then shame on you. All I can say is you have no idea what you’re talking about. Watch this video and get saved.
John Legend - When my inner soul, funk, R&B guy comes out and wants to sing about making babies John Legend is the voice I need. I wrote a song for my wife that I played to her on our wedding and it was very much a white man acoustic, John Mayer type thing. Would have been so much more effective if I could have swung behind a piano, shirt unbuttoned, chest hair poppin out(I don’t have any of that either) and sung some sweet soooouuuuuullllllll.

Who’s voice (or chest hair) do you wish you had?

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Church sub-culture strikes again, release Christian Guitar Hero knockoff

Tagged Under : culture, games, Guitar Hero, Guitar Praise, music, Rick Pino

I guess there’s nothing wrong with this, it’s just really cheesy. My friends and I had joked about a christian version and we should have known it was happen sooner or later. Rocking to Chris Tomlin just isn’t going to have the same feeling as Clapton, SRV or AC/DC. Reports that ‘Guitar Praise’ comes with an acoustic pretend guitar instead of the usual axe, 5 tambourines and streamers are denied by the company. Although apparently there is a prophetic mode for the game where whatever you play, no matter how awful, is rewarded with points in heaven. There’s also rumored to be a “Inappropriate conversion of secular song to worship” mode, aka Rick Pino mode, where you take songs in Guitar Hero and attempt to redeem them by cleverly changing a couple words.

No word on what songs will be on the game. Game goes on sale next month at GuitarPraise.com. Would any of you consider getting this? I won’t make fun of you, at least not publicly…..well maybe I will.

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1 Question Interview: What’s Next? by Andrew Bennet of Christian City Church

Tagged Under : band, church, interview, music, One Question Interview, What's Next?, worship

What’s Next?

This one question I am asking various worship leaders and pastors. The context is what’s next in corporate worship but beyond that no guidance has been given for appropriate response. Part 5 of this series is Christian City Church Worship Pastor Andy Bennett’s response.

Christian City Church in San Diego celebrated their 3yr anniversary this past Sunday night by recording a live worship album. Andy’s band House Red was on stage leading worship comprised completely of original songs. We’re blessed to have Andy take time and respond to this important question, here is his response.

1. It’s not about “The Gig”. It’s about God’s House. It’s about the fact that Jesus carried a cross for us, so we will praise Him and worship Him with everything we have. People are always surprised that none of our musicians and singers are paid. Many of our team members have been involved in large scale recording and performing projects, but Praise and Worship at church is totally different.

We are servants way before we’re musicians. Moses was faithful in ALL God’s house, not just the parts that he enjoyed. Its the same with people in praise and worship. Whatever we can do to make church the most mind-blowing place on planet earth. That’s what God’s house should be! A lot of worship teams are comprised of “hired guns” who just come in and play at church on a Sunday, whether or not they are members of that church (or any church for that matter). Jesus pointed out the difference between hirelings and sons. We are raising sons in our church, not bringing in hirelings. Its an honor to play on the platform in the house of God, not something you need to be paid to do. People will do a lot more for something they believe in than they will for a paycheck.

2. No Compromise on Excellence. How many times have I been in church and seen a dance, “drama”, mime, song, poem, “song of the Lord”, skit etc that is of such poor quality that I would not dare bring any of my friends to see for fear of them laughing and walking out?! We go to the movies and are rocked by special effects, brilliant acting and enthralling storylines. We pay to see artworks that are masterfully painted and sculpted. We go to the theatre and see extravagant singing, dancing and musicianship. Then we go to church and the shrill, off pitch wailing of the worship leader makes you cringe. You try and push through the barrage of noise to be able to worship God in the midst of the cacophony, but struggle to feel anything but frustration at the fact that the music is so off putting. But we excuse by saying, “Its for the Lord”, as if that’s an excuse for shabbiness. Or we say, “that was so anointed”, like there’s some indefinable (more like incomprehendable) reason for having someone who cannot hold a tune to save their life lead God’s people in His glorious worship.

We only allow people on stage who are able to contribute to a sound and atmosphere that is musically excellent. Just because someone is a volunteer doesn’t mean we can’t expect something big from them. After all, they’re not doing it for us, like some kind of favor. It’s our service to the One who has redeemed us by His very own blood. God only gave us his best. He didn’t look around heaven for a shabby old angel with a busted wing and send him down to do the dirty work. He showed us His extravagance by sending us His only beloved Son, perfect in every way. We can give nothing but the very best back to Him as His awesome church!

We are constantly verbalizing this culture in our church, so people end up serving where they have some kind of strength, wherever that may be.

The way the message is communicated often becomes a bigger message than the message itself. Shabby communication – unimportant message. Excellent communication – a message that’s worth hearing.

Where music, culture and worship meet.