New Music Tuesday/What’s On The Playlist 9/8/09
Well, it’s the day you’ve all been waiting for. Barlowgirl’s new record, Love & War, comes out today. The title threw me at first but then I developed some affection for it as I realized it was a combo of themes in their ministry. You know, we’re NEVER ALONE because God loves us, and we have to go ONE MORE ROUND in the war for His glory. So i get it. But the record comes out today. It’s kind of weird because I looked on iTunes and usually I just have to look at the new releases, but it’s not there. Maybe they’re falling behind. Maybe all the people at iTunes are watching the US Open. Or maybe it’s someone else’s fault. Either way, it’s not on the front pages, but if you search for it, you can find it. As for the record itself, it’s what you expect to come from the girls: strong rock music, sometimes fun, and strong lyrics. I was just about to assume I knew what the record held when I hit track 10, Tears Fall. Whoa, didn’t see that coming. And I mean in a good way. It’s beautiful. And then track 11, Hello Sunshine, is another fun creative track. The record finished with my two favorite songs. Anyway, check it out. You have to search for it, but I think you’ll enjoy it.
And one more, this came out last week, but I finally got to sit and listen to Jason Gray’s Everything Sad is Coming Untrue. Last week, it was a part of my five minorly major announcements, or was that majorly minor announcements. I don’t remember. Anyway, I was telling everyone about Nathan Lee’s 40DAYRISK tour, and Ted Dekker’s new book Green, and Derek Webb’s new record, Stockholm Syndrome. Oh and the NEED pre-sale, which you probably had to look at before you could get to the website. And I mentioned Jason’s new record because it came out but I hadn’t gotten to listen to it yet. Now I have, and it’s great. Jason is a great writer and that really shines through on this record. The first track is great: More Like Falling In Love. It’s way better than the first single. But isn’t that just how it goes. About tracks 3 & 4, I thought the record was settling into CCM radio world. But then Holding The Key took major steps forward and How I Ended Up Here might have been my favorite song on the record. And the record continues like that. A song or two for radio and a song or two for me. If you like both of those sounds, this may be your favorite record in quite some time. Hope you get the chance to enjoy it.
Todd
Introducing “Jesus, The Hope Of Glory”
Hey Everyone, check out this week’s preview video for the next song off Todd’s new album, NEED. The song is called “Jesus, the Hope of Glory”. Thanks for coming back to preview the new song each week…only 5 more weeks till NEED hits stores!
– Jenni
Five Minorly Major Announcements
First, my friend Nathan Lee who I’ve been ranting about all summer leaves on tour today. His music is awesome and this tour idea is awesome. He leaves this morning on the 40 Day Risk tour. He will be in 40 cities over the next 40 days, but has nowhere to play and no one to come. He is totally trusting God to provide. Check out his records on iTunes or somewhere else. The new one is Risk Everything and the piano one from earlier this year is West Tisbury. Both awesome. You can keep up with the tour at www.40dayrisk.com. He starts tonight in Knoxville, TN. Pray for him and go see him if you can. You can follow him at @nathanleemusic on Twitter to find out where he’s playing in each town. And you can financially support the tour through a paypal link at www.40dayrisk.com.
Second, another friend Jason Gray has a new record coming out today, Everything Sad is Coming Untrue. Jason is an incredible songwriter and a true man of God. And let’s be honest, that’s an awesome album title. It’s way better than Need. I’m really looking forward to listening to it. Oh, and the cover is awesome. So you can find it on iTunes as well, and probably at your local Christian bookstore. Or you can order at jasongraymusic.com. There you can get all the bonus packages.
Third, Ted Dekker’s new book, Green, comes out today. It’s the fourth book in the Circle series. Check out Teddekker.com
Forth, Derek Webb’s new record that I’ve been raving about releases today. It’s called Stockholm Syndrome. www.derekwebb.com
And lastly, you can pre-order my new record. Comes out Oct. 6. Today starts the official pre-sale. Right now, you can still get a free digital download of Do You See What I See, our Christmas record when you order. But that should go away sometime today. http://buzzplant.com/toddagnew/splash/ That’s the order page. ah, I’m so professional.
Thanks.
Todd
What’s On The Shelf
Well, it’s the last day of August and the new record goes on official pre-sale tomorrow. So I’m sure I’ll have to do another business blog tomorrow announcing that. But before that, let’s take a quick look at what I’m reading right now. I’m in the middle of both of them but I’m quite excited about them so I wanted to share.
The Bondage of the Will – Martin Luther
You may have noticed that I’ve been on a Luther kick lately. I love the way he thinks and how passionate he is about the faith. This book has been blowing me out of the water. It was written as a response to a paper by Erasmus, and discusses the free will of man. It’s not your typical modern “free will vs. predestination” argument that has sidelined many a college ministry. It is an indepth look at the sovereignty of God and how that plays out in the life of man. My particular version of it was translated by J.I.Packer and O.R.Johnston. They also wrote a amazing preface to the book. It is wiping me out. I highly recommend it.
North! Or Be Eaten – Andrew Peterson
This is the second installment of the Wingfeather Saga. The first was On The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. It is a fantasy adventure series. Think Narnia, but really funny. And if you read it, don’t miss the footnotes. They are awesome. I’ve been waiting for this book to come out for a long time and I’m really enjoying it. Three children, Janner, Tink and Leeli are the lost Jewels of Anniera. They have been driven from their home by the Fangs of Dang. They are journeying north into the cold where the Fangs don’t enjoy the weather so much. Great characters, amazing story. Highly recommended.
What are you reading?
Todd
BUILDING WITH PRECIOUS STONES
In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul describes three kinds of builders. Well, one is a destroyer. Another builds casually and carelessly, with wood, hay, and straw. The other builds with valuable materials: gold, silver, and precious stones. When it comes to building His church, I knew I didn’t want to be a destroyer. And I knew I didn’t want to build casually with cheap materials. I wanted to fit in the last group but I didn’t really understand what that meant.
This year, God challenged me with that verse by asking, “Are you willing to build my church, my kingdom with what is most valuable to you?” I said, “Yes,” before I even thought about what it meant. Then I stopped and said, “What is most valuable to me?” Well, it’s my wife and kids. Am I willing to build the church with them? What does that even look like? But I decided that was what God was asking of me.
What do we see when we look at the younger people in our church? Do we see people that drain the budget, that distract the focus in services, that are often too loud at most events? Or do we see the building blocks of the church, both of the future and of now? We are instructed to build, not just prepare to build. The children and students in our churches are valuable members, in addition to being our future leaders.
I remember a day in my early 20’s when I finally asked my dad a question. I had grown up in church. I was in the nursery as soon as possible, I was in VBS and Bible Drill, I was on the student council. And one day I asked my dad what deacons do. I knew they took up the offering but that was about
it. I was definitely not prepared to lead the church, I hadn’t even been educated on some of the basics. And I was one of the guys they thought would be a leader.
I was at a church this weekend that the last Sunday of each month, they have a deacon come in and teach the youth Sunday School. I thought that was awesome. They were building a link between the younger and older generations as well as investing in the future of the church. The students not only knew the leadership of the church, but they knew their names, what they thought, and what their lives were like. Every once in a while a deacon has all the students over to his house. So they see him as a normal person, as a father, as a husband.
To me, that looks like a church that is building the kingdom with precious stones. I hope to learn how to do that as well. I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how we can do this in our churches.
Todd
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT – The NEED Pre-Pre-Sale
Hey everybody. The time has come. Starting today for one week, you can pre-order NEED. Well, you can pre-order it until it comes out, but the general public finds out in a week. This first week only you guys, those that are a part of our family, our community, will know about it. And we’ve included a bonus. If you order this first week, you get a free digital download of Joy Unspeakable, the first single off NEED, and a free digital download of Do You See What I See, the Christmas record.
You’ll be able to choose between two packages. One of them is a simple digital download of the album on release day, but you still get Joy Unspeakable and Do You See What I See now. The other is more expensive, but you get the digital download of NEED on release day, plus 4 bonus tracks on release day. They were some of my favorites that I couldn’t fit on the record. But you also get Joy Unspeakable and Did You See What I See now. And you get a live acoustic EP to download now. And a t-shirt. I know it’s confusing, but you can go to the link below and read all about it. So there you.
Announcement made.
Enjoy.
Todd
What’s On The Playlist
First, There is so much new music out this week that it is hard to make a playlist. Of course, there was so much new music that I couldn’t afford to buy it all. But I definitely look forward to spending more time with the new Skillet record, the new Leeland, and the new Selah CD. And for you rockers, I’m enjoying this new EP by Silverline. And of course, there’s new records by Matt Redman and Aaron Shust to consider as well.
Second, there are many recent releases that are staying in my playlist. Both the new Risk Everything CD and the piano record West Tisbury by Nathan Lee are still at the top of the charts along with the new Derek Webb, Stockholm Syndrome. I guess I need to keep talking about that one since it’s not out yet. And Matt Papa is a great new worship artist, incredibly creative, who released a great new record last week called Your Kingdom Come. Still listening to the new Kings of Leon (incredible) and the latest Third Day, Revelation. Oh, and still killing the Albertine record by Brooke Fraser. And lastly, I’m still really enjoying the new Aaron Ivey worship project, Between the Beauty and the Chaos. I’m learning two of the songs off there to start leading in worship myself, The Name and Found. Great record.
As far as new stuff, I’m enjoying the new Ingrid Michaelson record. I found her originally because she had one of my favorite videos of the last, well, quite some time. It was a great song called The Way I Am. You might have heard it on innumerable Old Navy commercials. Unfortunately the video is not on iTunes but you can see it on YouTube. It’s about a normal girl who is an outcast in a world of clowns. Awesome. Anyway, she is a great clever songwriter. And her new record came out this week as well. I listened to the first song and was shocked at the resemblance to one of the great Christian songwriters of our generation, Sara Groves. The whole record is full of clever quirky pop songs. Sort Of is a great song, a wonderful ballad at #4. And the record ends with Maybe, another killer pop tune. The cool thing is she’s still indie. No big record deal for her. So you can get the whole record and the video for Maybe for $7.99 on iTunes. And the video for Maybe is awesome. Really creative. I think just as creative as the new Coldplay video everyone is swooning over but this is done by an Indie girl. No big financial system behind her. Anyway, cool record.
And let’s look at a few songs individually for a moment,
Shine On Us – great worship song by Cory Asbury. He’s one of the younger generation at IHOP. Not the pancake place, the prayer place. The worship place, that’s already given us Misty Edwards and others.
Everyone To Know – Bethany Dillon – I don’t understand why this isn’t the most played song at Christian radio right now. It’s infectious. I love it. My wife finally started asking me what I was humming all the time, because I don’t usually do that. And it was this song.
Move aside Disney Channel starlettes, for my kids, it’s Britt Nicole, all day, all night. The Lost Get Found, That’s How We Roll, and Welcome to The Show are the favorites around here. When I get to pick, we start with the last track, Have Your Way. We loved having her on the Christmas tour and year and a half ago. She sang Magnificat and really led worship. Awesome.
Well, that’s probably enough for this time. Enjoying listening.
Todd
A Morning With Ted Dekker
So today it was my job to interview my friend Ted Dekker. In case you are not familiar with him, he is an incredible author, novelist, creative spirit. We actually kind of stayed on track today, which is unusual for us. The main topic of the day was his new book, Green, which hits shelves on Sept 1, but hit my shelf today. Green is the finale of the Circle Series, which includes Black, Red, and White. But it is also the beginning. It’s book four but it’s also book zero. You’ll have to read it to find out, and so will I. Ted said you could read it before Black, or after White. Most of us will be reading it after White, but for some of you this might be a really interesting launching point for you if you haven’t read any of them. I’ll be really interested to see what the experience is like for someone who reads it first.
We also talked about what it’s like to write in different genres. About half Ted’s books are thrillers, like his last book Boneman’s Daughters, and half are fantasy, like Green. It seems like it would be really difficult to switch like that. But Ted compared it to the way we switch musical styles a lot on our records. He said it might even be boring if you didn’t, and I would tend to agree. We also talked about explaining the redemption story through fiction rather than non-fiction. He said some really neat stuff that I’ll post a link to whenever they put the interview online.
And I got a sneak peek into what’s coming next, Immanuel’s Veins. It is about good and evil both trying to woo the heart of each of us, to win the hearts of all of us. For the Circle fans, it takes a deeper look at something we will find in Green, the Shaitiki entering our world. And here they resemble a certain old story about vampires…
Well, I can’t wait to read Green. In fact, I think I’ll go do that now. And you can find it on Sept 1. Till then, sorry, you’re out of luck.
Todd
Introducing “Give Me Jesus”
Hey Everyone, here’s the latest song preview from Todd’s new record NEED. The song is called “Give Me Jesus”, and like Todd says, the first line pretty much sums up the song (and the record). It says “Take the world, but give me Jesus”. I definitely encourage you to check out this video.
-Jenni
Thoughts On A Quote
“The basic problems of the Christians in this country in the last eighty years of so, in regard to government, is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals. They have very gradually become disturbed over permissiveness, pornography, the public schools, the breakdown of the family, and finally abortion. But they have not seen this as a totality—each thing being a part, a symptom, of a much larger problem. They have failed to see that all of this has come about due to a shift in world view—that is, through a fundamental change in the overall way people think and view the world and life as a whole.”
– Francis Schaeffer
And… discuss. I have to go to Canada. Really, I do. That was not a continuation of the government issue. I’m going to Canada. Read your responses when I return.
Todd