James 24:7

Have you ever had the experience of coming upon something as if it just fell out of the heavens only to find out that a whole lot of other people already know about it?  Sort of makes you wonder where you've been, huh?

I don't know...maybe it's like the old Buddhist saw that when the student is ready the teacher will appear. Maybe I just haven't had ears to hear what was blasting around me. 

As our dear Flannery O'Connor put it: Sometimes when folks are blind they need big pictures and when they are deaf they need screams.

Or maybe I had been lulled to sleep...

I am a relative newcomer to the contemporary Christian music scene.  For a long time, I kept myself pure and unspotted from such as I clung tightly to formal liturgy and the best of the old (even real old) hymns.

But then the Lord graced me with North River Community Church where He and the good folks allow me to preach.  North River was doing contemporary Christian stuff when they took me and my ragged heart in.  I confess that it took me a while to get with it.  (Which is ironic given that I am an old rock 'n roll guy from way back)

But then, there's plenty of blame to go around for my holding contemporary Christian music at arm's length...I mean in addition to my arrogance.

As much as anything it was the metrosexual, boy-bandishness of some of it and the inauthentic oozing sensuality of some other of it.

Of course, I recognize the powers at work here....There's a reason so many contemporary Christian artists look like Ryan Seacrest and sound like Ryan Seacrest looks.  (I'm talking about the male ones here...)  It's because the record labels have this idea of "the look" and "the sound" that will appeal to 12-year-old girls and their moms.  

I have since learned to like much of it.  So, I don't mean to be slamming on folks here.  But I have to ask: "Is the preponderance of Contemporary Christian music really so much mall-muzak for church?"

If the gospel is in large part about reaching those on the margin, then where is the soundtrack for doing so?  Where's the soundtrack for the lost?

It seems to me that much of our music is recorded to encourage us folks at ease in suburbo-zion.  It reaches those of us whose greatest sin is usually the failure to get the dishes washed before we go to bed.  (Okay..I know...our hearts and all that)

But where's the music that would make a drunk sit up and say, "I'll have some of what he or she is having!"  Where's the music that can reach the one whose heart is so broken that they must wonder how it goes on beating?  Where's the music that could make the most ardent and jaded Skynard fan ask for a shot of gospel in his Jack Daniels?

I'll tell you where...Ashley Cleveland's award winning CD  Before the Daylight's Shot.   Where have I been? This woman is fabulous!

I ask "where have I been" because she's been around a while doing what she does.  She even has a couple of Grammys for her efforts.  Before the Daylight's Shot was awarded best album of the year for 2006 by Christianity Today. 

I don't know...I guess I was reading a book. 

There a couple of great covers here.  Ashley covers Leon Russel's  Roll Away the Stone as well as Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground (w/ a decidedly Stevie Ray Vaughn riff and feel.).  I'm telling you...if you play those two songs in your car CD player you stand a good chance of being pulled over for speeding!  (And they aren't the only two to put you in that spot...How could such a nice Christian girl put me in such jeopardy with the po-lice?)  Crank up "The Blessing"...Lord, this ain't your grandma's blessing!

How about some of the other songs?  Well...there's "Queen of Soul" that pays homage to Aretha Franklin (and every woman with big old confidence) as well the woman at the well.  "Ooo Lord, there is a woman in the house!"

"Girls let your voices ring

like a shot heard 'round the world

You be wise in your choices

Pave your path with the tiny pearls.

Pray for your sisters,

We all need your support

Turn you love light on your misters

But remember what you're learning for."

My favorite song on this CD is "Streams of Mercy", which you can hear by going to Ashley's site here. 

Ashley Cleveland has a fabulous life-shaped voice and soul that reaches all the way down to the heart of your "anger and  failure."

On top of that, although it doesn't show up on this CD, she also loves the hymns.  (So there!)  She brings the right stuff to the hymns just like she does on Before the Daylight's Shot.