1

(56 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

I agree with Spaminator. Go ahead and believe whatever you want. I'm talking about music and most contemporary "Christian" music sucks.


I am not a practicing Christian but when I hear a Black Gospel music I'm like Marc Cohen in Walking in Memphis. When asked if he's a Christian, he says, "Ma'am, I am tonight." That's what I want to hear in the music. I want my soul to be stirred and my passions awakened.


Most contemporary Christian music is bland. It's as bland as Top 40 pop, modern country music and American Idol. This is all crap. It's pseudo music without a hint of passion or originality to it.


But it's hard to write this type of music when it was church leaders who condemned Rock & Roll as the devil's music (always made me wonder why Satan had better music than the churches). Rock & Roll awakens emotions that most religions (outside black gospel) are just not comfortable with. That's why it's so hard to write moving contemporary Christian music. There are a couple of good writers, but not many.


Most of the music is as shallow as fundamentalism (and I don't mean that as a put down to anyone's beliefs, but good music is about asking questions, searching for depth, not about having all the answers).


Still, if that's what turns your crank, go for it. But Christian Rock & Roll to me is as strange as right-wing folk music like in the movie Bob Roberts.

2

(56 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Other than black gospel and some cracker spirtuals (like in O Brother Where Art Thou), "Contemporary Christian Music" can best be used to put you to sleep. Surely, if God were real, he would inspire better music.

3

(23 replies, posted in Bands and artists)

Hi all,


I'm new here but I love story songs. Check out Tweeter and the Monkey Man by Bob Dylan as part of the Travelling Wilburies.


Most of Tom Waits, but especially Gun Street Girl, Tom Traubert's Blues, Postcard from a Hooker in Minneapolis, Kentucky Avenue.


There is a Canadian singer-songwriter famous for his story songs. His name was Stan Rogers (he died on an Air Canada jet that caught fire on the ground in Cincinatti).


The ones to check are: Barrett's Privateers (the unofficial anthem of Nova Scotia, Canada) and Northwest Passage.


Give him a listen, his rich baritone and great harmonies are really worth it.