alexschwindt.com

worship music

One of the changes I've been struggling with most over the past four or five weeks is not having the chance to serve musically.  In some ways it's been good to step back and remember why I love leading worship.  In some ways, however, it's felt like part of me has been asleep.  It's always been about more than just the music itself, but sometimes I forget how powerful music created for worship can really be. 

The other night I had the chance to lead Christmas worship for some new friends.  And it was great.  Really great.  I've always been more of an 'eyes-closed' style of worship leader; as I was sitting on the floor the with my guitar, just singing my heart out, I'm not sure my eyes were opened for more than ten seconds total.  In a very real way, it felt like . . . home. 

I'm not sure whether this is going to become on ongoing thing or whether it will be more sporadic, but I hope and pray that God will continue to open those doors in the days and weeks moving forward.  I'll let you know how things continues to develop in the future . . .

you've got to be kidding me

So I'm in Best Buy today helping my wife knock out some Christmas shopping, and since we didn't exactly know what we're looking for we decided to take a lap around the store.  As we get to the back of the place we notice that the entire wall of one of the back corners has been painted primary red.  As we get closer we saw a sign that read "Musical Instruments." 

Honestly, my first reaction was straight-up cynicism.  Best buy has always had a small assortment of cheap casio-style keyboards, but we decided to step into the little sub-store to have a look around anyway.  I almost has a heart attack when I discovered that Best Buy now carries Taylor Guitars.  And not the cheap ones either.  The special humidity-controlled room was sporting 814 cutaways, T5s . . . even the new solidbody electrics were there.  (as well as Gibsons, Fenders, Line 6, DW and Korg)

So basically, one of my worst nightmares has come to pass.  They've created a single centralized location where I could feasibly wreck my financial future in the space of a single hour, with a single yellow card. 

Lord, save me from myself . . .

Drums

Last night I had the chance to go play, really play, drumset again for the first time in a few years.  Some good friends of mine are putting together a new band (Briarhill - more about that later), and they invited me to come and play drums for them last night.  It was so much fun.

It's been great developing a number of other artistic gifts over the past few year, but in all of that time I think drumset's remained my first love (artistically!).  There's simply nothing like the feeling of commanding that much natural musical power and harnessing to create something rich and subtle and complex and simple.   I love me some drums.

falling in love again

For me there's usually only one album in any given year that moves from the normal realm of appreciation and sets up long-term residence in the affection zone of my heart.  I wait and wait for that one album to appear, sometimes patiently, sometimes not.  This year, I think that album may be coming in four parts. 

Jon Foreman, lead singer of the group Switchfoot, recently set out to record his first solo acoustic album.  Instead of releasing one full-length album, Jon's opted to release four EPs (5-6 songs) over the course of a year.  To date he's released Fall and Winter. 

I can't even begin to put into words what a revelation the song on these EPs are.  Foreman was already as songwriter I have enormous respect for, but in many ways this project feels like the fulfillment of all the promises of his earlier work.  Beyond the songwriting, the arrangements subtle and daring, and engineering is superb.  I can't recommend these two EPs enough. 

Although it's difficult to single anyone song out above another, if you're the iTunes type and you want to get a good idea of what these projects are like, check out "Somebody's Baby" off the Winter EP.  Leave a comment to this post and let us all know your impressions.

needing new music

Hey.  I'm looking through the music collection and I'm realizing it's been a while since I've picked up anything new.  I've heard that MuthMath's new one is awesome.  What else should I check out?

I'm curious as to what some of you are digging right now.  Leave your ideas in a comment . . .

last weekend's set list

hey everybody.  although I'm not usually in the habit of doing this, so many of you have asked in the last couple of days that I thought maybe I should go ahead and post the set list from last weekend's service.  It really was a powerful worship gathering - here's the list . . .

"Open Skies" - David Crowder Band

"Awakening" - Switchfoot

"Enough" - Chris Tomlin

"Wonderful King" - David Crowder Band

"Enchanted" - Aaron Niequist (Mars Hill)

grammy thoughts

watched the Grammy awards light night and I was genuinely surprised to end up watching the whole thing.  Normally I lose interest after about 20 minutes.  Here are some of the things I noticed . . .

1.  Lots of singers playing instruments.  Even Justin Timberlake performed from the piano (and yes, he was really playing, and yes, he really can play).  It's an encouraging trend. 

2.  Whoever produced this year's Grammys at least seemed to actually like music.  The Corinne Bailey Rae/John Legend/John Mayer set was jaw-droppingly cool.  It was also a serious block of time for a programming director to dedicate.  Rock on.

3.  Far, far ahead of sports, music has lead the way in America's struggle towards racial harmony.  The color blindness of last night's awards made me proud to be a musician.

4.  Grammy voters (i.e. the public) really have no clue what's going on in Christian music. 

5.  Trendy political statement may win you a lot of awards, but those don't always indicate great art. 

6.  Hollywood still loves it's blond-haired, blue-eyed starlets.  I really like JT and Carrie Underwood too, but holy smoke did they have a whole lot of air time.

7.  As much as I admired Stewart Copeland growing up, you can definitely see why Sting went his own way.  Trios are cool, but extremely limited.  I'm sure the Police are going to make a boatload on the tour.  More power to them. 

8.  Christian Aguilera is such a talented vocalist.  It's too bad she feels compelled to market herself as an object.

9.  Staging has really changed a lot in the past few years.  Last night's show consisted almost entirely of intelligent (moving) lighting, hazy and giant video arrays.  Probably just a trend.   

10.  At the end of the day, you still have to remember that a lot of it is just about marketing.  The Fray was completely shut out by groups like the Black Eyed Peas.  The Fray was "just, you know, like, so last month." 

all in all a good year though.  WAY better than the Oscars.  same time, same place next year?   

iPod Domination

About once every couple of years a CD comes along which is so good that it pretty much clears every other album out of my playlist.  It's one of those CDs that gives the laser in your player a run for your money and helps you realize exactly how long the battery on your iPod is.  Last year it was Switchfoot's "Nothing is Sound."

This year John Mayer released his long-awaited album "Continuum", and it's hands-down the best of his career (and that's saying a whole lot).  On first listen it's not as pop-centric as his previous efforts, but the maturity of the songwriting is so astounding that FM-accessibility quickly becomes an after-thought.  From a lyrical standpoint John Mayer has few, if any, peers.  He's also grown considerably as vocalist. 

Standout tracks include "Slow Dancing In a Burning Room", "The Heart of Life" and "Gravity." The best track on the album, however, has to be "This Train".  I won't quote the lyrics here because that's kind of dorky, but Mayer has once again found a way to channel the voice of an entire generation.

If you haven't yet, make sure and check this album out. 

(Share your thoughts on the album by clicking the "Comments" link below)