friends on the radio

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that Stuart MacLean played a song by Judith and Simon ("The Land") on The Vinyl Cafe... this past week I heard an interview with The Waking Eyes on Q (Joey of The Waking Eyes has played bass on all three of my SmallTall Music CDs)... and tomorrow morning Alan and Aiden ("Stringer Lake") are going to be featured on Fresh Air.

And just when I was starting to feel left out I got a note from Tony Copple saying that he's going to be playing my "There's a Jubilee a-Comin'" song tomorrow on his "Over My Head" show in Ottawa.

houses and fields, brothers and sisters everywhere

I had finally figured out a train schedule that would work for that elusive jaunt from Washington DC (where I was leading worship in the morning) to Lancaster PA (where I was doing a concert in the evening). The train schedules have worked remarkably well this whole tour... except for this one day... these two cities looked so close on the map and - “well, it’s the east coast, I’m sure there’ll be lots of options”...

hmmm...

So I called on Sunday morning, just to confirm with the Lancaster folks that my train was scheduled to arrive at 5:55... and I was really REALLY hoping it would be on time so I could make it for the 7:00 concert... It was definitely too close for comfort, but I didn’t see any other option...

“Oh... but the concert is at 6:00.”

Gulp.

So off we went to the morning service, and I still didn’t know how I was going to make it to my evening performance... maybe I could take the train to Philly and rent a car from there (if I could find someplace open on a Sunday afternoon)...

As I was wolfing down a smallish portion of the delicious potluck spread after the service (in time to catch that train to Philly), Eric came over and said “Bryan, I’d like to drive you to Lancaster.”

I nearly choked on my pasta. “Really? You would do that?”

This past month of touring has been a miracle of generosity from start to finish. To each family who shared their home and their dinner table, to each person who gave part of their day (sometimes a large part) to get me to where I needed to go, to each one who planned and organized and put up posters, to each one who set up and ran sound, to each one who sang and smiled, to each one who prayed and supported in ways seen and unseen, I am so deeply grateful.

As this tour concludes (I'm writing this at the border stop at Niagara Falls, waiting to begin the last leg of the journey home), I feel like I have experienced Mark 10:29-30 again, and again, and again:

“Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age - houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions - and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

a multiplicity of musicians

After that musical conversation with the brothers at Weston Priory...

Two nights ago in Charlottesville I did a joint concert with Jonathan, a singer-songwriter and good friend (we go back a long way, to riding around in the back of a pick-up truck as teenagers in Bolivia).

My contact person and coordinator-person-and-sound-tech-and-conversation guy for the Harrisonburg concert last night was Matthew, a composer.

Tonight I'm staying in the Washington DC area at the home of Adam and Maria - Adam is a hymn-text writer whose first book of hymns is being published by GIA very shortly (he showed me the proofs. He also showed me a couple of my songs that have been published in a new John Bell book of "global songs for children" and the new Church Hymnal 4th Edition of the Church of Scotland... I hadn't seen them there yet...)

And you thought I was touring as a "solo musician"...! Ha!

singing with the brothers of Weston Priory

The evening before I left Vermont we worshipped at the Weston Priory and then had supper with the brothers there - a silent meal, with one of the brothers reading out loud from a recent book of biblical/theological scholarship (I'm afraid I can't remember the title) - and then, when the prior rang the bell, a burst of robust conversation.

After the dishes are done the brothers have an hour of recreation before evening prayers, and we all gathered in a room (which was the original farm house when the Priory was founded in 1953) to talk and sing together. The Weston Priory is known for many things, including their music - the music they use in their liturgies has grown out of and been written by members of their community over the years, and is available to order or download.

What an honour and a delight to meet them and worship with them and sing with them (they were eager to hear as many of my songs as we could squeeze into the time we had). One body with many members indeed!

insisting on vocation

What a deeply moving experience it was last week to gather with leaders of numerous Christian denominations to focus on "sustainability."

To hear from David Radcliff (of the New Community Project), Fletcher Harper (of Greenfaith), Jeff Woods, Stan McKay, Mark Vincent (of Design For Ministry).

Wow.

And as I read this column in today's Toronto Star, I am struck again by how well this writer, and so many others (as I've blogged before), is actually articulating something that resonates deeply with our calling and vocation as "alternative community," as church. The vocation/identity that was the focus of the daily worship sessions that I led with last week's ecumenical gathering (Genesis 12:1-4, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 3:10)...

In the words of today's article by Carol Goar:

"... ways to achieve full employment, reduce poverty, cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep government finances in good shape without economic growth. People would have to live differently - work less, buy less, and pollute less. Values would have to change. The economy would have to fit within the biosphere.

"Victor (author of "Managing Without Growth - Slower by Design, Not Disaster") admits many readers will have trouble getting their heads around the idea of life without economic growth. It's alien to everything they've been taught. "If I can at least get the to open their eyes to alternatives, I'll think I've accomplished something."

"... Something's stirring. It's not a groundswell. But a conversation is beginning about what recovery really means."


Do we have ears to hear?

meeting the maker

As you can see, I'm on my summer blogging schedule ("now-and-then" rather than "once-per-week").

Just got back from a VERY full and intense and good week in Winnipeg, where Marilyn Houser Hamm and I led singing at the Mennonite Church Canada Assembly and at the MCCanada/MCUSA "People's Summit For Faithful Living." What a rich time of worship and connecting and re-connecting with brothers and sisters and co-conspirators from all over the place... My only regret is that I wasn't able to spend more time connecting with people and attending the different "discernment" and "learning track" times, as my days were so full with leading worship (morning and evening with the adults, and with the Children's Assembly in between), and then preparing for the next one... and occasionally sleeping...

Along the way I got to re-connect with Tom and Christine Sine, Arlyn, Darryl (finally got to hear Kim and Darryl perform together live!), Jonathan, Charleen and Kendall, the House of Doc folks (got to make music with them too - I'll never forget that Samba during communion with Rebecca and Dan and Jesse on upright bass, with Myron going nuts on all those Brazilian drums... imagine if we actually had time to rehearse...), the gang from Douglas and the puppets from Home St. during the Children's Assembly, Raquel from the Baptist churches of Chile, and on and on and on it goes. Not to mention, of course, some time with Mom and Dad (thanks SO much!!) and my brother Derek, whose bang-up job on the Deuteronomy Bible studies and whose climactic ball-toss dunking dear old dad were among the significant happenings that I had to miss but heard a lot about from others.

God is at work, and I'm so grateful for these times when I can catch a glimpse of just how prolific and virtuosic that work is. Even if it sometimes feels like drinking from a fire hose.

And what a joy to be back home again, to spend more time with Julie and Matthew (camping soon - hooray!), to see how the tomoatoes have grown (talk about prolific!) and eat fresh-from-the-garden every day, to be looking to the future with excitement and anticipation...

And in the delayed-gratification department, I left my guitar in Manitoba for a date with its maker, Phil Campbell-Enns, who will be installing a pick-up that he claims sounds "HUGE." Which leaves me with my hack-around-the-campfire guitar for the summer... maybe it's time to pick up the fiddle again...

Among my various songs that we used throughout the week, I thought a few were going to be posted on the MCCanada website, but I haven't been able to find them... I'll try to post a link if and when I find one... especially to "Keep These Words" which we used as a "theme song" for the Summit... I'm thinking it may in fact make a good title track for the next CD...

barnyard update

This morning I spent some time chasing a chicken in a vain attempt to get it back into the enclosure where it's supposed to be... maybe I'm getting older and slower than I thought...

And apparently we've now lost 5 lambs to the coyotes at night... I didn't even realize it was happening... it seems Jenny the bodyguard donkey is getting older too...

In case you're confused (and I don't blame you), I'm not a "real" farmer - I just do an hour of barn chores each day (and if any real problems present themselves I call up Brian, the "real farmer," who comes and solves the problem). That daily hour (which I rather enjoy) is my only "employment" besides music.

Oh, and the Alberta mini-tour was great. Upon my arrival I had four performances within 25 hours between Lethbridge, Calgary, and Edmonton (pretty substantial distances, considering the lack of sleep and the presence of photo-radar). It was great to connect again with some friends and family that I hadn't seen in a long time. Lots of good response to the music. Lots of interesting and thoughtful reflection with the Alberta pastors at the Theological Studies event (see previous post).

And I met some amazing new musical friends - the Friesen Family Band (opened for my concert in Edmonton - ASTONISHING what they do!) and Tim Chesterton (an "anabaptist anglican" priest with a fabulous voice and gorgeous guitar and encyclopedic knowledge of traditional folk tunes from the British isles).

Psalm 104

I asked Lynette Schroeder Wiebe to create art based on Psalm 104, and this is the spectacular piece she came up with.

It graces the back cover of the new CD and songbook... and is available as a free download and for purchase in poster form as well.

There's an amazing story that goes with it too... one that is still unfolding... maybe I'll tell it sometime... although perhaps it's not really mine to tell.

In the meantime, a weekend is definitely not too long to spend looking at this piece.

Instructions from "user's guide" (not necessarily in chronological order):

1) Read Psalm 104

2) look at this artwork

3) Repeat

restless blessings

I have felt enormously blessed lately as I continue to be invited into the lives of different communities - churches, schools, various circles of friends and colleagues and co-conspirators - in the living out of this musical vocation. While some aspects of this feel like they're becoming more "routine" (in the sense that I'm more used to it now), it continues to feel anything but "routine" (in the sense of bland or boring or predictable). I continue to have to "give my head a shake" so often that my head-shaker gets sore...

I am also grateful for the income that has been coming in... from performances, CD sales, a bit of publishing from my songs, households and congregations becoming "members" of SmallTall Music and supporting this ministry that way (including a couple of souls that have expressed, and acted on, a desire to support this ministry with considerably more than their current "membership fees").

And yet it's ironic that, as these things continue to happen (and, with tax time here, as I actually look at the numbers and wonder again about the financial viability of it all), I find more and more of my time and energy taken up with administrative tasks, and have had (or, more accurately, have managed to take) less and less time for the actual creative work of WRITING SONGS.

There is a kind of restlessness that I'm having trouble naming or describing... a kind of scattered taking-care-of-a-gazillion-details-but-no-sustained-concentration-for-anything mode that has been going on for too long...

And then the other day I was brought up short by a friend's request. Pieter asked me to be the "speaker" at his ordination service.

Wow.

Somehow this has impacted me more than I know how to express. I cycle between feeling flabbergasted, elated, terrified, and deeply honoured. And as I prepare, and contemplate Pieter's ministry, I wish I could say it's giving me new perspective on my own. It's not as definite as that yet. Right now it's more like a wake-up call.

welcome aboard the "csm" train!

Not only has Jonathan Reuel decided to start his own "csm" (Community Supported Music) initiative - he's also bringing his flair for communicating in fresh and direct and intensely REAL ways - and his passion and genius for networking with artists of all kinds - and has put together an excellent description of the CSM approach and how he's applying it to what he does.

I'll race you to see who signs up first!

That said, it comes as a bit of a surprise to read there that Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens "tried something similar" to what I/we are doing with "community supported music." There are some similarities, to be sure - the idea of an artist-based kind of "subscription service" and a more direct "artist-supporting community" relationship - and I really like some of the things he's doing with that. And there are, of course, lots of current examples of people experimenting with different ways to do these kinds of things, which I think is great.

However, I think of the "community supported music" approach as an ALTERNATIVE to the mainstream "celebrity system"... not another way to package and cash in on celebrity status in the context of (as DiNizio's statement puts it) "the ever-imploding music industry."

In other words, it seems pretty important to me that "community supported music" is a way of structuring the artist-supporting community relationship that is predicated on notions like "enough" and "sustainability" and "viability at a small scale" and real "community"... in rather stark contrast, it seems to me, to the underlying assumptions of the celebrity system...

Or, to put it yet another way - I get very excited about the possibility of passionate people catching a glimpse of how they might be able to pursue their art in a way that is healthy and sustainable (personally, relationally, ecologically, even economically) without feeling that the "celebrity system" is the only game in town. And I'm glad to see that Jonathan thinks the "csm" approach can be one of the tools to help make that happen.

now we know

Ahhh... so THAT'S what my brother-in-law is up to... and where we'll be visiting over Christmas... thank goodness for journalists who help us keep track of family members and their musical adventures...!

writers in the family

Whew! It's been a long time since I last blogged. A wild summer, with the adventures of getting the new studio album ready for release, a train odyssey to Winnipeg with Matthew, trying to keep up with the profusion of tomatoes (that's been mostly Julie's department), and a bit of family holiday thrown in as well. It's been good.

In any case, I plan to be getting back to blogging regularly again soon. The next couple of weeks are "crunch time" as the album needs to be "out the door" and "at the plant" by the beginning of September if I'm to have CDs for the concerts in October and November (as they are "CD Release" events, that would seem to be a good idea...), so blogging may be sketchy for the next little while, but then it'll be back into more of a routine again come September.

In the meantime, here are some other family members that have been writing and publishing some great stuff recently - congratulations Dad, and Rebecca!

And our 10 year old even got in on the act recently, writing and submitting a lengthy and rather touching poem on "why I am excited to go back to school"... stating matter-of-factly (to his parents) that it's not true at all, but he wants to win the prize (a backpack) so he shamelessly wrote what he thinks they want to hear...

Yikes! The hazards of having writers in the family...

the zone

Recording for the new CD is underway, and I (and my family) can tell I'm getting "into the zone"... fun, intense, exciting, kinda scary, all at the same time...

This weekend people all over are participating in days of prayer and action for Colombia. Our congregation started last week with a very moving visit from Tim and Rebecca... for me a highlight was the ritual of coming to the front, taking a grape (representing the sweetness and goodness of God's intentions for all people), dipping it in salt water (representiing the sweat and tears of those working for peace in Colombia), and eating it while singing "Don't Be Afraid, My Love is Stronger..."

By the way, a couple of wild-and-crazy folks from our church (guess who!) have launched a new, exciting, innovative... ok, it's just a new "church blog"... but I still think it's pretty cool. Have a look.

co-conspirators

Do you ever feel that your brain is buzzing with ideas, so many of them chasing each other around that one moment you feel incredibly lucid and the next you can hardly think straight?

That you are so grateful for the people in your life that your soul is full to bursting?

That there is so much struggle and pain that your heart is almost breaking?

I do. A lot. And, for the past while, usually all at once. I wonder if it’s becoming a chronic condition.

Even blogging, with its promise and possibility of quick response and reflection on the events and ideas of the day (or, in my case, the week), cannot possibly keep pace. I hope, when things slow down just a bit, to write more about some of the people and experiences and ideas of the past little while… for now I’ll just list some of the co-conspirators with whom I’ve been engaged this past week…:

Andrea and her band led our community in an inspiring evening of song, exploring the new “Sing The Journey” songbook… hard to believe it’s been two years since we first met, as we were getting set to introduce “Sing The Journey” and lead the singing at the Charlotte convention…

Mike and Sherri and Darren at MFC, as we talked and debated and strategized about the new CD of songs on economic stewardship themes (now moving from writing to recording phase) and upcoming “sneak peak” concert…

Brent and Val, and their adventures as a family with their working and living in communications and small-scale organic farming… kindred spirits in envisioning and seeking to live into an economic/ecological “alternative,” passionate participants in Community Supported Agriculture and creative partners in my emerging Community Supported Music initiative…

Jared, whom I hadn’t seen since we spent 3 weeks together last summer in Bogota with other young adults from across Canada and Colombia, exploring and reflecting and confronting and dreaming and struggling with economic realities, and violence, and the church, and our own role(s) and vocation(s)…

Raffi, who I had the privilege of meeting on Thursday night (quite a thrill for me, as you can imagine), who is also a co-conspirator working (writing! singing! dancing!) for change and a sustainable future…

And this is just a start. What a glorious thing to be co-conspirators in the cause! Take heart, my friends! You're not alone!

seasons

It feels like I'm going through an abrupt seasonal shift. And no, this time I'm not talking about climate change.

The last few months have been a fairly intensive time of songwriting - a season I've been enjoying very much. A couple of weeks back I met with a small group of folks and sang through 13 or 14 new tunes to get their reaction and feedback as I work toward the new CD project. I think from that round there are probably 8 or 9 "keepers," some of which I've also tried out with my home congregation and a couple of other groups.

Now it seems I need to make the shift to a more "administrative" season, as I need to:

- get going on logistics for the new recording (figuring out who I will record with, where, when, how...)
- take care of some detail stuff for my March tour in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana
- post my February delivery of songs to the members of SmallTall Music (the songs are written and ready to go, but I need to record them, get the notation done, and write up the accompanying resources)

Another STM membership arrived in the mail yesterday - it's been great to see how word of this "CSM" ("Community Supported Music" - the kind of "musical CSA" that I've been developing) is getting around and, I think, gaining some momentum. So much so, in fact, that another friend and colleague has been in touch with me to help him set up his own CSM...

And speaking of friends and colleagues, it's good to see that Phil and Darryl are up to their old (new) tricks again, and that the word is getting out... (see the "Arts and Culture" section of the January 22 issue - for some reason it won't let me link to the actual article). Not only does Phil build great guitars (he built mine), he also writes great tunes (he was the "guest artist" on my last delivery of songs), and I'm glad to see he's sharing his stuff more broadly. And Darryl's been making great music - and helping other people make their own - for a long time too... So go have a look and a listen and share your own creativity as well...

"...to everything there is a season...turn, turn, turn..."

(I know, with a title like "seasons" you were probably wondering when I'd get around to referencing Ecclesiastes/Pete Seeger... so there you go...)