Derek Webb - What Matters More?
Posted by aaronjen | Filed under Music
I blogged about Derek Webb’s album Stockholm Syndrome earlier and have had more of a chance to listen to the album and read a bit more of the ‘controversy’ this song has caused.
Scot McKnight blogs about this song - mainly asking what people have heard and think about the song. McKnight doesn’t know much about Derek Webb so for that reason was asking what other people thought about the song/artist etc. A number of responses to McKnight’s questions seemed to be directed at Derek Webb’s artistic ability and not directly at the questions of whether the song was appropriate etc.
I’ve also read elsewhere opposing views as to whether or not the issue of homosexuality is in fact still an issue. A number of people at both McKnight’s and Burnside Writer’s blogs believe that “What Matters More” is a little bit too late. I don’t think this is the case…I think, maybe on paper some Christians attitudes towards sexuality have changed, but I’d say in practice there is still a hesitation towards acceptance of people regardless of sexuality.
I think that Webb is asking the question about what matters more to highlight that instead of trying to correct other peoples’ behavior, we should focus on things that we can make a difference with, such as loving others, justice, and worrying about our own walk. - ALR
Tags: Derek Webb, Scot McKnight, sexuality, What Matters More
Simon & Garfunkel Concert
Posted by aaronjen | Filed under Music
On Saturday, 20 Jun 09, Jen took me to see Simon and Garfunkel in concert at Acer Arena in Sydney for my birthday present. It had been years that I had wanted to see S&G in concert, and never thought it’d happen, especially in Sydney, so there was no question that we’d have to get tickets to go see them. The 20th of June was their first of three Sydney shows (two were originally advertised, with the show on the 23rd added after the first two shows all but sold out) and was sold out (although we did have spare seats either side of us).”
The show started late as people were still arriving after the start time, but when they finally took to the stage, most seats were filled and we were all ready for a once in a lifetime opportunity to see and hear two of the most influential recording artists over the last 50 years.
The show opened, after a long round of applause from us fans, with the tour title “Old Friends“. It was amazing to hear how good S&G still sound. They played about 27 songs (click here for the complete set list), with at least one of them on stage for the entire 2 (and a little bit) hour concert. Paul Simon left for Art to sing “Bright Eyes”, “A Heart in New York” (which I was hoping to hear!) and a song he wrote himself called “Perfect Moment”. Simon returned to the stage to play guitar for Art while he sang “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her“. They then performed “Late in the Evening” which included one of their guitarists playing a saxophone solo, followed by a guitar solo, which was quite incredible. Art then left for Simon to sing “The Boy in the Bubble” and “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”. Art returned for Paul to sing “The Only Living Boy in New York“, which Paul told us he wrote while Art was down in Mexico filming “Catch 22“.
I was very impressed with their backing band - all incredible musicians. After the concert Jen and I were discussing songs we would have liked to have heard that they didn’t play and soon realised that the concert would have had to have been twice as long for them to have sung all the songs we wanted to hear.
All up, it was a sensational concert and an amazing experience to have finally gotten to see Simon and Garfunkel in concert! - ALR
Tags: Acer Arena, Art Garfunkel, Old Friends tour, Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel
Derek Webb, Stockholm Syndrome
Posted by aaronjen | Filed under Music
We downloaded Derek W
ebb’s latest album Stockholm Syndrome today and looks like it’s gonna be his best to date. The physical album doesn’t hit stores (those who will sell it…) until September, but the complete album is available for download right now from Webb’s website. There is going to be two versions of the album - a “clean” version and an “explicit” version due to controversy with INO, Webb’s record label, surrounding the song “What Matters More”, which apparently won’t be included on the INO released “clean”/Christian bookstore version.
We have watched a 60 minute documentary “Paradise is a parking lot” about the making of the album and the snippets of tunes we’ve heard from that point to a great sounding, lyrically challenging, album.
One thing we’re trying to work out from the documentary is whether or not DW is playing a Maton for one or two of the songs - we’ll keep you posted!
More to come after we’ve had a good listen to the album. - ALR
Tags: Derek Webb, Maton, Paradise is a parking lot, Stockholm Syndrome, What Matters More
