Soil from Stone

Luke Amelang is a talented and personal musician and singer. He plays a soulful bluegrass/folk/country with a mix of serious and silly. I’ve seen him live twice, and I’d go out of my way to see him again. Check him out at hisnamewasluke.com. You can listen to his latest album for free, and I’m hard pressed to pick a favorite track.

My son, who’s favorite bands are Styx and Scorpions, thought highly enough of Luke’s performance to buy a cd with a significant portion of his very small personal savings. You never can tell.

There are many beautiful sounding instruments in the world–the violin, cello, hang drum, flute, etc–but the guitar and the piano are almost certainly among the most versatile and beautiful of them all. A great player can make them sing in a language just barely beyond your memory, like something you knew as a child before you learned to speak the words of mere men.

Cheryl Amelang is a master pianist. I have had her latest CD, Refuge, for over six months, meaning to write a review, but the words escaped me. For the most part, they still do. I lack the vocubulary to describe Cheryl’s technical skills, and can barely even tell you how I feel about her playing. While enjoying this music, I sometimes have the impression that I am listening to something natural and organic. It ebbs and flows, swirls and eddies, rises and falls in tides of half-familiar hymns and prayers. I want to say, “Yes! That music, that’s what I’ve been trying to say.” But I still can’t tell you the words. Like praying in tongues, you feel the meaning pouring out, and still have no idea what it is. There are liner notes with the original lyrics to match the tunes, but those aren’t the words I hear.

To tell you the truth, I really don’t know what else to say, except that you have to sit back, close your eyes, and listen for yourself.

Other completely different things:

1. Jennifer Grassman
2. Thread Atlas
3. Kenneth Scott 

Technorati Tags: cheryl amelang, music, refuge

I remember watching In Living Color perform at the 1990 Grammies. I loved their song, “Cult of Personality,” but that was the most gawd awful performance I have ever seen. Some bands sound great after the mix, but you have to wonder how in the world they were ever “discovered.” Then there are other bands—you’ve never heard of most of them—who are fantastic live, but lose something in digital translation.

Kenneth Scott is one of the most passionate singers I have ever had the pleasure of seeing and hearing. He doesn’t care much for recording himself, so you’re probably not going to find any of his CDs in your local music store. As he puts it, his mission is leading worship for non-believers, which might sound a little self-defeating until he explains it. Songs are catalyst by which he tunes himself into the spiritual vibe of his audience so that the Holy Spirit can speak through him in words, sounds, and emotions that communicate to those unique individuals in those unique moments. Something spiritual and real happens between Kenneth and his audience. You can’t capture that in a recording. CDs are mostly for entertainment. Kenneth says that entertainment is great, it’s just not where he’s focused. To paraphrase what he told me earlier tonight, “Live and recorded are two completely different things. I’d rather play live, but people want to take that experience with them. I tried to think of ways to give that to them. Live recordings are the closest you can get, but it’s still lacking something. Improvisation is an important part of the live experience, and you can’t put that on a CD.” The only collection of his I own is a very limited production live CD cryptically titled 17. At the moment, it is completely sold out.

The lyrics that accompany Kenneth’s voice and music tell real life stories of human relationships: men and women, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters.

“For the Love of Eve” talks about how Adam must have felt about Eve, the first woman he had ever seen. Do you remember the first time you saw a pristine mountain lake, surrounded by white-capped mountains and forest? No photograph or painting can ever capture the intense beauty of the real thing. We have all known women since before we were born. We’ve become inured to their breathtaking presence. Imagine what Adam must have experienced as a full grown adult man seeing the most perfect woman ever created, the first woman he had ever seen, for the very first time. This song tries to capture some of that and all the things that Eve represented to Adam: beauty, mystery, temptation, the Fall, and finally redemption.

Currently, Kenneth is playing with Cosmic Party. He says the band still has some of the southern rock sound for which he’s best known, but they’re a little more “jazzy funk.” Listen to “CosmicSpooning” on his MySpace page, and you’ll know what that means. Listen to “For the Love of Eve” while you’re there. It’s not meat-space live, it’s still pretty darn good.

Other completely different things:

1. Jennifer Grassman
2. Thread Atlas

Technorati Tags: kenneth scott, rooster crow, cosmic party, music

Larry Norman once said that Elvis stole his music. I don’t know if that’s true, but every Christian band out there today owes their existence to the Godfather of Christian Rock.

Technorati Tags: larry norman, christian rock, music, jesus people, jesus movement

If my sister was a Boulderite Hippy, she’d be Beth Preston. And if life is like a box of chocolates, so is coffee house music. Beth is one of the reasons I still love it so much. Even if she weren’t such an amazingly talented singer and songwriter, it’s hard to imagine being in the same room with her for long and not having fun.

Michael Garfield opened for her tonight at the Laughing Goat. He showed us some pretty cool guitar tricks. The art was interesting too, but I don’t know that I would hang it on my walls. Except for one called Symphony. I really liked that one. Black and white, pen and ink numbers by Leslie somebody-or-other. I forgot to write down the name. I’ll try to remember to call them tomorrow and ask. The Dr. Seuss Circus was apparently in town too. Some of the performers were sitting front and center. Oh, wait! That’s just Boulder. Growing up in Rock Island, we had some interesting characters come into the Crossroads Coffeehouse, but they were street people. These were probably CU students. Circus performers, street people, CU students…sometimes it’s hard to keep them straight.

Hm. Yeah. No further comment necessary.

As well as her own material, Beth played a couple of covers, including “Red House.” She’s no Jimi Hendrix on the guitar, but I would love to hear her sing a duet with the man a la Nat and Natalie. In a typically artistic contradiction, she sang one song extolling love for the way things are and another in which she stated, “I’ve become a blurry reflection of someone I’d rather be.” I know exactly what she means.

After about five encores I was still very sorry to see the end of the show. She gets bonus points for audience participation.

Technorati Tags: beth preston, music, boulder, inside fire, michael garfield

Beth Preston is in town this week. Here’s the schedule she sent to her mailing list: