I am delighted to report that I have been invited to perform at this year’s Wild Goose Festival, August 8-11 in Hot Springs, North Carolina. This festival is a kind of cousin to the legendary Greenbelt Festival in the UK, which has been running since the 70s. Speakers at this year’s Wild Goose Festival will include folks like Philip Yancey, Brian McLaren, Phylis Tickle, Jonathan Wison-Hartgrove, and many others… and musicians will include The Indigo Girls, The Lost Dogs, and many, many more…

I am anticipating an extending touring season, potentially in both Canada and the USA, come fall… so if you’d like to explore possibilities for a visit to your area, please send me an e-mail and let me know. See you on the road!

Here’s an article I wrote for Canadian Mennonite magazine – “Hearing Jesus as Songwriter.”

And here’s a more ambitious piece – a 33 page booklet that is a bit of a study of how Jesus is portrayed as interpreter of Scripture in the Gospel of Mark. That piece is now available here… and there may well be more on its way in a similar vein…

Not to worry – there’s still some songwriting going on too, but it hasn’t been as consistent or disciplined lately. That said, the backlog of “songs to write” has been steadily growing… there have been a few new songs lately… I expect that, before too long, there will be some more songwriting that will “break the logjam” that’s been building up…

Stay tuned!

This theme song is drawn from Leviticus 26 – a text that makes a vivid (even shocking) connection between human obedience to God’s ways (commandments, statutes, ordinances) and the health of the land. When we sing the refrain of the song (“I will remember the land”), we are singing the words that God speaks in Lev 26:42.

The broader context of those words is this: the commandments in the preceding chapter (Lev 25) are all about how to deal with land/property (“sabbatical” year of rest for the land, “jubilee” year of re-distribution of land, issues of debt, servanthood, redemption of servants, etc.). Lev 26 then carries on with a description of ecological health that is described as resulting from obedience to God’s commandments (Lev 26:3-13), followed by a vision of ecological destruction resulting from disobedience (26:14-33). One way or another – whether humans implement it appropriately or not – “the land shall enjoy its sabbath” (26:33-39). And then the text describes the possibility of changed human attitudes and behaviour: “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors… if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I WILL REMEMBER THE LAND.” (Lev 26:40-42, emphasis added).

I thought it was particularly striking to put these words of Yahweh – “I will remember the land” – to a traditional Andean Cueca rhythm and chord structure… a land that has a long history of mining and exploitation not just of mineral resources but of the people who have lived there and still live there. (I spent 4 formative years, age 12-16, living in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in the heart of the Andes mountains.) For us to sing these words together, to an Andean rhythm, in the context of a global ecumenical conference on the impacts of mining, struck me as a powerful thing.

During the days of the conference I circulated around, talking to as many people as I could, asking them how we would sing these words “I will remember the land” – in their own native language. These conversations inevitably resulted in fascinating debates and conversations about what exactly the words should be, as each language and culture has its own way of articulating the nuances of these things. Which word – of the multiple options that are possible in each of our tongues – should be used to say “remember”…? To say “land”…? Different words in each language and tradition have different nuances and implications, and our wrestling with these nuances were part of our conversations about how, indeed, we are called to relate to the land.

In worship we sang these words in over a dozen different languages, I believe (the video includes only three). God’s words – “I will remember the land” – which became our own.

At the end of the conference, when we gathered for a group photo, someone started singing this refrain again. And then, perhaps on the third or fourth time, someone introduced a change and started to sing “WE will remember, we will remember, we will remember the land.” I stood there, with tears streaming down my face, marveling at how these words from God in Leviticus 26 had become our words – an article of faith, a promise, a commitment, and a joint vocation. “We will remember, we will remember, we will remember the land.”

The realities depicted in this video are not easy realities to face. Today’s “idle no more” movement is raising voices and issues (including issues raised in the video, and others) to public attention in significant and challenging ways. I type these words on a laptop representing untold quantities of resources extracted, at great cost, from the earth… and I type them knowing (even if only dimly aware) of my own complicity in a reality that is unjust and exploitative for so many… and for the land…

This video, I think, holds that challenge before us in an honest and unflinching way (even if we do flinch as we watch it). My hope and prayer is that God’s words, indeed, may become our own…

“I will remember, I will remember, I will remember the land… We will remember, we will remember, we will remember the land…”

Long-time readers of this blog  will know that this is at the core of “what I do,” and that, by a “long and winding road” (to quote yet another songwriter/communicator), I have a particular vocation for writing “songs of faith for small and tall,” helping families and congregations find ways to sing our faith together.

I have become so used to this that I sometimes don’t realize just how “audacious” this really is for many people. This was brought home to me a couple of weeks ago, when Julie and I led some sessions (including Sunday morning worship) at a congregational retreat. We have been married for (dare I say it?) 20 years, and have done many things together, but it has been quite a while since we have worked together intensively as co-leaders of sessions like this. Julie is a gifted teacher, with years of experience in Christian education settings, primary classrooms, and now running a piano studio with students ranging from 4 to 74 years old.

While we have very different personalities and planning/leading styles, we very much enjoyed the experience of working together and leading these sessions. Judging from the enthusiastic feedback (we’ve already been invited to a similar role at next year’s retreat), the congregation enjoyed it too.

Can we worship together, in ways that engage and speak meaningfully to “small and tall” alike? Yes we can!

(I’m going to add this as a new offering and “performance option” from SmallTall Music – for Julie and I to jointly lead all-ages, interactive sessions for congregational retreats. We’re looking forward to doing this more often – if this is something that you and your congregation has been looking for, please give us a call or send us a note.)

I wrote one new song, from the perspective of one of the doctors interviewed for the film, and the other song is an instrumental acoustic guitar piece. It was a pleasure working with the guys at “Fine Enough Records” (who run Barnside Studios) – they’ve put together a really nice facility. and do a good job.

I’m looking forward to seeing (and hearing) the documentary once it’s done!

Over the past while we have come to the conclusion that I should go back to the original vision for SmallTall Music as a sustainable, long-term, “part-time” ministry. This means seeking other part-time work to supplement our family income, while continuing the musical vocation on a more part-time basis. Bi-vocational ministry, in other words.

As a result, I will not be touring at the same rhythm as I have been for the past 6 years or so (when I have typically done a month-long tour each spring and fall, as well as shorter ones here and there). I will still do some long-distance touring, but not at the same pace. My closer-to-home musical involvements and availability remains unchanged – I expect that the shift from “full-time” to “part-time” will mostly affect the long-distance touring schedule, and a somewhat slower pace for ongoing writing and recording projects.

You can see my fall performance schedule (so far) here – and feel free, of course, to contact me if you’d like to explore setting up a visit to your community!

So what about the other “part-time?” Well – for the month of August I was driving a corn-delivery truck for Rouge River Farms, delivering local corn to grocery stores in the Greater Toronto Area. And as of the beginning of September I’ve been working at the Reesor Farm Kitchen here in Stouffville as… get this… a baker! That’s right – I get up in the morning and typically make 24 dozen muffins or so by 8:30 am… and then it’s on to cookies and pies, sometimes brownies or rhubarb coffee cake… (they haven’t started me on the bread-making yet, but that will come…)

“A little bit of yeast makes the whole dough rise…”

So I find myself revising the old nursery rhyme to fit my current bi-vocational status… “a driver, a baker, a songs-of-faith maker”…

In many ways this feels like another mode of “community supported music” – folks in the community prepared to give me a job (and who are flexible and understanding regarding scheduling, as I combine this work with my ongoing music ministry). I am grateful.

Just to be clear – this is not a “turning away” from my musical vocation. If anything, I believe this transition is a way to make it stable and sustainable, hopefully for a long time to come. There continue to be plenty of musical projects on the go… Keep checking this space (and/or join the SmallTall Music e-mail list on the right-hand column of this website), and I’ll be keeping you posted.

You’ll find a new article from the Sojourners blog about my music here. This was based on an interview-and-lunch conversation with Lisa Daughtry-Weiss of Sojourners, just after the “Children, Youth, and a New Kind of Christianity” conference in Washington, D.C. last May, where I co-planned and co-led the worship sessions.

There are now several free podcasts posted of some of the plenary speakers from that conference (Brian McLaren, John Westerhoff). My song “New World Coming” (from the “Detectives of Divinity” album, and the “New World Coming” compilation album) is used as the intro and outro “theme music” for the podcasts.

There are also some videos from the same conference, featuring words from folks from all over, many of whom I also had the pleasure of meeting (Dave Csinos, Shane Claiborne, Joy Carol Wallis, Melvin Bray, Brian McLaren, Ivy Beckwith, Danielle Shroyer, Joey Mitchell, Rachelle Martin, and others)… with the sounds of “Take Good Care” (from the “My Money Talks” album, and the new compilation as well) weaving in and out…

What a time it was… so good to see those faces and hear those voices and know that the conversations are continuing all over…

25 years ago Chuck Neufeld did a concert at my high school, and blew me away, and got me thinking that maybe I could write songs that others could sing along to. I spent countless hours hitting “fast forward” and “re-wind” and wearing out cassette tapes (yes, those), learning to play many of his songs. In the next few years, Chuck Neufeld joined Bruce Cockburn as the two musicians that impacted me the most at that time, as I went to as many concerts as I could, and listened and learned as much as I could, from both of them.

Who would have guessed that a quarter century later I’d have a chance to do a series of concerts together with him? (with Chuck, that is… haven’t had a chance yet to perform with Bruce… GRIN…)

What an inspirational time it was – not just to play and sing with Chuck, but also to enjoy his and Bonnie’s hospitality, and to hear much wisdom from so many years of ministry-infused-with-music in so many intriguing ways. It was particularly amazing to me to see how, in his current role as “conference minister” in Illinois, the songs he has written (and continues to write) have so obviously been embraced and treasured by the community(ies) that he serves and gently leads.

Every concert was different, but in each one we had “solo” sets and then played some songs together. Although we sang different songs each time (and learned some of each other’s newer material), we began each joint set with “My Voice Alone” – an old Pete Seeger song that Chuck adapted (“One Man’s Hands,” by Pete Seeger and Alex Comfort), and that I recorded on my first solo CD. There’s quite a story (many stories, actually) behind that song as well, and its many adaptations (including how it almost had to be dropped from my CD, until I received a hand-written permission note from Pete Seeger himself, just in the nick of time). I may tell that story here sometime as well.

But, for now, suffice it to say that it was quite an experience to be able to sing together – and with that song in particular, I felt like I was singing with two of my biggest musical heroes and influences at the same time. Two people who are among the very best at expressing profound things in simple and powerful ways that young and old can sing together.

My voice alone can’t sing a song of peace

Your voice alone can’t sing a song of peace

But if two and two and fifty make a million

We’ll see this world come ’round

We’ll see this world come ’round

The second-to-last stop on my spring USA tour was in San Antonio – home of “The Alamo.” As a Canadian prairie boy whose first decade of life coincided with the 70s, I have a mental picture from our black and white TV of some guy with a rifle and strange ‘coonskin cap and a little ditty (which I can still sing) “Daveeeey, Davey Crockett, king of the wild frontier!” I’m familiar with the phrase “remember the Alamo!” having something to do with being brave and bracing yourself to face impossible odds in a hopeless situation (“last stand”) of some kind. And that’s about all I knew, until a few weeks ago.

Spending a couple of hours at the Alamo site in San Antonio is a tremendous education in how history itself can be enlisted to form identity, character, and behaviour in powerful ways.

• The Alamo is called a “Shrine” (with a capital “S”) and a “sacred place” (“Welcome to the Alamo, the Shrine of Texas liberty.”)

• Colonel William Travis’ “Victory or Death” letter from within the besieged Alamo, calling for reinforcements (“I shall never surrender or retreat… the Lord is on our side…” – Feb 24, 1836)

• Guides in period costume, explaining and demonstrating everything from weapons to medical techniques to games played by soldiers of the time.

• The (historically uncertain) story of Travis taking his sword and “drawing a line in the sand” has become familiar language denoting bravery and resolve and decisiveness in any conflict.

• So many ways of drawing us into the story, with the sense that we continue to be not only heirs of this legacy (“freedom vs. tyranny”!) but participants in the ongoing struggle (“When Colonel Travis called for reinforcements, you’re exactly who he had in mind… Cross the line. Join the Allies of The Alamo today…”)

I didn’t get a picture of it, but in the gift shop I jotted down over 30 different kinds of “take-home” items commemorating The Alamo – everything from keychains, mugs, and postcards to movies and toys and dolls and cardboard cut-out model sets to re-enact the siege at home. In one corner of the gift shop there was a movie trailer playing (“Alamo: The Price of Freedom”) – another vivid example of what I’m talking about.

As a songwriter for the church, who cares deeply about the songs we sing and the stories we tell and how they help to form us, I found all of this fascinating. And having rolled past Crawford, Texas on the train en route to San Antonio, I couldn’t help but feel that I could now understand George W. Bush and the rhetoric of the “war on terror” just a little bit better.

The BIGGER surprise, for me, was what was going on in my hometown while I was on tour. I’m not used to following Stouffville news in the national media, but that is what has been happening over the last month or so… and it has to do, again, with how we remember our history and the way that memory forms us.

While there have been numerous articles and interviews (and even a television news story) on what has been unfolding in Stouffville, I think Arnold Neufeldt-Fast’s article in the Toronto Star says it best. Not only is the history of the war of 1812 being enlisted by our federal government to bolster support for a particular political/military agenda – our local history is being intentionally fabricated, manipulated, and effectively erased right before our eyes.

On June 16 a group of about 60 of us were present on Main St. Stouffville to protest, in a quiet way, this falsification of history. More than that, we were there to bear witness to a different story (see this article as well). The story of “The War of 1812″ in the town of Stouffville is actually not the story of our community’s “military heritage” – it is the story of a community seeking an alternative to war. The Mennonites, Brethren in Christ, and Quakers who settled this area in the early 1800s were war resistors – to “remember Stouffville” and the war of 1812 in our community could be an opportunity to remember and celebrate this heritage of the pioneers of conscientious objection in Canada.

This is a story that our political leaders were invited to acknowledge, include, and even celebrate, and they chose to ignore it instead, in favour of a military parade complete with tanks rumbling down Main St., rows of goose-stepping soldiers, showers of ticker tape, and invitations to children to wear combat helmets, sit in military vehicles, and hold assault rifles in their own hands.

“Remember the Alamo!” indeed.

Member of Parliament Paul Calandra, on the right, and Mayor Wayne Emmerson, on the left, with the sword given to him by the Governor General’s Horse Guards. The sword was presented with the declaration of the hope that it will hang in the Town Council chambers for the next 200 years. Note the Whitchurch-Stouffville town crest in the background – if you zoom in you can see the dove-and-olive-branch at the top, representing the “peace church” tradition of the town’s founders. This photo (taken by Arnold Neufeldt-Fast) is, it seems to me, an apt representation of the different narratives that are available, and which stories are chosen to be remembered (or manufactured) and passed on.

]]> http://www.smalltallmusic.com/remembering-the-alamo-remembering-stouffville/feed/ 1 http://www.smalltallmusic.com/what-another-new-cd/ http://www.smalltallmusic.com/what-another-new-cd/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:00:19 +0000 Bryan Moyer Suderman http://www.smalltallmusic.com/?p=382

Yes, it’s true! Just 7 months after the release of “Detectives of Divinity” – the “latest and greatest” SmallTall Music release – there’s ANOTHER new CD in the works. How can this be? I’m glad you asked!

We are putting together a “compilation album” of songs drawn from my 5 CDs released over the past 10 years. Brian McLaren and Dave Csinos have written a wonderful introduction to the project, and we look forward to sharing it with a broader audience!

You can pre-purchase the CD here.

This project was sparked in conversation with Dave Csinos, organizer for the “Children, Youth, and a New Kind of Christianity” conference in Washington, D.C. on May 7-10, 2012, which will include speakers like Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne, the Wallis family, Ivy Beckwith, John Westerhoff, Tony Campolo, and many others. I was delighted to be asked to lead music at the conference and to be one of the co-planners/leaders for the worship times, and in our conversations the idea for this project bubbled to the surface. Of all the songs that I’ve written and released over the past 10 years, what would be the “top 15″ that Dave Csinos and Brian McLaren would want everyone at the CYNKC conference to know and to share with their communities when they returned home?

Well, the selections have been made… we’re calling the compilation “New World Coming,” and it’s available for pre-purchase here… These are the tunes (and their source albums), including a brand new recording of “You’re Not Alone,” with the inimitable Charlene Nafziger on piano…

1) New World Coming (from Detectives of Divinity, 2011)

2) God’s Love is for Everybody (from God’s Love is for Everybody, 2002)

3) Peace Meal (from Detectives of Divinity, 2011)

4) You’re Not Alone (new recording, featuring Charlene Nafziger on piano)

5) I Will Bless You (from A New Heart, 2009)

6) Disciples-In-Training (from God’s Love is for Everybody, 2002)

7) A God Who Makes Friends (from God’s Love is for Everybody, 2002)

Take Good Care (from My Money Talks, 2007)

9) Enough For All (from My Money Talks, 2007)

10) When You Learn to Follow Jesus (You Will Act A Little Strange) (from God’s Love is for Everybody, 2002)

11) Thank You (from Can’t Keep Quiet, 2005)

12) Infiltrating the World (from A New Heart, 2009)

13) No Longer Strange (from Detectives of Divinity, 2011)

14) Peace Be With You (from Can’t Keep Quiet, 2005)

15) Detectives of Divinity (from Detectives of Divinity, 2011)  You Can Shine (from Can’t Keep Quiet, 2005)

What do you think? What would YOUR “top 15″ list look like, from the past 10 years of smalltall songs?