Rich Mullins - The Color Green

Rich Mullins: "The Color Green"

Image from http://kidbrothers.org/about-kid-brothers/

Some churches celebrate the Advent/Christmas season with a tradition called The Hanging of the Greens.  Green is gold all year round, though, if you think of its connection to life and living.

I love the song "The Color Green" by late singer-songwriter Rich Mullins in part because its lyrics relate an Irish farmer's recognition that God created the living color of green and has lavished the world with hues and other glories. Also, I'm always interested in Mullins' imaginative and change-prone musical settings. His raw, sometimes Springsteen-ish vocals against a backdrop of often movie score-like arrangements for story and mental-image delivery can be both peculiar and intriguing. In this song, we get an unexpected and lilting Irish tin whistle played by Mullins himself.

Rich Mullins the artist had to leave this world much earlier than we would have wanted. Sometimes I think God takes people when they are finished doing the work he created them to do, before that work can be overshadowed or tainted by further entanglement with this world. Rich Mullins' musical and poetic worship legacy is no small contribution, one to revisit and appreciate again and again.

As the season advances and evergreens appear in so many places where celebrants observe Christmas, I'm liking "The Color Green" for anytime and all times, including the present. When wreaths come down off doors and Christmas trees get discarded, this song can help keep verdant reminders of God's love coming.

Cynthia Clawson - I Know That My Redeemer Liveth

Cynthia Clawson - "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth"

Image from https://www.cynthiaclawson.com/photographs

There's a bit of personal history behind why I'm liking this pick.

The piece is from George Frederick Handel's Messiah. In the 1970s, my Daddy annually sang with the bass section for a number of years in a local presentation of the scripture-based Messiah with the soon-to-disband Greensboro Oratorio Singers, or Greensboro Oratorio Society as they were known then. It was an important occasion for our family to get dressed up every Christmas season and head over to the now-demolished Greensboro War Memorial Auditorium for the event, directed in those days by Don Trexler. There, we would find our seats and wait through the tuning of the instruments and the chorus filing in. Then, we would watch Daddy among the group--along with, for a short time, my brother Mark--give earnest and hearty voice to the classical choral work. I was just a squirmy kid who probably would rather not have sat so long, but even then as a musical being I was fascinated by the orchestra, the blended voices, the conductor, and the soloists. I'd been raised on hearing my Daddy's rich, deep voice in church and in the car, so my ear was trained to follow and appreciate the harmonies.

After I became the mother to two small, squirmy people of my own, in 1991 I heard via radio of a contemporized version of the work entitled Handel's Young Messiah released on compact disc, and I quickly purchased it. Not for classical purists, one of which I obviously am not, I repeatedly enjoyed some familiar voices and many of the updated settings in this re-imagined production. The soprano soloist who performed the piece "I know that my Redeemer liveth" turned out to be Grammy winner and Southern/contemporary gospel artist Cynthia Clawson, whose beautiful voice carried the lines from Baroque page to an ethereal recitation of full-on, authentic, personal worship. I have never tired of listening to her rendition.

I still have my Daddy's worn but well-preserved Messiah score sitting on my old piano. I'm sorry to hear the Greensboro Oratorio Singers will give their last concert next week. Especially on today, Thanksgiving Day, I miss my Daddy and my brother, and their voices. I'm thankful for the memories, impressions made on a little girl, the voice of a masterful singer, and the gift-Giver who gave, inspired, and empowered all of these--and who still does for me. 

"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" 2 Cor. 9:15

Mavis Staples - In Christ There is No East or West

Mavis Staples: "In Christ There is No East or West"

Image from https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14666-you-are-not-alone/

To kick off my holiday practice of picking and sharing some of the many longtime and newly found pieces, styles, and artists of music I like, I'm starting on Thanksgiving Eve this year with an easygoing twist on a traditional hymn: "In Christ There is No East or West", sung by famed and well-honored singer Mavis Staples. I'll post my picks as often as I can through the end of the year, along with a bit of information with links about them, as well as why I like them.

The first time I heard a Mavis Staples cassette years ago, it was way overdue. I quickly discovered this woman is the real deal. She just sings--her low, earthy voice is like that of a wise grandmother combined with a soul diva, leaving an indelible impression. I couldn't help but seek out more of her music after my first taste. 

In this early twentieth century hymn written by an Englishman and newly updated by Staples with Jeff Tweedy in 2010 on You Are Not Alone, I feel she is telling the words almost more than singing them, quietly proclaiming them with absolute conviction. She could be instructing a small child, or a voter or a President, sitting on her knee or by her side. The gospel lesson she's gently and artfully relaying is an apt one in this world, now maybe more than ever. 

That's why I'm liking this.

Bonus: Enjoy John Fahey's 1959 instrumental version here.

--by Lenore Morales