RockOm

By Trevor Harden, Trevor@RockOm.net

Since forming in 1985 as a band of middle school students, the rock quartet known as Live has grown to become one of the most popular and enduring alternative rock acts of the past two decades. They gained massive mainstream success with their sophomore breakthrough album Throwing Copper in 1994 and have since gone on to sell more than 20 million CDs worldwide.

Live frontman Eddie Kowalczyk is currently on an acoustic tour called Open Wings, Broken Strings with Leigh Nash of Sixpence None The Richer and Art Alexakis of Everclear. He is also working on a rocking new solo album to be released in spring of 2010 (details and mailing list at eddieklive.com).

Eddie sat down with RockOm's Trevor Harden to discuss his spiritual journey, rediscovering the Bible, the power of performing acoustically and more...

Trevor: Since Live's first album, Mental Jewelry, you've always allowed depth and spiritual truth into your lyrics. That album came out when you guys were very young so was there a catalyst that started you down that spiritual path? Can you speak about where that longing for something deeper came from?

Ed: Sure. I was baptized and confirmed Roman Catholic but never really got into it much beyond the routine of occasional church going and the formalities of the religion, never really digging that deeply into it as a child. Then as a teenager, I had a natural tendency to dig a little deeper than what was handed to me as a kid, in terms of spirituality and religion. When I was about 16 or 17 in high school I noticed that I was really interested in meditation and seeking Truth and a deeper meaning to my existence. I ended up wandering into a metaphysical bookstore that was near where I lived one day and saw a book by J. Krishnamurti called You Are the World; I bought it on a whim. It ended up being a book about questioning conditioning. He put everything into question in terms of what we accept as true or real and why we do so. It was maybe the first time I did that - to look at the ideas and beliefs I held about God and Truth and ask myself if they were accurate and what I was getting from it.

So that started my questioning which then led into years of meditating and reading. I've always been an avid reader of scripture and philosophy and never went to college so that was kind of my education. In the mid-1990's I met Ken Wilber and became really good friends with him and read his book called A Brief History of Everything which was a major watershed opening of my mind. Then about four or five years ago I did something called the Big Mind project with a man named Genpo Roche, a Zen master who developed a piercing kind of Zen questioning process. Since then I've come full circle by re-investigating the Bible from a metaphysical point of view - reinterpreting scripture in a way that relates to consciousness. That has been the main focus of my life for the last four years. It's definitely not a type of Christianity that people would recognize as typical or dogmatic; it's about the furthest you could be from fundamentalism but nonetheless Christian in nature. I'm really discovering the Bible for the first time in terms of unlocking its potential to teach us about reality.

Alongside all of that, it's music all the time. Music and songwriting is an extension of that search and has given me a lot to think about. It's been a fount of inspiration for me throughout the years and people seem to dig it.

Trevor: What are you finding in the life and teachings of Jesus that you weren't finding elsewhere or that you're finding unique?

Ed: It's unique in it's power, unique in it's breadth of influence. But you have to get away from looking at it as just a moral code and dig deeper into the language of the Bible and I'm interpreting it as it relates to consciousness itself or being itself. One of the simple ways that I see the power in it is every time the Bible says God or Lord or Christ is to relate that directly to consciousness itself, which is ever present and intermingling with your own being at a very deep level. So that unlocks an interest in prayer and meditation that was there but is now even more driven to a deeper place, understanding that as we touch that deep level that our life becomes the fruitage of that. We're happier, our relationships become more harmonious... "you shall know them by their fruits" stuff starts to happen. There's an extra sparkle in my eye and a smile that wasn't there for a while by ucovering that because of the depth of this prayer and practicing going to that place where we all become one. There's a very powerful silence there and it really reveals a lot.

As a musician and artist, you can't really ask for more than that. I come out of these periods with incredible inspiration and want to sing about it. Being able to go full circle and pick up the Bible again has been very powerful for me because it was a book that I really just didn't understand in a way that meant much to me for years. It's a sort of a coming home, but in my own way. It has been really, really exciting and powerful.

Trevor: You're currently offering the free download of your song "Forever" on eddieklive.com. It's a beautiful acoustic version of the song with the great line, "The darker the night, the brighter the dawn." Can you tell us a little about your inspiration for this song?

Ed: Again, coming from rediscovering the Bible and words like faith, that particular lyric is trying to express that when we see our ideal - the best case scenario, the most loving scenario, the fullest life, God or Truth - to keep our attention there in spite of what is appearing as an obstacle or limitation. As you keep the faith and keep your attention on that ideal and get more and more stronger doing that you find that the negativity leaves. You discover you've moved past the limitations and closer to the ideal in ways that are beyond imagination. Everyone has experienced that but this was just putting it into a context that is hopefully inspirational to people. It's something that has had an incredible impact on my life.

Trevor: All musicians talk about that mystical thing that happens in a live setting where there's a unity and connection you have with the audience. I'm sure it happens at both the loud rock concerts with the band as well as in the quiet, acoustic solo performances that you're currently doing. Can you talk about how the texture of that is different in both of those settings?

Ed: It's really different. Look, I love to rock. I've been in a great band for years and love to turn up the amps and have all the lights going and the big PA. But there's a part of you that sits by yourself in a room and writes a song that doesn't get to be on stage then. He has to recoil back into a little place of being there, but not really. Stripping it down and making it an acoustic, intimate setting really allows that guy to come forward. I had really kind of missed him. You obviously have that when you start out, when the crowds are smaller, but as the band gets bigger and your art succeeds, it becomes a persona that is designed to fill these big spaces. With this "Open Wings, Broken Strings" tour, the idea was to strip that down and put artists on the bill that were also ready for those types of things in their music. There's a fullness about the show that everyone is sharing in and the crowds are just loving it. A lot of them have said to me, "I never knew it could rock that much or be that compelling." That trips me out because that's where the music comes from, but I guess yeah, if you've never seen me acoustic you wouldn't know. This is just another view and it's really neat.

Trevor: In that setting you can talk about the meaning behind the songs and share the background a little bit. Are there any of your songs that you're particularly enjoying "clearing the air" about? Is there any song that you really enjoy telling the real story and meaning behind because it has maybe been misunderstood in the past or is perhaps a bit cryptic?

Ed: You know, I keep them that way a lot. I actually just did an introduction to "Lightening Crashes" the other night and said if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me what this song meant, I'd have a lot more dollars. I basically stepped off it again by saying that I have a feeling about what it means but people have received such different impressions about that song in lots of good ways that I don't want to influence that. I've said it's about reincarnation for me at periods of time in my life but I still tend to back away from that because there's something about the openness of it - letting it be interpreted in the way people receive it - that is really powerful.

www.eddieklive.com

An interview with Country Music's Collin Raye
By Tom Crenshaw, Tom@RockOm.net

Collin Raye grew up surrounded by powerful songs of conviction and in the shadows of legendary rock 'n' rollers and country artists. His mother was a musician in the 1950s and opened up on many occasion for the likes of Sun Records recording artists Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. Later on in his mother's career Collin and his brother would become part of her act learning the ropes of the entertainment business at an early age.

Jump now to 2009. Collin Raye is a legend in Country music having garnered five Platinum albums, 25 Top Ten hits, and 15 No. 1 chart-toppers. Five times nominated as country music's Male Vocalist of the Year, Collin Raye has consistently used his stardom to advance social causes. Among the organizations he has supported are Boys Town, First Steps, Al-Anon, Special Olympics, Country Cares About AIDS, Catholic Relief Services, Parade of Pennies, Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, The Emily Harrison Foundation, Childhelp USA, Silent Witness National Initiative, Easter Seals and Make a Difference Day. At the 2001 Country Radio Seminar, Clint Black presented Collin Raye with the organization's Humanitarian of the Year award in recognition of his issue-oriented music and his tireless charity work.

Collin's latest release, titled Never Going Back [Time Life Records], is a mix of secular and spiritual songs that he himself is extremely proud of. Included on the album are the highlights "Mid-life Chrysler", "Without You" (a duet with Susan Ashton), "The Cross", "Only Jesus" and "She's With Me", a song Collin wrote for his granddaughter Haley who suffers from a rare and crippling neurological condition.

In this interview Collin talks about his early years in the honky-tonks, his newest songs centered on his faith and spirituality, staying positive through family struggles, and why he never tires of lending support to charitable causes.

Tom: Do you ever miss the honky-tonks?

Collin: Oh, no, no, no. Never. I've never looked back. I look at those like a sentence; I did my time and I earned my stripes. It was a good place to cut your teeth and learn how to perform, because in those kinds of places in those days especially you weren't put on a pedestal for being in a band. If anything, you were looked down upon. You really had to learn to be thick-skinned and be able to play with enthusiasm even when no one applauded or paid attention. If they did pay attention at all it was to complain that you were too loud or not loud enough or not playing enough dance music or that kind of thing. It was very tough and I was a young man; I could never do that again today. I wouldn't have the patience for it, nor the desire.

But between that and the casinos that I did later on in Nevada, I learned how to do this for a living. So by the time I got a record deal I knew how to put on a show and perform for people. All I needed was my own music and so once I got that I was in business.

Tom: Bands coming up today don't necessarily need to do what had to be done in the past such as play in the honky-tonks. But at the same time they don't get the experience of being in front of brutally honest audiences and paying their dues. There's a benefit and a drawback there.

Collin: It's a double-edged sword because if - let's say my daughter or my son was following in my footsteps - I would not want them to do what I had to do. I'd want them to be able to win a talent show, get a couple of breaks, and 'boom' get a record deal. As someone who's done that, at the same time you feel cheated in a way. [These artists] will still talk about paying their dues and playing in one club for a year before getting a record deal. And you find out what club it is and it turns out to be one that we'd have cut off our pinkie to play in, with big sound and lights. They don't have to do what we did and it shows; you see them live and see their inexperience. But we live in a time that worships youth. Our society seems to adore anyone who does anything if they're cute and they're young, whether they really have anything to offer or whether they have one trick to offer.

For instance in the mainstream, music has become such a product. And I know technically it's always been a product but it's now looking like something you just buy off the shelves. I just wonder sometimes what rock and roll, country and mainstream pop music would have been like had it always been that way. The answer is it'd be pretty pathetic. In other words, those people who did all those creative things in the 50s, 60s and 70s would have never gotten the opportunity to do those things, set the standards so high and give us all that music we love today had record labels kept them in a choke-hold like they do now or not signed people because they're not cute or young enough.

Tom: Let me ask you about your latest album, Never Going Back which was released on your own label...

Collin: Actually, I have done some records on my own label but this one is released on Time Life. I'm really enjoying that relationship because they are not a country music label or a rock label or an anything label; they just put out music. They told me to make the album I wanted to make and they'd sell it with no interference. I had never gotten an offer like that before. And so I had no one looking over my shoulder and I made a record that is very eclectic and very much 'me.' I feel like it's more of a Christian album more than anything else. I didn't mean for that to happen but that's just where my heart is and the kind of the songs I write. To be honest with you, I feel like I've been making records like that for a long time but was always stereotyped as a country music singer no matter what I sang. For the longest time we were very blessed and lucky to be able to put out songs that carried a heavy message and make them country music hits - from "Little Rock" to "Love Me" to "In This Life" - I feel like they are spiritual songs. We treated them that way and performed them that way. But it just so happens at that time the country music audience was wide and varied enough that there was a place for those kinds of songs.

For instance, we talk about domestic violence amongst women and we look at that through the eyes of a father and how sometimes when we don't mean to be doing it in a harmful way, we degrade a woman like she's a piece of meat or something to look at. Well that's somebody's little girl, now. There were songs like that which were Top 5 Country records and I couldn't believe we got away with that. Eventually the powers-that-be decided around the turn of the millennium to get back to the good 'ol party tunes that sell beer and make Budweiser happy. That's kind of where the male artists are right now; you're either doing that or you're not doing anything. The girls, like Carrie Underwood, can get away with some cool songs sometimes but rarely do you hear a song from a male artist today on the radio that's not about pick-ups and drinking beer from a mason jar. That's not my cup of tea and never was.

So to make this long answer even longer I think what I enjoy the most is that the label doesn't consider me a country singer; they consider me a singer. My fans either don't listen to radio or listen to different types of radio such as Christian radio or AC [Adult Contemporary] radio. They feel like I'm a different type of breed and for the first time I've got a label who understands that and promotes me as such.

Tom: It seems the labels have been changing their minds regarding spiritual music. Do you think it's purely profit driven or do you feel like there's a change happening in some of the bigger labels?

Collin: I would love to believe it's a change in attitude but I've been in this business for so long and known people who run labels. When MercyMe's album and song "I Can Only Imagine" crossed over - which is a Praise and Worship album straight out of Sunday Worship - and became a #1 AC song, I think God very much blessed that effort. It was an anointed thing. It was very unique and isn't going to happen over and over. But at the same time I think record labels look at that and go, "Hey, there's people who will actually buy this Jesus Music." There could be an exception in there who are maybe trying to do something positive with their roster, but for the most part they probably see it as a chance to cash in. That's just what record labels do. They've been doing it since someone came up with the concept in the first place. And they'll continue to do it except for the labels that are specifically organized to release spiritual music.

Tom: In 2001 the Country Radio Broadcasters gave you their Artists' Humanitarian Award and you were nominated for 2008's Academy of Country Music's Humanitarian Award. You've worked with just about every organization out there who seeks to help others. What can you share with someone who may be reading or hearing this that is going through hard times and trials and might be in a position where things seem hopeless?

Collin: I guess experience. And by that I mean that I'm no different than anyone who has gone through stuff. The struggles in my career I don't even consider as significant. The struggles that count are the ones in your family and that involve your kids. In my case I've had a few, not the least of which is one we're going through right now with my little granddaughter, Haley, who's extremely ill with a neurological disorder that is crippling and (they tell us) ultimately fatal. There's helplessness that comes with that. So what I say comes straight from the horses mouth [when I work with these causes]. For years I used to support charities and children's charities, but my kids were fine. I've always had a compassionate heart and heavy conscience. But now through the course of the past few years when I offer my help or try to draw light to a certain cause or charity, people can look back and say that the Spirit's got to be with me to a certain degree, otherwise I would just sit in the corner and feel sorry for myself. I could say that we have our own problems and I'm not going to worry about people overseas or hungry and sick kids in our own country, because we have our own baby to worry about. But I can't do that.

I feel like God wants me to continue more so than ever to reach out and say, "This is what we're going through and though it's a different situation than what you're going through, we have very similar pains and feelings that we deal with day after day." We have to stick together and go shoulder-to-shoulder with other people who are suffering. And not just reach down like we did in the 80's with "We Are the World," which was a huge, wonderful project. But it was the elite in the music business who were reaching down to help the people of Africa, which is nice and raised a lot of money, but I think the Lord wants us to not reach down. He wants us to reach up or reach across and wrap our arms around each other and understand that we're all in this together.

The Lord never promised us an easy time and if we were supposed to have the ability to cruise through this life without suffering then he could have paid the price for us by dying, but not necessarily dying the way he did. He could've lived a very affluent and comfortable life up until his death. But, no. He was born in a barn and I'm sure that for a large part of his life he was a nomad and homeless. He didn't have anything of this earth. The Bible only tells us so much about his early years but you have to imagine. After all, they were very, very poor and people of the land. To live the way he did and die the way he did, there has to be a lesson in that. In other words, if life could be wonderful and perfect, there would be no need for heaven.

I feel like I have learned to embrace that more and more as time has gone by, not just because of the amount of years I've lived but because of the dire circumstances that seem to continue to grow as I get older. I'm 49 years old now and I thought by this time I'd be a fat cat, kicking back and not worrying about anything. Nothing could be further than the truth. We have more struggle, pain and fear in our lives today than I've ever had in my entire life. But here I am, I keep on smiling and I'm still positive. I still love people and love to work. I still love when people want to share their stories with me. I'm the same guy. That I credit totally to the Lord. When you have a lot of success early on, even though I was worldly appreciative of the fact that I was getting to live my dream, at the same time you start to wonder why it is I get to do this and make good money? And why is it when I go to work people stand up and applaud and other people have to bust road without any recognition whatsoever for very little money? I always hated doing autograph lines, not because I didn't want to meet the people, but because I didn't like the idea of sitting there behind a table and seeing a line an eighth of a mile long waiting to meet me like I'm the president or the pope. I'm nothing special; I'm just a musician and singer. I always felt like Santa Claus in Macy's in Miracle on 34th Street. It just didn't make any sense to me.

Now that I've gotten older and had these other experience, now I think, "Ah, God was just training me." In other words what I am doing now, he was just training me back then like I was in boot camp. People are drawn to me now for another reason. I believe they're drawn to me because of Him and they sense something in me that's of Him whether they know it or not. That's why celebrities can get so messed up and get into strange, weird behavior or drugs is because if you don't see Him and the Holy Spirit in it then you're going to start believing that it's 'you.' You start believing it's all about you and you're so great. It's been not only a saving grace for me to keep my feet on the ground but it's given me my purpose.

LINKS:

www.collinraye.com

www.operationkids.org

A RockOm Interview with Rev. Justin Epstein

Justin Epstein is a dynamic inspirational speaker who has given over one hundred and thirty presentations to thousands of people in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.  He has shared the stage with such notables as Dr. Maya Angelou, Les Brown, Iyanla Vanzant and Marianne Williamson.

Justin Epstein graduated Magna Cum Laude from James Madison University, where he received a BS degree and double-majored in Communications and Religion/Philosophy.  He is a graduate of Unity School for Religious Studies Ministerial Program in Missouri and was ordained a Unity Minister in 1993.  He also resided at Ananda Village for three and a half years, a prolific school of Eastern thought.

He has produced and hosted the cable television series "Practical Spirituality" that aired in New York City. Justin served as the associate to prolific author and speaker Eric Butterworth, whose book Discover the Power within You was listed in Oprah's first edition of O Magazine as the book that changed her perspective on God and started her on her spiritual journey.

Justin is a student of the best-selling authors Dr. Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle and the personal development gurus Anthony Robbins and Brian Tracy. He is also a graduate of the American Comedy Institute and has performed stand up comedy in clubs throughout New York City including Caroline's on Broadway.  Justin is the president/CEO of Justin Epstein International, presenting seminars on Enlightened Golf: Merging Mind, Body and Spirit through the Game and also speaks to salespeople.  He is the senior minister of the Unity Church of Hilton Head Island, SC.

RockOm: How was music emphasized during your stint at Ananda Village?

Justin Epstein: After I was ordained from Unity I decided to go out to Ananda Village in Northern California and learn more about the understanding of the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, which was a wonderful balance of the teaching of yoga, based on The Bhagavad Gita. It's the science of realizing God and experiencing God, here and now. Yogananda talked about Jesus and quoted the Bible and that really appealed to me.

Part of the teaching at Ananda Village is chanting. Yogananda said that chanting is half the battle, because in chanting you're repeating positive, spiritual words over and over and that's focusing your thoughts and your heart's feelings. The whole point is to take all those feelings in the heart and channel them towards God. Ultimately, it goes beyond feeling uplifted and arousing emotion and sentiment - it helps you to get quiet and to meditate. You take the energy you're bringing inside [from the music or chanting] and you channel it from the heart to the point between the eyebrows - the spiritual eye - which helps you experience not only the subconscious feeling, but the super-conscious level of mind, that level of creativity where we experience that presence of God.

We're talking about music here today and Jesus said that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Every word that you speak has an impact in your life. When we sing, we're taking thoughts and we're crystallizing them into words, singing those words and they impact our heart and change our physiology. They can change our behavior and uplift us. If the words are negative then they can bring us down.

RO: What is it about music that connects us with God?

JE: Music helps to get your feelings and thoughts all channeled towards one focus, to have all your energy moving in the direction of super-consciousness or God. That’s the main thing it does for me. When we’re happy we use words like "up", "uplifted", and "on top of the world."  I believe when we're happy, our energy and focus flow upward. Music can help to take your energy, focus it and move it in an upward direction. You can use that energy to experience a deeper communion.

RO: What is your insights on the spiritual sounds "Om/Aum", "Amen", and "The Word"?

JE: In the teachings of Yogananda there's the transcendent presence of God who is beyond all form. That presence begins to vibrate itself as sound, as energy. It creates this word and creates you and me. It is the consciousness of God vibrating itself. The Om is that movement of sound energy and vibration that creates everything. It is the Amen in Judaism and Christianity, the Ameen of the Muslims, and the Omkar for the Zoroastrians. I believe The Word (from the Bible's Gospel of John) was the presence and activity that vibrates itself. That's the creative Word. It's creating everything. "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God."  You might call it the Holy Ghost or the Comforter. In chanting, ultimately, we want to be able to listen to the Om sound, to open up to that presence and that sound that is within us and to let it vibrate throughout our whole being.

RO: Or resonate with the larger Om.

JE: Exactly, listening to that vibration of Om brings us back into union with that one, transcendent presence. We're in tune with the music of the spheres.

RO: Are there other sacred texts or scriptures that have meant something to you as far as music is concerned?

JE: The Bible verse, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord", certainly comes to mind. I don't believe the Lord needs our joyful noise, but I think we need it!

Be sure to catch the entire audio portion of our interview with Reverend Justin on Thursday's RockOm.net Podcast.

An Interview with The Wailers’ “Family Man”
By Tom Crenshaw and Trevor Harden

Think reggae and you immediately think of Bob Marley and the Wailers. No artist since has embodied the sound, message, philosophy and lifestyle of reggae music in such a mainstream and influential way as did Bob and his band. And now, decades after Marley’s death, the Wailers continue the legacy, touring in promotion of the re-release of their classic album, Exodus.

RockOm’s Tom Crenshaw met up with original bassist, Aston "Family Man" Barrett, at a Wailers show on Hilton Head Island, SC to discuss the band’s powerful impact, the spiritual foundations of reggae and a “secret” new album.

RockOm: Do you feel that you’ve been called to spread “the Word” through music all these years?

Family Man: Ya, man. I’ve been doing that since 1969, internationally until now and still going on. I just know that Family Man and The Wailers band - Bob (Marley), Bunny (Wailer), Peter (Tosh), my brother Carlton, and Wya (Earl “Wya” Lindo) – the six of us, we set the trend. After we set the trend in ‘72 and ‘ 73 we carried on with one man short. In ‘74 we were three [men] short; no Bob, no Peter, no Wya and we decided to take it to the next level when we came with the album Natty Dread. Those first two were Catch a Fire and Burnin’ and then Rastaman Vibration after Natty Dread. Then Live, then Exodus and Kaya, followed by Survivor. Then Babylon by Bus, Uprising, Confrontation and tracks taken from that catalog to bring forward the Legend and then Exodus - which is nominated by Time Magazine and awarded the Album of the Century.

Unfortunately we still have a little negative thing going on out there with a couple guys who used to be in my band, hired hands that were in and out, in and out more than 12 times. They cannot think of anything else than what they used to do before, so they are trying to impersonate my band and cause some kind of confusion out there with the fans. We would like [the fans] to know we are the band - the Bob Marley band. Those guys are British and one American who used to do some guitar licks. They are not “foundation people,” you know – from the Jamaican scene, the ghetto thing. How can you say that out there in the public eye, in the young generation that you are what you are not? It’s too bad. Anyway, we keep the music going on, the Wailers Band. This is the band, the Bob Marley Wailers band. We are run by the Family Man and the crew.

RockOm: When you were young how did you know you were going to be doing this the rest of your life?

Family Man: Well, I was voluntarily chosen for the mission, ya know? To spread the message to the four corners of the earth and that Jah’s will must be done by our means, no matter the crisis we are facing right now. Lucifer and his disciples are trying to penetrate the righteous.

RockOm: You’re a devout Rastafarian?

Family Man: Yes, Rastafari is a positive thing. It’s just like people who go to some other church who call themselves Christian. Rastafarian is the original Christianity and it’s just one, though it has many different names. But as we know, there’s only one living and true God - the Almighty who created heaven and earth and all living substance.

RockOm: Is there room for diversity in Rastafari?

Family Man: Yes, because He created all living substance - no matter the nation, you see? All of the nations and earth sprung from after the great flood when Noah and his family were safe in the ark. Those are the people that flourished the earth. It’s one man’s son. Noah got three sons - Ham, Shem and Japheth. Ham is like the black man, Shem is the oriental man and Japheth is the white people. It’s one man’s kids, no matter what you see there. It’s the Almighty, moving in mysterious form. We’re all Jah people, all children of the Almighty God.

RockOm: Do your audience and fans receive anything of Rasta when they hear your music, even if they know nothing about Rastafari?

Family Man: Of course. I see people coming to the concert who could not come when Bob was alive. They are coming today and even young people who were born after Bob have taken to the message and the music and are coming, because what we play is for all ages and all times. It’s about past, present and future. That’s the reggae music. It’s the heartbeat of the people, the universal language that carries the message of roots, cultures, and reality.

RockOm: There’s an explosion of reggae artists and music taking place. What is it about reggae that connects people in ways that other music can’t?

Family Man: Reggae music is coming from the King David’s throne, coming from the chief musician. It’s like the talking drum, what they used to use in Africa to send messages across the valley and village and city. That kind of drumming we culminate within the trap drum. We feel it on the one-drop and play the reggae music. It’s not like any other. The island music, they’re playing war drums. But we’re playing the love/peace drum with the positive message.

RockOm: I’ve read in interviews where you’ve said the goal of the Wailers is to uplift the oppressed and help the downtrodden. In what ways do you see that happening and manifesting through your music and do you think that has something to do with, “when the music hits you, you feel no pain”?

Family Man: Well that’s one good thing about the music - when it hits you, you feel no pain, my man. You know? The music is love; it’s life, ya know? And it tells you about reality and how to move through the earth. War is not the answer. Only love can conquer. War is very ugly but love is very lovely. Yes.

RockOm: When Exodus first came out did you know it would have the influence it had?

Family Man: Of course, because even the first time it was released I said to myself, I don’t figure they get the message fully yet. Before I heard the release of Kaya (we worked on both Exodus and Kaya at the same time), the single Exodus needed some more time before Kaya was released, to work on the business strategies, the marketing strategies. It was good. It’s also much better to see that they get the message after all and re-released it. (laughs) It’s good. And here we are out there promoting it, just like what we did with all the Bob Marley and the Wailers’ catalog. Year in and year out, no one else does that. We know what we do and people know - the world knows and God knows - that we keep the spirit of Bob alive through the reggae music and we’re out there generating it too, ya know? Only the Almighty can pay us for that, really. But we hang on there still. We know that God is real and also the devil, Satan, is real too. He has a lot of big people with him.

RockOm: Is music, the fire of music, a purifier?

Family Man: The fire of the music, yes, and the burning and the force of it and the energy. You will find the good, the bad and the indifferent around it for sure. It’s so precious.

RockOm: Let me ask you about “Natural Mystic” from Exodus. It’s a mysterious song. The lyrics say, “Many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die, don’t ask me why.” What was Bob saying in this song and why will many more have to suffer and die?

Family Man: There’s a part in the Bible that says, “Many are called, but few will be chosen,” and this could be the last trumpet. Just like when Noah was preaching for so many days, weeks, months and years warning the people of this great flood, because they didn’t have the Weather Channel in those times (laughs)! He was telling them to be good, make preparation; prepare yourself and your families to be in this ark. Many didn’t take him seriously. Just a handful did. So let it be.

RockOm: We’ve heard talk about a new album.

Family Man: Yes, we are working on a collaborative album, ya know. Something like Santana’s Supernatural with [various guest artists]. We said we would not disclose the names. We’re keeping that not so much a secret but a surprise for the music lovers. We still have to write three tracks to finish up before we start the mixing. We recorded some in Jamaica and some on the road. We have unreleased drum tracks with my brother playing drums. What I did was get in all the original members of the band to contribute, trying to catch back the ‘70’s and make it even better! So, that is the spirit, man. We make a new concept of rhythm around the drum tracks - like a brand new thing, like my brother is alive in the room playing the drums. It’s fantastic.

RockOm: How long are going to tour? How long are the Wailers going to stay on the road?

Family Man: How long you think I should? (laughs)

www.wailers.com

Photography by Tom Crenshaw

by Stereo Sinai

Visit Stereo Sinai at...

Main Website
MySpace

If Kelly Clarkson and Gnarls Barkley had been on the mountain with Moses, they would have come down sounding a lot like Stereo Sinai. Mixing conservation with innovation, the band is working to lend renewed relevance to ancient texts.

Featured Track:
"Gideon's Song"

"We wanted to do something special for the rabbi and his family who had been so welcoming to us when we moved to Chicago, so when he and his wife had a baby shortly afterward, we decided to write a lullaby. We took Hebrew verses from the story of the judge Gideon in the Bible and set them to original music. The song became the beginning of the band- we were born with a birth. It's incredible to see Gideon and Stereo Sinai grow up together." (Miriam)

Click to Play

Album review: U2, No Line on the Horizon

By Steven R. Harmon, APBnews.com

"This is the most thoroughly Christian thing they've done yet."

That was my initial reaction to the last two U2 albums in 2000 and 2004. In retrospect, that was just as true of the triad of albums U2 released in the 1990s, but I admit that wasn't what I thought on first listen to them. Their nuanced irony required a few more listens and a good bit of rewarding theological reflection to get there.

Once again, my early impression of No Line on the Horizon, released March 3 in the United States, has been, "This is the most thoroughly Christian thing they've done yet."

No Line on the Horizon is the 12th studio album by the Irish rock band U2. (Interscope Records)

Like the last two albums, No Line is much more overt in its Christian rendering of the world, what with lyrics like "Justified until we die/You and I will magnify/Oh, the Magnificent" from the album's second track. (So Bono is a fifth-point Calvinist. Who knew?) Yet what qualifies this album as thoroughly Christian is not so much its pervasive biblical/theological images as its overarching eschatological vision.

For those uninitiated in my profession's art of unclear communication, "eschatology" is the technical term for the division of theology that deals with "last things," from the Greek eschatos, "last," and logos, "ordered thought" about something. But eschatology isn't only about what happens at the end.

Baptist theologian James Wm. McClendon Jr. helpfully defined eschatology much more broadly: it's "about what lasts; it is also about what comes last, and about the history that leads from the one to the other."

In other words, eschatology has to do with God's goals for all creation, from creation to consummation and everything in between, as well as our participation in what God is doing to realize these goals in a world in which they are manifestly not yet realized.

U2's music has long occupied the tension between the present experience of what lasts -- "all that you can't leave behind" -- and the present absence of its full realization -- "I still haven't found what I'm looking for."

In the formative years of the band, U2 even found a way to express this tension through the distinctive instrumental sound they created. They eschewed the overly realized eschatology of major chords as well as the eschatological pessimism of minor chords. As guitarist The Edge later reflected on their early musical experimentation, “the third became our enemy,” and he dropped it from his chords, leaving the root, the fifth, and the octave of the root, creating a sound neither obviously major nor obviously minor. It was the sound of the already/not-yet eschatology of the Bible translated into the idiom of post-punk rock music.

Early snippets from No Line that traveled through cyberspace prior to the album’s release hinted that the essence of that sound is back in creatively re-imagined form. But after the 2006 between-albums single “Window in the Skies,” which came awfully close to reveling in the full realization of the vision, and the announcement of a forthcoming album title that suggested the erasure of the line that separates heaven and earth, one could be excused for worrying that this time around the band might stray from what has made the U2 catalog more authentically Christian than the vast majority of what the CCM industry has produced.

Those worries seemed justified when it was widely rumored that No Line’s cover would feature a seascape by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto in which sea and sky blend into one another with no discernable boundary. In the end, the band settled on another Sugimoto image more appropriate to the quintessential U2 eschatological vision: “Boden Sea, Uttwil,” in which, despite the album title, there is still a clear line on the horizon.

The basic message of No Line is that earth is not yet heaven, and therefore the album summons us to "Get On Your Boots" and work toward the day when things will fully be on earth as they are in heaven -- when heaven and earth will be indistinguishable, and there will at last be no line on the horizon.

Moving in that direction requires the triumph "of vision over visibility" ("Moment of Surrender"), an echo of an earlier formulation of the same insight: that the things that last and that come at the last constitute "a place that has to be believed to be seen" ("Walk On" from 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind). It also requires an inner transformation wrought by a receptive hearing of the voice of God ("Unknown Caller") and a faithful reception of the love of God which requires that one both "stand up" for it and "sit down" to receive it ("Stand Up Comedy").

The central eschatological metaphor of No Line is the sound of the divine song, heard only by those who have the ears to hear it, yet unconsciously sought by everyone, for all people were created to hear and sing this song. Seven of the album's 11 songs invoke that metaphor in one way or another. Key expressions of it are the lines "Let me in the sound…meet me in the sound" from "Get On Your Boots," reprised at the beginning of "FEZ -- Being Born," and the concluding declaration of "Breathe," "I've found grace inside a sound."

Within this framework, No Line also calls our attention to the discordant dimensions of our world. For me the album's highlight is "White As Snow," set as the dying thoughts of a soldier fatally wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan to a melody loosely inspired by the medieval plainsong tune for the thoroughly eschatological hymn "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." The song's musical and narrative zenith, accompanied by crescendoing French horns, is the soldier's remembrance of his baptism, having received the forgiveness of "the lamb as white as snow." But he also remembers his post-baptismal life with regret, for neither his heart nor the hearts of others who have brought him, and the world, to this point have been "as white as snow."

The album's final song "Cedars of Lebanon," cast as the world-weary random musings of a foreign correspondent, closes with a question addressed to God -- "Where are you in the cedars of Lebanon?" -- and a warning: "Choose your enemies carefully 'cause they will define you/Make them interesting 'cause in some ways they will mind you." We're still asking the question voiced earlier in the album: "Where might we find the lamb as white as snow?"

The theologian in me can't resist pointing out that Karl Barth, who incidentally shared a May 10 birthday with Bono, likely would have resonated with this couplet from "Stand Up Comedy" in light of his aversion to rational apologetics: "But while I'm getting over certainty/Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady." And the laughing theologian probably would have chuckled in agreement with the assertion of "Get On Your Boots" that "laughter is eternity if joy is real."

Did I forget to mention that the sound U2 is now hearing and inviting others to hear sounds really, really good?

Steven R. Harmon is associate professor of divinity at Samford University's Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala.

Reprinted with permission

By Shay Quillen

Larry Norman was memorialized as the "father of Christian rock" when he died in February, but the irreverent, outspoken, apocalyptic musician didn't fit comfortably in any box. With its laudatory blurb from Frank Black of the Pixies and its enigmatic cover art, the new Rebel Poet, Jukebox Balladeer anthology is clearly meant to break Norman's music out of the Christian bookstore ghetto.

The material ranges chronologically from "I Love You," the Zombies cover that gave his San Jose-based band People! its only hit in 1968, to 1981's "Watch What You're Doing" (where the Pixies found the album title "Come On Pilgrim"), with the focus on his groundbreaking 1970-76 solo work.

Norman's faith is upfront in songs like "The Outlaw," a portrait of Jesus Christ as anti-Establishment hero, and "I Wish We'd All Been Ready," his chillingly beautiful depiction of the Rapture. But his spirituality didn't limit his subject matter. The rocking "I Am the Six o'Clock News" skewers a detached Vietnam War correspondent, while "Pardon Me" gently turns down a groupie seeking sex.

Norman kept a close eye on the secular rock scene, and at times the sound is too derivative of his favorites — Dylan's influence is everywhere, and "Peacepollutionrevolution" is a dead ringer for Van Morrison. But his musical range was vast, and his incisive takes on the Bible, current events, human relationships and pop culture icons are seldom less than fascinating.

Why should the devil have all the good music?" Norman asked in one of his best-known songs. "Rebel Poet" proves beyond a doubt that he didn't.

Article originally posted at the San Jose Mercury News. Reprinted with permission. Contact Shay Quillen at squillen@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-2741. Find more of his stories and a link to his blog at www.mercurynews.com/shayquillen.

Australian songwriter Nick Cave, known for his work with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released an album and title track earlier this year entitled "Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!" which explores previously unasked questions from the Bible's John chapter 12. In a piece for the Chicago Tribune this week, writer Greg Kot helped to reframe the questions that Cave is asking: "When Lazarus was resurrected from the dead in the New Testament, did anyone ask him if he really wanted to rejoin the living? And what happened to him once he did?"

Kot goes on to say "The Bible doesn't answer those questions, but Cave lets his imagination run wild with the possibilities... In Cave's version of the story, the modern-day Lazarus wishes he had been left to rot in peace."

Click the player to the right to preview or buy Nick Cave's catchy track and then read the rest of the article, "Nick Cave's Biblical Blues", here at the Chicago Tribune or visit Greg Kot's blog to explore his writings, books and long history in music journalism.

In front of the altar of the Jubilee Church on a recent Friday night, 16-year-old Jordan Taylor pulls a well-worn Bible from his backpack and flips to an earmarked page to read aloud from Ephesians 6:13.

"Therefore," he intones, "you put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after, you've done everything to stand."

Then, with a hip-hop beat filling the room, Taylor stands rigid at first, his face contorting as if he's in pain. His hands clutch at his shoulders, torso, hips and legs as he symbolically puts on the armor of God. His body convulses. He kicks and stomps, his knees bend, and he kneels on the ground before rising to his feet, all in a matter of seconds.

Taylor is "krumping" for Christ, dancing to interpret Scripture through movement. It's a regular feature of the Mattapan church's youth ministry, as well as with a larger Boston community of hundreds of young people who feel a connection to God when they so behave.

Sometimes referred to as "break dancing on speed," krump got its start on the streets of South Central Los Angeles about 10 years ago, among young people looking for a way to fight back in a creative way against a life of struggle. The style, parts of which are derived from African tribal dances, was originally a way for urban youths to release anger and frustration, said Ben Carter, a youth leader at Jubilee.

But since its conception, krump has evolved into a spiritual movement. One of its founders in LA, Ceasare Willis, who goes by the name "Tight Eyez," felt he was saved by God via krumping, Carter said. Tight Eyez developed an acronym to convey the dance's newfound meaning; KRUMP has come to mean "Kingdom Radically Uplifting Mighty Praise" and krumpers have BUCK sessions, or gatherings for "Believers Upholding Christ's Kingdom.'

Before service each week, young people gather at Jubilee to krump. When they stomp and punch, they say, they are fighting off demons; when they pull at their flesh, they add, they are releasing themselves from evil. They say they minister to each other through their dance and feel God's presence when they enter a trance-like state.

"God's gonna be with you while you're krumping," said Deonte Lockhart, 14, of Randolph. "He told you how to do these moves . . . You gotta do it to the best in His name."

"We don't just do it to dance," added Benito Henri, a towering 16-year-old from Dorchester. "We do it for something higher. Something more than us, more than movements, more than anything we say out of our mouths. . . . We're using this as a weapon to fight against the things that we go through daily."

The transformation from secular to religious happened naturally for many krumpers, said Jimmy Thompson Jr., a member of Dorchester's Greater Love Tabernacle, and an ambassador of information for his son's krump ministry in Boston, the Gooniez.

"Young kids who were frustrated with economic conditions were taking their issues to the dance floor," said Thompson, adding that "they were getting relief on the spiritual level."

Brendon "Genesis" Waters, who dances with Status Quo, said he started krumping a couple of years ago when the dance began to gain ground in Boston. "Dancing in general is a good way to get people off the streets," Waters said. He and the rest of Status Quo have made a lifestyle out of dancing, using it as an alternative to drugs and violence that other young people fall into.

Krumping adds meaning to dance moves that may "look cool" but also serve as a way for young people to give physical expression to their spirituality, said Waters, who introduced krumping to other Status Quo members.

Ernest "E-Knock" Phillips, the leader of Status Quo, admits he's new to krumping but has found a renewed connection to God since he picked up the style. "There are times that we all . . . have krumped so long and so hard and for a certain reason that we cried," said Phillips.

Status Quo has krumped at several churches in the area, including Jubilee, one of the first in Boston to introduce krump as a form of worship. Some churches, particularly those with older, more traditional congregations, are not as welcoming, Phillips admits.

Rami Thompson, a youth pastor at Jubilee, said when she noticed kids from her church krumping and learned about its spiritual roots, she invited them to do so at Jubilee. Some people think the young dancers look possessed and demonic, Thompson said, but as youth ministers, "our job . . . is to see the way that youth express themselves . . . find redeeming qualities in it, and bring those qualities out," she said. The krumpers at Jubilee say their relationship with God has grown stronger in the year since their krump group, or "family," the Royal Family, was born.

Emmett Price, Northeastern professor and author of "The Black Church, Hip-Hop Culture and the Dilemma of the Generational Divide," said he's not surprised there has been resistance to bringing krump into a religious setting. In the 1930s, Thomas Dorsey was thrown out of churches when he introduced gospel music as a form of worship, Price said.

And in the 1990s, Kirk Franklin, the first artist to bring hip-hop to the church, was criticized for tainting Christian values. But holy hip-hop, including music and dance, is now a growing phenomenon that brings young people to churches in droves, Price said.

Krumping for Christ is the most recent case of a younger generation using its own voice to say what their elders did years prior, Price said.

"A lot of people just krump because it looks good and everybody's gonna go 'ooh' and 'aah,' " said Giovanni Pabon of Randolph, one of Jubilee's Royal Family. "But we're looking for more of the pleasing God. . . . There are a lot of ways to worship. . . . This is our way."

[By Katherine McInerney, Boston Globe Correspondent]

If you are a fan of old time folk or the music of John Mellencamp, his new album Life, Death, Love, and Freedom is a must. Mellencamp unapologetically combines religion and politics with a grit that rhymes with the [Bible's] gospels.

In his song "Troubled Land," he makes allusions to Paul's thorn in the side [2 Cor. 12:7-10] and the road to Emmaus story [Luke 2413-35]. Over and over again he repeats, "Bring peace to this troubled land."

Many of the songs are wisdom literature: telling us how life is, brooding over death and life, hope and despair. Some are apocalyptic and eschatological. In the song, "Without a Shot" he talks about the house that may very well fall without a shot. Here are some of the lyrics:

So we think that forgiveness
Is a God given right
And equality for all
Is just a waste of our time
With our nickel-plated Jesus
Chained around our necks
Handing out verses of scripture
Like we wrote it down ourselves

Respect that we once had
Went up the water spout
Tried to keep it secret
But the secret was found out
Got to thinking high and mighty
Like everything was a lock
Some now say this house
Can be taken without a shot

So the hole gets dug deeper
With every wedding bell
And we sell each other down the road
‘Til there’s nothing left to sell
And slowly but surely
We disappear without a trace
We point our fingers at each other
Say what the hell happened to this place

Without a shot

Whether the house is the House of Windsor, Tudor, Bush, Clinton, or even Obama, I think Mellencamp points to the symptoms of living in Empire. Empire is not sustainable. I believe the arc of God (Jefferson said "moral universe", Dr. King said "history") is long, but it bends toward justice. When the universe is created, sustained, and inspired by justice, Empire is not sustainable. And Mellencamp, as any good prophet, puts before us the signs of the times.

The final song on the CD is one that moves from despair to hope: "A Brand New Song." In this transitional time for me and for my family, I hope the meaning of that song becomes real. In that song he sounds almost as if he is trying to impersonate Bob Dylan, and just maybe, he is very close.

[By Rev. Mike Mulberry - a Spiritual Director and ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ who blogs at flatandfertile.blogspot.com . If you are interested in Rev. Mike's Spiritual Direction services, click here .]