Pendle Hill’s daily Quaker Worship transforms into a raucous dance party as the result of some unconventional ministry from Jon Watts. Filmed and edited by Ben Schilling. The music video for “Friend Speaks My Mind.”
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This is the second in a series of five brief essays reflecting on my process of writing my June ’09 release, Mixed Vice Work. In order to help make sense of the project and in an effort to further include listeners in my process, I’ll be sharing three more in the coming months – each in reference to a specific song from the EP.
Here is the story of “Faded”
(as I write on each song, I will post that song online. Please feel free to listen along at www.myspace.com/jonwattsmusic)
Back when I was a camp counselor at Shiloh Quaker Camp, we often had to get creative in order to come up with afternoon activities towards the end of the Summer. Thus it was decided one afternoon that we would have a rap battle. The joy of seeing 11 year old Quaker kids battle-rapping was only supplemented by the fun of writing my own verse, which I shared at the close of the camp-wide event later on that evening.
Having always existed somewhere on the fringes of hip hop culture, I am made uncomfortable by the self-centered-ness, competetive braggadacio and put-down culture of the battle scene. Rappers freestyle insults about each other and whichever side looks less pathetic at the end of the event ascends to the next round. As a Quaker trying to “get low” and encourage the ongoing healing of those around us, the rap battle is in many ways the furthest away I could stray my faith.
There is, however, some redeeming value in virtuostic displays of self-affirmation and at Camp Shiloh I was given the opportunity to freely explore that side of my art form. I sat down with a few fellow counselors and out came the first verse of “I’m Great,” which contains some real lyrical gems:
“I’m going to bounce from this town to get a pound of mouse pals. Around smiles I frown to put down the bound styles. The ground is shaking, making fakers statement makers. Hate your neighbors. Do favors like Quaker saviors, helping people meet their makers.”
-From “I’m Great,” The Art of Fully Being
There was no song that I looked forward to re-mixing, re-vising and re-working more than “I’m Great.” The opportunity for full and unfettered word-play-ful-ness is so exciting! I intentionally included as many tongue twisters as possible, which makes it one of my hardest songs to perform yet:
“Bounce to the mountain top. Look in the thrift shop. Find a little nice piece of linen, living sin and for your pen top: send it in a tin top. Listen, when offense is given, that’s a thin slice of living like a gentleman. Be a gentle woman; women sending signals mixed within any silly simple little sentences.”
I changed the chorus to be a bit more inclusive:
“We’re Great. Your sedatives can’t keep us sedate, and while same sex marriage stays state-to-state, we’re going local. Pick up the mic and throw vocals in your phone book, send it to folks that you know. Look, we’re related.”
…and I wrote one of my favorite verses EVER:
“…our forefathers got lost in Boston, it’s the fault of Lord Baltimore and it’s all the more solemn for the following of psalms; some sons and daughters of the hypocrites, which, to the benefit of many, found themselves giving into sentimental money”
Whew! what fun. (try saying that out loud)
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
-Marianne Robertson, written for Nelson Mandela
An important part of our religious movement and counter-cultural committment is to find a different way to be in relationship with the ego and all of its attachments and posturing. But simply wishing our egos away is not enough to make them dissappear.
Pretending that my ego doesn’t exist isn’t any less dangerous than ignoring my pain or my sadness. Each is a part of me, and ignoring a part of me always results in that part acting out in ways that I have no control over and am not aware of.
So I invite you, Friends, be whole. Invite your ego to speak in a safe environment and do not hate or judge yourself for what comes out. It is only when we fully accept ourselves that we can begin to lovingly shift our way of being.
in peace,
Jon
“Faded” is online and available for anyone to listen to. Visit the Listen page and find “I’m Great” on Mixed Vice Work
Mixed Vice Work can be purchased at the Store and now downloaded!
A week ago I got this email from a Meeting in Pennsylvania who had some questions about the song “Friend Speaks My Mind” after I performed for them this past April. Their questions were not uncommon, and so I took the time to respond carefully and in depth and am re-posting the response here. Hope it is helpful.
Here is the original email:
Dear Jon Watts,
Sadsbury Friends Meeting enjoyed your time with us in April. Thanks for that!
In the time since then some of us are wondering about a line in a refrain from one of the songs you sang for us.
“I’m not a Christian
I’m a Quaker
I live a Christ-centered life
But Jesus is not my saviour”Some of us are curious as to your definition of “Christian” in the context of that refrain. (We plan to discuss this at an adult forum in a few weeks.)
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Connie
Sadsbury Monthy Meeting
And my response:
Hi Connie!
Sorry to take a while with this response… I have been busy in the recording studio.
The song that you’re referring to is “Friend Speaks My Mind”, which is available to listen to for free at http://www.myspace.com/jonwattsmusic (and can be downloaded for a dollar on itunes or http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/wattsjon). The chorus begins:
“I’m not a Christian
but I’m a Quaker
I’ve got Christ’s inner light
but he’s not my savior”I’m am very glad to hear that the lines have sparked discussion in your Meeting. I am pulled into conversation about the topic often, as it deals with a somewhat touchy subject in FGC Quakerism.
My process for writing the song was to think back to my adolescence growing up in Young Friends in FGC and other Quaker organizations and to try to capture the attitude towards Christianity that – though rarely spoken this brazenly – is pervasive.
Judging from the number of Quakers from across the generational spectrum who approach me in solidarity with these particular lines, I would venture to say that I hit the nail on the head.
Thus – and I hope it doesn’t sound like I am dodging your question – the song is not about me, but rather, it’s about modern FGC Quakerism and a relatively common FGC approach to Christianity.
So what might be perhaps more valuable than asking me how I define the word “Christian” in the song is to create a space for members of your Meeting or discussion group who identify with those lines to explain their personal connection.
“What makes a person a ‘Christian’?” is a great question to start off with! Some other queries that might be valuable to explore are:
- What is your inward reaction when someone asks you if Christ is your savior? (or says that Christ is theirs?)
- In your practice, what is the relationship between the Quaker concept of the “inner light” and Christianity? (if there is one)
- Can Quakerism thrive without Christianity?
…and we’re just getting started! Again, this is a very valuable discussion and I’m glad to see you engaging with it. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to support your process.
in peace
Jon Watts
Dear Friends,
Greetings! Another beautiful and blessed arrival of summer is upon us!
When last I wrote, it was to celebrate the success of my travels in the ministry in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in the months of March and April. Little did I know what lurked just around the corner…
Jon Watts with a smashed car in PYM
And that’s not all!
A week later, after much support and hospitality from some very giving f/Friends, hours and hours on the phone with the (mostly unavailable) insurance companies, with the (entirely unhelpful) Philadelphia police department and with the (very confused) girl who crashed into me, I arrived back in Virginia to play doctor to the computer that serves as my recording studio, which had mysteriously stopped working altogether:
Jon Watts with a smashed computer in Richmond, VA
I’ll spare you the gory details.
Have you ever experienced a series of disasters that were too punch-line-y to be simply coincidence? This was one of those times that so much went wrong so suddenly that I felt like I was in a farce. For lack of an audience, I was the only one that got to giggle at the sheer ridiculousness of things going wrong. Perhaps that was part of the point.
Either way, I emerge feeling as though I have just been involved in a tickling fight with God.
No need to panic.
Jon Watts recording the Mixed Vice Work EP
Nothing explodes out of the gate like pent-up artistic energy.
As soon as my equipment was fixed and ready, Spirit took hold of my body and filled me with passion and ideas that I had long meditated on, only now they became real, tangible, exciting.
Songs that I thought were done weren’t. Songs I had no ideas for transformed in the brilliant light of the muse.
Today I am shipping off the final master copy of the EP, and after these past two weeks of nitpicking and polishing, that original explosion of creativity rests in the past but my body still tingles when I think back on it.
Once again I have been witness to a miracle. I give thanks.
It has been good to be back in Ashland, visiting old friends, meeting some new ones and of course hanging out with my Mom’s chickens, who just gave birth to 4 new chicks!
I have been collecting photos of my trip to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and have gotten some good ones, thanks to helpful F/friends. Here are a few samples.
Jon Watts with Niyonu Spann and Tribe One
Jon Watts sharing music with Moorestown Meeting
The rest are in the photos section.
The time is just flying by – another summer is upon us! My primary performance opportunity this Summer is at the FGC Gathering at the end of June. If you’re planning on attending the Gathering, be sure to look out for me — and check out my table at the Gathering store! Here’s a photo from my performance last year:
Jon Watts performing at FGC in Johnstown, PA
Beyond that, I’ll be spending the summer with my brother Coleman, his wife Elizabeth and their baby Althea at the Sierra Friends Center in California (Coleman works for the Woolman Semester), helping him institute a new internship program and fixing up some of their decaying sports equipment. Perhaps I’ll have a few performance opportunities at Meetings in the area.
I look forward to much fishing and ping pong, reflecting on my recent travels and recording experiences and discerning my next steps for the months and years to come!
I invite you to also be witness to the truth and passion that has traveled through me. After June 25th, the project will become available in the store – and now accepting advance orders.
Much love to those who choose to pre-order! And… much love to those who don’t too. 
And if you haven’t taken a look
at the video for Mixed Vice Work,
now might be a good time:
“When I say peace I mean it”
-from the intro track to Mixed Vice Work, entitled “Soul Food”.
peace!
Jon Watts
Dear Friends,
I am excited to share with you the end of my PYM trip and to bring you some very special news!
1. PYM tour wrap-up
2. Thanks yous
3. Future travel plans
4. Announcing Mixed Vice Work, to be released in June
5. Pre-order the new EP!
6. Other ways to support my music and ministry
As I write this newsletter I am preparing for my final performance as an opening act for Tribe 1 on Saturday evening. What an incredible trip this has been! For an artist who is accustomed to playing once or twice a year (or whenever I release a CD), this has been a great opportunity for me to learn what it feels like to be a touring, performing artist.
As you may have guessed… it’s not always easy. There was certainly a lull for me in this trip in which things were not feeling quite as fresh. But what I’ve found is that so much of that feeling of freshness comes from interaction with each unique audience. Even now, having played these songs and told these stories over and over in the past few months, nothing brings me back to center like an excited face in the crowd. When I interact with an enthusiastic audience, the stories and songs come to life all on their own and I can just relax.
That said, I feel so grateful to the Friends that worked hard to organize events involving my ministry, Friends who hosted me in their homes, showed me their Meetinghouses and their inner lives and helped me to more fully serve as witness to their community and to be that fresh voice. And as the feedback forms come back to me, I know that this interaction has been nurturing also to the groups that I’ve shared with, and I am once again so grateful to be exploring a road in which my gifts are well-received.
I would need to be speaking to you in person to do full justice to all of the energy and effort that others have put into helping make this journey amazing, so I would ask that if you have a moment, please just pause for a second on each name in the following list.
After writing my previous newsletter, I realized that I may have spoken too soon about my plans for the Fall (ah, the pitfalls of trying to balance “God’s time” in which discernment and movement are necessarily care-full and patient processes — and “human time”, which requires that I know and announce my plans far in advance!)
So: my plan as it stands is to spend the first half of the summer completing the new EP in Virginia and North Carolina, attend FGC Gathering, and to spend the second half of the summer in California with my brother Coleman, whose wife has recently given birth to my niece Althea (who I look forward to meeting for the first time!), working on the grounds of The Woolman Semester at Sierra Center, fishing and thinking. In the Fall I will return to West Philadelphia, where there are exciting seeds planted for long term spiritual community, depth and support.
From there I intend to explore issues of foundational locality and publicity in my career as a musician. If you are well-experienced with dealing with the press and finding ways into the mainstream media, I would love to be in dialogue with you!
As I have been envisioning my artistic direction for the next few years, I kept coming back to this little project of parallel songs. I am really quite excited to say that it’s going to happen!
And so: Yes! It could be said that I have been working on this EP since before I released The Art of Fully Being in 2007, as I have been steadily reflecting upon the songs that I wrote for that project beginning the moment that I wrote them.
My process for writing Mixed Vice Work involved meditating on the lyrics and energy to songs from The Art of Fully Being and allowing those structures to become vessels for new peices of art, if that makes sense. It’s not an album of remixes, it is more involved than that: parallel songs.
So. There are many excited things about Mixed Vice Work, one of which is that I am using this opportunity to experiment with online promotion. Please take a moment to view the following promotional video for the project, very well put together by friend and filmaker Ben Schilling:
And I am (for the first time!) accepting pre-orders for this project. Mixed Vice Work is only $7… pre-orderers will be the first to hear it! (and I’ll include a little extra treat too!) 
Much love and appreciation to those who choose to pre-order. Your money and energy go into helping me to fund the project and the time that I am spending writing and recording it.
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peace to you!
Thank you for your love and support.
Jon Watts
