I just realized that when I release my new project (Clothe Yourself in Righteousness: http://bit.ly/dSAiO1), I will have been exploring spirituality and Quakerism in my music for 8 years now. Just wanted to make a brief video to look back, celebrate, be grateful, give my love to those old projects, which changed my life, made me whole, shed light on the world, and helped me move from stuck places. So grateful.
So I just finished my somewhat grueling bike tour up the East Coast. While I was never hurried or stretched for time, willing your body to do anything like pedaling for 8 hours a day takes a psychological toll. There have been some moments where I was stretched thin and some moments where I felt dispair. I have felt immensely blessed that I had these two amazing new recordings to listen to (often over and over again on repeat) – from two good friends of mine.
The last day of my ride I had been pushing in the wind and rain for three days out of Manhattan and was desperately ready to be in Boston, my legs and butt were hurting and I was having trouble with my bike. Convincing myself to keep moving was becoming increasingly difficult. Then I pulled out my headphones and put on Jacob Williamson’s “Frequencies and Figures” and was given a new rush of energy immediately upon hearing the first notes of the driving guitar lines on Hey. I listened all the way through and then listened to Will McKindley Ward’s “Ground EP”, then back to Jacob and so on. I must have listened to both short albums 6 times each that morning, and I made it to Boston with these two semi-permanently stuck in my head.
Will Mckindley-Ward – The Ground EP
William Mckindley-Ward is the indie-folk Aesop Rock. Even after I’ve listened to this project 10 times, I still find myself doing double-takes at some of the lines on Will’s most recent EP, “Ground”. “Wait… what? Did he really just say: Fallen cables in the rain jumped up and sparked and sounded out your name…?”
Will’s songwriting has the kind of natural beauty that draws you in quickly and the kind of depth that requires multiple re-visitations to fully harvest it’s amazing-ness.
Whether you pay any attention to his jaw-dropping lines, Williams sound is the kind of melancholy that causes you to appreciate the diversity of this human experience. This is beauty, comfort, depth, warmth. Listen.
William Mckindley-Ward and I met up at Guilford College and had the opportunity to share an exploration of music and spirituality for my senior thesis. I still remember picking my jaw off the floor when he first played his song Open Sea/Featherbeds for me.
Listening to this album, one might think that songwriting comes as easy to Jacob as breathing. But I have a special perspective on it. I know what a struggle it has been for him to get this album together.
Releasing this kind of project can be a psychological and creative adventure. What songs to include…? How to focus the engineering and production…? How to reign in your ambitious vision into something do-able…?
I have to say that I am just deeply grateful that Jacob sat down and answered these questions. This is a focused and tight group of recordings that captures me from the first note to the last and takes me on a gorgeous journey in between.
Jacob is a patient and loving songwriter, crafting pieces that remind the listener to breathe and return to center. His mastery of music instrumentation and notation has always astounded me… in this project he drifts between Norah Jones and James Taylor, between bluegrass and piano ballad, wearing each hat as though he was born wearing it.
A special moment for me is the song “Backroads” – not just because I cried every time I heard him sing “here’s some love, here’s some hope” as I completed my own epic backroads adventure – but also because I remember distinctly the first time Jacob performed it for my family in our living room when we met his new girlfriend… now his fiance.
Jacob Williamson was the confident and talented guitarist who I aspired to be like in high school. As we’ve grown into adulthood, we’ve kept in touch and share a surprising amount in common when discussing matters of Spirit. He still possesses (and has deepened) the natural beauty, playfulness and love for existence that attracts people to him the way I was back in school.
These two songwriters are making art that is exciting, beautiful and powerful. I have been engaging with them over the years and am now encouraging them to put more energy into spreading the word about their art. But the amount of energy, attention and resources that are required to maintain even the kind of web presence that I’ve built (not to mention the booking, the t-shirts, the videos, etc etc) is immense.
While I don’t see an alternative for success in the modern music industry, I can appeal to you, the listener, to support music that is meaningful and real more than (or as much as!) you support the music whose marketing bombards you daily (no matter how “alternative” or “underground” they bill themselves).
Visit these guys’ websites. Give them a couple of bucks for their masterpieces. The world will be a better place for it.
Six days ago I released this music video, which has been shared widely among Friends.
Some of the lyrics have provoked dialogue, specifically about the relationship between modern Quakerism and Christianity. Here are a few of my own thoughts…
Let’s start with:
“I’m not a Christian
but I’m a Quaker
I’ve got Christ’s Inner Light
But he’s not my savior.”
If you visited my website seeking an anti-Christian Quaker manifesto, you were probably disappointed. After a Guilford College education and a year living in community with all types of spiritual seekers at Pendle Hill, I am decidedly “Christian-curious” and have no illusions about the roots of my religion.
One job of the artist is to tap into the pulse of a community and give voice to the knots that need to be unraveled in order to move toward clarity and healing.
So if you are surprised and slightly offended by the theological statements in the song, you might be amazed by the number of Friends who approach me in solidarity with its handling of the Quakerism/Christianity relationship.
Alternately, if you find yourself in solidarity with the song’s message, you might be surprised by the number of Friends who contact me, confounded and upset by this particular approach.
Or, you might not be surprised at all.
Sometimes these two types of Quakers are living in the same communities and attending the same Meetings, but they have watered down their language so much that they never have to confront their differences.
More often, their Meeting houses are separate but in the same cities, ignoring each other altogether.
Please start talking to each other.
(If it sounds a bit like I’m talking to my parents, estranged from one another and stubborn about an old conflict, it’s because I am. Many folks in my generation – the generation that is inheriting the religion – are dissatisfied with the branches we’ve been given and the older generation’s resignation. See: convergent Friends)
Truth-telling often breaks open a scar – previously painful, static and hidden – now painful and fluid, out in the open. It is up to us to breathe mindfully and speak our hearts, doing our part to see that the breaking open moves toward healing and reconciliation rather than furthering the divides between us.
…and as happy as I am for my artist-character to be receiving attention around a controversial idea, the important thing is that there is peaceful, clarifying and reconciling dialogue in our communities (here’s my plug to book me to come to your Meeting and help foster that dialogue in person).
It can be overwhelming to think about “healing” the splits, and perhaps it is not God’s intention for Quakerism to return to being one big whole. But certainly we are not meant to simply ignore the discrepancies in our spiritual identity without engaging in dialogue…? It is uncomfortable, but for God’s sake, can we just speak our truth, breathe, examine it, love ourselves, each other and the truth as it is in the present moment? Be truthful, be courageously faithful, the next step will be revealed in good time.
We are not Christians and non-Christians. We are humans: beautiful, afraid, in pain. Love your neighbor.
