1) The music of Mt. Joy / Looking for a little pick-me-up—and seeking to satisfy curiosity about a band I didn’t know well—I turned to this indie act with the promising name. No disappointment to report. Mt. Joy paints with pop colors, but works from shades of rock, blues and soul, nimbly mixing on the palette until reaching a satisfying, anthemic whole.
2) Cautious Clay, “Karma and Friends” / The Cleveland-born singer-songwriter spreads a feast in front of listeners, even if this EP only lasts four songs and 10 minutes. Exquisite textures, a wealth of soul, each corner of every song smoothed to create wonderful dynamics. This set is both a promise made (for the future) and a promise kept (right now).
3) The music of Lissie / Harkening back to an age in which the most dynamic artists were both great songwriters and master interpreters, this Midwest native excels at both. A dive back into her catalog this week reminded me that Lissie’s original songs dig deep and her covers of acts such as Fleetwood Mac, the Chicks and Lady Gaga expand that material’s possibilities.
4) Kathryn Freeman, “DMX Bared His Sins and Soul to Make His Music a Testimony” for Christianity Today / What a remarkable, complex tribute to the late rapper from my friend Kathryn Freeman. Freeman thoughtfully explores the truth that we all carry virtues and vices, sin and worship around within us. The ways celebrity and culture contextualize the strangeness of our being—and how we are remembered at death—only complicate these already thorny topics. Freeman handles all of this with generosity and soberness.
In Romans 7, we meet Paul at war with himself, lamenting the good he desires but seems unable to do. Earl Simmons, the rapper known as DMX, understood Paul’s internal battle. His willingness to speak and rap about that struggle gave contemporary language for every Christian who has a heart to follow God, but must continually fight temptation or substance abuse.
5) Lisa Cooper, “Dear Peter” for Fathom Magazine / One of the strangest contenders for my favorite Bible story is Jesus’ restoration of Peter in triplicate, the exchange of question and assurance (“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”). I’ve learned to read this story not as Jesus shaming Peter, but as a tender expression of how deep his forgiveness runs.
I so appreciate Lisa Cooper’s poem in the latest issue of Fathom, which digs around the soul of that relationship and gestures toward all Jesus had in store for Peter—how he saw a rock and a saint before anyone else did.