Something...

Perhaps you have asked yourself, "Why did the Bob Young Band choose the motto 'Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blues'?" If so, this blog entry is for you…


SOMETHING OLD…

Let's start with the first of the four items, "something old". By that, we are implying that we are willing to do songs that were written a long time ago (though, of course, we attempt to do them in a style that fits our core sound and musical sensibilities). We find value in a number of songs from across church history (though sometimes they need lyrical or musical "freshening").

From time to time we leverage familiar tunes to present additional, new lyrics that fit a sermon topic – we've done that for a number of songs including The Church's One Foundation, I Sing The Mighty Power Of God, and And Can It Be.

I do find it kind of funny when I discuss music with people who are strongly committed to the "old hymns", only to discover that most of their favorites are actually less than 100 years old. Then again, it's probably more typical here in America where we have no real sense of history that goes back for millennia.

It's also strange to me the people deride contemporary music because of it's "worldly sound". Music is a medium of expression that can be used to express every high and low, every light and dark topic that God reveals to us in scripture or that we experience in life. It's vocabulary changes over time, and popular hymn writers have leveraged that, from Martin Luther's German drinking songs to Charles Wesley's use of popular music of the day to the John Philip Sousa-esque march-style hymns of the early 1900s to the World War II era John W. Peterson "oom-pa-pa" music. All music is worldly. And all can be used for God. That's why we love to emulate the hymn writers of yesteryear and take popular songs of the day and "sanctify" the lyric for God's use.

Another thing that cracks me up is the accusation that contemporary worship music is primarily filled with "Jesus is my boyfriend" kind of lyrics. I challenge you to read through an old hymnal looking for the same kinds of songs – you'll see that this mindset has ALWAYS been present in hymnody. It's the feminine, relational side of the equation where we, the church, are the bride of Christ. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, though an imbalance of only this kind of theme in regular worship is probably not very healthy, since there are also many other important topics we need to be singing about.


SOMETHING NEW…

By "new", we mean original songs that someone in our group has written. In the Psalms we are encouraged on many occasions to "Sing a NEW song unto the Lord", and we strongly believe that we should follow that advice. Each generation has it's own issues, needs, struggles, etc. that need to be addressed. Each writer has a unique set of experiences and learnings that they need to personally express and can share with others so that they teach one another with "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" as the New Testament encourages us to do.

Writers writes because they MUST – it's how they are "wired" and gifted by God, and to do anything less is a disservice to God and to His people. It doesn't make them better than anyone – it's just the particular thing God for which entrusted them to be faithful.


SOMETHING BORROWED…

When we say "borrowed" we mean contemporary songs, often referred to as "cover songs". While we write a LOT of our own music, there is so much other good music out there that expresses our hearts and the hearts of congregations we lead, or that reflects the theme for the week's sermon topic, that we simply HAVE to do these songs as well.

We are deeply grateful for so many of the artists out who have served God in their respective areas and wrote honestly from the heart about the things of God. Special thanks to Third Day, Lincoln Brewster, Israel Houghton, Rich Mullins, Keith Green, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, John Michael Talbot, and the folks from Enter The Worship Circle.


SOMETHING BLUES

The blues - why would we include that? Isn't that just a bunch of whiny, drunk, depressed old people who are into that? Oh how wrong you are…

The blues is a cross-cultural, cross-generational song form that has inspired and is closely related to southern gospel, black gospel, "mountain gospel", R&B, rock, rap, jazz, and much of today's popular music. In some senses, it is the black equivalent of white-dominated country music. Check out Don Was' documentary Rhythm, Country, & Blues and you'll see the close ties between the two.

When we play the blues, both young and old can intuitively understand the song form and can "get into it". Folks who have more "country" leanings find it familiar enough to embrace it. People raised on southern gospel quartet music catch strains of something in the blues that connect with them. The blues are the closest thing we've found to a universal song form.

Those steeped in the blues understand that while misery and despair are often expressed with this form, there is also an element of purging, resolution, and hope found in them that fills the heart with joy in spite of and/or through the problems sung about. The blues can express a joy as high as depression could be low.

When you seriously consider the Psalms, you'll see that a huge percentage of these are filled with ancient blues concepts and could be sung as such today. What is the book of Lamentations if not the blues? What is Romans 6 and 7 if not the blues – "Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?" And yet the response is also able to be expressed by the blues – "I thank God through Jesus Christ… therefore there is NO CONDEMNATION to those that are in Christ Jesus!"

So until I get to heaven, get a new robe and shoes… I'll be a new man with the old man blues.