Favorite artist last year (after Petra of course): Sara Groves. Honorable mention to KMax and The Autumn Film, who are releasing a new album soon. (Even John Schlitt's getting in on the release action
While I have differences of opinion with Mrs. Groves theologically, I'm consistently impressed by her song writing. Add to the Beauty was amazing, and I think probably that All Right Here will be my next pickup. Some of the cuts off the record are really quite good (including "Remember Surrender," "Painting Pictures of Egypt," "Less Like Scars").
Outside of simply writing well, she has a Lewisian-like ability to capture experience in the occasional goosebump-inducing lyric. In writing about trials in her marriage, she says, "Better than our promises / was the day we got to keep them," for example.
I have found her work has not improved as much as I would like in recent releases, but this stood out in Invisible Empires: "Are you and I an apparition / Flickering up on the screen / Sending out our best transmissions / Waiting in our velveteen." Waiting to be real, as was the rabbit.
I saw her at Messiah University a few years ago and came away very impressed. (Impressed by Charlie Peacock, too.) There are a few moments I can point to in my life where it changed forever. One of them was reading Surprised by Joy, and another was listening to "Just Showed Up." While Char reminds me that she introduced me to Irenaeus first, Groves induced me to find the remarks in Against Heresies with the phrase. 2008 marked the first real foray into the meaning of the phrase "Man fully alive is the glory of God," and I have been playing with it ever since. There's a lot of gospel in that statement.
It took over a month to finish writing this...and I'm really not quite done. But it needs to be submitted...so it's a wrap.
Or you can enjoy photos from Hopewell Furnace.
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