What Is It That Makes Music Good?
My friend, Malcolm McMillan, who is also a worship pastor at our church, sent me this message on Facebook. Hey everyone, I am giving a guest lecture to a Bible College class in February about art and the nature of beauty, and I could use your help. My talk is supposed to focus on music…
Continue readingSong For A Grandson
Becoming a grandfather has had a profound effect on me. Things that used to seem important seem less so. Other things have increased in importance. I have tried to capture some of these feelings in words and melody. I offer up these words to you with an attitude of transparency. Take a look inside this…
Continue readingSpectacle or Substance
It is fascinating to observe the cultural shifts taking place in North America. The entertainment industry is a great place to watch it happen. Changes in the way music is bought and sold and how people make money in the business are moving rapidly. We live in the era of spectacle rather than substance. We…
Continue readingWelcome to Our World
We have been enjoying a wonderful Christmas season in Simcoe, Ontario with our daughter, Twila, son-in-law, Brad, and grandson, Clayton. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to go to Sunday worship at the Selkirk Christian Chapel in Selkirk, where they attend and are loved by a great church family. Brad, Twila, and I performed this Chris…
Continue readingAmerican Idol Expectations
“American Idol” and “Survivor” were certainly not the source of the concept but we can recognize that they have contributed to a sense of quick and easy fame in our culture. These television programs and many more “reality” shows have made household names out of ordinary people. Generations ago, if a person desired to become…
Continue readingWhat Every Creative Person Needs to Hear
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Continue readingDon’t Miss Your Life
The perfect Father’s Day song. Don’t Miss Your Life (Phil Vassar and Charlie Black – Listen to it at http://www.philvassar.com/) On a plane to the west coast Laptop on my tray Papers spread across my seat A big deadline to make An older man next to me said, “Sorry to intrude Thirty years ago, my busy…
Continue readingWayne Kirkpatrick
A few years ago I was headed out on a long road trip and grabbed several CDs from my collection as “music for the road.” Yes, it was CDs at the time. I had not yet made the leap to an iPod that allows one to take almost all of their musical collection along for…
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