Sunday, April 26, 2009

Songs and Worship Part 1

Music seems to be present at every major moment in our lives.  At weddings, funerals, birthdays, holidays and almost every other celebratory, sobering or landmark event...music is there.  Most cultures have given song a key place in these events for thousands of years. I think this is because music gives us language for engaging and experiencing our worlds. Music can help us to better enjoy the things we enjoy and can help to make difficult issues slightly less difficult.

A songwriter is like a granter of permissions. Permission to remember, permission to forget, permission to love, permission to hate, permission to dance, permission to shop, permission to dream, permission to cry, permission to shout, permission to say what you’ve been waiting all week to say.  You could have said it at work, but some how it seems more appropriate on a sweaty Friday night with 200 of your fellow corporate refugees. 

This is why "song" is so important to me.  I think people need permission to be honest with God and themselves.  I think people need to be free to question things.  God isn’t afraid of questions.  Questions only offend the insecurities of people.  When I was a teenager I told my dad, a charismatic pastor, that I wasn’t sure if I really believed in God.  I thought he was going to be severely disappointed, but he said it was actually very healthy to be honest with God.  Seriously, it's not like God didn’t already know.  In fact, it’s the ability for me to honestly question what I believe that gives me the ability to honestly believe.  So many people don’t really know what to believe because they’ve been under such religious pressure that they’ve never have had an opportunity. Love is only love if you choose it.  It can't be handed down like homework.

What I want to accomplish as a songwriter is to give people permission to have conversations.  I want to help people have conversations with themselves and conversations with God. After all, worship, prayer, praise, and all these religious words mean little more than to have conversations with God.  I just don’t think God has some kind of complex where he needs us to sit around and tell him how good he is all day. I’m pretty sure God doesn’t have confidence issues.

Final words: 

Music isn’t holy. People are holy. So if “Brown Eyed Girl” helps a human being have a conversation with God, then "Brown Eyed Girl" is a worship song. 

Monday, April 13, 2009

Good News?

So... I didn't go to church yesterday. Honestly, I didn't go to church simply because I was tired and wanted to sleep in.  However, being Easter Sunday, I did do a bit of thinking about resurrection all day. Here are some of the thoughts that passed through my brain:

Isn't resurrection day everyday not just Easter Sunday?

Why do church people focus so much on the cross when Jesus' death was actually powerless without the resurrection? (at least thats what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:13) 

If Christians taught more on resurrection than death, would Christianity be more interesting? Or maybe Christians might be more interesting people? Would I be more interesting?

Do we focus more on death because we don't really understand resurrection? 

What if I focused on living resurrection instead of mostly talking about it and singing about it? 

What if I don't have to wait until I die to be resurrected but my body, which dies a little everyday, could be resurrected every day?

What if all this stuff I talk about with my friends is actually real and not just what we do cause we grew up in the South?

Monday, March 23, 2009

How to play Skeleton Bones

Skeleton Bones is a frequently requested song from my new album The Medicine. So finally I got around to posting a chart (or something like it). I will have a more legit looking chart in the near future. 

I use a capo on the second fret and I play mostly "G" and "C" shaped chords on the 12th fret to make the song in "E". The rhythm comes form the way I hammer on my index finger on the top chords from an open string. This gives it the twang. The C#m can be a little tricky for this technique but if I can do it anyone can. 

I've also posted a couple of examples of chords so you can see the voicing. I don't put the voicing on the chart because I usually don't want the whole band playing the extra notes my guitar makes or it comes across a little Jazzy sounding. So I just didn't the voicing in. However if you play "G" and "C" shaped chord on the 12th fret but leave the other strings open you will attain the desired effect. For the other chords like the "A" and "B" on the chorus I have posted some diagrams for you to see how I play them as they are not common but not difficult to play.

Also since I've noticed people singing and posting the wrong words. I've included the real lyrics to the song for your pleasure.

Skeleton Bones

Peel back our ribs again
And stand inside of our chest
We just want to love you
We just want to love you yeah

Peel back the veil a time
Let us see you with our naked eyes
We just want to love you
We just want to love you yeah

Skeleton bones stand at the sound
Of eternity on
The lips of the found
Grave stones roll
to the rhythm of the sound of you
Skeleton bones stand at the sound
Of eternity on
The lips of the found
Yeah so separate those doors
Let the sun of resurrection in

Oh let us
Adore the son of glory
Dressed in love
Open up your gates
Before him
Crown him
Stand him up

We want your blood to flow inside our body and
We want your wind inside our lungs
We just want to love you
We just want to love you yeah
We want your blood to flow inside our body and
We want your wind inside our lungs
We just want to love you
We just want to love you yeah

Skeleton bones stand at the sound
Of eternity on
The lips of the found
Grave stones roll
To the rhythm of the sound of you
Skeleton bones stand at the sound
Of eternity on
The lips of the found
yeah so separate those doors
And let the sun of resurrection in

Oh let us
Adore the son of glory
Dressed in love
Open up your gates
Before him
Crown him
Stand him up

Everything that breaths
Everything that breaths
Everything that breaths










Sunday, March 22, 2009

10 Albums That Deserve Another Listen

Sam’s Town, The Killers

Flowers actually wrote lyrics for this project. Infact every song is good. Once you get past the ridiculous intros at the beginning of half these songs you start to discover that the melodies are righteous and the content is intelligent and heartfelt.

Sea Change, Beck

Eh…everyone is recording this album now but Beck did it in 2002.

 Musicforthemorningafter, Pete Yorn

Every single song is good. I can listen to it all the way through any day of the week. Not to mention that Pete was one of the first to incorporate both a folk vibe and electronics into his music at the same time. Sure, Wilco did it, but Pete actually got played on the radio.

Try!, John Mayer Trio 

Sorry haters, but John Mayer will be famous long after your indie rock heroes and hipster kings have gone back to managing Carl’s Jr. This is because of 2 reasons: 1. He writes huge pop songs and 2. He can spank even most of his own influences on the guitar. John could stop catching hits altogether and still fill arenas with sweaty guitar geeks. Sorry hipsters but skill and discipline will almost always outlive vibe by a century of dog years.

Seeger Sessions, Bruce Springsteen

Springsteen releases the only actual folk (as opposed to folk influenced) album of the last couple of years and people give him heck for it. I actually read a review in a popular magazine that called it lame and said it was an album of Pete Seeger covers. First o all, I think that if you’re going to call something “lame” then you should at least know what it is. It’s an album of hundred-year old folk songs that people like Seeger kept alive. The idea is that every generation takes the songs and adds a bit of themselves to it. So each song isn’t written by an individual, it’s written by generations. Prediction: These songs will be known long after that particular magazine has ceased to print words onto paper.

Z, My Morning Jacket

Evil Urges is only getting any recognition because Z was so good and the media missed the chance to praise it. There’s like an unwritten law somewhere that says you can’t promote and album once the band has released another. So the world is trying desperately to love on Z through Evil Urges. When people say anything good about Evil Urges I’m just going to go ahead and transfer it over to Z in my head because Z deserves it.

So Much For The City, The Thrills

Irish hipsters singing beach songs with folk instrumentation. It doesn’t get a whole lot better to me. I’m still a little confused at why this band didn’t do better in the states. Maybe they did and I just didn’t get it in North Carolina.

Gold, Ryan Adams

Why do people never mention this album? After all, I’m pretty sure it had the two biggest radio hits of his career: “New York New York” and “When the Stars Go Blue”. Not to mention “Sylvia Plath” which is one of the best songs he ever wrote, in my humble opinion.

Into The Wild, Eddie Vedder

90’s grunge hero records an album of folk songs in his basement. At least this is what it sounds like. This soundtrack sounds so beautifully low budget but at the same time is stacked with energy. The character of Eddie’s vocals alone is worth the $15 I spent on this disc.

Tumbling Ground, The Black Pepper Corns

I’m not going to lie, I love sad songs. This album is full of those, but on top of that its one of my favorite writers (Kevin Prosch), with one of my favorite drummers (Martin Neil)and produced by one of my favorite producers (Ethan Johns). So it just makes sense that this would be one of my favorite albums. I lost the CD years ago when my car got jacked and at the time the album was almost impossible to find. Then recently a friend of mine gave me an old copy he found in his attic. Roomer has it that Kevin and Martin could be serving up another pot of Pepper Corn gumbo this year and I will be first in line with my gravy bowl.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

How He Loves: chord chart and more

This is the most requested song by far. The Ironic thing is that is it also the easiest song that I've ever written. Here is a PDF chord chart:
  • HOW HE LOVES


  • Here are a couple different versions:
    (why haven't more guys done this song?)

    Kim Walker


    Mandy Miller


    Here's one of my favorites

    Wednesday, October 15, 2008

    All the Lyrics to my new album: The Medicine

    Here are the lyrics to my new album as I've realized people are singing and posting the wrong lyrics. There may be a spelling error here or there but for the most part this is the way it ought to be.

    Enjoy.

    1. Reckoning Day

    The Lions in the street bend their heads
    For the reckoning day
    Cause the interstate's giving up her dead
    For the reckoning day

    Would you come alive everybody
    Would you come alive everyone
    Get up out of bed for the sound of the song unsung

    Bury all your guns in the sand
    Cause the temperature's changed
    and the blood shot eye of the sun
    stains the bones of the slain

    Would you come alive everybody
    Would you come alive everyone
    Get up out of bed for the sound of the song unsung

    The hour's gonna take you apart
    On the reckoning day
    If the property lines of your heart
    Are drawn in the clay

    Would you come alive everybody
    Would you come alive everyone
    Get up out of bed for the sound of the song unsung

    The tide water's taxing the shores
    of the washing away
    The flood stands high at your doors
    of the houses you made

    Would you come alive everybody
    Would you come alive everyone
    Get up out of bed for the sound of the song unsung

    Lift up your head
    Oh you gate
    Lift up your eyes
    All you who wait
    Daughter and son
    Ashes and dust
    Come untied from the weight of the age


    2.The Medicine

    Driving by those trucker stops
    The cheap motels made of concrete rocks
    With a hole inside your chest
    The size of a city block
    And I remember the day
    When you said you weren't afraid to die
    I don't think your brave for it
    I just think your more afraid of being alive

    If I had the medicine
    I'd give you the medicine
    Cause I miss you son
    I'd bring you back home if I was the one
    But it's four and ten
    In the belly of the four AM
    And your staring down the weekend
    To silence the pain
    And I'm wide awake
    And there's blood on the promenade

    Here's to waking up with that stone between your ribs
    And you're lying down again
    You just pretend you don't know what it is
    When everyone around you says that you're not the one to blame for it
    But you're the only one feeling the pain for it
    So you're gonna take matters into your own hands

    If I had the medicine
    I'd give you the medicine
    Cause I miss you son
    I'd bring you back home if I was the one
    But it's four and ten
    In the belly of the four AM
    And your staring down the weekend
    To silence the pain
    And I'm wide awake
    And there's blood on the promenade


    3. Skeleton Bones

    Peel back our ribs again
    And stand inside of our chest
    We just want to love you
    We just want to love you yeah

    Peel back the veil a time
    Let us see you with our naked eyes
    We just want to love you
    We just want to love you yeah

    Skeleton bones stand at the sound
    Of eternity on
    The lips of the found
    Grave stones roll
    to the rhythm of the sound of you
    Skeleton bones stand at the sound
    Of eternity on
    The lips of the found
    Yeah so separate those doors
    Let the sun of resurrection in

    Oh let us
    Adore the son of glory
    Dressed in love
    Open up your gates
    Before him
    Crown him
    Stand him up

    We want your blood to flow inside our body and
    We want your wind inside our lungs
    We just want to love you
    We just want to love you yeah
    We want your blood to flow inside our body and
    We want your wind inside our lungs
    We just want to love you
    We just want to love you yeah

    Skeleton bones stand at the sound
    Of eternity on
    The lips of the found
    Grave stones roll
    To the rhythm of the sound of you
    Skeleton bones stand at the sound
    Of eternity on
    The lips of the found
    yeah so separate those doors
    And let the sun of resurrection in

    Oh let us
    Adore the son of glory
    Dressed in love
    Open up your gates
    Before him
    Crown him
    Stand him up

    Everything that breaths
    Everything that breaths
    Everything that breaths


    4. Carbon Ribs

    A Thousand pairs of firey eyes
    Burn like a serpent down the hwy 5
    As the Long amber tail to Los Angeles unwinds
    I've got resurrection down in side my skin
    But for all my revealating
    I just cant make sense
    Of this gravity we're in

    Cause I'm a dead man now
    With a ghost who lives
    Within the confines of
    These carbon ribs
    And one day when I'm free
    I will sit
    The cripple at your table
    The cripple by your side

    A thousand miles of pain I'm sure
    Led you to the threshold
    Of my hearts screen door
    To tell me what it is I'm dying for
    Gravity comes
    Like a cold cold Rain
    To lead me to the rope again
    But someone is standing in my place

    Cause I'm a dead man now
    With a ghost who lives
    Within the confines of
    These carbon ribs
    And one day when I'm free
    I will sit
    The cripple at your table
    The cripple by your side
    The cripple at your table
    The cripple by your side

    And I sit beside you
    And I sit beside you
    And I sit beside you
    And I sit beside you


    5. Dress Us Up

    Dress us up in your righteousness
    Bring us in with a ring and a kiss
    When you walk into the room you know we can't resist
    Every bottle of perfume always ends up on the floor in a mess

    You make us sparkle and you make us shine
    Like the stars who sing on your chorus line
    Through space and time we'll harmonize
    Where deep meets deep like the ocean meets the sky

    The sun and the moon
    They come out of their grave just for you
    The dead man and the cynical too
    They're coming out of their grave
    And it's just for you

    Cause the love of God is stronger
    The love of God is stronger
    The love of God is stronger
    Than the power of death

    Dress us up in the blood of a son
    Who opened up his veins so that we would overcome
    Hell and the grave in the power of his love
    After three dark days he showed us how it's done
    And he still does

    You make us sparkle and you make us shine
    Like the stars who sing on your chorus line
    Through space and time we'll harmonize
    Where deep meets deep like the ocean meets the sky
    Yeah

    The sun and the moon
    They come out of their grave just for you
    The dead man and the cynical too
    They're coming out of their grave
    And it's just for you
    Cause the love of God is stronger
    The love of God is stronger
    The love of God is stronger
    Than the power of death

    His love is stronger, his love is stronger, his love is stronger, his love is stronger
    His love is stronger, his love is stronger, his love is stronger, his love is stronger


    6. Death in his grave

    Though the Earth Cried out for blood
    Satisfied her hunger was
    Her billows calmed on raging seas
    for the souls of men she craved

    Sun and moon from balcony
    Turned their head in disbelief
    Their precious Love would taste the sting
    disfigured and disdained

    On Friday a thief
    On Sunday a King
    Laid down in grief
    But awoke with keys
    Of Hell on that day
    The first born of the slain
    The Man Jesus Christ
    Laid death in his grave

    So three days in darkness slept
    The Morning Sun of righteousness
    But rose to shame the throes of death
    And over turn his rule

    Now daughters and the sons of men
    Would pay not their dues again
    The debt of blood they owed was rent
    When the day rolled a new

    On Friday a thief
    On Sunday a King
    Laid down in grief
    But awoke holding keys
    To Hell on that day
    The first born of the slain
    The Man Jesus Christ
    Laid death in his grave

    On Friday a thief
    On Sunday a King
    Laid down in grief
    But awoke with keys
    Of Hell on that day
    The first born of the slain
    The Man Jesus Christ
    Laid death in his grave

    He has cheated
    Hell and seated
    Us above the fall
    In desperate places
    He paid our wages
    One time once and for all


    7. Belly Of The Lion

    Dance the dance
    We call living and dying
    In the valley of the city
    in the belly of the lion
    Work all week long
    All week long
    You can lose your soul
    In the concrete riverbeds
    Rolling with the flow
    Of the currents of the walking deads
    Five comes and you're a rolling stone

    Days like these
    We've got nothing to sing about
    Days like these
    I don't know what I think about
    Day like these
    Who would've known
    Days like these
    I've got nothing to sing about
    Days like these
    I don't know what I think about
    Day like these
    Who would've known

    Listen to the rhythm
    Of the pawn shop shore
    Got you falling off your hinges
    Like that old screen porch
    It's the interstate slipping in your pores again
    You can ride the vein
    From the corner store to Amsterdam
    You can bleed the train
    From the courthouse to the Vatican
    But Friday she's a ghost
    And gonna slip right through your hands again

    Days like these
    I've got nothing to sing about
    Days like these
    I don't know what I think about
    Day like these
    Who would've known
    Days like these
    I don't know what I think about
    Days like these
    I've got nothing to sing about
    Days like these
    Who would've known

    So dance the dance
    We call living and dying
    In the valley of the city
    in the belly of the lion
    We work all week long
    All week long
    You can lose your soul
    In the concrete riverbeds
    Rolling with the flow
    Of the currents of the walking deads
    Five comes and you're a rolling stone

    Days like these
    I've got nothing to sing about
    Days like these
    I don't know what I think about
    Day like these
    Who would've known
    Days like these
    I don't know what I think about
    Days like these
    I've got nothing to sing about
    Day like these
    Who would've known


    8. Philidelphia

    You step through me
    And the screen door hits the wood
    And your packing all your things
    You say your moving out to there to Hollywood
    And I can't do a thing
    You say there's nothing for you
    In this cardboard town
    And every bridge you cross
    Your gonna burn it to the ground
    You wont listen to a word that I'm telling ya

    So who's running through the halls
    In the houses of pain
    That are staring back at me
    Like the ocean from a plane
    I swear I've seen your eyes
    in the ghost of Philadelphia

    I think about you late at night sometimes
    When I can't sleep
    Cause I can hear the train
    It's always there
    You just don't know it
    Till a quarter to three
    You just can't hear it in the day
    When every body's got your number
    In a plexy glass town
    Where the birds ain't got wings
    But no one makes a sound
    Cause they all know how to fly
    Just I wouldn't buy what they're selling ya

    So who's running through the halls
    In the houses of pain
    That are staring back at me
    Like the ocean from a plane
    I swear I've seen your eyes
    in the ghost of Philadelphia

    I run into your old man every once and again
    Mostly in the spring
    Reminds me of our younger and more genuine days when
    You weren't so out of reach
    Still for all your running
    You just can't change a mile
    Of the things you carry around
    In the closet of your mind
    And the days keep coming man
    They never fail ya

    Your never gonna run away
    From what your hanging round your head
    Your never gonna run away
    From what your hanging round your head
    Your never gonna run away
    From what your hanging round your head
    Your never gonna run away
    From what your hanging round your head
    And I'm never gonna run away
    From what you said

    9. Out of the Ground
    The lights come out
    And follow you around the block
    Where the freight train stopped
    For you

    Cause I can hear you walking in
    The city till the pavement ends
    With houses crumbling
    For you

    Cause I'm
    Coming up from out of the ground
    Coming up from out of the ground
    Coming up from out of the ground
    For you, for you, for you

    Coming up from out of the ground
    Coming up from out of the ground
    Coming up from out of the ground
    For you

    We've run from it
    But it sleeps like the current quits
    And would've stained my lips
    But not for you

    We fall apart
    at the seems
    From day to dark
    But its seeping into our sleep
    For you

    Cause I'm
    Coming up from out of the ground
    Coming up from out of the ground
    Coming up from out of the ground
    For you, for you, for you


    One by one
    Come undone
    Come alive
    Come alive


    10. Ten Thousand

    Ten thousand glimmering like coals in our chest
    Ball bearings drawn to the magnetic breath
    Of ten thousand weeping with wings on their tears
    Amidst ten thousand voices for ten thousand years
    For ten thousand graves yawning unlocked and unlatched
    Now ten thousand holes with rocks on their backs
    Ten thousand tombs gaping wide singing the praise
    Of ten thousand bodies unlaced and unlaid

    As the ten thousand highways unfold their doors
    For the ten thousand standing on Nineveh's shores
    Where the blood of a husband silences wars
    For the girl who rises to meet him
    And she sings

    World, I have overcome you
    World, I have overcome you
    World, I have overcome
    By my song and the blood of a son

    Ten thousand rivers
    Run red like my veins
    Where the bones of men hum
    Like a rattling cage
    For sinew to cling to
    And wind to remain
    In ten thousand lungs
    For ten thousand days
    Breathing like a choir
    Of holes in the ground
    Where the cynical have lain
    Where the cynical go down
    Save the gravity of time
    Lets go of her drowned
    Like ten thousand sparrows
    Unlocked and unwound

    As the ten thousand highways unfold their doors
    For the ten thousand standing on Nineveh's shores
    Where the blood of a husband silences wars
    For the girl who rises to meet him
    And she sings

    World, I have overcome you
    World, I have overcome you
    World, I have overcome
    By my song and the blood of a son

    Tuesday, October 14, 2008

    Welcome to the Tool Shed

    This blog is for artists, musicians, and worship leaders who are interested in the "what, why, and how" of what we do. 

    People often request charts and lyrics to reproduce our songs within their own communities. Here we'll post charts, lyrics as well as little tips and tricks etc. to help you play the songs. However I will also be posting my opinions and theories on songwriting, music worship and art. 

    Opinion # 1:

    Whether your Bob Dylan or Lil Wayne, if your a songwriter your job is to help us SAY something. Songwriters help us say the things that we really want to say but may not be articulate enough to say or may be too polite to say. Often songwriters say things for us so that we don't feel like we have to say them. However you want to look at it a worship leader is certainly no different. Actually the concept is actually quite a bit more obvious when it comes to church music.  So all this to say that my goal is to help people say the things they need to say. 

    Bottom line: I love the idea that you want to use our music in your community. I see nothing wrong with it and completely encourage it. But if you really want to do what we do, then please also write music for your own community. Few things are more powerful than when a group of people feel like they own a song. This is when people are vocalizing things they really feel inside of themselves and not just uttering the tired religious cliches they feel obligated to repeat.

    So please enjoy the charts  but don't just cover our music. Find your own sound. It's just as good as anything we do.

    John Mark