New Worship Song
In the spirit of lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness... This is a song that the Lord gave me— —and he has assured me that...
Groovy New Album: Bluegrass+
Friend Spencer Capier’s new album, Musical Chairs, accompanied me today on a gorgeous drive up the Acadian Coastal Road north of Shediac,...
Top Christmas Albums (Reprise)
Last year I published this post and readers enjoyed adding to (and correcting) this list. Since that time, Eldest Son Trevor has put our...
Top Ten Christmas Albums
Just in time for Christmas shopping, and just in case you’ve missed them, here are some suggestions from the World’s Largest Family...
This Year's (Last Year's) Christmas Album
I am ashamed to say that it has taken me a whole year to get to Spencer Capier’s superb Christmas album: Spencer is known to many as a...
Light Up the Sky
I’ve done my share of cursing the darkness of crummy contemporary Christian church music. And I’ll likely do more before I’m through,...
A Really Good Love Song (Hey: Theologians Get Romantic, Too…)
Buddy Steve Bell, songwriter/singer/guitarpicker extraordinaire, recently posted some wise marital advice and one of the best love songs...
A Superb New Christmas CD: Bob Bennett's "Christmastide"
Last Christmastime I became particularly enamored of Chris Botti’s album December. We own dozens of jazz Christmas CDs and Botti’s stands...
Superb Christmas "Radio"
As we head toward Advent and brace for the inescapable sugary fog of commercial “holiday” music playing everywhere, here’s a terrific...
Chris Tomlin's Worship Songs: We Have Got to Do Better
Since I have been complaining about loud music in church, I’ll stay in the groove and complain now about bad lyrics in church. And I have...
Memo to Worship Bands: Turn It Down, Please!
That’s the original title of the piece I’ve published in Christianity Today of late. When you’re done reading it, please comment...
Hockey Night in Canada Theme Contest: A Shameless Plug
Canadians know (and thanks to Stephen Colbert, so do many others) that the CBC surrendered its longtime musical theme for its premiere...
Disappearing (Musical) Languages?
Anthropologists and linguists have been decrying for years the disappearance of spoken languages around the world as globalization...
Jon Buller Hymn Project
The single most viewed post on this blog so far has been “Jesus, I’m NOT in Love with You.” As of this writing, it’s had over 8000 views....
A Great Evening with Chris Botti
For my last birthday, my beloved gave me tickets to see jazz trumpeter Chris Botti in concert here in Vancouver, the last Canadian stop...
C. S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer . . . and Larry Norman
Larry Norman, “father of Christian rock,” has gone home. After suffering a severe heart attack and other ailments, he slipped away at 61....
Jesus, I'm NOT in Love with You
One of the blights upon the hymnological landscape today is the continued presence of what we can fairly call the “love song to Jesus”...
Steve Bell: One of Canada's Best
Steve Bell has won two of Canada’s Grammy Awards, known as the Junos. Yet most Canadians, let alone people from other countries, haven’t...