Thanks to C-Dubs for this wedding anniversary hymn text!  And I love being married to a lady that let's me fool around with an old dead guy's words on GarageBand all day!  (SoundCloud link if the file below ain't workin)

I guess my dream crew for a song like this would include Brad Stott on drums and Seth Gruenwald on strings.  Any other suggestions?

Within The Arms Divine - Chord Chart

Writing some songs requested by my mom, Terry Gladstone.  She said she's always liked the tune of "There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood" but wondered if there could be some less gruesome lyrics.  So Anna and I teamed up to put the words to her dad's favorite scripture passage, Micah 6:8 to the tune of this song that my mom likes.  Now we hope you like it.  Here are the lyrics.

So often we learn the truth about things by observing what they aren't.  We find, in those moments, revelation in the margins.  Plus, too often, the stuff in the center is typical and mundane and just not that interesting, even it presumes to be bold and edgy.  I think we could learn a lot by not having to look at the correct images all the time, and just prepared ourselves to meet truth and beauty even if it is around the corner from other stuff.  

Get Lyrics Here.

Sing, ye ransomed nations, sing,
Praises to our new-born King,
Son of man our Maker is,
Lord of hosts and Prince of peace!

[chorus]
Jesus will not refuse the song
Ransomed nations sing along!

Will his majesty disdain
The poor shepherd's simple strain?
No; for Israel's shepherd, he
Loves their artless melody.

Let us then our Prince proclaim,
Humbly chant Immanuel's name,
Publish at his wondrous birth,
Praise in heaven and peace on earth.

Another in the Wesley Advent collection.  Charles seemed big on this "simple praise" shepherd motif.  Wonder if he particularly had the poor in mind when using these songs to teach about the meaning of Christmas.  

As I've been working through this abolitionist hymnal, there are competing themes of struggle against the monsters both within and without regarding the issue of slavery. This song hits a bit more on the internal side - asking for the Spirit of Freedom to rise up and fight off the sins in our own lives that lead to enslavement of others. Let me know what you think about the tune, especially on the "group sing-ability" front.

Lyrics/Chords for "Spirit.." at the CTG lyric archive.

Carl

Deep as Kitch-iti-kipi

Wrote this for our one year anniversary and then realized that it was something of an anti-love song.  But not really, just an anti-melodramadic-love song.

And in case John Cusack is listening/reading, got nothin' but love for you man.

Carl

Mostly the lyrics were all inspired by that little tiny picture of the plane that they show on trans-Atlantic flights.  Why won't you move any faster Tiny Little Plane On The Screen!?!?  Glad I had something to keep my mind busy.

I particularly resonated with the line in the song: "we are stolen."  It reminded me of the overwhelming awareness that I'm sure cripples people in those situations.  What is it like - the moment where a person starts to believe that they actually are an object that can be owned, sold, stolen?

While one of the more militant songs in the list, I think it is sufficiently checked by the Christian understanding of soldiers and militarism.  Our fight, for example, will be fought not with violence but with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

This song is a prayer for mothers and families trapped together and reminds hearers that even out of terrible situations can beautiful things arise.

Christian communities during theAfricanslave trade of earlier centuries put together these collections of abolitionist hymns. They'd sing them together to rehearse God's promise of deliverance from slavery and practice their own call to actively seek freedom in the lives of others. Today we're trying to help communities reclaim these kinds of prophetic liturgies in their own worship gatherings.

As the Not For Sale campaign reminds us, there are more people trapped in slavery today then there were at the height of the African slave trade. Many of these are children. Many are caught up in the worldwide sex trade. If there was ever a time for churches to reclaim their abolitionist roots, now is it.

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Never More To Sleep

Music © 2009 Carl Thomas Gladstone
Words Public Domain

Hark! a voice from heaven proclaiming
Comfort to the mourning slave;
God has heard them long complaining,
And extends his arm to save;
Proud Oppression
Soon shall find a shameful grave.

Lo! the nation is arousing
From its slumbers, long and deep;
And the church of God is waking,
Never, never more to sleep,
While the bonded
In their chains remains to weep.

See! the light of truth is breaking
Full and clear on every hand;
And the voice of mercy, speaking,
Now is heard through all the land;

Firm and fearless,
See the friends of Freedom stand!
Long, too long, have we been dreaming
O'er our country's sin and shame;

Let us now, the time redeeming,
Press the helpless captives' claims,
Till, exulting,
They shall cast aside their chains.

Carl

This song is one written from the shores of Lake Louise in Northern Lower Peninsula MI and is a much better song than some regarding Northern Michigan from artists who shall not be named.  It's the story of an old fire tower on the north side of the lake which has been a sort of monument to summer crushes.  Couples from the camps on the lake have snuck up to the tower and carved their names into it with hearts and dates and "4 ever"s.  But towers are fragile things and upon its demise, where have all those testaments to love gone?

Enjoy,

Carl

Today we've got a re-recording of a piece that I worked up for my wife Anna for Christmas.  It's a song I wrote for her a couple years ago, but I'm trying to play with the arrangement to give it a bit of that Girlyman harmonies style.  So imagine that those high soprano parts are being sung by one of Annie's friends instead of me :)

From the Edge,

Carl