Plenty of folks, including Burnside on occasion, rail against the machinery of Christian music. There’s good reason to do so, since the Christian music industry at large has hardly been a catalyst for innovation and creativity. But many of Burnside’s writers have also been deeply impacted...

Summer heat has finally stumbled upon the Pacific Northwest, and I’ve stuck myself in the basement of somebody else’s house with friends who don’t even live there for hours at a time, all for the sake of music. When I’m not writing for free and working a day job, I do what I can to compose. I...

Frightened Rabbit The Winter of Mixed Drinks (Fatcat) God:  Is it right for you to be angry about the bush? Jonah:  Yes, angry enough to die. That’s just one of several laugh lines from what’s surely the funniest book of the Bible, in which we’re asked to identify with Jonah while...

We’ve all cringed upon hearing an undergrad bro playing a Bob Dylan song on his acoustic guitar. He’s closing his eyes, doing his best impression of 60s’ Dylan with a fake nasally voice, and sometimes he even tries to play the harmonica. There are literally millions of these guys,...

Marvin Sapp Here I Am (Verity) Marvin Sapp’s band doesn’t take a lot of solos, so it’s easy to overlook what an all-out chopsfest his new album is.  Rev. Sapp recorded his eighth solo album, Here I Am, live in front of an enthusiastic Michigan congregation.  Despite some heavy...

Every so often I turn on one of the local Christian Adult Contemporary stations–there’s, like, six–to get a sense of What’s Happening.  These experiments are usually awkward and soul-deadening.  This past weekend on Positive Encouraging K-Love, my poor wife and I caught...

Back in the ’90s, about the time I was getting tired of Christian Contemporary Music, there were a few standout exceptions that were still able to grab my attention. One of them was an earnest folk rocker who could, in one moment, break your heart with a tender vocal phrasing, and in the next song,...

W.A.S.P. Babylon (Demolition) W.A.S.P.’s apocalyptic Christian album Babylon is better than any other new rock I’ve heard this year. “You are old,” the hipsters shrug, “and also you really like Stryper.”  I do not deny it.  I also admit to loving Holy Soldier,...

This past weekend I was forced to say goodbye to my wife and leave the music mecca of Chicago so I could see a band play in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is special because not just any town can host a band before they’ve played  Chicago. For the biannual Festival of Faith and Writing, Calvin...

Ke$ha Animal (RCA) Ke$ha makes me jerk helplessly around my car like a lovesick crackhead, and this is while I’m driving.  She oughta have a warning label.  I tell K she’s as important and challenging a vocalist as Dylan, Rotten, Axl; and instead of a lovely thank-you note I get this: ...