Tag: Lyrics & Music
-
Graham Nash at the Birchmere April 19, 2023
When I heard the news of David Crosby’s death last January, memories came rushing back. The music of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young formed the soundtrack of my college years. “Our House is a very very very fine house,” a song for Joni Mitchell, fed my romantic aspiration. “Teach your parents…
-
Lady Gaga in Concert, DC Aug 2022
To celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary, Doug and I attended the Lady Gaga concert in Nationals Park in Washington, DC. Some 40,000 fans overflowed the ballpark on a sweltering August night. The Chromatica concert began late, at 9:00, and lasted a full 2 hours. The orchestration of video, sound and choreography was impeccable. What a…
-
Paul Simon, Farewell Tour
Setlist from the Paul Simon Farewell Tour, Capital One Arena, Washington DC, September 14, 2018
-
Thoughts on Longevity
Maybe the song of a shipwreck seems an unusual sort of anthem for a marriage.
-
The National: Rocking Out at Calvin
When I attended Calvin there was no dancing allowed on campus. During the late 1970s students gathered in darkened dorm basements at covert “parties with music” to bounce rhythmically and hope no dean showed up to bust us.
-
-
Hymns, Heat & Heaven — Can Women Be Ordained?
Step back in time with me, won’t you? Imagine a church constructed of logs, filled to the brim with 250 people singing hymns without accompaniment. The majority of those people are Old Order Mennonite, dressed in their Sunday go-to-meeting clothes. Balconies on either side of the meetinghouse burst with young people, while down below are…
-
U2 Concert
I acted like a groupie at a U2 concert and had a blast. I wrote more about the experience (here). Here’s the set list including the opening act, Florence and the Machine:
-
From the Sideline of a Community of Faith
Yesterday I sat on the sidelines of a particular community of faith. My husband and I attended a Shape Note Sing, which we do twice a year or so. (In that way I’m comparable to a Christmas/Easter Christian.) Shape Note singing (also called Sacred Harp singing) is unaccompanied, four-part singing, with each part seated as…
-
12 Things I Enjoy About Sacred Harp Singing
The wooden room resounded with sound as a half-hundred people stomped their feet and industriously pumped their arms to accompany their singing. We sang from “The Sacred Harp,” a hymnal first published in 1844, with lyrics pining for the Promised Land and glory beyond. Back then, church singing was usually unaccompanied, nothing but voices lifted…
-
Singing Harmonia Sacra to Greet the New Year
I spent New Year’s Night singing hymns in a church, unaccompanied, with 300 or so other people. ?The crowd was diverse in age, but entirely white in skin color. Everyone was dressed very nicely in what I called “church clothes” growing up. I’ve sung with Old Order Mennonites before, it’s a memorable experience.?Most of the…