Dec

25

Christmas music everywhere

Filed under holidays, music at 5:47 pm | 3 Comments

One of my favorite aspects of Christmas is the music. I love Christmas music, spanning almost all generations and genres.[1]

Have you ever noticed how something about Christmas music allows Christian radio stations to play secular music (e.g., Jingle Bell Rock), and secular music stations to play overtly Christian music (e.g., Hark the Herald Angels Sing)? Curious.

And while we’re on the topic, I was saddened to hear that Dan Folgelberg recently died. It was only last year at this time that I discovered he sang Christmas tunes.

Merry Christmas!

[1] Does not include anyone singing Felice Navidad or anything being sung by Gloria Estefan.

Jul

4

a great hymn

Filed under church, music at 4:39 pm | Leave a Comment

Michele, a good friend of ours in MI, wrote a great piece about one of her favorite hymns, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. I count that hymn as one of my favorites, as well. We even had it as part of Micah’s baptismal service. However, I’ve never taken the time to contemplate, let alone verbalize, why it’s a special hymn. I think Michele articulates it well:

[F]irst, it highlights the fact that my main purpose in life is not to be successful, particularly, but to praise God…. Second, it implies that praise is not something I can do by myself. The ability to praise God is a gift from God. I must be taught to sing God’s praise…

Her post is definitely worth a full read. Preach it, Michele.

Dec

23

Dan Fogelberg, the voice of Christmas?

Filed under holidays, music at 2:40 pm | 2 Comments

Let’s face it. When you think of Christmas music, you think of Dan Fogelberg, right? Yeah, me either … until this year. Like many people, I love Christmas music. This year has been no exception. I’ve been listening to Christmas music pretty much non-stop since Thanksgiving, either from my own personal collection or on a local radio station.

That station played a song that got my attention, mostly because of its cheesiness. It was one of those songs that shouldn’t count as a Christmas song, but it mentions Christmas Eve and snow, and thus gets played. The lyrics made me laugh, as they talked about meeting an old acquaintence in the frozen food section of a grocery store. The second or third time I heard it, the DJ announced it was Dan Fogelberg’s, “Same Old Lang Syne.” More than once I’ve had the song stuck in my head, much to my dismay. The tune is fairly catchy.

The first thing I thought of when I heard Dan Fogelberg is a game my friends and I used to play in high school whenever we’d drive somewhere. We’d put the radio on scan, and you tried to be the first person to correctly identify the artist of a song when it came on. Invariably, if no one knew the true artist, someone would shout out Dan Fogelberg. I’m not really sure why we chose him. Perhaps because Rhythm of The Rain was somewhat popular back then, or perhaps because he had a funny name and no one would every really know if you were correct or not when declaring him the artist. Even if you did, you wouldn’t want to admit it.

In an effort to redeem myself (and this post) a bit, I will say “Oh Holy Night” and “Do You Hear What I Hear” are probably my two favorite Christmas songs right now. I’ll even go so far as to admit I like Josh Groban’s “Oh Holy Night” quite a bit. Not sure if Dan Fogelberg sings that one …