Blog
Album Of The Day: Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs Of Bob Dylan by Various Artists
From 1979-1981, folk-rock and cultural icon Bob Dylan released three albums of "Christian" music, rock music with a Jesus-filled message. Released 23 years ago this past week, this is a special event album where a who's who of Black Gospel artists cover some of these Dylan songs in their own, truly Gospel style. Dottie Peoples covers probably his most well-known song from this era, "I Believe In You". I love The Fairfield Four's version of "Are You Ready" with the excellent harmonies and the Chicago Mass Choir's rousing choral version of "Pressing On". And Bob Dylan himself joins Mavis Staples at the end of the album for "Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking", including a bunch of silly banter. When I listen to Bob Dylan's recordings of these songs, they're just rock, but here, they are transformed into beautiful Gospel tunes thanks to these arrangements and the excellent performers who clearly love the source material. No matter if you've listened to Dylan's originals or not, you should listen to this album and be blessed.
Release Year: 2003
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: Requiem by Rachel Wilhelm
Released 5 years ago earlier this month, this is the second album by Rachel Wilhelm, a singer-songwriter and worship leader whose works, like this album, often focus on the Biblical idea of lament, the expression of grief on tough events in life. In this release, she draws upon long-held prayers and traditions of churches for hundreds of years in presenting this contemporary version of a Requiem mass, the prayers for the souls of those who have passed away. It's musically pretty slow and somber with mostly acoustic guitars and strings, and lyrically based in scripture and tradition. In this week before the celebration of Easter, it's a good opportunity to reflect on God's love and faithfulness throughout the dark times in our life. I was happy to help crowd-fund the release of this album.
Release Year: 2021
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Buy on Bandcamp
Album Of The Day: Now The News by Eli
In the late '90s, Christian music found that folk rock music was popular among young Christians with successful bands like Caedmon's Call. Released 25 years ago yesterday, this is the third album by Paul Falzone, who went by the one-name moniker Eli (often printed as "eLi"). He has a voice that sounds a lot like Cat Stevens and crafted folk-rock tunes about God, Jesus and even some social issues. There's a few silly interludes among the 10 songs and a very silly hidden track, but the music overall is honest, earnest music about life and Christianity. My favorite tracks are "Beggars", "Waves Of An Ocean" and "Do What You Said", plus "Better Day" gets a bit Gospel and is fun. This was his last album on a major Christian music label, though it seems he may have released more music independently in the following years. Eli was never one of my favorite artists and he never had a huge hit on this album, but it's still a fun album to listen to on occasion.
Release Year: 2001
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: The Noise We Make by Chris Tomlin
Released 25 years ago this month on a major Christian music label after an independent release the year before, this is the first major album from worship leader and now Christian pop/country artist Chris Tomlin. Surprising to me, I thought I knew this album, but I only bought it on CD a few years ago and have really only given it a listen once or twice before today, though I somehow had copies of songs like "The Wonderful Cross" and "This Is Our God" on my computer from somewhere and must be more familiar with the Michael W. Smith performance of "Forever". I do love the 7-minute rock/worship version of the hymn-plus-a-new-chorus of "The Wonderful Cross" featuring Matt Redman. And I'm familiar with live versions of many of the other songs from Passion live albums from the previous years. I was surprised to find in this most recent listen a song with country twang, "Captured", and a cover of the delirious? classic "The Happy Song" among the songs I've only recently heard. It's pretty country like the original though with some great rock drums, and fits well on this Texan worship leader's album. In this era, Tomlin was definitely a new artist trying to write new songs for churches to use for praise and worship, and I like his early work like this debut much more than his more recent work.
Release Year: 2000/2001
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: Business Up Front/Party In The Back by Family Force 5
Released 20 years ago today, this is the debut album from the band that called themselves "crunk rock", Family Force 5. This album is a fusion of rap, rock and dance music with southern American, red-neck vibes, and the band seems to be a party-loving band, though a few songs have a Christian message to them. It's a whirlwind of spoken word and screamed lyrics about partying and love over walls of guitars and electronica. Family Force 5 is not my favorite band by any means, but I do on occasion like their in-your-face, pump-me-up sounds. They were doing something pretty unique musically, and plus it was very catchy. It is probably still their best album to date, though I honestly didn't listen to their last few albums before the band disbanded in 2018. The band announced they will play a reunion show this summer on a date of the Vans Warped Tour.
Release Year: 2006
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: What A Time To Be Alive by The Lone Bellow
Released just over a month ago, this is the sixth album from this folk rock, alt-country band. Originally from New York City and now based out of Nashville, this band continues to keep their sound a bit different than your normal Nashville country through their rock and folk influences. This is an excellent collection of new songs, and I especially liked the rollickin' opening song, "After The Rain". "I Did It For Love" and a cover of "Islands In The Stream" also feature their excellent harmonies of this three-piece group. Some of their earlier albums were a bit sleepy in my opinion, and songs like "Say" on this album are the quieter songs, but I like these too. The album is all about friendship and love, and I'm glad to hear the band continues to make solid music.
Release Year: 2026
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Concert Film Of The Day: Burn The Fields by The Elms
Released 21 years ago today, this is the first concert DVD released by rock band The Elms and has been long out-of-print, though you can watch it on YouTube for free. After two records, The Elms were between record contracts and released this concert film independently, and it captures really well the unbridled energy and infectious rock 'n' roll spirit of this band. They play 9 of their songs previously released, 3 new songs, and a few covers. My favorite part is their epic, 7+ minute version of "Come To Me", and then goes into an excellent cover of "My Generation" by The Who complete with lots of guitar solos. The video of this film has a frenetic energy and tries to cover everything at once with the very fast cuts, and it captures well a bit of the crazy of brothers Owen Thomas, lead singer, and Chris Thomas, the drummer. In this show, too, they had someone playing keyboard with them, which brought a bit more to the sound. By modern day standards, the video quality is pretty terrible, but it was not easy back then to make a good, quality video and it adds to the indie vibe. The band sounds excellent, and it's fun to see The Elms captured for posterity in the middle of their career. This is one of my all-time favorite bands, and I've had the pleasure of being at their reunion concerts in both 2015 and 2025.
Release Year: 2005
Watch on YouTube
Album Of The Day: New Jerusalem by Kenny Meeks
Released 10 years ago this past Wednesday, this is the fourth album from Kenny Meeks, an independent folk/country/rock artist who has also appeared as a session musician on dozens of Nashville-based recordings. I would say his music is country/roots music with a bit of a rock and Gospel flair. With his deep voice and classic styling, Kenny sounds a bit like Johnny Cash at points. "Jesus Knows" brings a definite three minutes of Gospel music in its latter half of the song, but most of the rest of the album is Gospel-infused lyrics on classic Americana-style songs. His guitar playing is excellent, and he's one of those artists where I give them a listen and am reminded that I need to listen to their music more. I don't really care for country music on the radio much, but I do like Kenny's work here and on his other albums.
Release Year: 2016
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Buy on Bandcamp
Album Of The Day: Live From The Woods Vol. 2 by Needtobreathe
Recorded 5 years ago today (and the few days before as well), this is the third live album by southern rock band Needtobreathe, a band which has been mixing rock, country, and occasionally some religious messages for around 20 years now. This was recorded just as some parts of the USA were reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic, and was one of the first times the band got to perform the songs from their latest album at the time, Out Of Body, which is one of my favorite albums of theirs. They play a lot of the songs from that album, though they definitely include a bunch of other songs as well in this 93-minute live recording. Needtobreathe is one of those bands that I never really got their appeal until I saw them play live; their live show just has so much energy, so much showmanship, and they're all great musicians. They also throw in a bit of songs you've maybe heard before even if you're not a Needtobreathe fan; there's brief bits of songs by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones on a few songs on this album. On a few occasions, singer Bear Rinehart tells a bit of a story or makes a joke before the next song, and that makes you feel like they're in your living room performing for you. And they definitely do a bit extra jamming on these live versions too. I think it's really fun to hear this band perform live versions of their songs, and I'm glad they've released these live recordings.
Release Year: 2021
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Album Of The Day: 77 (Pt. 2) by Colony House
Released 1 month ago today, this is the second half of Colony House's fifth studio album, simply entitled 77. The rock band has been making great music and performing top-notch shows for about a dozen years or so, and though I'm not sure this is their best work, it's definitely not bad either. I expect I will warm up to it more on future listens. This 7-track release is maybe a bit more laid-back than some of their other releases, with more mid-tempo songs like "Right Or Wrong", "Taking A Fall" and "You're Right Where You're Meant To Be". "Life Goes On" and "Hummingbird" were the early singles here and are probably the most energetic of this release and maybe the best lyrics too. Most of their songs are love songs or songs about the struggles of daily life. I also like their focus on the power of love and the importance of relationships with people. On streaming, the album is released as two 7-track parts, but I have the CD of the whole 14-track, 49-minute album. I think I like listening to these songs more that way, but I'm just an album listening person, I guess. Part 1 is a bit more energetic, but Part 2 is a good back half of an album with slower, more introspective songs. Colony House is one of my favorite bands of the last decade and I hope they keep on making music for us for many years to come.
Release Year: 2026
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Buy the complete album on CD or vinyl