Released on this day 21 years ago, some of the biggest artists in Christian music at the time honored Irish rock band U2, who was at the top of the world back then. In The Name Of Love: Artist United For Africa gave proceeds to Bono's charity and 13 artists got to cover a U2 song. It's a wide variety of artists featured, from pop/contemporary artists like Nichole Nordeman and Todd Agnew to rock bands like Pillar and Sanctus Real. My favorites are Sixpence None The Richer doing "Love Is Blindness" and Jars of Clay covering "All I Want Is You" because they're less the same as the U2 original and more of their own style. Sorry, but I don't really like that they tried to get some hip-hop/rap from TobyMac and GRiTS on here because it doesn't really work, but I guess that's the nature of a label-made compilation—trying to get a wide variety of label talent involved. It's not as good as most U2 albums, but if you're a fan of these artists, it's kinda a fun listen.

Release Year: 2004
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Usually the blues is a full band thing: guitar and/or keyboards, bass and drums, vocals, etc. But The Black Keys stripped the blues to its core with just electric guitar and drums, and in the end they made their own, new brand of rock. They recorded this album Rubber Factory in a no-longer-used tire factory in their hometown of Akron, Ohio, USA. Most of the songs are new songs this two-piece band wrote, though a few are covers of older blues songs. I love these great guitar sounds that guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach gets out of his guitar setup and Patrick Carney's drums are solid too. This was my first exposure to The Black Keys back about 20 years ago, and since then I've been enjoying their brand of modern blues/rock, although most of their recent albums have failed to impress me as much as this and other early albums.

Release Year: 2004
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Released this week 34 years ago, this is one of the coolest early '90s rock bands you have probably never heard of. Lead vocalist Steve Taylor and his bandmates had been performing for 10-15 years in other bands and then formed a rock band with a very weird, artsy name: Chagall Guevara. The guitars, bass and drums are on point and Taylor provides somewhat raspy vocals struggling to be heard above the band. Like the band's name, the lyrics on the album are a bit of a puzzle, containing some spiritual language but not at all getting preachy, and at least a hint of sarcastic wit that was also present on Steve Taylor's solo albums. This album is an engaging listen all these years later, even though the band never gained notoriety or radio airplay for this album back in the day. The band split up not long after this release, though they did reunite a few years ago for a few shows, to release a live album as well as an album of rarities and new tracks.

Release Year: 1991
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"Love over hate / I'm here for that" is a lyric from "Here". On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I think it's a good idea to listen to what our black brothers and sisters have to say on life, Christianity and America. I've got a lot to learn in these areas and I like this album from Sho Baraka as the artist shares his views through engaging hip-hop. In "Maybe Both", Baraka and crew talk about America's and Christianity's shortcomings with lyrics like, "Are they killing with a pistol or a vote? / Or, maybe, it is both?" as well as "So, are there two Christs totally unrelated / Or, maybe there's one Christ, and he's pretty complicated / Huh? Pretty complicated / Or, maybe it is both?" Beautiful instrumentation is beneath the fast-paced rap that encourages us to love our neighbor and be aware of our differences while embracing our similarities. I've gotta check out more of Sho Baraka's music as I'm really only familiar with this album, which I like a lot.

Release Year: 2016
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