Posts filed under ‘music’
August 26th, 2010 | Comments
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©2010 Words & Music by Cameron Gray
Entry Filed under: Blog,cameron gray Tags: cameron gray, music, songs
July 14th, 2010 | 1 comment
film by andrew rodaniche
Entry Filed under: Blog Tags: album, cameron gray, music
April 16th, 2010 | Comments
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Just Like You Are
©2007 Words & Music by Cameron Gray
I am missing your smile babe
Your smile is far away
Call you up on the telephone
Just to say
Don’t forget that I love your smile
Like honey to the bee
That’s just like you are to me.
I am missing your voice babe
Your voice is far away
Call you up on the telephone
Just to say
Don’t forget that I love your voice
Like sugar to my tea
That’s just like you are to me.
I am missing your moves babe
Your moves are far away
Call you up on the telephone
Just to say
Don’t forget that I love your moves
A precious commodity
That’s just like you are—
Don’t go so far away
Don’t go so far away
I am missing your love babe
Your love is far away
Call you up on the telephone
Just to say
Don’t forget that I love your love
Like water to the sea
That’s just like you are
That’s just like you are
That’s just like you are to me.
Written and recorded for Mellie, Dec 07. Hooray for Mellie!
Entry Filed under: cameron gray Tags: cameron gray, mellie, music, songs
April 16th, 2010 | Comments
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Old Fashioned Lullabye
©2007 Words & Music by Cameron Gray
Slow summer nights and old fashioned lullabyes
Underneath a blue, blue moon,
Voices in union, a sweet perfume,
Holdin on like a juniper root,
Feelin fine, just to know you’re mine.
Standing shoulder to shoulder, arm-in-arm to uphold
The strength of our love—just you and me up against the world.
Looking forward to getting older,
The warmth we share won’t never, never, never grow colder,
I’m gonna love you til the day I die.
So bring on those days of slow change, those years of age,
I’m falling for you like a fool, like when my youth was young,
Let’s make a melody of you and I,
Making love in sweet slow time,
Like an old fashioned lullabye.
I went dreaming last night, of a lullabye,
Dreaming…
Dreaming last night, of a lullabye,
You were there, just dreaming by my side,
And we went dreaming all through the night.
Dreaming of those days of slow change, those years of age,
I’m falling for you like a fool, like when my youth was young,
Let’s make a melody of you and I,
Making love in sweet slow time,
Like an old fashioned lullabye.
Time gonna change us, take liberties outrageous,
Make mockery of vanity and pride,
Oh but love lingers on,
Young and strong.
So bring on those days of slow change, those years of age,
And someday, baby when all our youth is gone
We can look back upon the melody of you and I
Making love to last all our lives,
Like an old fashioned lullabye.
Written and recorded for Mellie, Dec 07. Hooray for Mellie!
Entry Filed under: cameron gray Tags: cameron gray, mellie, music, songs
April 16th, 2010 | Comments
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Way Back Home
©2007 Words & Music by Cameron Gray
I’ve seen the stars in your eyes
We’ve slept out under a sky-blue sky
We’ve heard the sound of angels all around
And we know the way back home.
We’ve drunk a taste of the sea
We’ve painted purple mountain majesty
I’ve whistled a tune with you beneath the moon
And we know the way back home.
Oh, ain’t it hard
Learning how live with love
Is bound to break your heart
Don’t be afraid
Don’t give up, don’t give in
Don’t be ashamed
Let’s bring a little bit of heaven to this side of Revelation
I’ve seen the stars in your eyes
That steady constellation has been my guide
And with you by my side, I know that I know
We know the way back
We know the way back
We know the way back home
Written and recorded for Mellie, Dec 07. Hooray for Mellie!
Entry Filed under: cameron gray Tags: cameron gray, mellie, music, songs
April 7th, 2010 | Comments
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Awaken The Dawn
Words & Music by Cameron Gray. ©2010 Rough Harbor Music.
Day is breaking,
My heart awakened to you,
Awakened to you.
You are worthy,
All of your mercies are new,
Mercies are new.
The world is turning,
My spirit yearning for you.
And this darkness, only for a time.
I can see forever, breaking through the sky
With a song
I will awaken the dawn,
I will awaken the dawn,
For you have made me your own,
I will awaken the dawn,
I will awaken the dawn.
Helpless, hopeless,
Blinded and broken was I,
Broken was I.
Your love sought me,
With your blood you bought me and I
Owe you my life.
With eyes wide open
All of my hope is alive.
Singing Alleluia
I will awaken,
I will awaken,
I will awaken the dawn.
Entry Filed under: Rough Harbor,harbor music team Tags: cameron gray, harbor music team, music, rough harbor music, worship music
March 24th, 2010 | Comments
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Crown Him With Many Crowns
Words: Matthew Bridges, 1852. Chorus & Music by Cameron Gray.
©2010 Rough Harbor Music
Crown Him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon His throne.
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns
All music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing
Of Him Who died for thee,
And hail Him as they matchless King
Through all eternity.
CHORUS:
Crown Him! Lift up your voice
Crown Him! Ye saints rejoice
Crown Him! With songs of joy
Crown Him with many crowns
Crown Him the Lord of life,
Who triumphed o’er the grave,
And rose victorious in the strife
For those He came to save.
His glories now we sing,
Who died and rose on high,
Who died eternal life to bring,
And lives that death may die.
(Chorus)
Crown Him the Lord of love,
Behold His hands and side;
Those wounds yet visible above,
In beauty glorified.
All hail, Redeemer, hail!
For Thou has died for me;
Thy praise and glory shall not fail
Throughout eternity.
(Chorus)
Entry Filed under: Rough Harbor,harbor music team Tags: cameron gray, hymn revision, music, rough harbor music, worship music
March 11th, 2010 | Comments
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Another Miracle
Words & Music by Cameron Gray
© 2010 Rough Harbor Music
Learning to wear my woes
Sharp dressed in heart shaped clothes
Getting harder to muster
The energy I need to be disgusted
I know, I know.
Maybe we don’t need another miracle
Maybe we don’t need another miracle
Maybe we don’t need another miracle
Learning to weigh my words
Dove shaped dissident birds
Wonder what’s worth keeping
Crumb collecting while the the sun is sinking
I know, I know.
Maybe we don’t need another miracle
Maybe we don’t need another miracle
Maybe we don’t need another miracle
When I want you, you don’t want me
When I see you, you don’t see me
When we find ourselves lost at sea
If I rescue you, would you rescue me?
Maybe we don’t need another miracle
Maybe we don’t need another miracle
Maybe we don’t need another miracle
Entry Filed under: cameron gray Tags: cameron gray, music, songs
March 3rd, 2010 | Comments
I am continually amazed at how rich a tradition we have in the hymns of past song writers. Brian T Murphy over at Red Mountain Church in Birmingham pretty much exactly expresses my thoughts on the value of hymns in worship. Since becoming the music director at my church almost 6 years ago, I’ve been a big fan of hymns and re-introducing hymn texts through new music. And yes, I have been guilty on more than one occasion of grumbling about the lameness of more contemporary worship songwriters.
That being said, I really enjoyed Steve Holmes resetting my perspective by pointing out some really, really horrendous (and hilarious) hymns from some of my favorite hymn writers. Fact: The great Charles Wesley wrote over 6000 hymns, only about 20 of which we use today. Conclusion: 5960 of his songs suuuhhuck. Bravo, Steve. Bravo.
Oh, and by the way, “hymns are the dead wood of the service.” Who said that? C.S. Freaking Lewis, that’s who. Ouch.
As a bonus I include this link to the most awesomest worst hymn ever written.
February 17th, 2010 | 1 comment
I think leaders for music worship have two roles that can often be in tension with one another. I’m calling the roles “worship leader” and “lead worshiper”, and I’ve written down some half-baked ideas about them. I’m sure others have already thought this through with much more wisdom and clarity.
My pastor Dick Kaufmann was the first person I heard use the term “lead worshiper”. I like the concept. The “lead worshiper” leads by example, showing people what worship looks like by actually worshiping. It brings to mind images of David going all Soul Train in his loin cloth before the Lord and not giving a rip about what anyone thought—his personal commitment to worshiping God an implicit invitation for others to join in. David was a great example of a lead worshiper in other ways, too—from ecstatic freak-outs, to forthright confession and repentance, to bold and reasoned proclamations of faith, to quavering pleas to a seemingly distant God. David led worship from honest personal experience, and I think we should too.
As a lead worshiper, David’s personal experience with God led him to create new expressions of worship. His Psalm 40 testimony that the Lord “put a new song in my mouth” suggests that God’s continuing work in our lives calls for our continuing response. We don’t thank a kind person once-and-for-all; we continue to thank him each time we receive his kindness. David was captivated by God and created dozens of original works of song and poetry in His honor. God’s new goodnesses engender new creative overflows in us. Since God’s mercies are inexhaustible, our source material for new expressions of worship is equally inexhaustible.
In this sense, new is good. Familiarity can breed contempt. Or at least when something becomes rote and expected it fails to captivate our hearts in the way it did when it was new. A true statement becomes cliché through repetition, and the truth gets obscured by the cliché. To me, this is reason enough to be cliché-o-clast, a cliché smasher. As worshipers, we should be on the lookout for the ways familiarity has dulled us to the incisive truths of the gospel. Where we discover dullness, we should set about finding fresh ways to rediscover the truth and craft new heartfelt responses to it. New songs should be written (or learned). New forms explored. Old songs should be reworked so their wonders shine bright again. I am not at all saying that old things should be done away with, but that the canon of God’s praise should be forever expanding. Not just on a cosmic level but on a local level, too. The congregation should be challenged to learn new songs, different songs. A lead worshiper leads by continually proclaiming God’s glory in new ways because he/she is continually experiencing God’s goodness in new ways. One of the awesomenesses of Pentecost was that God reversed the curse of Babel not by reinstating a single language, but by redeeming the variety. We have a God who pushes out into the frontiers. A lead worshiper gets to be part of that Pentecostal un-Babeling, leading the congregation to proclaim the gospel in new tongues. Because of this, I think a lead worshiper is right to lead in ways that are new, exploratory and challenging to the prevailing culture.
On the other hand, a worship leader (not a lead worshiper) has the responsibility to lead people in ways they can follow, in ways that enable them to participate. In this sense, the old—the familiar, the known—is good. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit moved the disciples to speak not in incomprehensible syllables, but in the languages intimately familiar to the people present. In the Psalms, Israel’s hymnbook, we find evidence that corporate worship should be orderly and the participants should know their parts. In contrast, if each week the worship leader strips to his underwear to sweatily dance unto the Lord, leaving me baffled and uncomfortable in the pew, I won’t attend that church for very long. No matter how earnest the leader, I need to be led somewhere I can follow.
This makes me think that old worn paths are sometimes the best. They are the way of measured, practiced, expected steps which if earnestly followed will lead us into a dance of worship. In a dance we learn the steps in order to forget them. Once familiar, the steps free us to dance as David danced—sweeping us up into all the variety of his earnest worship. Order, liturgy, and familiarity are means of grace, used by a wonderfully kind God who is willing to gently woo a bunch of shy wallflowers. He incorporates our hesitating need for familiar steps into His unexpected and graceful movements.
I strongly suspect my work as a worship leader is nothing mystical. I’m just a musician providing melody and tempo so the real work of worship can be conducted by the Dance Master. I see evidence of it every week. At any given moment during Sunday’s worship music there is a very good chance that I am not the “lead worshiper” in the room. I am likely to be totally distracted by a cataract of unworshippy thoughts—”Am I going to hit this next chord?” “I’m irritated that half the band was late today” “Should we get an EQ and compressor for the monitors?” Or even, “Gosh my voice sounds great today!” Or, “Cool! I wrote this song and now everyone is singing it!” Ugh. In those moments I am a terrible lead worshiper. But here’s the thing. In those moments I look out at the congregation and see people worshiping. In spite of me, they have met God and He has swept them up into His dance. This constantly blows my mind, how God takes my moldy loaf and rotten little fish and turns them into a banquet.
God works in spite of me. From this I can glean two things. First, although it is very possible (and lamentable) that I am a poor lead worshiper, by the grace of God I’m doing okay as a worship leader. Simply by providing quality music for the dance that is going on, I am helping God’s people participate in worship. Praise God for that. Second, if the main point is to help the congregation dance, it’s okay to play the music that the congregation dances to best. A worship leader does everyone a disservice (including God) if in his eagerness to smash clichés he has no awareness of what will actually help the congregation worship. All evils of “church consumerism” aside, a worshiper’s expectations, her culture, even her preference for certain songs and instrumentation, are the dance steps with which she responds to God’s call to worship. A worship leader should respect that.
So where does this leave me? I feel like I’m triangulating between two stars. As a leader in worship music, I think I should be continually creative, challenging myself and others to craft, seek out and embrace new ways to reflect and respond to God’s goodness. This is scary. I am also persuaded that I should be content to play the same old song for the millionth time if it helps one clumsy soul (maybe my own) get on the dance floor. In its own way this is also scary. Knowing how much to do one and how much to do the other is difficult. I need wisdom and discernment to be both a lead worshiper and a worship leader.
