I added a new recording to the Downloads department. My Winter Meditation is a song that was  written quite a while ago and recorded almost two years ago. It didn't fit in with the TBR EP and I could never  see myself using it on any other album. I remixed and mastered it this morning so have a listen; this is me still learning to record.
JB

Okay....Sorry for the prolonged absence. Where to start?
  My lovely wife Shielagh had a life threatening allergic reaction a week ago. Suddenly she was covered in hives, had no real blood pressure, and was having trouble breathing. The fabulous paramedics got her stablize and to hospital in good time and she was alright but it was a good scare...Then she had a second, less severe reaction a few days later. I gave her  some epinephrine and that seemed to get it under control.
  The worst part of it is that no one seems to be able to tell us what exactly caused it so we're kind of living on pins and needles right now.
  Other things going on, I'm reading Brian McLaren's book A Generous Orthodoxy. This book, and Brian himself have met with quite a bit of resistance from the Evangelical talking heads, but I think I'll just let the book speak for itself before forming to ridged an opinion.
  I'm currently enjoying and album by (get this...) Willie Nelson and Winton Marsellis called Two MenWith the Blues. Preface:  I've never been able to get past Willie's voice...until now. What a great recording; it leans way to the jazzy side of the blues, think Chicago and not Mississippi, and is recorded live and put out on the  Bluenote lable. Great playing and great sound, I would never have guessed that Willie had it in him. Winton M. on the other hand is a confirmed great, and the band are soooo tight.
  Other than that, I wrote and recorded Blindman's Blues in a couple of days, DADGAD tuning and in a key that's just a tiny bit lower than I normally use so the vocals arn't to sweet. I finally feel like I got the acoustic guitars to sound like I want as well. I'm happy, and hoping to put out more recordings soon.  I'm playing in a chuch sevice on the 23rd so most of my time will go into getting ready for that.

Peace be upon you,

Today was the funeral, and the church was full. It was conducted with typical Baptist decorum, but because of the way Willie had lived his life, there were few tears. Instead we were repeatedly challenged to live up to the example of a man who never drove a car, never married, never own more than a few small things, never listened to gossip, was cautious to a fault to never take what didn't belong to him and to conduct even his smallest affairs whith integrity. He managed to avoid bitterness inspite of never becoming the violinist or minister that he dreamed of being.
A race not run in vain.

Last night my uncle Willie died; not entirely unexpected, but sad none the less. Willie Burchart was one of the most influencial people in my life, especially as an adult, when I was able to understand what he was all about.
 Life never seemed to be easy for Willie, he was permenetly disabled as a child, and I know he found his physical limitations frustrating. But in his mind and spirit he ran an inspired race, delving deeply into God's word, memorizing and seeking to understand, focusing on the prize he has now, finally attained. Like the the saints of old he lived unshamed of the Gospel, humbly going about the work God had set for him to do.
Blessings on your legacy, and welcome to your true life and your real home.

   Well, we're most of the way through September. Here in Chilliwack September is a rather unpredictable month. It can rain for days at a time, or be so hot that my kids want me to set up the pool for them. The dogs seem a lot happier (especially the Sheltie, Cooper) because the hot weather has passed and there are lots of new interesting smells around.
  I've been busy getting ready for the concert in Kelowna on Oct 18th. This time I'm recording all my rehearsals to really fine tune things, I've never really done it this way before. It's quite a bit different than recording songs in the studio, listening to them takes a bit of getting used to, but there is a charm to some of the rougher less refined versions.  I posted a nice version of 'A Mile or Two Behind' under downloads, and I'll continue to make more rehearsal versions available if people download them.
  Another thing I've been thinking about is how I would really like to be more involved in fund raising for church and humanitarian projects. I'm really hoping to be able to do some concerts for free or at cost coverage in the near future. It's such a good way of raising awareness of the needs around us, and many times, if it's wisely done the few hundred dollars raised can go a really long way. I'm hoping people will contact me with their needs and projects.
  I'm looking forward to October because it is without a doubt my favorite month. Cool weather, low clouds, cornstalks, turkey dinners. It's the best. Most years I read 'The Hobbit', 'The Voyage of the Dawntreader' and if possible, 'A Soldier of the Great War'.
A last thought; like an architect builds a physical space for a purpose, we can build a space, that is equally as real, in our lives, that is not our own. We can make room, build, decorate a space for God, where the humble disciplines of prayed and meditation that have served the faithful for millennia, that are now so often disparaged as legalism or blind empty ritual, are not arrogantly cast aside and replaced with the shallow empty noise of our times.

Peace be upon you.
James
 

 Oh so much has happened.
Yesterday, (Sept 13th) was the second First Nations Gathering that I was invited to. I should make it clear that I don’t have an Aboriginal bone in my body, so it’s kind of flattering to be invited to these things.
  As usual, I experienced so much in the few hours I was there that I’m still assimilating it all. One of the most profound thing I saw was the respectful treatment of the ‘Elders’. I’m not really sure the term or concept ‘Elder’ translates entirely well. It is more than just chronological age or an office, like an elder of a church; it seems to carry with it an acknowledgment of accumulated wisdom, guardianship, shepherd, grand parent, and clan leader all rolled into one. When an Elder speaks the room is silent and still until they are finished; no fidgeting, no whispering, no interruptions…all eyes are on the speaker for however long it takes.
  And then there is the whole issue of the food!! Apparently the idea is to bring too much food and then take home a mix and match of what’s still on the table for those who couldn’t attend. There was baked salmon from the Fraser River, bannock from Auntie’s kitchen, vegetables from someone’s garden, and home made jerky and smoked sausage. It made me so homesick for my growing up years in the Kootanays. As nearly as I’m able to tell, this kind of eating and fellowshipping together, that was so important years ago, has all but disappeared from the Evangelical Protestant Church of today. I have tried to understand why, but I really don’t.
  Songs were sung, and stories told, I sang ‘Beauty in the Badlands’ without processors, amps or even a mic. Scary. Two hours after it was supposed to end everyone reluctantly said goodbye.
  The other thing I’ve been up to is advanced fiddling with my Boss Loop Station. It’s a great compromise between the sparseness of just guitar and vocal, and the soulless world of drum machines and backing tracks. It’s a lot more organic, I’m using it create percussion loops. I’m a little rusty at the discipline of playing in strictly metered time, but it’s coming along. I’ll most likely try a song or two with this arrangement next time I play live (Oct18th? Kelowna).

Well take care for now; I’ll try to post some new recordings in the next few days.
James.

Last night was the Urban Promise concert in Vancouver. Of course it was pretty much the hottest night of the year, more about that later. We arrived and got set-up then met Daniel, the organizer. There wasn't much of a PA system, so we really had to improvise; I ran everything through my Yamaha Studio board so I could record it. I'll post some in some day or two.
  Adam and Sam were with me , so we had a little dinner in this tiny and very cool family run Greek diner called (of course) Athena.
  I started at 7:30 on the nose, it was a full house, and it was mostly teenagers...This actually scares me more than anything, it's a big age and cultural gap. I guess I have many of the same prejudices as a lot of people my age. Having said that, they were so kind and welcoming.
  I started off with Lost Within The Flame - and away we went. I'll be honest with you... I struggled with the acoustics and sound re-enforcement the whole time, sound was bouncing everywhere, and I just couldn't bring the tone out of my voice that I usually do. I listened to some of it back ths morning, and there are some flat vocals as well...Again, not my usual thing. Oh yeah, did I mention the heat??? I'm sure it was 90 degrees on stage.
  If this sounds like a long grumble it's not. What was missing in audio support was so present in audience suport. They cheered, smiled, and clapped along with Turning. I also played Three Days Out of Reno, for the first time live and it went pretty well!!
  All told , a splendid time was had. Thanks especially to Daniel Sui for pulling this event together, and raising all that money for a worthy cause.
Shalom, James.
 

From The Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple - Written in 1994, what a cool book, it's actually a travelogue. He follows in the footsteps of one John Moschos, a 6th century monk who set out collecting the wisdom of the desert fathers from Turkey, through the cradled, and down into Egypt. Fascinating stuff. I had no idea of the diversity of practice and belief of the first centuries of Christianity. Some of it is just plain strange, and some is very familiar. I suspect many of you might be like me, seeing church history as Antioch - Nicaea - Great schism - Reformation - Pietism. This book gives a whole other view of where modern Christianity came from and the possibilities. Many of us in the West think in terms of being either Catholic or Protestant and I'm really beginning to see that these strict definitions are not as relevant as they were at the time of the reformation. For example the many Aboriginal Christians that I know wish to define their beliefs much more by their own culture than what happened in Europe 500 yrs. ago. They really see no reason to look at their beliefs in those terms.

So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore? by Jake Colson. A bit of a lightweight, but this book speaks many of the thoughts and frustrations of modern Western Protestants. As our culture becomes more superficial so does much of our collective religious experience. "Fellowship" is confined to 10 min. of chit chat and coffee between services and "worship" the weekly repetition of choruses. What to do, What to do?
It's a common enough complaint, and I've had to give it a lot of thought because my children are clearly bored with church and have at times mistaken the Christian life as a kind of obligatory theology school.
Don't get me wrong, I 1) don't blame the clergy, who in my churches case are all stand-up guys and 2) don't plan to quit attending church, I'm just shifting much of the focus from the Sunday morning thing to the home. Thinking about how we live together, how we work together, how we eat together, how do we pray, how do we meditate?
For me personally, my experience with God considerably broader and more interesting that what goes on on Sunday mornings.

Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier. The same guy who brought us ‘Cold Mountain’ This novel deals with a white man living among “The Indians” when the US government moved them west onto the plains after the Civil War. I put “The Indians” in quotation marks, because Frazier eloquently explores the question of how we define race, culture, marriage, and individuality. Stripping away the easy answers he leads us through a man’s life – in similar fashion to Mark Helprin – and the various roles he plays during his times. And how difficult it is to know more than a few individuals during this life and even then they will surprise you.
Thinking that you can define entire groups by skin colour, race, gender, religion or cultures is not really very practical, because of the millions of unpredictable things that individuals within any group will do…..Adopt, intermarry, lie, convert, act in desperation, mistranslate….you name it. Good book.

Anyway, I'd love to hear back from others with any thoughts. Pax Christos. James