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April 2018

April 04, 2018

Bach and His Bible

Is Bach Lutheran? The question is like, "Is the Pope Catholic?" OK, there may now...

March 2018

March 08, 2018

Luther’s Musical Innovations

Christianity Today's online Christian History feature has a special section on Martin Luther this month. It...

February 2018

February 01, 2018

Hypocrisy at the Grammys

The Grammy Awards last Sunday, the music industry's award show, featured the by-now familiar litany...

December 2017

December 22, 2017

“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” “Do They Know What Christmas Is?”

Back in 1984, British musician Bob Geldof put together "Band Aid," a "super-group" of pop...

December 21, 2017

Luther on Music, Art, & Aesthetic Pleasure

In my previous posts on Mark Mattes’s new book Martin Luther’s Theology of Beauty, we first...

December 18, 2017

Comfort, Comfort My People

One of the greatest texts for Advent is Isaiah 40. It reminds us that Advent is...

December 11, 2017

“Your Thirst for My Salvation”

We often think of God as an abstract idea, as an impersonal force, or as...

November 2017

November 22, 2017

Luther’s Theology of Beauty

During this Reformation quincentenary anniversary, Martin Luther has been credited and blamed for all...

November 10, 2017

God Has Already Repaid You

Thanks to Pastor Ned Moerbe, who cited this quotation from Paul Gerhardt by way...

August 2017

August 31, 2017

The Oldest Known Melody–from Assyria, 1400 B.C.

Scholars translating clay cuneiform tablets from ancient Assyria have discovered musical notations. Musician Michael Levy...

August 10, 2017

Glen Campbell–guitarist, singer, & Christian convert–died

You don't have to have grown up with the music of the 1960's, as I...

July 2017

July 21, 2017

From love songs to sex songs

Popular music used to favor love songs. In popular music today, the theme of romantic...

July 10, 2017

“Make America Great Again”: The Hymn

For the background of this song, see this: Church Choir Debuts 'Make America Great Again'...

June 2017

June 09, 2017

Is Contemporary Christian Music Dead?

Contemporary Christian music used to sell some 50 million albums per year. Lately, it's been...

June 06, 2017

Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize lecture

Bob Dylan finally delivered his lecture for the Nobel Prize for Literature, submitting a 26-minute...

April 2017

April 04, 2017

Bob Dylan archive opens for researchers

In more Dylan news, the Bob Dylan Archive here in Oklahoma is now open for researchers. It...

March 2017

March 31, 2017

Dylan will pick up his Nobel Prize this weekend

Bob Dylan, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, shocked the Swedish Academy by...

March 24, 2017

A new Bob Dylan interview

Bob Dylan has a new album coming out at the end of the month: Triplicate....

March 20, 2017

Hail! Hail! Chuck Berry

The pioneering rock 'n' roll guitarist and songwriter Chuck Berry died. He was 90 years...

March 09, 2017

A religious revival in music?

Major rappers like Grammy-winner Chance the Rapper and Kendrick Lamar are now rhyming about Jesus. So...

March 03, 2017

Trumpism as the new punk rock

A young former-buttoned-down conservative at CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference) said that he has...

January 2017

January 05, 2017

Grappling with Bach’s theology

Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker has written a fascinating piece on Bach's theology....

December 2016

December 21, 2016

Theological music for Christmas

Ken Myers has written a wonderful post on Christmas music, emphasizing particularly how it is sung...

November 2016

November 14, 2016

Leon Russell dies

Another icon of my youth, Leon Russell, passed away at age 74. A piano player...

October 2016

October 29, 2016

Bob Dylan was just “speechless”

What was Bob Dylan's reaction to the news that he had won the Nobel Prize...

October 13, 2016

Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize

Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize. The Peace Prize for "Blowin' in the Wind"...

August 2016

August 22, 2016

A meditation on Elvis

Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977. In honor of that anniversary, Sarah Condon at...

June 2016

June 28, 2016

“O, Death”: Ralph Stanley dies

From Geoffrey Himes, Ralph Stanley was one of our last links to an old...

June 24, 2016

Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” compared with Spirit’s “Taurus”

A lawsuit claimed that the opening riff to Led Zeppelin's iconic "Stairway to Heaven" was...

June 22, 2016

Bob Dylan’s new album

Bob Dylan has released a new album, Fallen Angels. (If you have Amazon Prime,...