Friday, March 27, 2015

#76 O PRAISE HIM - David Crowder Band

 

Hey everyone, welcome to this week's installment of the 100 best worship songs of all time. Today we will be visiting with an old friend, hearing more great music, and you will all get to hear me admit that I was wrong. Ok, maybe not wrong, but recent developments have me re-thinking some earlier comments I may or may not have made (you can't prove a thing).

You see, this all stems from my earlier comments when I said that I didn't exactly 'get' why everyone was so in love with this week's feature artist, David Crowder. My feeling, at the time, was that David Crowder was pretty good, but I just didn't think he was 'all that and a bag of chips', as all the hip kids are saying nowadays. And believe me, if anyone knows what's hip and cool and, dare I say, "groovy" nowadays it's your truly.(1)

(1) Seriously, no one is more up on what is culturally relevant these days than me. Heck, just the other day I saw a group of youths at the mall, and to show them that I was hip and 'with it', I went up to them and said, "Wazzzzzup!'. They all laughed hysterically. I then asked them if they might be headed down to the malt shop because I heard that there was some great new Soundgarden songs on the jukebox. Again, they laughed out loud. And just now as I type this it occurs to me that maybe they were laughing at me, not with me. Stupid kids.

The last time I did a Crowder song, here: Here Is My King, I may have inadvertently called into question my qualifications as the internet's #1 authority on worship music(2) by suggesting that while Crowder has plenty of good songs, his albums overall come off a little flat. As you can imagine, it's difficult to claim to be the internet's #1 authority on worship music(2) and not absolutely LOVE David Crowder. It's like saying you're the world's biggest New Edition fan, but you're not a big fan of Robbie, Bobby, or Mike (see, it's that kind of cultural relevance that makes me such a big hit with the teens)

(2) I should be worried that my status as the internet's #1 authority on worship music is called into question, but since that status was given to me almost entirely by myself, I feel like I can let it slide.

But a funny thing has happened since I wrote my first post on Crowder all those decades ago. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Pandora and iTunes radio to find some new music. I usually adjust the settings so that I don't hear the usual popular stuff, but rather they play the newer, less well-know stuff. And wouldn't you know it just lately I've been hearing a lot of stuff from Crowder's new Neon Steeple CD and I really, really like it.

Hopefully, this isn't just 2-3 good songs and a bunch of filler - We'll see
Who knows - maybe David Crowder needed to free himself from the shackles of the band to let his creativity grow, much like the great Belinda Carlisle.(3) The songs I Am and Come As You Are are instant classics, and I really like Lift Your Head Weary Sinner and his cool version of Ain't No Grave. The point - it's possible that I may have been a little hard on David Crowder and maybe everyone else is right, and he is a worship music genius. We'll see, I guess.

(3) Belinda Carlisle was the lead singer for one of the greatest groups ever, The Go-Go's. After a bunch of hits with the Go-Go's, Belinda Carlisle shed her punk look and geek glasses, picked up a rabid cocaine addiction, lost about 25 pounds, and went on to a solo career as a sexy songstress. The fact that I have tons of Go-Go's/Belinda Carlisle songs on my iPod says more about me than it does about the quality of the music.

So, if I owned a time machine would I travel to the past and maybe redo my first post on the David Crowder Band? Heck no. I mean, if I had a time machine, I'd probably travel to the past and try to make out with Marty McFly's mom. Seems like she was makin' out with just about everyone in the 1950s. Hey, and that brings up another important point, which also dovetails with my eternal quest to break the internet record for number of words and paragraphs written before ever getting to the dang song I'm supposed to be talking about. So, here:


Did you know that the actual 'Future Day' is coming up in a few months? For those who've never seen Back To The Future, 'Future Day' is the day that Marty McFly traveled to in the future where he saw all the neat gadgets like hoverboards, etc. I just now I realized that I will still be doing my blog on 'future day', and I vow to do a comprehensive 16-post summary on all that they got wrong with the time-travel paradoxes in the movie. Eh, maybe when the time comes I won't actually do that. I mean, I was planning on doing a real cool elaborate April Fool's Day prank post, but that's likely not gonna happen either. 

HEY, BUDDY, WHAT ABOUT THE SONG?

Yea, I know. I feel like I need to keep explaining my 'style' since I am now constantly getting new visitors (yea!), and often times the most recent post is the first thing they read. You see, I decided early on that there was no way that I could fill up an entire blog post talking about just one song, so I just sort of ramble and meander along each post until I get to it. You know, like I'm doing right now. Hey, let me share with you the cute thing my cat did this week... No, focus Andy, focus - let's get to the song.

Song #76 on the countdown is O Praise Him by the aforementioned David Crowder Band, and it's off their 3rd CD, Illuminate. Like many other Crowder offerings, Illuminate has a few really, really good songs, and uh, a bunch of other stuff. O Praise Him also has the distinction of being one of the very few songs on this top 100 list that I never used while I was leading worship.

I remember listening to Illuminate all the time, but the only song that I ever used for worship time was another great song off the CD, Only You. I'm not going to put that song here, but if you're not familiar with Only You, you should look it up. Beautiful, wonderful song. I used it all the time for our quiet reflection time. Awesome song.

But now that I look back, I have to wonder why I never used O Praise Him while leading worship with the kids, It's a perfectly wonderful song, and it seems like it would be PERFECT to use during worship. It's quite possible that when I was a youth pastor I was always so constantly chasing what was new and trendy, that I missed some perfectly great songs for worship that I already had.

Anyway, here's the song O Praise Him by the David Crowder Band, which can best be described as what the word 'Joy' would be if it were a 6 minute sonic experience. 





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