The weird al of celtic tunes...

I brought the instrumentalists of my band together today after church for another rehearsal. We met for three hours on Tuesday night but the acoustics in the practice hall were so dreadful that I had no idea what we were playing. OMG... it was like the Beatles at Shea freakin' Stadium - so much echo and other noise - all we could do is listen to ourselves and trust everyone else was doing the same. Impossible to even hear another's harmonies!

Today's practice, however, was much better - and lots more fun. I could hear the other guitar and bass so that we could work on texture and nuance. Thanks be to God for that, too, because we're taping a TV show on Tuesday. If you blow a live gig, it stinks but generally isn't preserved for the future. What's more, people around here WATCH these local music shows so I wanted us to give it the extra mile.

And as I was heading home it hit me that we've created a Weird Al's version of Celtic Music for this TV taping: not parodies of others songs - just totally strange tunes by Gaelic artists - or very different versions of some familiar songs. We'll begin with a collection of tunes that includes "Loch Lomond" and "Blackbird" in the spirit of Julie Fowlis before morphing into U2's "40."

After a John O'Donohue poem about blessings - Bennacht - it is on to our acoustic "Mysterious Ways," Nanci Griffith's "Hard Life" and Glen Hansard's lovely "Falling Softly." A beautiful new song was recently written by our other guitarist, Brian, about peace that will be a sweet debut - and we will follow that up with Belle and Sebastian's "We Rule the School," Jean Ritchie's "Now Is the Cool of the Day" and Chumbawumba's anti-war rant "Jacob's Ladder."

After another prose poem from the Iona Community, we'll do Gaelic Storm's tender "Mary's Eyes" and Luka Bloom's "Holy Ground" (about contentment and being a happy man in your own skin!) Then we'll bring it home with our acoustic rendering of U2's "Pride in the Name of Love."
The whole set is subdued and beautiful. One of our vocalists, another clergy person, Liz, brought us the Belle and Sebastian tune because of the line, "Do something pretty while you can don't be a fool: reading the Gospel to yourself is fine..."

This is a ministry of beauty and hope in a time of pain and fear. Sometimes we can't see or even grasp what truth and goodness might mean given the confusion and clutter - but beauty seems to cut through the bullshit and noise. So, while our Celtic set is not a bunch of drinking songs about the "troubles" or even those sweet fiddle reels and jigs that are so much fun, it is still an invitation to dance and trust that there is a love that is bigger than ourselves at work within and among us.

Once, when it was pouring rain in Edinburgh, Dianne and I ducked into a small, stone Anglican church off a side street. It turned out to be Old Saint Paul's Scottish Episcopal Church - the oldest Anglican church in Scotland - and home of the 12' painting "Still" by the Scottish artist, Alison Watt. It evokes the sadness of Christ's burial clothes but the beauty of God's love beyond the obvious, too. It was not created for the side chapel in this church, but when the artist visited it became clear that no other setting would work for this truly stunning visual meditation.

It was in this chapel that my understanding of the ministry of art, music and beauty came together as I read a dedication to "Still" which spoke of it in terms of the costly oil poured on Christ's feet - a total waste of resources - but also a healing and unique blessing that did something beautiful for the Lord. And so we go forth to create beauty - and share hope - for like our friends at Taize say: we seek to live like a parable of joy for our time.