Old made new again

I have been getting into the old hymns again. I love music, it sets my mood. I especially love the get up and go type. I listen to a lot of Third Day and MercyMe and the newer Praise and Worship stuff by Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and David Crowder. I gravitate toward the stuff with a good beat and fast lyrics. I have commented more than once to my Church Music director that we need to do more of that stuff, to which she replies that we can certainly try.

We have a small worship band: piano, drums, and a bass (If I'm not playing drums that day) so it can be difficult adapting some of these songs to our group. (Have you ever read any of Third Day's sheet music?).

Lately though i have been looking towards some of the older hymns in a slightly different way. It started when I attended the Christian Musician Summit here in Washington. I got to attend a class held by Scott Wesley Brown and Billy Smiley (of the band WhiteHeart). They got together with 13 other worship leaders (see bottom of this page) to evaluate some of the older hymns and see what it took to bring those songs into modern or blended worship services. Sometimes they had words and no music, so they wrote new music, sometimes they just added a chorus built from one of the later verses and sometimes it just took composing other instruments to go with the piano music that was already there. What I remember hearing was that they were thinking of hooking into this music distribution system built by a fruity computer manufacturer. They would distribute the songs with some of the pieces missing: no lyrics or guitar so you could play along on your gut air to the rest of the accompaniment. A cool idea, and some of the hymns were just beautiful. More info at www.worshiphyms.com.

Then I got a copy of Bart Millard's new CD. You might remember Bart singing (and writing) the song I Can Only Imagine. Anyway, Bart's rendition of Power In the Blood is just cool, a slight swing beat to an old favorite.

As much as I like the newer music, there is something about the old lyrics. It's not sacrilege to add a modern beat to songs like Amazing Grace, but it's a way to bring those words into my life today. Maybe more people will just bop down the street humming or singing Pass Me Not, O' Gentle Saviour and the tune will catch on.