Home from India

I am back home from an amazing songwriting adventure in Mumbai, India. Can’t wait to share songs and stories with you. The One Most High God is drawing people to Himself everywhere I go. It may be months or years before i even understand what God is doing among 1.5 billion Indians but it was easy to see the way God was active with Arif, Samir, Satala, Danielkahn, Jai, and a hundred others.

Before the stories begin I will sleep much and write disgruntled letters to Suntrust, AT&T, and Continental. In the meantime you can see images, videos, and stories at mreport.org.

Camp Week 1

Chasen, David and I had a great start to the summer in North Carolina. We are working with a giant staff of creative and faith-filled leaders and it’s been fun to pretend we’re a part of their team this week. The camp pastor was RYAN FONTENOT and we really loved hanging out with this guy. A powerful communicator.

I will be here at Ridgecrest a total of 5 weeks over the summer so I’ve gotten to know the local coffee shop, The Dripolator quite well. Organic, fair-trade, and every cup is a work of art. A great place to listen, reflect, refresh.

We actually received copies of the new record this week. It’s fun to actually have it in my hand. It has showed up early on iTunes as well. CLICK HERE to open iTunes and find the record. No big New Release fanfare but if you dig the new record, leave a comment to let others know what songs they should buy. We’ll have copies of the record on the road with us all summer and a proper release will come later. *NOTE* If you buy a physical copy of the new record you actually get 2 records and some other bonus features too. Inside the packaging is a promo code to download the worship record “Make It Loud” from my site as well as other random bonus features (for example a weird remix is posting before the end of July).

Folks were asking this week for some of the songs we’re using in worship and so I put together an iMix in iTunes with most of them. Some of the songs (ie “Open hands”) are too new to be on there but most are HERE: James Tealy’s Worship iMix 09
. We’ll keep live streaming worship whenever and wherever we can so check back here often to join us over the summer.

See ya along the road,
James

New Tunes

I just added some new songs to THE MYSPACE PAGE. This record is WAY more pop than I’ve done in the past. I’m extremely proud of it but nervous too. I kept it cheap and did most the production, engineering and mixing myself. That leaves me feeling a bit self-conscious about “The Hardest Step to Land.” There’s no one to blame but me! The lyrics on this record are really important to me and I’m stoked to share them with you.

“Known” is a challenge to the way we posture and pretend. It’s a call to shine some light on “all the hurt and shame you carry, all the tears and pain you’ve buried, every broken dream and every doubt.”

“Hands” is a response to some quotes that stunned me. Oswald J Smith said “We talk of the Second Coming; half the world hasn’t heard of the first.” Currently more than 56% of the world’s population has little or no access to the story of Jesus. Crazy! Jim Elliot said “He is no fool who gives up what he can not keep to gain that which he can not lose.” Love is the language the whole world speaks!

“Teach Me How to Pray” is one of my favorites on the new record. As a professional wordsmith, I am so often left wordless when I pray. I think I’m learning how to listen.

“To The Nations” is a rich worship tune I’ve been using for the last few years. My friends, the Espy brothers gave birth to this simple gem a few years back and it remains my anthem. “Send us to the nations, to the broken. Lead us to surrender. We will go.”

So I may rotate out the songs as I get a clearer sense of what you want to hear but I at least have started with a few of my favorites. I’m still aiming to have product at shows by June 2nd. That seems less and less likely with each passing day but I’m still trying! HERE’S THE LINK AGAIN.Enjoy the new tunes and spread the word.

HANDS Video Shoot

Monday night was a long exhausting night and some of the most fun I’ve ever had. Some friends with cinematographic skillz decided we should shoot a video for one of the songs on the new record. The generous folks at THE STANDARD let us use one of their sweet old buildings to rock star up a bit. So David, Jacob, Toby and I strapped on some rawkstah clothes and played through the song 20 times while videographers Sarin and Andy found the right angles, the right balance of shadow and light.

I’m sure it will be a while before the video shows up on a youtube page near you, but in the meantime I thought you guys might get a kick out seeing some pix from the shoot. I wrote the song this past year with Aaron Blanton and Nate Sousa. It’s a call to get off our lazy butts and get to work practicing resurrection around us. “We are the hands, we are the feet, we are the face of love for the least of these.” It’s Easter, hope you are finding some meaningful way to remember God’s gift of bringing life out of death. I, of course, am all for bunnies and peeps but there must be something more.

4 stops 3 airlines 1 sore neck

I just arrived a few hours ago in Skopje, Macedonia. I’ve been given some unique opportunities this year and this is one of the coolest. I will spend the week with a group of students serving among the Romani People in this country. This will be students working with students and I will lead worship in the evenings. I am trying to stay awake at least a few more hours so I may head downstairs to a cafe to watch another Euro 2008 game. Love from the Balkans.