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.
The Nashville CBS affiliate has run a story about my trip to China. You can read the story and watch a clip HERE. I’m certain I will be talking about and singing about this trip for years to come. Their news coverage will give you a taste. The full version of the song they are referencing is on THE MYSPACE PAGE. I wrote it with good friends Belinda Smith and Maurice Carter. Hopefully I can record the Chinese version soon during a break between summer camps.
I’m in West Virginia this week with the students from First Baptist Nashville. Next week I’ll leave for Macedonia and then a couple of weeks in Orlando. Hope to see ya along the road.
Peace,
James
A blog I’ve written just showed up at SOUL AUDIO. I really like these guys and their unique perspective on the intersection of art and faith. CHECK IT OUT HERE. Also, another Tealy cut has surfaced.CLICK HERE to check out the song “Tell Me Again” on iTunes from the new Alvin Slaughter record, Overcomer. I really like this guy and his unique take on the song. Throw your $0.99 down and pick it up. When you’re listening to the song, don’t turn it off too soon. The producer apparently couldn’t get enough of the groove so after the end the rhythm sneaks back in for an extra minute of vibey R&B goodness.
I leave Friday for a few weeks out of the country. If you’re one of the few who really understands that whole “unspoken prayer requests” thing then now would be a great time to say a prayer for me and my friends over the next few weeks. Just watch what the King of the Universe can do!
It’s Gospel Music Week in Nashville; a strange and surreal time where God’s glory crashes into the RawkStah Lifestyle. The result is a mess. It’s all cool hair, crosses, and cleavage. Guys in make up and capri pants. Girls with zebra hair flashing as much sex as Spirit. I don’t really know who I am in this environment. I was just on the street talking to Julie and Libby, friends from a radio station in New Orleans. In the middle of our conversation I was “good-gamed” by a friend from the band Addison Road. I laughed, waved, made some goofy comment and then continued the conversation with the Lifesongs crew. Then Mark Hall, the lead singer for Casting Crowns walked passed us. He made eye contact with me and I instinctively said, “Hey Mark.” He nodded and just kept moving. Mark looked just as familiar to me as Julie, Libby, and the guys from Addison Road. The difference is, Mark has no idea who I am. We’ve never met. Never shared youth pastor stories over a cup of coffee or written songs together for their new record or mine. He is familiar to me NOT because we have ever shared a conversation but because I have heard his songs, had conversations ABOUT him, seen him perform, seen his face four stories high on a video screen. I think I know him because of some vague sense of familiarity but the test of our connection is in whether or not he knows me. Is the “knowing” mutual?
Jesus challenged our sense of knowing with these words: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but [only] the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you!” Matthew 7:21-23 (HCSB)
This week it seems inevitable that we will all stay right at the surface with each other. I am trying to take interviews to some deeper place. I am trying to express genuine interest in the people interviewing me, not as a way of selling records, but because I am trying desperately to keep my eyes above this rock star mess. Flat-iron less. Love more! I am trying to express care for people, to enter their world. I am trying to find some security and self-worth, some sense of my enoughness outside of this Christian media machine. I am learning to find my legitimacy in knowing Jesus and more importantly in being known by Him. To love and be loved. To know and be known. To walk in the ways of Jesus with these brief moments I am given.
An INTERVIEW just posted on a sweet new website called Soul-Audio. Here’s their tagline: “If the calling we believe in is to be salt and light, then that should be loud and clear in the artistry Christians produce. We believe that should be the same for a media outlet as well. Introducing Soul-Audio: where excellent design meets intelligent content in a format intended to draw an audience and keep it with the same pursuit of quality we expect from the artists and musicians we cover.”
The feature is from an email interview I did a while back with the author, Andrew. I remember sitting in the parking lot of a hotel in Key Largo, Florida stealing internet access so I could respond to his questions. Check out the interview BY CLICKING HEREand leave a comment to let ‘em know you stopped by the site. I will be writing some blogs for them as well that should appear in the coming weeks.
I just finished a writing session with Michael Olson (God is With Us). We spent the morning singing about God’s heart for the poor and oppressed. Next up today is some time working on new songs for Austin’s Bridge.
See ya along the road!
Jaime Jamgochian’s new Centricity release “Above the Noise” just hit the shelves with a Tealy song on it. Click on the CD artwork to download “God Unchanging” from iTunes. For you guitar players and worship leaders out there, she has a link to the chord chart for the song HERE.
Time for some new-old songs (or is that old-new songs?) Last year I went into the studio to demo some songs with Geoff Clapp (Ellis Marsalis) playing drums and Aaron Sands (Jars of Clay) playing bass. The result was some jazzy-pop craziness. The only song from that session that ended up on a record was “Room to Run” on the end of the “Redeeming the Days EP.” So the rest of those songs have been aging in oak barrels for a while. Now they are ripe and ready for a SnoCap exclusive release. The songs include some concert favorites like “Just a Question” and “Can Not Close My Heart.” I’ve also included Dakota’s Song (the bunny song) on the end of the record for a little added silliness.
“Before This Moment Dies” is available exclusively from the SnoCap store either on THE MYSPACE SITE or by clicking on the “STORE” tab above. This is also exclusively a digital release. There will be no printed copies of this record sold anywhere (unless you burn one and try and sell it to a friend and we both know how that will work out). Hope you dig it.
The songs on the “Before” project are: Just a Question, Someone, Before This Moment Dies, Can Not Close My Heart, Rise Against the Wind, Fourteen (the original recording), and Dakota’s Song.
Christianity Today has posted a review of “Redeeming the Days”. “Tealy reveals himself a truly creative talent with this inventive alternative pop EP that’s intelligently crafted both musically and lyrically.” Read the full review HERE.
I’ve finally uploaded Dakota’s Song (the bunny song) to the Myspace site. We’ve made it a limited time download exclusively in the snocap store on the page. That’s the only place on the planet you’ll find a copy. Those of you who have bought bunny shirts along the road in the last few weeks, post a cool picture of you wearing your bunny shirt as a comment on the myspace site and we’ll send you an mp3 of the song for FREE. See ya along the road.
I’ve posted a new PaperWalls Video Blog from the road. Find it HERE. Enjoy!