The Spirit of Worship

Housefires was formed in 2014, as a worship band for the Grace Midtown Church, the founder of almost 50 house churches in and around the metropolitan Atlanta, GA area. Since that time, the band has released four live worship albums. Current band members include worship pastor Kirby Kaple, worship leaders and vocal/guitarists Pat Barrett, the co-writer of the song “Good Good Father” and Tony Brown, worship pastor and vocal/guitarist Nate Moore, violinist Vicki Schmidt, keyboardist Jonathan Jay, percussionists Zac Brooks and Harold Brown. The single “Abide” was written by Nate Moore with musician Mia Fieldes and composer Jonathan Smith off their 2016 “Housefires III” album release.

The band’s goal was to create a fresh, more stripped-down expression of worship and music. As Nate Moore, explains, “What we’ve said from the beginning is that we want to go after moments... We have a set list and songs to fall back on, but really the heart and core is to engage and facilitate God moments, breathing active moments, to create enough space to where God can speak and move and anything can happen.”

This spirit of worship can truly be heard in their hearts and music.

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Sources: The Christian Beat + Wikipedia

The Spirit of Power

Mike Scott is the founding member of the rock band ‘The Waterboys.’ Mike’s artistry as a Scottish singer, songwriter and musician is undeniable. Even though his songs have always been deeply spiritual, he attends no church and professes his own version of new age spiritualism.

While Mike and I would disagree on the origin of the spirit of power, as a Christian, I would agree with the truth found within Mike’s “Spirit” lyrics on ‘The Waterboys’ third album, This Is The Sea.

Man gets tired
Spirit don’t
Man surrenders
Spirit won’t
Man crawls
Spirit flies
Spirit lives when man dies

Man seems
Spirit is
Man dreams
The spirit lives
Man is tethered
Spirit is free
What spirit is man can be

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As Jesus himself has testified: 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” — Luke 4:18-19 (ESV)

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Sources: Songfacts, LLC + Paul McManus

The Bluegrass Album Band

Considered a supergroup by fans and followers of bluegrass music alike, The Bluegrass Album Band was founded by Tony Rice and J.D. Crowe in 1980. The band itself featured J.D. Crowe, Doyle Lawson, Tony Rice, Bobby Hicks, and Todd Phillips. The initial reason for the this ensemble was to help Tony Rice with his solo album. Although, once they began to work together and were so pleased with the result, The Bluegrass Album was born. This aforementioned album was released in 1981, with 5 more volumes of music to follow.

The song, “Model Church,” off this album was written by a NY Meth­od­ist min­ist­er named John H. Yates in 1896. It’s a gospel song about an old man visiting and recounting a meeting place not built for show. Telling his wife about the glorious singing and simple sermon he witnessed, he joyfully reassures her that though their race was nearly run, their victory would soon be won.

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Sources: AllMusic + Cyberhymnal + Timothy Meinberg + Harlan J. Berk

Sacred Songs

The Foggy Mountain Boys were an American bluegrass band. The band was founded by guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs. They are largely viewed by music historians as one of the premier bluegrass groups in their genre. The band was originally formed in 1948 by Flatt, who had been a member of Bill Monroe’s bluegrass band. Flatt brought Scruggs with him shortly after leaving Monroe.

“You Can Feel It In Your Soul” was released by the Foggy Mountain Boys band on their “Sacred Songs” album in 1967. Its meaning is as straightforward as the song title. As a listener on the corresponding YouTube video once said, ”You really CAN feel it in your soul. That’s how I knew I was a believer, even though I was not brought up going to church. This song is beautiful, isn’t it? Just beautiful!”

Let all the believers say Amen!

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Sources: Wikipedia + YouTube