Isaac Watts’ Poem

While some wouldn't consider this popular hymn a true Christmas Carol because its’ stanzas refer more to the second coming of Jesus Christ than to his birth. Nonetheless, it has remained one of the most-published Christmas songs in North America. Isaac Watts based the text on Psalm 98, 96:11–12 and Genesis 3:17–18 with the lyric, “Let earth receive her King; let every heart prepare Him room,” encouraging the listener to receive Jesus Christ as both Savior and King.

Joy To The World was first published in 1719 in Watts’ collection of poems entitled, The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship. Intended as a paraphrase of his Christological understanding.

A century later a Boston music teacher named Lowell Mason discovered the poem and set it to music. Because he released this song at Christmas, it quickly became a holiday favorite.

© Helpful Creative

Sources: The Complete Book of Hymns + Wikipedia + CBN

Unknown?

Just a Closer Walk with Thee was probably the favorite southern gospel song of the twentieth century, yet no one knows who wrote it or when it was written. It’s history most likely goes back to an unknown writer in the slave fields of the South before the Civil War. Southern black church choirs kept the hymn alive until World War II.

The first known recording of this song was by the Selah Jubilee Singers on October 8, 1941, Decca Records 7872, New York City. By the end of the 1970s, more than a hundred artists had recorded this humble prayer.

The beautiful duet by Willie Nelson and Patsy Kline can be found on the album entitled That Good Old Gospel Music, Vol. 2, released in 2007.

© Helpful Creative

Sources: The Complete Book of Hymns + James Minchin + History In Ink

Kanye West

Kanye West, one of the most well known hip-hop MCs in the music industry, released a surprising gospel album, entitled Jesus is King. The release was on October 25, 2019, a year after Kanye served as creative director for the Pornhub Awards. So, it should carry some weight that in recent interviews, Kanye has been openly honest about his addiction to pornography and the negative impact it causes in popular culture today.

Some critics have wondered if this album was somehow Kanye’s attempt to revive his music sales or possibly atone for his past support for President Trump. While it did revive his music sales by becoming the first to ever top the Billboard 200, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Top Rap Albums, Top Christian Albums and Top Gospel Albums all at the same time, his favorable opinion about Trump didn't change in the slightest. Could it be Kanye’s motivation is displayed within the album itself? Consider the separation between hip-hop and the Christian music industry as a whole and you’ll realize all Kanye stood to lose with his release of Jesus is King.

As an artist, you have to admire Kanye for being fully transparent about what he believes and has created throughout his career. On the album, he covers his belief in God, his family relationships and his criticism for Christian's who have doubted the sincerity of his new found faith. And as with past albums, Kanye collaborates with a host of producers, from Benny Blanco, E*vax, Finatik N Zac, Francis Starlite, Labrinth, Mike Dean, Pièrre Bourne, Ronny J, Timbaland, and Warryn Campbell, among others.

While there’s not a throwaway song on the album, for me, the gospel-soul God Is has become the shining jewel off Jesus is King. On it, Kanye gives a heartfelt confession of his faith which is altogether beautiful.

© Helpful Creative

Sources: Rolling Stone + CBN News + Charles Platiau + Janine Joles

Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet

Jubilee quartets were popular African-American religious singing groups during the early part of the 20th century. This style of music grew from universities to churches, incorporating a rhythmic beat into the energetic gospel music coming out of the Holiness churches.

Of these many jubilee quartets, the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet became the most successful of all the jubilee Doo-Wop quartets, gaining nationwide popularity through radio broadcasts, records and touring in the 1930s and 1940s. Their recording of Found A Wonderful Savior first appeared on a 45 record as the B side to Bedside of A Neighbor, in 1937.

The Golden Gates, as they were later known with an ever changing lineup over the years, revived their career in 1955. When they toured Europe, they became widely popular and moved to Paris in 1959. They continued touring, primarily in Europe and were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998.

© Helpful Creative

Sources: Sources: Wikipedia + Discogs

Emmylou Harris

Precious Memories is a traditional gospel song written by J. B. F. Wright in 1925. It’s fitting that as a native Tennessean, Wright's creation has long been recorded by several of Nashville’s finest country artists. My personal favorite being the tender soul-filled rendition by Emmylou Harris.

Emmylou Harris’ 1987 album Angel Band, originated with her producer and later husband Paul Kennerley, after finishing up the semi-autobiographical and psychologically exhausting album, The Ballad of Sally Rose.

It was Kennerley, who told her, “I really think you should do some singing just for the heck of it. ‘Let’s get some people over to my house and do some old traditional songs and record them. We won’t make a record. It’ll be just for ourselves.’”

The friends invited were Vince Gill, Carl Jackson and producer-musician Emory Gordy Jr. A year passed, before she and Kennerley got around to listening to the home recordings with their friends, but when they did, Harris was more than a little surprised.

“It was phenomenal,” she says. “The vocal performances, the sweetness, the purity of it... we said, ‘Boy, that should come out on a record.’” A year later the album was released. To this day, Angel Band remains one of Harris’ more obscure albums, but easily one of her best as well, having mostly traditional songs with a spiritual expression rarely matched.

© Helpful Creative

Sources: Chicago Tribune + Veronique Rolland + Randy Fath

Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk spiritual

The widely popular Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk was formed in 1919. Helped by singing over radio stations that covered the greater New York area, they gained a legion of fans throughout the urban centers of the Northeast and in particular New York City. In 1927, the singers began semiannual spring tours of northern cities that continued for around six years.

Their major break came in 1928, when OKeh Records signed the group to record some of their most popular numbers. With this opportunity, the Silver Leaf Quartette recorded the spiritual, “Daniel Saw The Stone.” It’s available as part of the Discography of American Historical Recordings.

In 1947, the Silver Leaf Quartette was booked long-term at Virginia Beach’s exclusive Cavalier Hotel, where they were billed as the Cavalier Singers. By this time, both William Thatch and William Boush had already dropped out of the original group. However, quartet singing was so popular throughout the late 1950s that the group reunited for local church engagements.

© Helpful Creative

Sources: Gloryland Gospel Blog + Paul Gilmore

Augustus Montague Toplady

It might seem strange that “Rock of Ages,” the timeless hymn of salvation and forgiveness would be written by a fiercely independent Christian named Augustus Montague Toplady. He was converted by a Methodist evangelist while attending the University of Dublin. In 1758, his theology changed to Calvinism after hearing the sermons of Dr. Manton on the seventeenth chapter of John. A change that brought him into bitter conflict with John Wesley and the Methodists.

This hymn was written to conclude a magazine article in which he emphasized, just as England could never repay its national debt, so humans through their own efforts could never satisfy the eternal justice of God. He died of tuberculosis and overwork at the age of thirty-eight, two years after he published his own hymnal, in which "Rock of Ages" and Charles Wesley's "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" were placed side by side.

“Rock of Ages” has been played by Bob Dylan in concert on a number of occasions since 1999. Regardless of your denominational beliefs, it would be hard to diminish this heartfelt prayer for the living and the dying.

© Helpful Creative

Sources: The Complete Book of Hymns + Hymnary.org + The Telegraph + Martina Misar-Tummeltshammer

Louise Massey Carr

In honor of a faithful Christian lady I’ve been blessed to know. She’ll be missed for a time by her family and friends. My mother-in-law was Louise Massey Carr, 1924 to 2019. We loved her and she loved us.

Mrs. Carr loved music and was once a dedicated member of the Woodlawn Baptist church choir. In addition to being a faithful choir member, she was also a dedicated teacher for the three-year-olds in Sunday School for over 36 years. Mrs. Carr loved playing the piano and telling much loved Bible stories.

During her final weeks, several nurses would say they knew she was a “praying woman” because they would often hear her talking to God and singing. One nurse even said, the last thing she overheard Mrs. Carr say was “God, help me to do something good.”

© Helpful Creative. All Rights Reserved.

Bob Dylan

From Bob Dylan’s last Christian album “Shot of Love,” comes one of Dylan’s 10 Greatest Songs according to Rolling Stone, the lyrically transcendent “Every Grain of Sand.” For Dylan, it was a song of humility from the pain of self-awareness and utter abandonment to the Master’s sovereignty over the natural world.

Consider the song’s last three stanzas:

I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer’s dream, in the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.

Dylan would later describe the process for writing “Every Grain of Sand” as “an inspired song that just came to me... I felt like I was just putting words down that were coming from somewhere else.”

© Helpful Creative

Sources: Rolling Stone + pearl1125 + Exmoo

Sade

For many years now, the British Nigerian artist named Sade Adu, has been one of my personal favorites. She’s known for a stripped away, minimalist approach to her jazz-tinged pop. This type of arrangement perfectly highlights her tender vocals.

While Sade has remained quiet about her beliefs, the love and corresponding relationships she so often sings about is as undeniable to the Christian faith, as it is to her. Consider these partial lyrics to “It’s Only Love That Gets You Through” — ‘You forgive those who have trespassed against you, And you know tenderness comes from pain, It’s amazing how you love, And love is kind and love can give, And love needs no gain,’ as compared to 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 — ‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.’

It’s altogether fitting that her “Lovers Rock” album, released in 2000, would contain such a song as ”It's Only Love That Gets You Through.”

© Helpful Creative

Sources: Wikipedia + Genius + Ok.Ru

Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach created this magnificent composition for the complete Roman Catholic service of a Latin Mass. It represents one of Bach’s last works and wasn’t fully completed until 1749, a year before his death. Bach’s Mass has become widely proclaimed as one of the greatest compositions in musical history, being performed and recorded many times over. So many, it’s recommended that a person sample several different recordings before making a purchase, just to decide which version they’d prefer.

Under Frans Brüggen’s direction, this particular recording from 2009, is my personal favorite. It has a quicker pace, as opposed to some of the earlier Baroque recordings. The vocals of Cappella Amsterdam are ethereally beautiful, while the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, founded by Frans Brüggen, provides a brightly dynamic sound to Bach’s masterful arrangement.

© Helpful Creative. All Rights Reserved.

Sources: Wikipedia + Quora

Cantique de Noel

It all began, when Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure was asked to write a poem for Christmas mass by his parish priest. Honored to share his talents with the church, Placide Cappeau penned his “Cantique de Noel” while traveling to the capital city of France, in 1847.

Cappeau felt his poem would be better suited to music, so the poet sought help from one of his friends, Adolphe Charles Adams. Adams’ masterful talent and fame brought requests to write works for orchestras and ballets from all over the world. Their finished work was performed just three weeks later at a Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

Initially accepted by many Catholic Christmas services, “Cantique de Noel” soon fell out of favor. It was banned in France for almost two decades after Placide Cappeau walked away from the church in favor of the socialist movement and church leaders discovered that Adolphe Adams was Jewish.

Fortunately, interest in this Christmas carol was renewed with John Sullivan Dwight — an American writer and Reginald Fessenden — a former chief chemist for Thomas Edison. Dwight introduced what he considered a wonderful Christmas song to America and Fessenden spoke into a microphone for the first time in history by reading the ‘Birth of Christ’ from the gospel of Luke, on Christmas Eve 1906. After finishing his reading, Fessenden picked up his violin and played “O Holy Night,” which became, the first song ever sent through radio airwaves.

© Helpful Creative

Source: Beliefnet

Christina Rossetti

This evocative Christmas carol was originally written by Christina Rossetti as a Christmas poem for the American magazine, Scribner’s Monthly. In 1872, it was set to music by Gustav Holst for the 1906 edition of The English Hymnal.

While no one would believe there was actual snow at the birth of Jesus Christ in the Middle Eastern town of Bethlehem, Rossetti uses the poetic imagery of ‘snow on snow’ to symbolize the ‘hard like iron’ hearts of humanity into which our Savior was born, long ago. She goes on to describe how a breastful of milk and a simple manger full of hay were enough for Him, whom the Angels and Archangels fall down before in worship.

I've always been captivated by the sublime beauty within her poem, but it's the very last stanza where my connection and understanding is strongest:

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am? —
If I were a Shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part, —
Yet what I can I give Him, —
Give my heart.

Titus 3:3–7

© Helpful Creative

Sources: The Complete Book of Hymns + Wikipedia + FreePik Snowflakes + Photo by Aaron Burden

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.

© Helpful Creative

Sources: The Christian Beat + Wikipedia

My Identity

It was the first time we had written since “How Can It Be”... I just remember feeling like so much had happened the night before, wondering how do I come back down to normal, how do I come back down to reality? And I started realizing these patterns of really high highs and then, okay now there’s a low. Really high high, now there’s a low... And involving expectation in that space can just leave you kind of questioning your identity — Where do I fit in, where is my security, where is my footing?

So when writing “You Say,” I just remember feeling for the first time pretty conflicted. It was definitely the first moment in just being an artist that I was like Okay, where is all this going exactly? And I know that we’ve all faced moments in life where we can feel a crossroads happen — where we can see the past and also see the future, and realize how we are supposed to exist in the present. And it was one of those moments where I could see where things were going and I knew exactly where I came from, and I needed those worlds to still be married.

And thus brought up the issue of identity and trying to figure out how to exist when I felt like so many things were pulling me in so many different directions. I think a lot of times we build these complexes based on insecurity, based on fear, based on rejection, and lies that we have to constantly overcome. And so this song for me was just a reminder of identity. It was a reminder that I know when I’m weak, He’s strong — so how do I change and bring that into my every day life? When I feel inadequate how is it there’s always these moments where I feel like God just steps in and supersedes my inadequacies. This entire song was so every single day I would get up on stage and remind myself — no, this is the truth, this is the truth, this is the truth. Don’t get buried in confusion. Don’t get buried in waywardness. Just remember to steady the course, steady the course.

That’s the story behind “You Say.” — Lauren Daigle

© Helpful Creative

Sources: CCM Magazine + Jeremy Cowart Photo

Everything Glorious

“I Stand Amazed in the Presence,” also known as “How Marvelous” or “My Savior’s Love,” was written, both lyrics and melody in 1905 by Charles Gabriel. He was an Iowa native, showing a talent and love for music at an early age.

Gabriel’s profession became editing gospel song books and contributing numerous hymns for various publications. He’s credited with between 7,000 and 8,000 songs, thirty-five gospel song collections, Sunday school song books, collections for men’s and women’s choirs, numerous cantatas, including 41 Christmas cantatas, and music education texts. He also wrote under numerous pseudonyms, making it challenging to determine the exact number of songs he wrote.

Chris Tomlin would later popularize his arrangement of this hymn, entitled “I Stand Amazed.” Tomlin’s contemporary approach couldn’t be more fitting, knowing that Gabriel's own hymns had reflected a significant change from the gospel music of the 1800s.

© Helpful Creative

Sources: Discipleship Ministries + Kingdom Pastor + Jason Blackeye

Valley High, Mountain Low

Yolanda Adams is a 5 time Grammy Award winner and has been recognized as the Gospel Artist of the last decade by Billboard Magazine. She practices the gift of preforming praise that both heals and inspires others to trust in more than themselves. And to know what her powerful encouragement feels like, take a moment to listen to her performance of John Bond’s, “In The Midst Of It All.”

This single was off her album “Valley High, Mountain Low,” which stands as Adams's best-selling to date, having sold more than 2,374,000 copies and being certified double-platinum by the RIAA. It also won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album.

© Helpful Creative

Sources: Yolanda Adams + Wikipedia

Songs In The Key of Life

Like most of us in 1976, when I first heard Stevie Wonder’s pinnacle album “Songs In The Key of Life,” immediately I knew it was special work of art by a legit master of his craft. The entire album was like a guided tour through a beautiful kaleidoscope of musical styles and feelings.

Stevie spent two long years crafting this double album and it starts with his openly spiritual lament within the first two songs, “Love’s In Need of Love Today” and “Have A Talk With God.” The former has become almost prophetic these days, warning of love growing cold in too many hearts. The later is Stevie’s recommendation for prayer in anyone’s time of need, co-written with his brother Calvin.

In 2005, this album was fittingly inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, which deemed it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” 

Take my word for it. If you’ve somehow been living on another planet and still haven’t heard it by now... You’ve been missing out!

© Helpful Creative. All Rights Reserved.

Source: StevieWonder.org.uk

Way Beyond the Blue

This old time spiritual and children’s song “Do Lord,” will be remembered by many from their childhood. Johnny Cash preformed it on ‘My Mother's Hymn Book’ in 2003, toward the very end of his life.

Surely the hymn’s title and meaning can be understood in Luke 23:39-43, where a discussion takes place between two criminals and Jesus at the crucifixion... One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus said to this man, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

© Helpful Creative

Image Sources: Wallpaper Abyss + Anton Atanasov

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

---

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)

© Helpful Creative

Sources: Songfacts, LLC + Paul McManus