Music Reviews

"As people of faith, we are already familiar with the ability music has to bring our own communities together, but Katie and Jann go further, to explain how “singing creates unity and builds a foundation for a peaceful and sustainable world..."

"Sometimes you need a strong, positive message—repeated with an insistent beat. That’s what the title song on Tiana Marquez’s latest album brings. “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me, and I’m feelin’ good.”

"'Be Kind to Strangers' begins with an upbeat rhythm followed by three notes... which echo later after the words “Be kind” in the chorus. What better message for times like these, even as we interact behind masks?"

My first listen to this album was during the commute between my hospice patients’ homes. I was reminded that there are many points of light and joy in a world that seems so dark and inhospitable to the people of God. We hold on to "The Slender Thread" of our faith and hope, because love always calls us back. Always.

This collection brings timeless melodies, made sacred by years of being sung in worship, and places them firmly in the present with words that make sense and relate to today’s issues. When the words make sense, the message easily rides on the breath right to the singer’s heart.

It’s like a sweet cup of a caramel macchiato. The silence of the first snowfall. A porch swing on a perfect spring day. A breeze carried from the surf across your beach blanket. These are the inviting images that came to me as I listened to Carrie Newcomer’s newest album, A Permeable Life. This is Newcomer’s twelfth album, and it will not disappoint those of us who enjoy her music.

Hildegard's words are in Latin, and translated I can glimpse a little of her philosophical genius. But for me, I find the magic in her melody. It's a soft stream flowing over rocks and roots, carrying leaves and tiny insects along, sparkling in sunlight, reflecting the sky.

I think we like music that speaks for us. I often feel Carrie Newcomer's music speaks for me. But after listening to this album many, many times, I realize that it doesn't really speak for me as much as it speaks for all of us. Everything Is Everywhere defines the people we can someday become, and the loving Spirit we, as one people, will someday embody.

Singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer's newest album, Before and After, features a collection of thirteen original compositions—including many contemplative, midlife songs that have grown out of Newcomer's reading and conversations with other spiritual people like Parker Palmer.

This quilt of text and music is not a warm, cozy listening experience, though. It is very challenging music and painful text, richly expressing the anger, despair, and, ultimately, courageous healing and hope of survivors of child sexual abuse.

A gifted poet, Newcomer writes lyrics that can tell stories or share feelings. Her Quaker beliefs are evident in many of her words, but she doesn't preach at you.

This is singable, listenable hymnody that would be appropriate in traditional or contemporary worship services as much as in women's spirituality gatherings. The language and images are inclusive; the melodies are delightful, and the harmonies rich.

All of the tracks are superb, but our favorite is "Come Holy Mother" (inspired by Julian of Norwich) which profoundly evokes an image of God's motherly tenderness, as does "Gather Me Under Thy Wings."

A central purpose of Kathryn's music is to help her listeners broaden their concept of God to include the truth of those scripture passages that speak of God as Mother. The songs on this CD fulfill that purpose admirably.

The music can be experienced on as many levels as there are moments and listeners, but ultimately the album captures Marg's anguish when she learned that although she was trained to be a church musician, in fact the church was not a safe or welcoming place for lesbian women like herself.