Jesus, Country Music, Pink and Kristen McMullen

Jesus and Country Music

I've been listening the local country FM station (CHAT 94.5) recently. ???!!! I find I'm liking the sounds. I like lots of guitar. I also like hearing songs which include lines like:

she walks with Jesus.

…sung by Alan Jackson in Sissy's Song. The neat thing is, he appears to be sincere. The song was written for a funeral celebrating the life of a young woman he knew. Then, from the sublime to…and the very next song can be Shania Twain singing:

Who's bed have your boots been under?

That can be followed by Trace Adkins and:

but when I bow my head tonight
there'll be no me myself and I
just watch my wife and kids please lord
that's all I ask for any more

(from All I Ask For Anymore).

It's like the world I live in. A mixture of Jesus and real life including joy, sin, love and tragedy. Jesus and prayer don't seem to feature in the music mix on rock stations, at least not in a positive way. I like that about country music.

Pink but Not Pretty

And while I'm on the subject of musical contrast, Jawbone Hill does a cover of Pink's U and Ur Hand. The line that caught my attention is

I'm not here for your entertainment.

The song is not a pretty portrait of the young woman's lot in the bar scene (beware, there's language). Yet, that line would be the cry of many women, I suspect, and not just those being hit on and man-handled in bars. Then I checked out Pink's video for the song. Blimey!

Kristen McMullen

Contrast that with this. One final line; this one evocative and lovely:

I want to hold him in your arms

What a great image. This sung to the LORD about a guy by Christian artist, Kristen McMullen, in a lovely, poignant song, Ready.