songwriters Archives - Page 3 of 6

Lazarus Heart

Randy Stonehill, has been a pioneer of Contemporary Christian Music since the 1970s and his signature album, Welcome to Paradise will always be the definitive collection that changed Christian music. Randy Stonehill continues to make great music and his 2011 album, Spirit Walk, is one of his best ever. Today, I want to honour the…

No Hit Wonder

The latest composition by “Key of Zed” is more auto-biographical than previous offerings; and long-time fans will recognize references to previous songs. Enjoy listening to it on ReverbNation and follow along with the lyrics below. No Hit Wonder (Words and music by Mike Charko and Keith Shields; SOCAN, 2017) It started for me in ninety-three The…

Broken and Sinful from the Start

Yesterday, I quoted Scot McKnight saying, “sinfulness has spread throughout the human race from its first beginnings and … each individual has contributed their own share to it.” Adam and the Genome (Venema and McKnight, 2017, BrazosPress). It made me think of this song by Jonathon Foreman: Broken from the Start (words and music by Jon…

America

I love rediscovering great songs. Listening once again to the song “America” written by Paul Simon, and performed by Simon and Garfunkel, I was struck by the genius of this song. The chord structures, time signatures, and poetry are beautiful. It paints stunning pictures in my mind. The song tells a story of two young…

Chained to the Rhythm

I have a confession: I like one of Katy Perry’s songs. “Chained to the Rhythm” is her latest single and she debuted the song on the Grammy Awards Show. Why do I like this song? The message of the song is aimed at the average person in North American culture, and the message is that…

Blue Rodeo

Last Sunday night my wife and I went to see Blue Rodeo in concert at the Calgary Jubilee Auditorium. It was a great show filled with new music from the 1000 Arms album and old music from just about every one of their 15 studio albums. This is a band that has been playing since…

Big Picture

Song-writers can be keen social commentators that help us see the bigger picture of issues in our world. They may comment in cryptic and sometimes crude ways, but it is worthwhile hearing what they say. The Eagles wrote and performed a song for the 2007 album, Long Road Out of Eden. The lyrics of “Frail…

Celebrate This Heartbeat

I have previously sung the praises of Randy Stonehill and in particular the Welcome to Paradise album of 1976. A recently performed Living Room Concert streamed live on Facebook reminded me of his 1984 album Celebrate This Heartbeat. The title song reminds us that every day is a gift from the Lord. I encourage you…

Where to Now St. Peter?

“Where to Now St. Peter?” is a song that I have been listening to for about 4 decades. There is much I like about the song and its meaning continues to intrigue me. It is a song about death and what comes after death, written by Bernie Taupin and Elton John. Taupin provided the evocative…

Radio Sky

The end of one year and the beginning of another always puts me in an introspective and creative mood. Today, I find myself quoting the lyrics of a favourite song with a sentiment about death and gravestones. “Radio Sky” (by the “Warped 45s” from their debut CD 10 Day Poem for Saskatchewan.) (Listen to the…