Christian Musicians Alive is pleased to feature and review new music from Contemporary Christian artist, Bryan Anthony Lynch, and his new album, Blue Gospel Soul. Enjoy this post and his music!
Tell us about yourself and your music
I have been playing guitar for a little over 20 years. I took several years off of music to start my career and family. In 2020 I began to record music again, and started an independent music publishing company called Quantum Mottle Records. Quantum Mottle is an X-Ray term that means radiographic noise. The years where I was not recording music, I always had a desire to return to it, and knew when I did I wanted to record Christian music.
Please tell us about your musical journey in Christ. How long have you been making music? Any formal training? Professional experience?
I fell in love with Jesus and playing guitar as a teen but never figured out how to mix the two together until I also fell in love with the woman who would become my wife, and she encouraged me to do so. I starting learning guitar at the local music shop around age 13 or so and quickly ended up playing at Church. When I was a kid, I didn't mind the songs at Church but didn't get always excited about them either. At home I played a lot of classic rock and that's what we focused on in the bands I was in. I stepped out of music for many years after going to grad school and starting a family. My wife listened to modern Christian music and I found I enjoyed it much more than the rest of modern music. When I started playing and writing again, I kept my style of playing guitar, but definitely wanted to please God with what I would write. I released my first Christian album in 2021 called Flicker in the Dusk, it was followed later in the same year with When Necessary Use a Guitar, and then Blue Gospel soul came out in February of 2022.
What genre would you consider your music to BEST fit into?
Blues
Rock
Gospel/Contemporary Christian
What music inspires you the most (Christian or secular)? Name your favorites.
My favorite secular guitar players are David Gilmour from Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and many others. The Christian group that inspires me the most is Third Day. Listening to them was what finally helped me realize I could use my style of guitar playing, which is heavy on blues and rock, and still glorify God with it.
How has making music made a difference in your Christian walk?
It took my hobby and made it a prayer. When I play through the songs I write now, I constantly have the Christians themes running through my head. It's not mindless lyrics anymore about whatever rock songs I used to play, these songs have meaning to me. They are a letter written to God, they are admissions that I need Him in my life. Just as a painter making Christian art has to constantly reflect on what they are depicting, my songs constantly draw me into this relationship I have with the Lord, and it makes me want to do a better job for Him.
What do you do to stay sharp with your God given skills? Do you have a daily routine?
I wish I had a daily routine. My day job can leave my pretty worn out by the end of the day, so I don't always get to play. What I typically do though is relax with an acoustic and fiddle around until I start to come up with something new, then I'll record it quickly with a phone. When I get a chance later on, I go down to my studio and work it out into a full song and write lyrics for it. Sometimes I start with lyrics in my head and match them to music I have written, or come up with something new to put the lyrics to. Up until now I have kept the recordings pretty basic, guitar, drums, bass, vocals and sometimes keys or another folk instrument, but the things I'm working on that will come out later will have a better production value to them. I will admit, I practice producing on songs about rather benign topics such as food or outer space. This helps me get better with mixing on the computer so I can do better on my Christian songs.
What projects are you working on now? What are your hopes for them?
Coming out later this year I will have a finished heartland rock album come out about various topics or life events growing up. It's inspired in part by Bruce Springsteen's album Nebraska. It's not flashy, it's down to earth stories about life. It's a clean album as far as topics and lyrics, it has references to God due to the Christian lens which I use to view the world, but it is not necessarily a Christian album in the way my first three albums are. After this I have another Christian album that should be finished for 2023 that is made up from music I wrote many years ago, but have given new more meaningful lyrics to. I hope this album will make a positive impact on anyone who hears it. So far it has the best production value of anything I have done, which I hope helps it to reach a wider audience.
What is your favorite Bible verse that inspires you to praise God through music?
It changes form time to time, there are many biblical lines in my songs, and the entire song was inspired by the line from the Bible. Recently though, I have been inspired by Acts 1:8 "...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." I recently was having some success with the release of Blue Gospel Soul and was looking at the world map of listeners. It showed that how through music, even without traveling, I could bring God's message and share my faith journey all over the world. This has inspired me to continue, and to improve on the quality of the production so I can inspire others the same way Christian music I have heard inspires me.
Let us know where we can follow you and your music and give us any last words of encouragement, advice or anything else you wish to add.
My albums have been released on most major music platforms. So you can follow me on Apple Music, Itunes, Spotify and many others. You can also email my independent record company quantummottlerecords@gmail.com.
CMA REVIEW OF BLUE GOSPEL SOUL
Blue Gospel Soul is a collection of ten lyric songs written and performed by Brian Anthony Lynch which is available on all major digital streaming platforms. The tracks are thematically and musically consistent in both style and verse in a down-to-earth folksy sound that reminds me of the best of classic Southern rock using traditional instruments common in that genre, but the twist of lyrical praise for God is what differentiates here.
The album begins with, Old Soul, which starts off with an intro riff that offers welcome familiarity (I was thinking Allman Brothers Band) and continues with a melody and words that are questioning and meaningful:
Old soul, why are you sitting on that hill?
You know the waters that chill
Will wash away what's eating at your mind...
The flood gates of grace
Are like no other kind...
It's a tune that offers the hope of redemption to anyone no matter what because nobody is too far gone to accept the free gift of salvation offered through Christ Jesus.
The next two songs, Credence and Jesus I Need Your Love, sing of the love of the Savior that cannot be compared to anything else in heaven and on earth. The adoring lyrics are set against a musical backdrop of Lynch's signature guitar playing and move the songs nicely in tempo and structure.
Track number six, Prayer of a Married Man, is a plea of application for Christian husbands in this day and age of systemic unfaithfulness and divorce in marriage:
Lord help me to be,
The man she needs me to be.
She deserves better
So we'd better get better out of me...
It's a powerful love song backed by thrilling electric guitar riffs that acknowledges that without Christ's sanctification of our hearts, we cannot love others the way we should.
Speaking of sanctification, Purgatory Blues, which begins with a real low down harmonica intro riff hook, describes the soul on the brink of glory and the constant tension one faces in their daily walk with the Lord.
All in all, Blue Gospel Soul, is a collection of fine music and Christian themed lyrics in the best tradition that this particular genre offers. Do check it out on Spotify today!
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