Wednesday, February 9, 2022
Monday, February 7, 2022
Bible Face Melt Music
[This is another segment in the Music in the Bible series which begins in Genesis and finishes in Revelation.]
"So Joab blew a trumpet; and all the people stood still and did not pursue Israel anymore, nor did they fight anymore." (2 Samuel 2:28)
Anyone who likes rock music knows what a 'face melting' guitar solo is. The shred blows you away and immobilizes you with its searing riffs and causes you to pause and admire the sound of the performance.
In this passage, civil war has been raging in the Promised Land for seven years after King Saul's death between those who supported David and those who were still loyal to Saul's tribe. This particular battle takes place in the wilderness of Gibeon which was not far from Jerusalem. The limited but ferocious conflict was led by Joab from David's immediate clan and Abner of the Benjamites who were still loyal to Saul. Both sides fought bravely but Abner's men suffered greater losses and he called for a truce which Joab agreed to and signaled with the blowing of the trumpet that stopped everyone in their tracks--a face melt if you will and a purposeful solo to end the bloody game.
WARNING:THIS video may cause serious injury or death, side effects may include melting of face due to awesomeness, hair falling out, and eyes and ears to explode!
Friday, February 4, 2022
Fly Fishing Your Music
Music promotion and fly fishing are both very specialized activities and require, contradictorily, a simultaneous shotgun and surgical approach.
Thursday, February 3, 2022
Fast Growing Music Blog Seeks Artists to Feature
I will promote your christian music
About This Gig
I will feature you or your Christian band of any genre music on my quickly growing blog which averages 5000 views per month. I can also review your music and create a custom promo video of it and I will aggressively promote items on at least six social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter. I do not accept requests from artists with music that promotes sex, drugs, self mutilation (including transgenderism), suicide, or contain any kind of explicit lyrics or hate speech towards any individual, race, creed or color. I reserve the right to reject proposals based on this criteria or any other Scriptural guidelines for holy living. Send me links to your music before you purchase.
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
(Almost) Free Music Promotion for Christians
I will promote your christian music
About This Gig
I will feature you or your Christian band of any genre music on my quickly growing blog which averages 5000 views per month. I can also review your music and create a custom promo video of it and I will aggressively promote items on at least six social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter. I do not accept requests from artists with music that promotes sex, drugs, self mutilation (including transgenderism), suicide, or contain any kind of explicit lyrics or hate speech towards any individual, race, creed or color. I reserve the right to reject proposals based on this criteria or any other Scriptural guidelines for holy living. Send me links to your music before you purchase.
Monday, January 31, 2022
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Soothe the Beast with a Beat
[This is another segment in the Music in the Bible series which begins in Genesis and finishes in Revelation.]
"Let our master now command your servants, who are before you, to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp. And it shall be that he will play it with his hand when the distressing spirit from God is upon you, and you shall be well.” (1 Samuel 16:16-23)
Friday, January 28, 2022
The Good Thieves at Christian Musicians Alive
Here is a very prolific and multi-dimensional talent from the United Kingdom. Enjoy this feature and listen to and purchase Good Thieves music on their official website, thegoodthieves.org
I am Hugo James (my first name is Paul, but I only use it with officialdom), a young (?) 52-year-old who is trying to put his music out there for anyone who might enjoy it.
I am a translator by profession (lots of languages – I’m a lingua-freak), and I have also been a musician all of my life. Classically trained (piano/harpsichord/church organ), but I was attracted to folk/world music in my youth, but always preferring a folk-rock/folk-punk version.
The piano accordion kinda became my main instrument because it is a portable version of what I was best at initially, but I also play many other instruments. And I sing: not brilliantly (although I’m always working on that), but with a voice that fits my kind of music. Theoretically at least.
I was in various bands over the years, which I contend were really quite good, but never got anywhere. Due to this, plus a lot of other disappointments in my life, I became a serious alcoholic (not overnight, you understand: it’s always a process), with booze, as with many people, seeming to rocket-fuel me during earlier times, but eventually turning me into a gibbering wreck.
My 30-year drinking career was punctuated by much total mayhem, but also travel, some professional and artistic successes in spite of everything, and some wonderful people (although a lot of utter b*****s as well).
The last 10 years has been a cycle of trying to get a grip on things, and I have gained a lot of first-hand experience of living with people with serious, serious problems who have also been totally failed by society.
I am a cradle Catholic (my mother is Spanish, and was brought up by Jesuits in Franco’s Spain, so hard-core devotion was everywhere as I was growing up. My own faith wavered a lot over the years (a priest once called me – only half-jokingly – the “worst Catholic since Vlad the Impaler”), but always remained there, sustained by my unshakeable desire for social justice (a lot of the usual pseudo-intellectual rhetoric – but I am also proud to have provided a fair amount of practical help in different contexts), and sustaining that in turn.
All of these elements have come together somewhat over the last two years: the 11th of February 2022 will mark two years exactly since I last touched an alcoholic drink, and I have been hunkered down in my home town in the English countryside throughout COVID helping my parents, who are quite medically vulnerable.
This “forced sabbatical” from the hurly-burly of life, has helped “re-set” me a lot, and of course it enabled me to produce my album. I am usually ludicrously busy with my translation work (I have always worked from home, so no change there), but in early 2020, literally no work came in at all for a period of 2 months, which I used to record and produce all of the audio and video material. Within my belief system, God moved in one of those mysterious ways of His.
The songs themselves had been swilling around in my head forever, and everything just poured out and fell into place. I recorded it all in my home office, using quite a rudimentary set-up, really – but it is amazing what you can do with computers these days, and I have enough instruments to equip a small folk-rock orchestra.
So although I describe “The Good Thieves” as a band, this is wishful thinking on my part: I would love to work musically with other people who could become friends, and so I am hoping that might be a possibility some day. But in the meantime, the whole project is just me.
I produced a physical CD of the album, which is called “None Shall Stand”, and which consists of ten tracks of prophetic biblical lyrical content set to what I think is quite powerful and catchy folk-rock backing (and an eleventh song put together specifically for Gathoni – see below). My target audience is essentially people like me, who want to express their religious faith through music, but can take or leave the frankly all-a-bit-samey-and-lightweight material produced by a lot of Christian artists, and want something a bit more substantial. People who would like mainstream acts like The Pogues, The Levellers (going back a bit there, but hey), Mumford & Sons etc.
I also created a website on Bandzoogle, which is at: https://thegoodthieves.org
All of the songs on the album are available to stream and/or download there – for free, although I ask whether people might be kind enough to make a donation to ongoing financial help for Gathoni Wambaa, a severely disabled Kenyan girl whose mother and grandma are having desperate trouble looking after her (she needs massive medical help, and it’s horrendously expensive).
We managed to raise £2000.00 (sterling) for her in the first couple of months – but in reality this was down to my wife reminding friends and relatives in various African countries that she is the daughter of a Chief.
And this is actually my main motivation for this project: I care not for wealth and renown in my own right (“Good job, really” says everyone else in the world….), but I would very much like to raise as much money and awareness as I can to help as many people like Gathoni that I can, from now on in my life.
Other socials:
Facebook: facebook.com/paulhnjames
Twitter: ThievesGood
The Good Thieves-- How Many Times
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