Here is my newest list of songs to run to. I can’t help grinning as I think of those of you who will take these songs and add them to your playlists and then stumble upon them the next time you have that playlist on shuffle while you are running/or are working out/or cleaning the house/driving in your car/walking/or just listening to music for the pure joy of it. Feel free to let me know your thoughts on the songs on this list and give me a few of your favorite songs on your running playlist. Enjoy!

1. Never Finished- Aaron Strumpel: Probably my favorite song on this list. When this one comes on it connects with my body and soul.

2. Fastly Gone- Aaron Strumpel. Yes, Aaron has two songs on this list. They are just that good (at least I think so, my husband thinks they are a bit weird but hey, I really like weird

3. Calgary- Bon Iver. Come on, this song is a no brainer.

4. Princess of China- Coldplay. I am sick sick sick of finding Rihanna on other people’s songs BUT Arggghhhhh is this song a great song to run to. Boom, boom boom. The darn bass is what gets me.

5. Not In Love- Crystal Castles (featuring Robert Smith): This is the second time this song has appeared on my Music To Run To list but I’m a sucker for just about anything with Robert Smith’s name on it and this song will have me sprinting up a boulder strewn mountain.

6. No Light, No Light- Florence + The Machine: This song is a catchy, hooky, four on the floor, harpy, many vocaled wonderful madness. Try to run slowly when she hits the chorus, just try.

7. Blood Pressure- Mute Math: Really? Are you surprised to find a Mute Math song on here?

8. Lisztomania (Alex Metric Remix)- Phoenix: Phoenix has had music on my running playlist since years ago when my husband snuck their song “Run, Run, Run” on my running list for a half-marathon I was in. Now here they are on the list again for a remix. It’s so good that I have to make myself focus so that I don’t trip.

9. Cruel- St. Vincent: Now I will give it to my husband, St. Vincent is weird but this is classic great/weird. This song is only for the great/weird lovers (Mom, don’t buy this one).

10. Chicago- Canon Blue: 1:15 into the song and he still hasn’t started singing yet??? Yep. Horns, drums, bass, strings and weird keys thing? Yep. Enjoy

Now grab your shoes, IPod, and running clothes and head outside. You can tell me your thoughts when you get back.

Today I went running with the intent to clear my mind enough so that I could possibly come back home and write(a song/music). I was not optimistic though because I have been wallowing in a writers block funk and haven’t found a stick to pull myself out yet. I have come to realize that I have been stacking bags on my shoulders while asking myself to scale a mountain. The mountain being the process of writing and recording a new cd and the bags being stipulations. Here is a list of a few of these stipulations:

#1. Have a radio single
#2. Make it a Christian Radio single
#3. Make it up-beat
#4. Make it 4/4
#5. Sing it in the pretty part of my vocal register/Make it a certain key
#6. Write honestly
#7. Be creative/fresh/do something new
#8. Be theological
#9. Write something congregational
#10. (I could go on and on but will stop)

So, with this load on my back I grabbed my running shoes and headed out the door. I was going to run until they fell off. This is where Future of Forestry comes in. I had chosen all 3 of their latest “Travel” EPs and just put the songs on shuffle. Just a mile into my run and half way into the second song I almost had to stop. At first I had found myself smiling at the creativity and depth lyrically, musically and melodically of the songs. I was thrilled by the freedom that the band shows. Then I realized that it has been a long time since I have listened to music that really spoke to me. I love listening to Arcade Fire and Local Natives and Kanye and John Mark McMillan and Tim Hughes and Florence & the Machine etc. etc. but each of these bands speak to me one-sided. They either speak to me spiritually(ie. John Mark and Tim Hughes) or musically(the others). It is very rare that a band speaks from both sides or rather actually speaks my language. Future of Forestry does this. They look me in the eye and speak to me. There is no strange hard to decipher accent. No one is turning to someone else saying “How do you say… in her language?” Nope they speak Sarah. I had forgotten what it was like to hear my language and that is what almost stopped me in my tracks. They spoke musically and spiritually to me and I am thankful. I was reminded of the verses in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

I don’t know Future of Forestry. I have met and spoken a bit with Eric Owyoung(the lead singer/songwriter) but would still say that I don’t really know him. What I do know is that this is a band writing with freedom and writing quite well. Is this is because they are standing with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord? I hope so and I hope that this would be my one and only stipulation that I keep with me as I climb the rest of this mountain.

high fidelity-the reproduction of an effect (as sound or an image) that is very faithful to the original.

low fidelity-a sound recording which contains technical flaws such as distortion, hum, or background noise, or limited frequency response.

Today while I was running I listened to a message by a guy named Levi Lusko (which was quite good by the way) and he mentioned the terms hi fi and lo fi in his message in relation to “hearing” the word of God. Now as usual, anytime I hear something that is interesting I start to day dream about it. I started to think about some of my favorite bands or songs that I have loved partly because of the lo fi recording and then some of those songs or bands that record that are a waste of great talent because of the lo fi recording. There are things that I know (partly because my husband is a walking encyclopedia of record making and production equipment and every now and then I hear him talking about a mic or pre amp etc.) about music equipment that helps me record or be heard in the way that most flatters or best represents my voice. There are mics that I know will pick up the frequency that my voice is the best and then there are those mics that make me sound like I am singing on AM radio. Now for a little bit of info into this world here is the low down. We will stick to microphones as the example. When I am recording my vocals on a cd I choose a microphone that is built for handling the frequencies of a vocal as well as shutting out and not picking up the other noises in the room(for instance my voice bouncing off the wall behind it). When this is done well the listener can best hear my voice, on the recording, sounding most like it actually does. When it is the wrong mic or a lo fi mic and isn’t done well you will hear other things in the recording distorting or masking or distracting from the actual tone of my voice. Now sometimes this is done on purpose for a cool effect but sometimes it is done because the person recording just doesn’t know what they are doing or how to get the best result. Here is where I am going with this…If we look at our lives as christians, and look at the definition of christian: one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ, are our professions being heard as hi fi or lo fi? Are we giving an accurate most faithful to the original display of the glory of the Lord that 2 Corinthians 3:18 talks about

“18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”

or are we living our christians lives in a lo fi way that is displaying a little bit of Christ along with a whole lot of our selves and our distractions. Are we saying “I believe that He came to die for my sin so that I can live my life free from its hold on me” but then turning around every friday night and partying like that is the place my hope and joy is found? Or living a life so filled with lust or greed or anger that these things distract and distort what I claim to believe? When I live my life I want people to see the most accurate example of who Christ is. I want my life to be a hi fi quality representation of what it means to be a christian. For a final thought, I write these blogs many times just as much for myself as for anyone else. I am writing this one today because I know that there are things in my life that are in conflict with what I claim to believe, and I know that this will probably always be the case, but in acknowledging and addressing them I can hopefully step past them and not let them distort or distract or dilute any longer.

The other day I bought a new christian cd because someone I respect said I should. I headed out for a run and a listen. Now my runs are usually 3-6 miles of hilly-ness and the biggest hill I tackle first in order to get it out of the way. I go 1/2 a mile down and then run 1/2 a mile back up and when I say up, I mean UP! This day started out no different but by the time I got back up the hill I was mad. So upset in fact that I turned myself back around and ran the hill again. Here I was again, one second hopeful and the next disappointed. My husband Jonathan warned me to not be so optimistic before I headed out the door but that only seemed to make me want to be more hopeful. Those hopes came crashing down accompanied by sweat and lung ache. Here was another cd of christian musicians trying too hard to be cool and as a result coming off as frauds. I think christian musicians/songwriters etc. are divided into a few groups, let’s say 3. On one side there are those who work within the machine that christian radio has built, then there are those who abandon that machine and find a home in mainstream music by cleverly cloaking their faith based lyrics so that the general public will still listen, and finally a third group that falls somewhere between. This group will never fit into the christian radio machine, which means they will ultimately never really “make it” in christian music, because they can’t find a way reconcile being honest in their musicality as well as their lyric and following the strict rules that christian radio has set. They will also never be successful in the mainstream market because lyrically their songs are far too blatant about their beliefs. Should these bands/artists be punished from both sides for not playing along? Should they loose heart and start to lean one way or the other compromising their craft? It is a weird game to play. On one side you have musicians, who are christians, that are writing songs as if they are playing “Catch Phrase” and they say every description but the one everybody wants to say. You just want to yell “Stop saying ‘Well it’s warm and makes me feel fuzzy and it’s bright and it’s the opposite of dark….’” I just want to shout “Say the word! It’s LIGHT!”. Those christians are being just as dishonest as the christian music producers that slap too much compression on everything to try to keep you from being able to tell there’s no life in the music or the christian staff songwriter who’s focus is strategically placing a lyric in a song to get you to cry instead of writing from a real experience about a real God. There is an unspoken belief that if you want to make technically “good” artistic music you have to do it in a non-christian outlet. There is also an idea that as long as you have the name of Jesus in your song then it should be good enough and the musicality doesn’t have to be current or relevant or interesting. I’m tired of that though. I want music that is great because it has lyrics that are about a great God as well as being creative/artistic/boundary pushing/revealing/challenging/inspiring/gifted music. King David was brought to Saul, in the bible, because he was skilled at what he did. People were talking about him. Word got around and eventually there he was sitting before the king. T. S Eliot says, “Poetry takes something that we know already and turns it into something new.” I want christian music to do this AND be accepted. I want christian musicians who do this to be able to make a living and continue. Ahhhhh…Well that is enough of a rant from me. To leave on a good note…there are bands/artists that I think are doing each of these types of music right. Some making a better living than others because of the machine they are tied to but there is honesty and truth and talent in what they do. Here are a few that come to mind(I realize you might not agree with me on these):

Trudging through mainstream music without watering down their beliefs: Switchfoot

Carefully treading the christian radio water and maintaining life in the music: Phil Wickham

Balancing on the high-wire in between the two: John Mark McMillan