WOW!

For the past few years, I've been a fan of the music of Indelible Grace. I've always wanted to try their tunes, but never got the chance. I've just never known how to work that particular music into my setlists. There are a few reasons for this.

• Lyrics - as you know, Indelible Grace is made up of really old songs. Lyrically, they are beautiful and poetic tunes. But that almost always means that they're also very wordy. I've struggled how to work something lengthy and crafted like that into worship sets that are a bit more "modern."
  
  
• Musical differences - if you've heard much from IG, you know that the music is decidedly "folky." Lots of acoustic instruments, including mandolin, banjo, accordion, etc. While some of those tunes can be adapted with more standard praise-team instruments, many of them can't. In fact, I think the unique nature of the production makes many of these tunes stand out. And as much as I'd like to roll a banjo and mandolin up on stage, not many people would volunteer for that.
  
  
• They're not HYMNS - wait, wait. I know that they actually ARE hymns. But most of them aren't well known. And I'll be honest that one reason I enjoy using hymns in worship is because they are familiar. There's not much cooler than rolling from something new into a hymn that everybody knows. And while Indelible Grace may produce hymns, to a congregation, they're "new songs" and new songs need to be place very carefully in a worship list.

That's why I've always wanted to see somebody do these songs.

Imagine my surprise when I got an email today telling me that Matthew Smith, one of the frontment for the IG movement would be coming to Tyler in two weeks!

February 25, 2009
Sylvania Church
Tyler, TX (God's country)
6pm

I'll be heading over and possibly taking some of my team from Bethel if they're interested. If you're in the Tyler area and think it might be fun to hear a young guy and his band play songs that are older than your great-grandmother, come and join me!

If you'd like to hear some of Matthew's stuff, you can check out matthewsmith.us or head over to igracemusic.com.

I'm excited!