Mind the Music

I've entered into the appropriate music debate many times, and possibly have briefly touched on it before on this blog, but always with some trepidation. You see, I stand on the edge of any position within any particular music debate. I listen primarily to country, I'm careful and somewhat picky about what I'll hear within the style and definitely out of it, yet I've found songs I'll listen to within nearly every style in existance. I'm Charismatic everywhere except at Mass and very traditional then. I've learned, more recently, to pay actual attention to the lyrics and to what the music sounds like, but for most of the time when I was growing up, what mattered was what the music said - whether it spoke to you, how it spoke, what the song was about and said. What it leads you to.. where your heart is. It's the issue I have in particular with the traditional/charismatic debates; both can lift your mind and heart to God. Becoming Catholic in a very Charismatic church and then heading somewhere where I got Latin Masses for a year, I should know, I've experienced both. At this point I don't find much of the Charismatic music (in part because of what accompanies it.. clapping, dancing, so on and so forth) appropriate for Mass, but in a prayer meeting I have no problem with it. (I refuse to venture into which songs are just plain badly written and what place those have.)

What the music says - whether it directs you to good things, to God above all - will, to my mind, always be one of the most important aspects, no matter how much I learn about what makes a particular song good or bad. And it's to that end, not to actually debate anything, that I've gone and begun this post. You see, I discovered a new group about a week ago.

Not new new; they've been around for a while. Just new to me. You see, it's also an odd post because I'm probably the last among many of my aquaintances to have found this group, being, as I am, so often behind on these sorts of things. Nevertheless I heard one of their CDs playing during a car ride around a week ago, and a particular song came on that struck me very strongly as applying to a situation I was in. I sat, and listened to it, and it has replayed over and over in my head since then because it spoke to me that morning, and the words helped me turn my thoughts to Christ and away from myself as well as any song I've ever heard before. The group was the Foxhoven Family Singers. Completely unguessable by the name, and equally completely unusual among people and groups I've come to know and like, it's a family that sings together. Their music is specifically Catholic, and while had I heard the song in other circumstances I might have took as much notice as I have of many other groups and passed on without worrying about who it was or how to obtain it.. what I remember of their other songs also has me intrigued, and I've decided to order this CD. The samples are the ones I like best from the various CDs offered on their website, with the added benefit of being the one I was listening to in the first place and which my song is on.

I may post again once I have the CD and have found a chance to listen to all the songs again more carefully, but if I don't, and I'm wrong about being the last among many to heard of them - I'd recommened going to check out the website. It seems to be good music in that it does (well) what music about God should do, they're a large family (with cute baby pictures), and they offer free shipping. What more could you want?

*edit - Fast shipping, too! And I got a personal note included in the package. How cool is that?