Weekend Song – Rhonda Vincent

We got spiritual earlier this week, and although I’m not being deeply religious myself, I’m drawn no less to this song.

Without religion, the musical landscape would be a worse place. You’d miss out on the greatest albums of John Coltrane, Steve Wonder and Jonny Cash. Without at least the idea of god, you can also scrap the devil, or the notion of it, so there goes the blues and a lot of heavy metal. And Bach. Is that what you want? IS it?

You’d also lose a lot of soul, gospel, reggae, classical music.

You can’t listen to this without singing along. This is a great song – this’ll get an amen from the heathens.

It builds to five-part wide harmony, so it’s in your range no matter who you are. There are no excuses.

I like that male alto they have in country music that does the close harmonies. Mike Mills from REM has that kind of voice. So does Paul Simon although he’s not as sharp. Guys like Arlo Guthrie, Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Hank Williams – what they lacked in richness they made up in edge. Levon Helm had a voice like a rusty penknife. You get plenty of country singers with rich voices, of course. Kenny Rogers, Dwight Yoakam and Randy Travis have great tenor tones, but you get that pretty much everywhere.

But let’s hear it for the big man. I can’t tell whether he is or ain’t, but I can’t prove music exists either. It’s there, but what are actually experiencing? Sound waves? Maybe.

Rise and follow me, I’ll make you worthy.
Rise and follow me, I’ll make you fishers of men.

Listen: Fishers Of Men