Remedies for Radio Rash

Here are a few more thoughts on the stuff that is causing me Radio Rash:

* Don't try so hard, just make music that you like and that is honest about who or where you are.

* Don't feel like it has to be a complete novel in one song...sometimes the beauty in life is when you are "caught a moment," The first breath after a first kiss...the taste of something not the whole meal...

* Let me wrestle with the words...you don't have to make everything so clear. Ambiguity allows me to interact with the music and allows magic to happen. Each song can mean something different for everyone.

* Don't produce music that always smells like it just came out of the wash...the story of the jeans is how they got dirty too. Scars make for great storytelling.

* Quit acting like a choir boy...if I wanted to listen to a girl I would...be a man.

* Remember Jesus chose a wild man to baptize him into public life not a priest...beginnings are important...where you start can define where you end up sometimes.

* People live in the world, a world which God made and owns, tell me about how you live in this place without losing your center. I've not been to heaven but I live on earth. Talk to me about the stuff that I see, hear and feel everyday but need to hear about it through other eyes, so I can see my world anew.

* Be influenced but be you...crossdressers make lame musicians and poets.

* I need to hear the war cry again...much of the music out there seems created for the nursery. Give me something that changes the temperature of my blood, makes me want to yell like a man not whisper like a woman.

* Be creative...God isn't monochrome. With a world full of instruments and cultures you would think Christians would discover that music is far more than a keyboard, bass, guitar and drums. Discover sounds, explore more, dare to trust sound more than lyrics. The typical moment of instrumental pause is about as long as the typical spontaneous praise in churches...short, awkward and hurried. We need to linger more, allow music to marinate on us. There is power in sound, the ocean heals not by words but sound.

* Uncork the passion please. If God is love and passion is the very flame of the Lord, than why do Christians seem like the prudish icicles around? Can't we write about anything that most of us think about most of all anyway...sex. Sure, you don't have to get all graphic but why can't someone write a song like Dave Matthew's does; that makes you want to find your wife and show her why you married her! Come On!