originally written 14th July 2010

I am a musician.

Did you know that?

I didn’t. Well, not always.

I thought I was a counterfeit one. A pretender. A person who could act and sound like a muso, but wasn’t really one.

Strange how the search for self has permeated something as trivial – or as important – as that.

Surely it’s simple.

Dan, meet Dave. Dave plays the guitar. He sings. He gets excited listening to other guitarists, and spends hours copying their riffs.

Dan, would you call Dave a musician?

I think Dan would be losing the plot if he said Dave wasn’t.

Of course, there are hierarchies of musicians – just as in any other field.

There are those who are just starting out. Or are always just starting out.

Then there are those who can only ever play from some kind of written music.

Then there are those who can play from chords, casually classed as ‘improvisers’. I fall into that category. Stick a chord sheet and a singer in front of me, and I’m set.

Then there are those who can wing it. They are the ones who play or sing ‘by ear’. When they play, we wonder why anyone bothered to invent music stands. This is the rarefied stratosphere to which I aspire. While I can sing by ear, I have only occasionally joined those ranks in my playing. Something holds me back – probably the fact that my ear is not reliable. Five times in ten, I will pick the wrong chord.

Then there are The Song Writers.

As you can see from my hierarchy, songwriters are considered it and a bit – by me.

And someone else would have a different pecking order. Perhaps that pop or rock musicians are just not any good. Perhaps not even jazzsters. Only the classical variety get anywhere near the top of the tree.

I digress. But not very far.

I was spun into another morass of self-doubt (yes, I love cliches!) recently by a comment from a highly accomplished muso, passed on second-hand to me, that people who need sheet music to play from aren’t real musicians.

So… back and forth I went. am I a musician?

I don’t think there is anything in my life that has been as much a part of it for the whole of it, as music has. To say the same thing clearly, music is so intertwined into my life, that to separate me and it would be impossible.

I find it interesting that I think of myself as a counterfeit musician – not the real deal. I also suspect most people who know me think of me as a real musician – I play with passion and sensitivity, and I know my music. Why the contradiction?

To be continued…

77 Bombay Street are now on iTunes!

Download their albums here:
47 Millionaires – 77 Bombay Street (Swiss store only)
Dead Bird – 77 Bombay Street
Usa – 77 Bombay Street

You can also find 77 Bombay Street on Youtube and MySpace.

77 Bombay Street is a band of four brothers from Switzerland with a sound that reminds people of  The Beatles – but, as they point out themselves – with a fresh touch.

Check out their music and their story either at http://www.77bombaystreet.com or on their Facebook page.

Press image - 77 Bombay Street

The brothers come from an amazingly musical family who spent a couple of years in Australia, during which time I got to know them a little. I also got to collaborate musically with them a little – quite a privilege.

They have named their band after the address of where they lived in Adelaide.

And of course, being Swiss, and having spent some of their formative years in Australia, they are Third Culture Kids!

Two Sundays ago I finally got to listen to and meet someone that I have considered, for some time, to be one of the greatest Christian worship musicians of our era: Geoff Bullock.

If you’ve been around contemporary Christian worship music for a while, especially in Australia, you are probably familiar with his songs like ‘The Power of Your Love’, ‘You Rescued Me’, and ‘Just Let Me Say’.

Geoff is a musician who has been there, done that, had it all crash down around him… and gone on amazingly since.

Though he probably would not think that he has gone on amazingly. We found a humble man. A high achiever, coming from a family of high achievers. A great musician – I would be well pleased if I could tinkle the ivories with a tenth of his ability. And he is a brilliant song writer with a beautiful voice.

We didn’t have to pay a cent. It was in a small church in lil’ old Adelaide, and he wasn’t there just to perform, just to lead us in worship, or act as a channeling mechanism for an ultimately un-channel-able God. He was there with a genuine desire to tell his story – the story of his brokenness – just so that his story could help others.

He was honest. To me that makes this musician worth listening to.

Not power-house Christianity. Not who wields the voting power in the local congregation. Not which clique you need to belong to, to feel like you are ‘in’ the church. Not how well you have to hide your true self, or how your children need to behave, so everyone will ‘know’ that you are a mature, coping Christian.

Simply this: GRACE.

Check out more of his story of real, amazing grace at http://www.geoffbullock.com and http://geoffbullock.blogspot.com. You can also find links to some rewrites he has made to old favourites like ‘Just Let Me Say’, and ‘Refresh My Heart’.

Warning: this post contains strong religious sentiments that could offend some and overt sentiment which could offend others!

I have a secret to tell you: I like hymns. There – it’s out! But don’t judge me too harshly. It’s all because of a childhood isolated from pop culture. The hymns of my parents have stood through my faith’s formation.

One hymn in particular runs through the thousand changes in my life. I can remember the first time we met.

It was about twenty-five years ago, in a church in the north of England. The minister was enthusiastic as he introduced a new hymn from their new hymnal. It spoke of God making peace with us, giving our lives hope – now and in the future.

My mother loved it. When we returned to our African home she looked it up in a Baptist Hymnal that a friend had supplied. I learned to play it. The hymn spoke of God and His unfailing goodness.

The hymn book returned to our birth country with us. The hymn spoke of God providing for every need we would have – even when we couldn’t see it happening.

When I arrived in Australia I found that our family favourite was listed as one of the most-loved hymns of all time. It speaks of how God alone is constant, totally dependable in any situation. My family still sing it at significant birthdays and anniversaries.

It was sung in churches after the tsunami came and killed thousands. My birth country was one of the hardest hit. It was surreal because our first child, half-Sri-Lankan, was born the morning after. The hymn was sung again last month after Black Saturday’s bush-fires.

My father died two weeks before those fires. We sang the hymn at his funeral. It is testament to that single Thread that ran through his life: many-coloured but importantly, scarlet. It ran from birth to manhood, old age and death: a life stretched across three very different continents.

The hymn is?

If you live in the U.S. or Canada, visit Hope Publishing to view the lyrics.

If you don’t, they have been reproduced by permission at Lee Marshall Music.

Note that copyright of this hymn is held by Hope Publishing, and it cannot be reproduced in any form without prior written consent from the copyright holder.

If you’re after a bit of background on the hymn, try www.hymnary.org.