By Sara Zarr, Special Contributor Born and Raised John Mayer Columbia Records Close your eyes and clone yourself Build your heart an army To defend your innocence While you do everything wrong  So opens “The Age of Worry,” the second track from John Mayer’s latest album, Born and Raised. I’ve been obsessively listening to that song and the majority of the album all summer. It’s almost become my personal soundtrack for 2012. That feels strange for me to type because I’ve never been what you could call a fan of [...]

By Brian Q. Newcomb, UCC News… Mercyland: Hymns for the Rest of Us           (Various Artists, Produced by Phil Madeira) Mark Heard once wrote a song about being “Stuck in the Middle,” between the religious pieties of conservative Christian expressions and the stark reality of secularism. “Funny world we live in, it’s funny every day, half the world prays like a preacher, the other half don’t even pray,” he wrote. “So no one understands you if you pray in your own way.” Heard concluded, “I’m too sacred for the sinners, and [...]

By Brian Q. Newcomb, UCC News • • • Jonathan Rundman Self-titled solo album Salt Lady Records Jonathan Rundman’s main gig is being himself—working that fine line between garage-y pop-rock singer/songwriter and youth worker/church musician. Can you imagine Paul Westerberg as the contemporary worship band leader for an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) congregation, who’d rather write smart, fun songs than sing the usual praise choruses out of the Vineyard songbook? The result is better, more progressive theology and great, sing-along songs that sound more like Cheap Trick than the [...]

Carrie Newcomer Everything is Everywhere Available Light Records Fans of Carrie Newcomer’s folksy style who buy her newest CD, Everything is Everywhere, and don’t read the jacket carefully, may think that they’ve ended up with the wrong CD. The first minute is instrumental; the sound is Eastern and exotic. Then a melody gradually emerges, and Ms. Newcomer’s earthy voice slides in seamlessly. That’s when listeners know they’ve got Ms. Newcomer, all right—but she’s not in Indiana anymore. Everything is Everywhere is a work of musical and spiritual fusion. Ms. Newcomer [...]

By Cathleen Falsani , Religion News Service • • • Ah, the lazy days of summer, filled with more sunshine and ease than the rest of the year. This time of year always recalls musical memories, and one of mine is Paul Simon’s legendary concert in New York City’s Central Park. On that perfect August night in 1991, some 600,000 people gathered on the Great Lawn to listen to Mr. Simon tell his song-stories, his sweet tenor seemingly untouched by the years since he first came to prominence on the [...]