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startin’ to learn: Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Greatest Hits 2

September 25, 2007 by David Baer

Ah, Bob, Bob, Bob, you do it so well.

Rock-and-roll troubadour of the male soul, there is nobody quite like Bob Seger for a night at home after some manly task has been accomplished. Continue Reading »

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pure grace: Point of Grace (1993)

September 24, 2007 by David Baer

This oddly named female band opened their Big Career with this eponymous 1993 release. It was of course not all that they would become, but it was an audacious start. Continue Reading »

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here and there: Isaiah 2-3

September 24, 2007 by David Baer

Isaiah’s complex journey will celebrate beloved Zion even as it works out a deep, genetic yearning for distant nations to know and serve Israel’s God. The book releases its energy in both centripetal and centrifugal form without denying either motion, as though gathering opposing forces into one insistent, polychromatic song. The book of Isaiah is not simple. Neither is it complicated. Instead, it is complex, a careful gathering of layers into one coherent statement that stretches the imagination while nourishing the reader’s capacity to allow multiple plates to spin. Attention to any one does not cancel out the rotation of the others. Continue Reading »

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self-identity issues: Galatians 1

September 23, 2007 by David Baer

Lots of people don’t like Paul.

This Christian apostle seems too pushy, too assured of his own authority, even too misogynist for admiration. We’ve known too many like him, some readers conclude. Indeed, his model has produced a heap of ornery practitioners of his religion.

Thanks, but no thanks. Continue Reading »

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Zion become Gomorrah: Isaiah 1

September 23, 2007 by David Baer

The first chapter of the book called Isaiah is best seen as an anthology of words of the prophet, collected here to lend the reader some glimpse of the tone and plot of the long, diverse book that follows. The book as such begins with the ‘second’ heading at chapter two, verse one. Continue Reading »

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entre sombra y luz: Luz Casal, Como la flor prometida

September 22, 2007 by David Baer

It would be possible for music lovers who do not know this Spanish diva-of-sorts to mistake Como la flor prometida as just another B-class Iberian cd whose best moments ought probably not fly too far from the Iberian peninsula. That would be dead wrong.

Luz Casal virtually stuns with an eclectic zig-zag from track that could almost be considered bizarre but which succeeds at every moment in revealing yet another facet of the lady’s artistry. Luz is a force to reckoned with. Continue Reading »

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mais que palavras bonitas: Ricardo Arjona, 12 Grandes Éxitos

September 22, 2007 by David Baer

This superb collection of the Guatemalan singer’s hits does justice to a musician whose fiercely loyal fan base considers that he sings more than just pretty words. Arjona’s presentation is often spare, which makes it all the more powerful when his orchestration pulls in the big guns (‘Si el norte fuera el sur’). Continue Reading »

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a song in the heart of a woman: Song of Solomon 4-6

September 22, 2007 by David Baer

Dan Fogelberg, that troubador of emotive angst, sang memorably that …

There’s a song in the heart of a woman
That only the truest of loves can release.

The love of the Shulamite’s Solomon has with regard to this woman’s song done exactly what Fogelberg exhorts: ‘Set it free.’ Continue Reading »

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You … and reality: Tracy Chapman, Telling Stories

September 21, 2007 by David Baer

For Tracy Chapman, ‘you … and reality’ are not synonymous. Rather, the aggrieved architecture of her lyrics claims that ‘there is fiction in the space between you .. and reality.’ Continue Reading »

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This is how Uncle Herbie used to play Beethoven: Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonies 2 & 7 (Deutsche Grammophon, Galleria)

September 21, 2007 by David Baer

One feels sometimes as though the presence of the great ones still lingers about the house, bumping into things and taking their place at the family dinner. Having grown up with the music and images of Herbert van Karajan in the mix, it is not too difficult to allow the imagination to see the diminutive Austrian assuming an avuncular place in the proceedings. Continue Reading »

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