There’s been a good bit of talk about the definition of “secular” in regards to music on our church blog — mostly me ranting. It got me thinking about someone that played guitar on a record I produced back in 1999. I remember he had great songs but didn’t have the budget to give them the attention that they deserved.

I stopped by Justin Rosolino’s web site to see what ever became of him. Well a few years later and with the miracle of digital music, I was able to go to iTunes and download his latest record, Wonderlust. It is a great collection of songs that finally got the attention they deserved. Justin is a believer and is also a songwriter — like many of us who are believers and also developers, accountants, sales people, etc. While his songs aren’t religious, you can sense Christ working in him as he paints musical pictures of his life and thoughts.

The world needs more music like his — a Christian world-view that has artistic integrity and reaches you in the everyday of life. Here’s a couple choice lyric samples:

Anyone
So you can keep the myths of inner strength and self-sufficiency
But give me that suffering heart who’s honest with the pain
Cause the stronger people always tend to bore me anyway
And the weak ones – they remind me I’m not alone, I’m not insane

Oprah
Me and Oprah Winfrey met for coffee with St. Augustine
In Amsterdam last Thursday afternoon
She made conversation with such perfect calculation
While quietly I scribbled down this tune
She tried her best to have the best intentions
In as much as intentions can be
She asked us, “why do bad things have to happen
To good people like Stedman and me?”

Legacy
And so it comes to this, my love, this honesty
And I’m lying dead here in your arms, but miles away
And I have given all that I am to earn my place
Even my secret stones, the ones that I had saved
You said you never asked to see this hollow shell that’s left of me,
But I leave to you my legacy

Believe
I wish I were a mountainside as cold as earth and way up high
Where no one would ever dare to climb
And maybe there might come a day when I’d be beautiful from miles away
Hidden in the half- light of the morning grey

Support local artistry and buy it now from iTunes!