Wonderlust

Wednesday, August 24th, 2005 at 6:17 pm | Posted in Local Songwriters.

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!

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7 Responses to “Wonderlust”

  1. mel says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 2:02 am

    Does Christian music have to be blatantly about God or does it mean you write with enlightened consciousness? Does writing with enlightened consciousness denote secularism or a greater awareness of ones self in the whole scheme of things? Is that bad? Interesting. I - as you would imagine - would support the idea of writing with an enlightened mentality. Sometimes it helps to weave real life situations and paint the story with words, without necessarily giving away the whole idea. Let the user interpret and even dig a little deeper into the meaning.

    I listened to the sample tracks on iTunes and his music sounds great! I “may” make my first purchase ever on there.

    Cheers!

  2. David says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 8:26 am

    Here is what I finally got around to articulating on the Grace Fellowship blogs:

    I’m happy to use [the word "secular"] as Webster does if it’s used in the right context: not overtly or specifically religious but there is just so much baggage with the word. Do a Google on “secular music” and you’ll find plenty of pages perpetuating the turmoil of people trying to decide if they are “good Christians” if they listen to songs that aren’t religious in nature songs that don’t:

    1. use “Christianese”
    2. say the name of Jesus at least once
    3. originate from a Christian

    The tension comes from the thought process of, “If it’s not ‘Christian’ then it must be at best, a waste of time, at worst, a sin.” So many people think [the word "secular"] means lack of spirituality. If non-religious music lacked spirituality then why would people be so worried about it? It all has a spiritual position assigned by the listener.

    I think it’s more of the comparison of “secular v/s Christian” that also doesn’t make sense to me. It’s not a fair comparison. It’s like saying, “feminist v/s American music”. It leads to the thinking that God is only glorified in overtly religious music and everything else is to be lumped into one big bucket and discarded at the earliest opportunity. (Seems like a God box to me.)

  3. Jeffrey says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 2:34 pm

    He’s compared to Sister Hazel. Good enough for me, I think I’ll have a taste.

  4. Kevin says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 4:15 pm

    David shared some of Justin’s tracks with me from his iPod. Good art in every sense of the word.

  5. David says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 8:52 pm

    Hey hey! Here are some free, artist endorsed, live mp3s from a recent show at Eddie’s Attic.

  6. mel says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 9:52 pm

    Great thought David!

  7. Amy says:
    September 12th, 2005 at 8:06 pm

    I guess I missed my chance. The link doesn’t work anymore. And I don’t really want to install the iTunes jukebox on my laptop. Let me know if you discover any other places I can listen or buy online.

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