I’ll make this quick but it’s a great little BookNotes with a big ask: can you help share about this free upcoming webinar (November 17th) with those who you think might be interested?

All are very warmly invited. It’s going to be a blast. Maybe for some, a blast from the past.

 

PLEASE REGISTER RIGHT HERE: https://ecpa-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4dmCc5iTSAW_rELfzvBLzw

I know there are those who like tuning in just to hear me chat with folks — a small town bookseller and a big-time author — and so if you enjoy learning about books and writing and being an author, come on! Thank you for your support of our efforts.

This webinar (November 17 at 8:00 PM EST) is one that is very special for several reasons.

First, the author Jeff Crosby is a great conversationalist, a careful and graceful writer, a guy with decades of experience in the book world. This will be the first time we’ve had an author on a Hearts & Minds webinar three times! We hosted Jeff for an online book talk when his fabulous first book came out, The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts (published by Broadleaf) and then again when his wonderful and wonderfully-relevant World of Wonder: A Spirituality of Reading came out (released by Paraclete.) And now, we’ve got him coming to this Zoom-like event to talk about what is his most fun book of all, Spirit In the Sky: The Power of Music in Our Search for Graceland (recently released by the storied, prestigious Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.)

Those who follow BookNotes but missed my remarks about  The Spirit in the Sky all our reviews are archieved. Visit HERE. We still have it at 20% off.

For those who haven’t read my comments, here’s the skinny just to share with a friend — The Spirit in the Sky: The Power of Music in Our Search for Graceland is an easy-to-read and nicely informative book with inspiring chapters about the search for meaning and faith in popular music.

I hope you got the Graceland album reference. Right?

Jeff’s wonderful, wonderful introduction is “Listening to the Wiind” which is a reference to the beautiful short song “The Wind” from Cat Steven’s iconic Teaser and the Fire Cat still beloved after fifty-five years.

In a way (not unlike Crosby’s Language of the Soul and World of Wonder) The Spirit in the Sky is autobiographical. It has stories of his musical discovering and what it means to him, even as a teen, like in a memoir. Yes, you get mini-biographies and enchanting discographies of all these pop singers and recording artists, but, more, you get Jeff’s story about how those artists captured his imagination, how they shaped his journey, how they lead him to Christian faith, or formed his faith as he grew in discipleship.

You know this (even if not everybody at your church says it out loud) —we Christians can grow in faith and faithfulness to God’s ways by listening to so-called secular music.

And here’s the thing: even music put out on secular, corporate, even sometimes corrupt recording labels scan be laced with faith, and can be channels of common grace and faithful insight and beauty and provocation. I think you’ll sometimes hear more gospel insights in some of the songs of Paul Simon and Van Morrison and Marvin Gaye (and pre-conversion Bob Dylan, for that matter) than in some highly praised CCM albums. So, yes, through the likes of these singer-songwriters and rock bands we can grow in faith and courage and commitment to Christ; we can learn to wonder about God’s world; we can learn wisdom and deepen our desire to be people who forgive or to be those who work for justice (etc. etc.) all from listening to the sometimes subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) songs from these folk, pop, rock, blues, and soul artists. Pink Floyd? Cat Stevens? Tracy Chapman? George Harrison? Laura Nyro? You bet. Jeff has grown through them all.

And he’ll tell us all about it at the webinar on 11-17-26. I can’t wait.

The Spirit in the Sky has a seventeen chapters, each telling about a certain artist and Jeff’s personal experience with their recordings and concerts. It isn’t a deep, detailed study of the lyrics but it isn’t just a simple overview of their music; it is more of an impressionistic survey of God’s work in and through these musical acts. It’s going to be joy (and mayber enlightening for some) to hear us talking about it all.

Please join us, won’t you? And tell others?

Tell your kids, or your parents, or your grandparents. Jeff and I will banter about our favorite songs of some of these favorite artists. You’ll know many of them (Seals & Crofts, Cat Stevens, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Tracey Chapman, Bill Withers (who doesn’t love Lean on Me?), The Staple Singers, Van Morrison, Paul Simon, Pink Floyd, and more who are household names. Some are lesser known artists — Mickey Newbury, Laura Nyro, Chris Rea, Brooks Williams, Bruce Cockburn.

In any case, it’s going to be an entertaining conversation, and hopefully you will be introduced to some new ways of thinking about pop culture, contemporary music, and artists who are used by God to touch us all.  As Paul Simon hopes, maybe we all will be recieved at Graceland.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER:

https://ecpa-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4dmCc5iTSAW_rELfzvBLzw

When you click on the link and fill out the little form you are registered. You’ll then get a reply which includes a free Zoom-link that will get you into the conversation on November 17th. Again, remember – it starts at 8:00 PM, Eastern Time (7:00 Central.) You’ll have opportunities to ask questions via the “chat” feature, too. Sign up now, please. It’ll be nice to have you with us.

Spread the word, okay?

Jeff Crosby’s writing is spacious, inviting readers to recover from their own lives the times music helped them over rough spots, propelled them toward greater insights, led them toward joy. At another level, Crosby, by his own admission, is a spiritual seeker who struggles with doubt and ambiguity while also chafing at the certainties of religious dogma. Over and over he tells us how music has instead helped him to embrace mystery, to be a quester and questioner, to — in Van Morrison’s words — be ‘a soul in wonder’, a ‘dweller on the threshold’. Crosby helps us understand that thresholds are the leading edges of spiritual growth and are surrounded by the vibrations of music that both challenge and comfort us. — Dr. Richard R. Guzman, author of Voices and Freedoms: A History of Jazz

Why do we so treasure the music of our favorite artists? Isn’t it because of the way that these artists celebrate our experiences in this beautiful and broken world? Isn’t it about the way they ask honest questions about what it means to be human, how we can make sense of our lives and loves, and whether we can somehow make a connection with something (or someone) who can help us transcend the pain and triviality of our everyday existence? Jeff Crosby explores these issues in his latest book, which, if you’re like me, offers a fresh engagement with some longtime favorites and an introduction to some whom you didn’t know much about, but now you want to dig into. What a fascinating and delightful book! —Terry Glaspey, author of 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know

Again, you are warmly invited to this free conversation with author Jeff Crosby as we talk together about his new book The Spirit in the Sky: The Power of Music in Our Search for Graceland. It is November 17th at 8PM Eastern Time.  You must pre-register HERE. 

As I’m sure you know, the book is available at Hearts & Minds for 20% OFF. The list price is $32.00 and at our BookNotes discount it is only $25.60. To purchase, use the link below.

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