It’s so funny. Tonight I was checking my “Blog Stats” on WordPress, and I noticed that I had seven views on my post Love Has Come from some months back. The post contains an old Caedmon’s Call music video of their cover of Rich Mullin’s classic song Hope To Carry On. I just think it’s so goofy. It’s so funny to see Derek Webb in brightly colored hawaiian shirts being carried and dropped into a guitar case. That is so silly it’s classic. But before the actual music video portion of the video, there is a little bit of an explanation of why Caedmons chose to cover the song. Before they were even a band, Cliff (lead singer) and his friends wanted to sing it in church and kind of start a quasi-band built around their cover of the song. What’s funny is that while playing it at their church, after the intro to the song, when there was supposed to be a key change, one of Cliff’s guitar strings broke. This caused a little bit of a panic and the “band” had to sing the rest a capella until they found the right key. I quote Cliff, “I think God taught me from the beginning that He was in charge. He could pop one of my strings in heart beat and that it wasn’t about my talent or our talent…” And his wife, Danielle said this, “It was a humbling experience right from the beginning.”
Now I’m not sure how many of you who read this have attended any of my past “concerts,” but if you have, and if you went to my very first “concert” you’ll remember that the very first song I sang that night was Hope To Carry On (unknowing of the history of Caedmons with that song). And you’ll remember that at the key change, I messed the whole thing up. I didn’t know how to change keys without just moving the capo up a couple frets, and I didn’t move my capo up in time and had to try to key change a capella. When I finally put the capo on the right spot and started strumming, my singing did not match up AT ALL.
This really makes me laugh. Because not only was it humbling, but it was also almost the same way my favorite band started. Granted, they were much better musicians than I currently am, but there’s so much room to grow and learn. There is so much room. God is so good and will carry out His plan. Realizing the connection between my first “concert and Caedmon’s first “concert” has really shown Gods grace to me. It really honestly has given me hope to carry on. To keep trying to make music and write songs. And to sing for Him. And about Him. And the things He’s done. I’m not saying I’ll have the same success as Caedmons or even the same kind of future. I might not see success the first few years, but I know that I will keep trying. He has done so much for me, I have GOT to sing about it!
So here’s that video again. It’s also a great tribute to Rich Mullins. A true man of God.
