Want some stick-to-your-ribs Meat & Potatoes music? This debut album has:
• Sold over 850 copies without distribution
• Been hailed as having more substance than most of what you hear on Christian radio. One fan bought copies to send to her local Christian stations encouraging them to play it!
• Repeatedly been called “theologically and biblically sound”
• Gotten 3 independent cuts
• Stayed in the CD player of Al’s car for over a year! (Actually, it got stuck and he couldn’t get it out!)
There’s so much music out there these days! I buy albums, then kick myself for having spent the money when they don’t live up to my expectations. Then others stay with you and become the soundtrack of your life for awhile, the Spirit speaking through the lyrics daily directly to your need. I’ll give you a 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed-or-your-money-back offer on this album! It’s for people struggling to believe and trust in God’s goodness in the face of personal brokenness and pain. I hope it ministers life and hope to you! May God bless you with His peace this Christmas, Brent 12-01-2007
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So, I'm singing better now. My songwriting has improved. But I keep hearing from people whose lives are touched and changed by this first album. So humbling. So much music, so little time to listen, but please do!
THE GIFT OF MUSIC...
"The Gift of music".... A gift is supposed to be a good thing that gives, builds, and completes. Though I've always been told I was a "gifted" musician, for many years that "gift" seemed more like a curse. Though music won me acceptance and favor, it also chained me down because I tied most of my self-esteem to it. I thought I HAD to perform and serve in order to be accepted. Eventually I walked away from music due to the pain of the 'Gift."
I'm so glad that I've been freed to rediscover that the Gift is good, that it's meant to feed my soul and help me connect with God, as well as to bless others. Recently I heard someone state that God is the giver of all good gifts, and that creativity comes from Him. He who comes to steal, kill, and destroy creates nothing. Only God and His presence in us. So I celebrate God's creativity in me.
These songs are truly " Songs in the Night", rousing me out of bed to write them down, lest I forget them by morning. They are responses to sermons, thoughts, boring meetings, and deep feelings that I've scribbled on scrap paper while lying in bed, or even whizzing down the Interstate ( God forgive me!)
It's been an incredible joy to watch these little songs travel to a studio in Nashville, and to be sung by roomfuls of people in Atlanta and Corpus Christi, TX, singing for free as a favor! I thank God for the Gift, and the opportunity to pass it on. I have prayed that God will make these songs a blessing to you and everyone who hears them. I hope they bring a smile to your heart, as they have to mine; and as I believe they have to the heart of God.
MY STORY...
I grew up as a missionary kid (MK) in Indonesia. I was 6 when we arrived , and promptly started picking out melodies from "The Sound of Music" by ear on our new piano when it arrived. I was quickly taken to a piano teacher, and the music never stopped! I was on the piano bench playing for church by the 6th Grade and stayed there for many years. I went to Baylor University to study music. There I quickly got into some bad habits that destroyed my life to the point that I dropped out of college 9/10 the way through my degree. At one point I was offered an opportunity to move to Philadelphia to 'start over again.' I got a job at the Second Mile Center, a Christian Thrift Store which hires and helps people coming out of addictions, prison, and off of welfare dependency. I eventually got sober there and have stayed 16 years. So much of my world consists of the Bric-a-Brac division of our Thrift Store. I thank God for the SMC, where I was given a safe place to fight my way through to a real faith of my own apart from that of my parents'.
Whatever and however we grow up, there are always plusses and minuses, and some baggage. For MKs, that means being a third culture kid, belonging neither to the culture of your parents, nor to that of your adopted country, but a third, mixed culture. And because you're there as a result of your parents' following something as nebulous as "The Will of God", it's easy to blame everything that goes wrong on God. Being born to the Team with The Answers,, and being expected to always be a good example, leaves little room for actually realizing your own real need for God. Reconciling the perfect ideal of your parents' mission with the reality of their imperfections can be difficult. I have largely come to a peace and acceptance of my upbringing and its baggage. Feeling deeply for MKs and children of people in ministrty who are fighting their way through has led me to dedicate this album to MKs struggling to overcome the stumbling blocks of their upbringing, to arrive at a faith of their own and the peace with God that He has promised. I pray that for you, too!
Brent Ellison
Philadelphia
June 17th, 2007
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