Take Your Place, Twice

We will have two songs entitled Take Your Place on the new CD by that same name. Yes it seems a bit much, but let me explain.

First, the whole title came about in discussion with our good friend Joseph Kiranto while he was still here in Canada. We were discussing a potential theme for this next CD... We had the book of Ruth in one hand, and some other Scripture passages in another, and the hope that we might connect these to the needs around HIV/AIDS around the world. I'm not exactly sure who came up with the name "Take Your Place", but Joseph sure expanded on it. It reflects the need for everyone to take their place in the fight against HIV/AIDS... from those with the disease, to the people trying to educate in communities, to community leaders who need to encourage further steps, to donors and supporters across the world... The phrase also invites those who might not have a place in the community, because of the stigma of AIDS, or whatever, to be welcome.

Once we had this theme in place, I invited my good friend Phil Campbell-Enns who wrote "Mountain of God" on the last CD, to take a shot at writing a theme song. He dug into some of the other Scripture we had in hand from Romans, and came up with a very dense and remarkable song, entitled, surprise: "Take Your Place". It spends time with some of the darkness and despair of life (like, if you have AIDS), and reflects the light and hope we have in God... it packs quite the punch lyrically/theologically.

The story continues... so, I was playing a demo of this song to certain MCC Alberta staff persons who shall remain unnamed... and in the course of debriefing the "meatiness" of the lyrics, said staff threw out the joke, maybe you two should do more bluegrass.  As you may know, blugrass tends to deal with matters of faith in a more simplistic, often cliched way.  It was a good laugh.

Something about the comment stuck, so, some weeks later, as a bit of a joke, I threw together a few nice cliches, a few old-timey type musical ideas, and a VERY short time later, Take Your Place (At the Table) was almost done. Oddly, something about the song didn't end up being the satire it was intended. The verses pointed to a simplistic take on discipleship... sort of like the faith of a child... less smarty-pants thinking and more working.

So, not only did Kim like it, the group out in Najile chose it as one of the few songs they would try to learn, so, the recording includes a mass choir of Maasai people... half or more who didn't speak English.  The Godly irony of the whole business is rather fantastic.  What kind of God takes dumb jokes and makes something of them???

Watch the recording video in the Video archive to enjoy seeing the people learning the song.  Then listen to the (almost) final versions of both songs on the Music page.  They will be on the CD.