Check out this free mp3 by a great artist named Andrew Osenga.

I love music. I love listening to it. I love being moved by it.

I love great lyrics that reveal new meaning upon each hearing. I heard someone say once that a great song can remind you of a place you've never been.

I thought I'd share a couple of my favorite indie artists with you and I hope you'll share some of your favorites with me. Please do….I just love finding new music.

My absolute favorite right now is an artist named Kendall Payne. I've always loved the line from Chronicles of Narnia when Mr. Beaver replies to one of the children's questions as to whether Aslan is safe. Mr. Beaver says,"Oh, no. He's not safe…..but He's good." I think that's such a great and mysterious description of God. Apparently, Kendall thought so too, and wrote a phenomenal song called Aslan. Love it. I also love another song entitled Pray. Superstar and Backward are also great songs. Those are all on her latest CD – Grown. It's on iTunes. Her first CD was called Jordan's Sister and I've listened to it constantly since it came out 5 or 6 years ago. Perfect by Thursday and Modern Day Moses are my favorites. I saw her perform live about 5 years ago when she opened for Third Day. It was just her and her guitar and she was simply amazing.

Another favorite indie is Dave Barnes. "Brother, Bring the Sun" is the only one of his cd's I have right now, but I plan to remedy that really soon. I love the songs Nothing Fancy and On A Night Like This.

Dave Barnes came to town a few months back and Andy Davis opened for him. I was mesmerized during his whole set. His first studio album won't come out until '07, but he has a "homemade" cd out now that I really like. It's very acoustic – which I like. I like to hear raw talent.

If you're up for something a little different, I think Katy Bowser's songs are quite fun.

Of course, there's also, our very own Five Cent Stand… 

That's it for now. I'll leave you with the lyrics from Kendall Payne's song Pray:

Pray

I will pray for you now for you have been my faithful friends
While the road we walk is difficult indeed
I couldn’t not ask for more than what you’ve already been
Only that you would say these prayers for me

May your heart break enough that compassion enters in
May your strength all be spent upon the weak
All the castles and crowns you build and place upon your head
May they all fall come crashing down around your feet

May you find every step to be harder than the last
So your character grows greater each stride
May your company be of humble insignificance
May your weakness be your only source of pride

What you do unto others may it all be done to you
May you meet the one who made us
And see him smile when life is through

May your blessings be many but not what you hoped they’d be
And when you look upon the broken
May mercy show you what you could not see

May you never be sure of any plans you desire
But you’d learn to trust the plan he has for you
May your passions be tried and tested in the holy fire
May you fight with all your life for what is true

I have prayed for you now all of my dear and faithful friends
But what I wish is more than I could ever speak
As the way wanders on I’ll long to see you once again
Until then, would you pray these prayers for me?
Oh that you would pray for me.

So who are some of your favorite indie (doesn't have to be an indie, I guess) artists?

The Cachinnator posed a question over at Shlog (did I really just write that? Is that English?) that has been bouncing around in my head. 

"Why aren't we the boldest leaders and the most attractive engaging artists in the world?"

Jesus was. Why aren't we?  

I'm just thinking out loud here, but I wonder if part of it is that we've created such a secure subculture for ourselves and such a specific desciption of what a Christian does or does not look, act, sound, dress, speak or live like that we've often surpressed or alienated many of those whom God have truly gifted with creativity or leadership. I'm not a music historian, but stories of Bob Dillon spring to my mind here and maybe Bono.

Those are just some of my thoughts. What are yours?

The Dixie Chicks, famous for lead singer Natalie Maines untimely and perhaps unpatriotic comments as our country was on the verge of war, have a new album out and the first single give me chills and inspires me to no end.

Mind you, I don't necessarily agree with their point of view, but passion and conviction inspires me and if this new single is anything, it's passionate and full of conviction. Here are a few lines:

I've paid a price and I'll keep paying it

I'm not ready to make nice

I'm not ready to back down

I'm still mad as hell and

I don't have time to go round and round and round

It's too late to make it right

I probably wouldn't if I could

'Cause I'm mad as hell

Can't bring myself to do what it is that you think I should

Wow. Maybe I'm naive. Maybe I don't know the whole story, but am SO moved by uncomfortable and unashamed honesty and if you are to, listen to the whole song at their web site.

I'd really like to know what you all think about this song. Shaun? Cach?

I've decided to set up a different blog for all my music marketing info. I'll still post here when I add new info, but the actual posts will reside at: http://clearbluewebdesign.wordpress.com/

Now..you may return to your regularly schedule programs…

-kat 

Here’s a blog that I’ve been reading for awhile that has some great marketing tips for indie musicians. It’s by Bob Baker and he’s the author of Guerrilla Music Marketing. Pretty good stuff. He’s also got a solid podcast that’s worth a listen.

I’m sitting here listening to iTunes and a Kendall Payne song just came on and I thought I’d share the love. If you’ve never heard Kendall Payne you’re seriously missing out. You’ve likely heard her music as it’s been in several movies and on a number of tv shows.

Her music is very smart. She’s a great songwriter. I discover new things every time I listen. She has some profoundly deep songs and some profoundly fun songs. One of my current favorite songs is called Aslan and it’s about Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia. I-N-C-R-E-D-B-L-E song.

I could go on and on, but why don’t you check out Kendall’s Myspace site and listen for yourself.

She’s also on iTunes. A couple of my favorite songs are:

• Perfect by Thursday
• Stand
• Rollercoaster
• Aslan
• Supermodels
• Modern Day Moses

I just discovered www.pandora.com. It’s seriously cool. You just enter the name of your favorite artist and they make a “radio station” of similar music. If you don’t like a song they play, you just click a button and they tweak things so that the music they play meets your musical leanings.

It’s not perfect (I entered Bethany Dillon and I got a Sinead O’Conner song…hmmm…) but I’ve heard a few new artists that I’d not heard before.

It’s pretty cool. Check it out.

I’ve been very into trying to find good new music. I think it’s especially fun to find indie artists, but when I started searching around I had NO idea how many great indie artists there are. Man. It’s crazy that some people get signed and others don’t. Here are a few of my favs:

Dave Barnes – I don’t usually like guy singers all that much, but he has such a great voice. Listen to Nothing Fancy.

Erin Toland – A 17 year old with a guitar and some good hooks. I love the song Hollywood.
Kendall Payne – Deep. One of my favorite all time artists. Check out the song Aslan.

Anyone have any other recomendations?