Playing a local show!

Hey everyone! (or at least the 1-2 people who provide the 2 hits per month I've been getting while not updated this blog ... ugh)

I'll be the feature performer at a "coffeehouse" concert THIS FRIDAY night...
7:00pm, Friday, October 5th
WILDWOOD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
18630 W Old Gages Lake Rd
GRAYSLAKE, IL 60030

This is the first show in a long time I've played with other performers (friends Ben Paulson on percussion and Jim Batson on bass... fantastic players!), so I'm stoked to get to flesh my songs out a little.

So come on out!  The show is FREE (as far as I know), and there's even an Open Mic portion, so if you feel like strutting your stuff as well please do... I look forward to hearing it!

There might even be a couple special surprises for you ...  ;) ... Hope to see you there!

The Plans I Have For You (Jeremiah 29)

Another one of my songs posted to The Scripture to Music Collective online this week!

"The Plans I Have For You" - a song based on Jeremiah 29:1-14.  We are all familiar with the beloved verse, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord..." (29:11), which is the most well-known (though not the only familiar verse!) in this chapter.  It has graced the cover of many a religious greeting card, and has been the well-meaning source of a lot of misguided spiritual advice.

The problem is that this verse is almost always taken completely out of context.  Many have taken it to mean "follow God's plan for your life and nothing bad will happen to you," or, "God will make sure your life is good and hunky-dory," or simply, "your future is bright!" (a la many a graduation card handed out this month).  However, these understandings of the verse lose sight of the fact that is comes from a letter written from the prophet Jeremiah, sharing God's word of hope to the people of Israel while they are living in exile.  They have been captured, enslaved, carried away from their precious promised land; everything and almost everyone they knew and loved back home was destroyed.  Life had not worked out the way they had expected it to--certainly not anything resembling "hunky-dory."  In the midst of these horrendous circumstances, Jeremiah's letter is not a cozy sentiment but a radical challenge to hope and to live in light of God's unfailing goodness.  It probably never occurred to them that God could still have plans for them, even in exile.  God's call is for them to build houses, plant gardens, seek God's peace (shalom, wholeness) even for their captors and enemies, and to keep seeking after the Lord their God ... for he will be found!

This song was my attempt to set this familiar, beloved verse in its context by capturing an overview of Jeremiah's whole letter to the exiles, and to frame this promise with the many other difficult but hope-filled commands and encouragements that are present in the surrounding verses.

Check out the leadsheet (lyrics and chords) I've uploaded to googledocs, and listen to the song on the Scripture to Music page (which also has lyrics posted) or on my SoundCloud page.  Please pass these links along to others and share the song with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.  Thanks!

Upcoming Show! - 4/28 in Libertyville

I've got a new upcoming show to announce!

I'll be playing a solo acoustic set (or two) at ...

Caribou Coffee in LIBERTYVILLE, IL

725 N Milwaukee Ave (Rte 21)

Saturday, April 28th

7:00pm

FREE & all ages welcome

Hope to see you there ... and bring your friends!

Luke <><

Romans 8:38-39 ... for Easter!

And here's another song from that same 2002 "live worship" session (see the previous post) ... This time one for Easter!

I thought it fitting to celebrate this Resurrection day with the affirmation that nothing ... not even death! ... "can ever separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord."

Alleluia!

13 Romans 8-38-39

In Awe Of You ... especially on Good Friday

Here's a posting of an "old" song (as far as my compositions go, one of my first!) called "In Awe of You".

I decided I'd share this today, on Good Friday, as a simple prayer/song of adoration, in awe of our Savior whose grace, love and power was made known to us even through the blood and pain of the cross.

This is from a "live" in-studio worship session for the "Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs" CD my sister, Abby (Hyder) Barrantes and I recorded back in 2002, when we lived in Spokane.  This was one of my favorite days of recording.  We gathered a bunch of friends of ours together and recorded several original worship songs live in one-take each.  It was such a joy and a thrill to hear the free, full sound of our dear friends (and fantastic singers!) fill the small studio space with God's praises.  Special thanks to ALL the friends who sang, and to Ben Moll who played the accordion on this track!


There's a recording and description on my SoundCloud page here:
08 In Awe Of You


The lyrics are as follows:

1. I lie in awe of you ... because I have no strength except in You (2x)
Your righteousness it reigns through Your blood and pain
And this is why I am in awe of You

2. I stand in awe of You ... You because I have been lifted up by You (2x)
REFRAIN

3. I kneel in awe of You ... humbled by the grace that I've received from You (2x)
REFRAIN

Lord of the Dance (Jesus ... not the other guy)

Here's a little something for Easter.  This is an arrangement of the well-known Easter hymn "Lord of the Dance", which is set to the familiar folk tune that is also known as "Simple Gifts".

I developed this arrangement for a Fuller Chapel service back in the day, and was blessed to perform it with a live dancer.  This is a demo recording, done in my friend Brad's apartment, that we made so the dancer had something to choreograph and practice to.

I'll never forget after the service when Fuller's beloved, respected (and British) Old Testement scholar (and my Psalms Exegesis professor), John Goldingay, came up to me afterwards and said, "you've taken an English folk melody and turned it into a Nashville pop tune!"  I've always chosen to take that as a compliment. :)

Enjoy the song!  Listen/download on SoundCloud here:
12 Lord of the Dance

High In The Heavens Eternal God (Psalm 36)

This text--"High in the Heavens, Eternal God"--is a paraphrase of Psalm 36 (really just verse 5ff) by Isaac Watts, which I found online while perusing all (yes, ALL) of his hymns online at CCEL a few years ago.  It was an unfamiliar text to me, but I've since found that its still around in a few hymnals.

Inspired by this text, which hadn't become known to me but which I thought spoke with some evocative and quite up-to-date-sounding lines, I composed a new, contemporary/folk/pop worship tune to it. A free leadsheet of this retuned hymn can be viewed and downloaded here, and you have my permission to use in any private or public Christian worship setting (with attribution, please).

In 2008, while leading worship with my friend Ben Brody at Whitworth, we recorded this live with the team and congregation gathered for the Whitworth Institute of Ministry.

I've posted that recording to my SoundCloud page for listening and/or downloading here.

Let me know what you think!  Comment below, or tweet me @lukehyder

The Summary of the Law - AUDIO!

Here's a rough recording of my Summary of the Law song (love God and love neighbor) posted to SoundCloud ... WARNING: It was recorded live sitting at my desk, directly into SoundCloud, using the built-on mic on my laptop.  So it's not great quality, and it distorts whenever it gets too loud.  But it's something!  :)  I hope is that this can be useful to any of you who wanted to hear how the song goes.  The leadsheet (words, melody and chords) is of course still available in the previous post.

The Summary of the Law

The Summary of the Law

Last Fall our church was going through a series on the Ten Commandments.  To bring a New Testament connection to the series we decided to make use of the Summary of the Law (Jesus' words about what is the greatest commandment, as recorded in Mark 12 and Matthew 22).

As a liturgical element, however, The Summary of the Law can get a little clunky if its just spoken or read responsively every time (IMHO).  So I decided I'd try to set it to music.

The result was a simple, singable worship chorus (a little 80s-Maranatha-sounding if you ask me), which we worked into the services during that series from time-to-time as a different way of incorporating The Summary.

In case this is something you or your church might be interested in, here's a link to a free downloadable PDF of the leadsheet for this song.  Click here.

If you give it a try with your church or just sing through it on your own, come back and leave a comment, or send me a tweet (@lukehyder), and let me know what you think!

Psalm 43 (Send Out Your Light)

I've decided to try out SoundCloud as a means of making my music available online, at least to preview.

I've put up a couple tracks on there, the latest of which is an early home recording (using GarageBand on my wife's macbook) of an original song based on Psalm 43.

This song has been published in Psalms For All Seasons, released this year by FaithAlive and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. It's "43B" in the book (on page 270).

This version is mainly guitar, mandolin, and several layers of voices (mine), and it includes a pre-chorus that was not in the final printed version.

If you give it a listen, please let me know and give me feedback ... comment, facebook, twitter (@lukehyder) ... whatever. I'd love to hear what you think!

Here it is:

02 Psalm 43 (Send Out Your Light)

There's a Wideness

"There's a Wideness in God's Mercy" is one of my all-time favorite hymn texts (by Frederick Faber in 1862), but I've never been a fan of the usual traditional tunes to which it's been set.

So a while ago I worked out a new tune for it. I wanted to capture the expansiveness of the initial lyrical idea (with music that felt like it had some "wideness" to it), as well as express the longing quality of the text as it pleads with listeners to return to the wide-open arms of God's mercy.

I'm experimenting with how best to post these songs on this blog. Feedback is certainly welcome.

For now, I've uploaded a pdf to Google docs. You can view the song here.

A New Direction

Well if anyone has been checking out this blog (and that's a BIG if) ... you may notice that I have not posted since the month before becoming a father. So much for being inundated with baby pictures! That has become the role of facebook, which has indeed become overrun with pictures and posts related to my amazing, beautiful daughter, Eliza Lela, who is now 18 months old!

Now I've decided to commit this space to a new purpose ... the posting and distribution of my musical endeavors.

Who knows if this blog will ever draw any kind of readership, but hopefully it can provide a place where pastors, church musicians, and worship curators looking for new, well-written, scripturally-based corporate worship songs and re:tuned hymns can find a few songs that may be a blessing to their worshipping communities.

So ... look here in the coming weeks & months, and may the songs posted here be used as God wills.

Grace and peace,

luke <><