update on the new EP "Lord Have Mercy"..

The last two months I've had a blast recording my new EP "Lord Have Mercy" in the back room studio of Journey Church in Franklin, TN with David Leonard ("All Sons and Daughters") who has done a phenomenal job at producing it.  The new record is set to release the beginning of April where I will probably be hitting the road again on another House/Church Tour.  If you're interested in me passing through your neck of the woods this time, please shoot me an email to: booking(at)bradytoops.com.  Obviously don't spell out "at" in parenthesis; that's only so I don't get a bunch of spam email in my account.  

The above clip is of 1 of the 5 tracks on the album called "Make Your Home."  I co-wrote this hymn with the amazing Mia Fieldes (Hillsong).  We also wrote 2 other tracks together for the album (the hymn and title track "Lord Have Mercy" and my attempt at a negro spiritual called " Soon and Very Soon"). The always stellar Josh Parsons is also playing electrics on the record (*see above clip for a sneak peak in the recording of the record).

I loved the folk/soul feel of my last EP "A Little Love" produced by Anthony Skinner, but I'm also excited about the slightly new musical direction of this EP.  With David also loving folk music, we stayed in that vein to capture a similar feel, but with him also being a keys/organ player we've captured a bit more of an epic/folk sound - think Jon Foreman meets Coldplay while hanging out with Johnny Cash in an old school Catholic Church where John Mark McMillan randomly shows up, but then the scene changes and we're all on the front porch of an old country home getting ready to head out to the cotton fields (or something like that... kinda sounds like a weird dream eh?!).  We also focused this time around to be more dynamically engaging, hence some killer epic moments on the CD for you to enjoy.  I can't wait to share the entire finished album with ya!!

For your pre-interest pleasure, here's the current track listing:  

                                                                                                                           1) Lord Have Mercy

                                                                                                                           2) Come On Home

                                                                                                                           3) Reckless Love

                                                                                                                           4) Soon and Very Soon

                                                                                                                           5) Make Your Home

P.S. To celebrate my excitement over the new EP, here's my last EP up for FREE download for a limited time on Noisetrade's website. Check out: http://noisetrade.com/bradytoops

LIVE Worship @ Emanate in Franklin, TN...

The other night I got to lead some worship @ Emanate in Franklin, TN with some friends including the lovely Jessie Parker (keys and vocals), the ridiculously vibey Josh Parsons (electric guitar), his groove-tastic brother Jesse Parsons (drums), and mr. solid and a rock Marcus Hendrickson (bass). The always-spot-on mixing man in the back was Justin Burns in case we forget how he makes us all sound better than we are.  It was a beautiful night for all of us.  Our goal really on these nights at Emanate has very little to do with performance or being the coolest/slickest/smoothest worship band on the planet with perfect transitions.  Basically, in the most genuine way we know how, we try as a group of friends and worshippers to run as far into God's heart and goodness as we can.  Whether that means we play 3 songs for an hour, or we make up songs for 15 minutes, or we don't play any songs at all and let the worship breathe, it's all the same goal: to love God and be loved by Him.  We hope you enjoy the night as much as we did, but regardless.. we hope you will take 2012 as a year of discovering and rediscovering just how loved you are by the kindness man who ever walked the earth - Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph, son of God.

(*I just noticed as I was listening back and being blessed by the night that a female harmony comes in on the top of Jessie's voice for the word "stronger" in the phrase "your love is stronger, stronger" at 18:37 (min:sec) into the set...  the craziest thing is that I'm the only other one in the room with a vocal mic, and I definitely was NOT the one singing that...  hahaha luv it!!  By the way, the first song was a John Mark McMillan song called "Dress Us Up" on his album called "The Medicine." Go buy it here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-medicine/id379151208!!)

Video clip @ The Jam in Nashville, TN 12.03.11..

My buddy Albert Kiteck (the man behind the iPhone 4S) tried his best to phase us with his up close videoing from a week ago at a gig, but to no avail! This is a little clip of us (Trent Swartzentruber, Josh Parsons, and Jesse Parsons) playing "The Song of Moses" @ The Jam Coffee Coffee House here in Nashville, TN for a Mercy 29 fundraiser.  I got a chance to sit down with the founder, Lyle Phillips, the other day over lunch and heard the whole back story behind their ministry.  It was amazing to hear how it all started, progressed, and to where they are today in housing over 400 kids in Africa and India, saving them from child prostitution. The night of music which included other friends Gabby DiPace, Steph Jones, and Lexi Adams was a raving success with over $500 raised for Mercy 29, mostly thru the donations of a few poor 20-somethings (now that's a pretty big deal!).  For more info on Mercy 29 and/or to donate check out: http://mercy29.org. Thank you to Bethany Newton for opening up her coffee house and to everyone else who made the night a success.

Worship @ Emanate 11.28.11..

Here's a little update on what I've been up to.  My friends (Josh Parsons - electric, Trent Swartzentruber - bass, Mike Wessner - organ, Jesse Parsons - drums) and I led some worship at Grace Center's Monday night young adult service called Emanate last night in Franklin, TN.  The night was an absolute blast with some great moments...  it's too bad the webstream went off line a bit and the whole middle part of the worship set was lost.  Either way here is the first song we did which I wrote with my friend Anthony Skinner called "What If All You Need Is Love." I think you can also track down the last part of the service on their Ustream page, but by that point my voice was hashed/tired, and I kept singing outta tune [don't you love the typical musician disclaimers...]. Anyway, hope y'all are blessed in this holiday season.  Enjoy and let me know what ya think!

This kid is a genius (well, not quite yet...)

This picture was sent to me from my brother Skip who recently moved with his family to Moorhead, MN to become the elementary physical education teacher at Moorhead High. Here's the story behind the picture in Skip's words: "Yesterday, I told a 2nd grader that unless he had a note from his mom that he had to run with everyone else. Today, he gave me this note... so I told home to run, hahaha.

*translated - "RiLey can Not run"

NEW digital release "A Little Love - EP" on iTunes 6.21.2011

I'm proud to finally release 5 of the songs from
my new album on a digital EP called "A Little Love".

1) Lift Your Eyes
2) Faithful
3) We Belong
4) What If All You Need Is Love
5) The Song of Moses

I spend a lot of blood, sweat, and tears on these tunes and
was blessed to have such great people working around me
to make this happen (Producer - Anthony Skinner).  If you like what you hear feel free to go to iTunes to check 'em out and spread the word.  Thanks for
supporting the tunes and believing in this music!! May we change the world one note at a time..

*Check out the album on iTunes at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-little-love-ep/id445643276

*Or you can get a FREE download of "The Song of Moses" at: http://bradytoops.bandcamp.com

Review of "Love Wins" by Rob Bell...

So when I first heard all the reactions to Rob Bell's new book "Love Wins" I was first impressed with Rob Bell's marketing tactics (hence, everyone knew his book was coming out because of the craziness), and secondly, I was equally unimpressed with the church's public response of hate, religiosity, and dishonoring, uneducated anger (please don't vomit out your mindless opinions without careful thought and study).  While I truly value great theology and doctrine, I value people more.  It would be amazing if one day the body of Christ was actually once again known by how they loved their neighbor, their brother, and even their enemy, rather than be known for the doctrines they are willing to crucify one another over.  I know this blog will only cover the mere surface of things mentioned in this debate, and in Rob Bell's latest book, but nonetheless I wanted to offer my reaction to the book, how ever small and attempt to do it in a way that honors a brother in the faith.

Things I LOVED:
1.  The artwork and cover.
2.  Writing style - conversational,
3.  Layout of text and thought.
4.  How Rob explains that our concept of God directly relates to how we invest our life here and now
5.  How important it is and the urgency to respond to the love of God in the here and now even though God will continually pursue us with His love.  Our quality of life here and in the age to come will be directly related to whether we said yes to His love or not, with differing consequences.
6.  His unique, fresh perspective on the gospel presented in a way that pressed past tired familiarity and religiosity.
7.  His quest for truth, and a lack of a religious spirit.
8.  His quest to help redefine Christianity in how it's expressed by believers and understood by the world.
9.  His call to be those who release the kingdom of heaven now (not just escape to it when we die): to relieve suffering, to fight against injustice, to spend your life fruitfully building that which will endure thru the fire of eternity, where each man's work is tested and tried.
10.  How Christianity is so much less about getting into heaven or escaping hell with a certain prayer you need to say and more about a life lived well, or not lived well.
11.  His perspective on the older and younger son in Luke 15, and the call to believing the Father's story about you rather than your own... both your goodness and badness can separate you from the love of God.  It cannot be earned.  It can only be received and trusted in or rejected, but it's still always there.
12.  His outside the box perspective.
13.  He unapologetically talked about Jesus being the only way to the Father but didn't limit it in a western church mindset.
14.  His call to lose your life so you can find it.
15.  How you may get more opportunities down the road to respond to the love of God, but how you respond to the ones you're given right now is vitally important and matter more than we can begin to imagine for our quality of life both on earth and in the age to come.  There's a reality that Jesus talked about in missing out on rewards, celebrations, and opportunities for greater pleasure in God and in His Kingdom.
16.  Trusting God's love.
17.  Jesus does call us to repent, to have our minds and hearts transformed so that we see everything differently.
18.  The idea that sin and injustice actually goes punished/corrected and won't be let in to the eternal city is amazing.  Nothing that defiles will be let in to the city, but at the same time the gates are never shut.
19.  Interesting idea: "eternal punishment" in Greek is "aion of kolazo" which can possibly be translated "a period of pruning", "an intense experience of correction"  (Matthew 25)
20.  Interesting thought (whether I agree with it or not I don't know): The possibility that the love of God is so powerful that it could continually pursue people even in hell after death, softening even the hardest heart to turn and eventually say yes to God.
21.  That in the end God will never overstep the bounds of love to violate or manipulate our freewill, and that He graciously gives us what we desire, even if that desire is hell.


Things I DIDN'T love as much:
1.  Presenting verses a bit out of context while lacking the exact scripture reference in parenthesis.
2.  Not making a lot of clear this is true or this is not true claims.
3.  A writing style that made it a bit difficult to understand what he was actually saying - sometimes presenting ideas that other people hold to but conveying it in a way where it takes a bit of detective work to understand whether he is referring to a conclusion he has come to or still laying out the groundwork for presenting a case/argument.
4.  Not presenting a full case on hell, where all the scriptures were referenced and how he limited all the references to allegorical, metaphorical interpretation.  The case for his argument about what hell is or is not was weak.
5.  His quick, slightly obscure reference about Satan (leaving room to possibly imply that he's not necessarily a real being).


Final observations:
1.  I like Rob Bell and I'm glad he's a part of the body of Christ.
2.  Rob Bell's strength is not necessarily as a line-by-line teacher, but as a thinker and philosopher.