Thanks to Red Mountain Music for sending us a copy of their latest CD, Help My Unbelief. Red Mountain Music is based out of Birmingham and works to bring new life to old hymns. It's no small undertaking, but we are grateful for those who, like Red Mountain, are gifted to take the beautiful old texts and convert them into contemporary music.
Help My Unbelief pulls songs from the old Gadsby's Hymnal from the 1800s; songs that express various human emotions, including the longing of the sinful, human soul to depart from the presence of sin that leads us at times towards unbelief. This isn't a hard driving rock album; it's contemporary, to be sure, but much more along the lines of acoustic folk rather than rock or country. At times the music brings to mind Caedmon's Call in the early days. The songs are moving, the vocals soothing, the arrangements thoughtful, and the words a timeless treasure that does the heart good.
Background
From their website, Red Mountain's Brian Murphy explains their philosophy:
"Why Hymns? This question seems to come up a lot, so I will try to give a brief but thorough answer. First, it is certainly not because we are against any other type of music. Clearly there is a large body of music in the church today, and strong arguments can undoubtedly be made as to the validity of various types and styles of music and texts. At Red Mountain, it is simply that we are overwhelmingly excited about the way hymns have affected our people. We are drawn to hymns because of the impact they have had on our church. Second, I often hear discussion about worship styles being “contemporary”, “traditional”, or “blended.” I believe that I accurately represent my peers when I say that these terms seem vague and poorly defined. For example, many songs considered “contemporary” were written more than 25 years ago. Many of us at Red Mountain feel like we’ve found a perfect blend: traditional text with truly contemporary music. It’s important to add that when we play songs that already have beautiful and familiar melodies, we rarely change them, and we enjoy the original tunes. Examples of this would be songs such as “Come Thou Fount” and “Amazing Grace.” However, many of the hymns we sing do not have familiar music, so we’ve reworked them and, in a sense, re-introduced them to the church. Third, hymns connect us with our past. It is wonderful to think of all the people who have gone before us who have sung these songs. Singing hymns promotes the idea that a Christian is part of a historic family of believers, and they remind us that God’s gospel transcends time and place. Fourth, hymns ring true in a way that many modern songs simply do not. At times, it seems our ancestors had a stronger command of the language than we do. Their words drip with truth and paint pictures of the kingdom that make believers long for heaven. I cannot begin to describe what reading through these old hymnals has done to encourage the spirits of the musicians that play here. We find ourselves continually able to rest in the truth of these great lyrics, always with a sense that we are part of something much bigger than us or our little church. We are excited about this time in the church, and we are thrilled about this music. "
Also from the website, here's some additional info on the new CD:
Gadsby’s Hymns was compiled by William Gadsby in the mid 1800s. Although William Gadsby contributed quite a few of his own hymns, the bulk of the collection is comprised of many different hymnists. Long-beloved writers such as Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, John Newton, Anne Steele, Joseph Hart and William Cowper fill the pages of this wonderful hymnal. Gadsby’s Hymns has been so important to us that we could not stop writing from it. Even before we had completed our last collection of hymns, The Gadsby Project, we knew we would make another record devoted to these beautiful, forgotten texts. We decided to call this record Help My Unbelief. Many of the texts in these particular songs carry themes of doubt and longing. We believe that the Christian life is a complexity of emotions, a marriage of sorrow and joy. Valleys and mountaintops. Light and darkness. The hymn writers of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries seem to have captured these tensions with more honesty and depth than many contemporary writers. Because these writers have given us glimpses of their own doubt and unbelief, working through their hymns has given us much hope. Hope that we are not alone. Hope that sorrow, pain and hardship are not exclusive to our small, believing community here in Birmingham, AL. Rather, that Christians from different parts of the world, hundreds of years ago struggled with the same things. This is one reason why we sing hymns, to remember that the Church is bigger than just us at this moment. We hope you will join us in confessing, "Lord I believe; help my unbelief." Believing that in our doubts and fears Jesus will meet us with patience and grace. This collection of hymns is for God’s prodigals and sojourners as they wait patiently for the Kingdom to come.
"Help my unbelief. My help must come from Thee."
You probably won't be able to find this music in your stores yet, but you can buy it online at the Red Mountain Music website. They also make available a free MP3 download of a bonus song that did not make the latest record, along with the opportunity to download lyrics.
Order a copy today and support the cause. And tell them you saw them at worship.com.
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