Going to start off by saying that I hope had everyone had a very Merry Christmas! And here's wishing everyone a better year in 2013. If you've caught my tweets on twitter, you may have seen me mention coming up with my top artists and albums of 2012. I'm still thinking about it and deciding who and what I want to include. In addition to my top artists and albums, I'll also be coming up with a list of which new/relatively new artists to keep an eye on in 2013. And maybe they'll be some other lists in there too. I haven't decided. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any. But now it's time for a song review.
I usually try to review songs pretty soon after they get released to radio or, in some cases, when the video comes out. "Beer with Jesus" has been out of radio for a couple of months now and the video came out just over a month ago, if I remember correctly. I was debating not reviewing it because of that, but obviously changed my mind. For a few reasons. One being that I really wanted to write about it. And another being due to all the controversy it's apparently sparked. Controversy that I find pretty ridiculous, to be perfectly frank with you all. I understand not liking a song and people are, of course, free to have their own opinions about it. This post isn't in response to those who simply don't like the song. It's in response to the people who say that they are offended by this song or even outraged by it and it's so silly to me. We can have songs about getting drunk or popping pills and that's fine, but sing about drinking with Jesus and we have a problem. For the record, I'm not trying to condemn songs about getting drunk or popping pills. I just find it odd that I never seem to hear about controversies surrounding those kinds of songs.
Here's the thing about this song: the problem is not that there's a song about drinking with Jesus. It isn't. The problem here is that the people who are so outraged have completely missed the point of the song. This is not a drinking song. People want to focus solely on the beer and in doing so they miss the message. If this song had been titled coffee with Jesus, no one would be complaining. But it's not. So I come across discussions where people are arguing that Jesus deserves more respect. Saying that Jesus would never sit down and have a beer with someone. It is that argument that's making me do something I never imagined myself doing in any of my posts.
Fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen. It's about to get Biblical up in here. Slightly so. I'm not going to be quoting verses or anything like that. Just putting things in a different light and getting a little theological. So if you're cool with that, keep on reading.
Some personal background. I'm a Christian who went to a Catholic high school and a Southern Baptist college for a couple of years. Which means that I studied religion for six years, focusing primarily on Christianity and the Bible. It's something that I really enjoyed learning about and it's something I like talking about. As I said in the introduction, it's not something I ever saw myself talking about in a blog about country music. But here we are. And here we go.
It's Christmas Day as I'm working on this part and honestly, it feels pretty appropriate that I would start this post on this particular day. A day where we Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's interesting that out of all the ways Jesus could've been sent to Earth that this is the way it happened. As a baby, born of a virgin to live among us. To become one of us. That's a very important note and one I'll be coming back to. But first, let's talk about who He hung out with. The way people talk about this song makes it makes me think that they've forgotten. Or maybe they don't know. You know who He hung out with? He hung out with the sick and the disabled, with the poor, with tax collectors and fishermen and with prostitutes. People who were considered the lowest of the low in society at that time. He considered them his friends and disciples. Jesus was not above hanging out with people, regardless of their station. But then, no one's complaining about the idea of Jesus spending time with anyone.
Which brings us back to the beer. There's a group of Christians out there who believe that alcohol is evil, that the Bible says as much. It does not. The Bible doesn't speak out against alcohol; it speaks out against drunkenness and everything that results from that. People talk like everyone who drinks does so with the intention of getting drunk, but that's far from the truth. There's a lot of stops between having a beer and getting totally hammered. Furthermore, going back to this notion that alcohol is evil and I have to bring up the fact that Jesus turned water into wine. Now there's this whole debate about whether or not said wine was alcoholic or just grape juice and in looking into it, non-alcoholic grape juice was invented in 1869. So that water that Jesus turned into wine? Alcoholic. Once again, the Bible does not speak out against alcohol.
So let's review. Jesus hung out with the regular people in society. He spent time with them. He mourned with them and he celebrated with them. The turning water into wine thing? Happened at a wedding He was a guest at. I see people criticize "Beer with Jesus" because they think it's disrespectful to Jesus. It's not. Do I believe that Jesus would be open to sitting down and having a beer with someone? Absolutely. I have no doubt in my mind about that.
Now that that has all been said, I say again that this is not a drinking song. If the whole beer thing still offends you, take that out of the equation. What do you have? A song about a person spending time with Jesus and asking Him some questions. Let's look at them. "Tell me, how'd you turn the other cheek/ To save a sorry soul like me?/ Do you hear the prayers I send?/ What happens when life ends?/ And when you think you're coming back again?" And then "Have you been there from the start?/ How'd you change a sinner's heart?/ And is heaven really just beyond the stars?" And finally, "What's on the other side?/ Is mom and daddy all right?" I think that the best thing about this song is that the questions asked are ones that I believe a lot of people would like the answers to. "Beer with Jesus" is a beautifully written song; written by Thomas Rhett, Lance Miller and Rick Huckaby. I'd go as far to say song of the year worthy.
Aside from the lyrics, I love the production. They could've polished it up some more, added some dramatic solos if they'd wanted. And if they'd done that it would've been a huge mistake. The focus in a song like this needs to be the lyric and the delivery. The stripped down instrumentation allows both to shine. I'd call it perfectly imperfect. I had the privilege of seeing Thomas Rhett open for Chris Young at the Ryman on November 15th and if I'd had doubts about Thomas's sincerity (I didn't), than they would have been erased when I saw him perform this live. "Beer with Jesus" is easily one of my favorite songs of 2012 and I hope to see it go all the way to the top of the charts.
Yeah, so that was a little different. Told ya it would be. Hopefully it was different in a way that was interesting. Thanks for reading!
I usually try to review songs pretty soon after they get released to radio or, in some cases, when the video comes out. "Beer with Jesus" has been out of radio for a couple of months now and the video came out just over a month ago, if I remember correctly. I was debating not reviewing it because of that, but obviously changed my mind. For a few reasons. One being that I really wanted to write about it. And another being due to all the controversy it's apparently sparked. Controversy that I find pretty ridiculous, to be perfectly frank with you all. I understand not liking a song and people are, of course, free to have their own opinions about it. This post isn't in response to those who simply don't like the song. It's in response to the people who say that they are offended by this song or even outraged by it and it's so silly to me. We can have songs about getting drunk or popping pills and that's fine, but sing about drinking with Jesus and we have a problem. For the record, I'm not trying to condemn songs about getting drunk or popping pills. I just find it odd that I never seem to hear about controversies surrounding those kinds of songs.
Here's the thing about this song: the problem is not that there's a song about drinking with Jesus. It isn't. The problem here is that the people who are so outraged have completely missed the point of the song. This is not a drinking song. People want to focus solely on the beer and in doing so they miss the message. If this song had been titled coffee with Jesus, no one would be complaining. But it's not. So I come across discussions where people are arguing that Jesus deserves more respect. Saying that Jesus would never sit down and have a beer with someone. It is that argument that's making me do something I never imagined myself doing in any of my posts.
Fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen. It's about to get Biblical up in here. Slightly so. I'm not going to be quoting verses or anything like that. Just putting things in a different light and getting a little theological. So if you're cool with that, keep on reading.
Some personal background. I'm a Christian who went to a Catholic high school and a Southern Baptist college for a couple of years. Which means that I studied religion for six years, focusing primarily on Christianity and the Bible. It's something that I really enjoyed learning about and it's something I like talking about. As I said in the introduction, it's not something I ever saw myself talking about in a blog about country music. But here we are. And here we go.
It's Christmas Day as I'm working on this part and honestly, it feels pretty appropriate that I would start this post on this particular day. A day where we Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's interesting that out of all the ways Jesus could've been sent to Earth that this is the way it happened. As a baby, born of a virgin to live among us. To become one of us. That's a very important note and one I'll be coming back to. But first, let's talk about who He hung out with. The way people talk about this song makes it makes me think that they've forgotten. Or maybe they don't know. You know who He hung out with? He hung out with the sick and the disabled, with the poor, with tax collectors and fishermen and with prostitutes. People who were considered the lowest of the low in society at that time. He considered them his friends and disciples. Jesus was not above hanging out with people, regardless of their station. But then, no one's complaining about the idea of Jesus spending time with anyone.
Which brings us back to the beer. There's a group of Christians out there who believe that alcohol is evil, that the Bible says as much. It does not. The Bible doesn't speak out against alcohol; it speaks out against drunkenness and everything that results from that. People talk like everyone who drinks does so with the intention of getting drunk, but that's far from the truth. There's a lot of stops between having a beer and getting totally hammered. Furthermore, going back to this notion that alcohol is evil and I have to bring up the fact that Jesus turned water into wine. Now there's this whole debate about whether or not said wine was alcoholic or just grape juice and in looking into it, non-alcoholic grape juice was invented in 1869. So that water that Jesus turned into wine? Alcoholic. Once again, the Bible does not speak out against alcohol.
So let's review. Jesus hung out with the regular people in society. He spent time with them. He mourned with them and he celebrated with them. The turning water into wine thing? Happened at a wedding He was a guest at. I see people criticize "Beer with Jesus" because they think it's disrespectful to Jesus. It's not. Do I believe that Jesus would be open to sitting down and having a beer with someone? Absolutely. I have no doubt in my mind about that.
Now that that has all been said, I say again that this is not a drinking song. If the whole beer thing still offends you, take that out of the equation. What do you have? A song about a person spending time with Jesus and asking Him some questions. Let's look at them. "Tell me, how'd you turn the other cheek/ To save a sorry soul like me?/ Do you hear the prayers I send?/ What happens when life ends?/ And when you think you're coming back again?" And then "Have you been there from the start?/ How'd you change a sinner's heart?/ And is heaven really just beyond the stars?" And finally, "What's on the other side?/ Is mom and daddy all right?" I think that the best thing about this song is that the questions asked are ones that I believe a lot of people would like the answers to. "Beer with Jesus" is a beautifully written song; written by Thomas Rhett, Lance Miller and Rick Huckaby. I'd go as far to say song of the year worthy.
Aside from the lyrics, I love the production. They could've polished it up some more, added some dramatic solos if they'd wanted. And if they'd done that it would've been a huge mistake. The focus in a song like this needs to be the lyric and the delivery. The stripped down instrumentation allows both to shine. I'd call it perfectly imperfect. I had the privilege of seeing Thomas Rhett open for Chris Young at the Ryman on November 15th and if I'd had doubts about Thomas's sincerity (I didn't), than they would have been erased when I saw him perform this live. "Beer with Jesus" is easily one of my favorite songs of 2012 and I hope to see it go all the way to the top of the charts.
Yeah, so that was a little different. Told ya it would be. Hopefully it was different in a way that was interesting. Thanks for reading!
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