photo courtesy of www.lanciaesmith.com

For those of you concerned about the pending Omnibus Crime Bill C-10, there is an online petition to register your alarm. There may be other petitions (I don’t know the folks behind this one) but at this point I will sign my name alongside any co-beligerants who anticipate the harm of this bill. I wrote a letter to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson similar to the one to Mr. Harper below.  

You can access the on-line petition at: http://leadnow.ca/keep-canada-safe

Also – all of the information to write, email or contact Mr. Harper is on the government’s site. Hand-written letters are the most effective : To Contact Stephen Harper, click here.

Please note - though my political sentiments tend to be left leaning, this letter is not anti-Conservative or anti-Harper. It is honest concern about a particular bill that I think is extremely unwise and will be tragically harmful if passed as is.  Also,  I welcome supportive or contrary opinion below, but will delete comments that smack of vitriol or character assasination.

see also: Bill C-10: A Glimpse Into the Soul of a Nation?

Dear Mr. Harper,

I am deeply concerned about Omnibus Bill C-10.  It is my  wife’s research (as a social-work student at Booth University College in Winnipeg) that has refocused  my attention to the bill. The more I followed her work, the more concerned I have become.

Firstly, I believe there  are some good things in the bill – let me be clear about that. But there are also some alarmingly retrogressive policies that will undoubtably be a black stain on your leadership for decades to come if passed as is. For the love of God and your fellow Canadians, please slow the process of this bill down. Break-up the omnibus to its components and consider each individually and carefully.

Honestly… in the last election I was prepared, for the first time in my life, to vote Conservative. I tend to be a bit left leaning myself, but thought that at this particular juncture perhaps a conservative economic approach trumped other concerns. Also, I live in Conservative MP  Joy Smith’s riding and have deeply appreciated her noble fight against human trafficking. But in the end I could not, by extension, sign my name to a  bill that blanketly criminalizes the ill and the desperate when other measures are proven to be cheaper, more effective and more humane.

I have no need to demonize those who have different opinions than me. But please tell me… who is being served by taking away the power of judges to discern individual cases and sentence accordingly? Who is being served by harsh punitive measures for crimes that are rooted in addictions and poverty when prevention and restorative measures are proven to be far more effective? Who is being served by costly measures that disrupt family and community economies instead of promoting personal responsibility and community well-being?  We need a much more sophisticated and nuanced response to crime and public safety than what this bill will produce.

Frankly, I’m a little surprised that you, who shares the same Christian faith I embrace, propose to rule out discernment and mercy from the justice system. A broad-scope survey of Biblical history shows a slow but progressive movement away from a merciless justice which favours retribution to restoration.

Know also, my convictions come from lifelong experience of the Canadian Penitentiary system. My father was a protestant Chaplain who served roughly 30 years in federal prisons in  Drumheller, Stony Mountain, Edmonton and, toward the end of his career,  as regional Chaplain of the Maritime Provinces.  Dad is a thoughtful man who tends toward a more conservative ideology, but finds himself utterly bewildered and alienated from ideologies that do not honour or respect the long hard work of practitioners in the field, expert research or verifiable fact.

Mr. Harper, please reconsider.  I don’t believe you have the majority of Canadians’ support for this.  You certainly do not have the support of experts in the field.  Again, this administration will be well remembered for a costly mistake in judgement in support of structures that will have to be dismantled at great expense to the individuals, families and communities that make up our nation.

Meanwhile, I  do sincerely pray for your health and the well being of your beloved. I wish you every good success in the office with which you have been charged and I thank you for carrying the weighty burden the office demands.

Respectfully,

Steve Bell
singer/ songwriter
Winnipeg

On stage with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

a

Tickets are now on sale for my  Dec. 3rd concert with the Toronto Symphony at Massey Hall!

a

The Toronto Symphony is considered one of the top 10 symphonies in the world, and Massey Hall is Canada’s most beloved legacy concert hall. Needless to say I’m excited about this event like no other.  Dave (my manager) and I went to Massey Hall last week  to meet with the production staff and scout out the building.  Gordon Lightfoot was playing that night and his band was set up on the stage. It was quite moving to be in that hall – all bustling with crew preparing for the evening’s concert – thinking about the legendary concerts that had taken place in that space. And I was quite overwhelmed that I get to add my voice to those voices.  My goodness… who woulda thought?

Adding to my enthusiasm is the fact that this concert is presented by The Hope Exchange which is a new Toronto-based care-organization  (with my buddy, Tim Huff, at the helm.)  Tim Huff is the author of three best-selling/award-winning books which beautifully narrate stories of his experiences with homeless and marginalized people.  Tim is a dignifier of persons. This is so evident in how he experiences others and gives witness to the gift and dignity of all through his work and writing. The Hope Exchange is a new initiative to come alongside and support people in the front lines of hope-giving professions and volunteer vocations.  You can visit their website to get more info at:  http://www.hopeexchange.ca/ The concert is not a fundraiser for the Hope Exchange but will serve as a public launch of their work in the Toronto area.

Rei Hotoda

The concert itself will feature my piano player and arranger Mike Janzen, bassist Gilles Fournier and drummer Daniel Roy. I’m excited that we are flying in the beloved Rei Hotoda (conductor) from Dallas TX where she currently serves the Dallas Symphony as their assistant conductor.

The song selection will be drawn from the CDs I’ve recorded over the years including favorites such as Deep Calls to Deep, Burning Ember, Waiting for Aidan as well at least one, if not two new scores never before performed that we will showcase that night.

If you would like a sneak preview as to what the evening will be like, check out this video we’ve put up on YouTube.     Click here for promo video.a

Tickets are available now at: MASSEY HALL TICKET OFFICE

www.masseyhall.com ph: 416.872.4255

Please help spread the  news. Share this on your FaceBook and Twitter pages

Thanks. Hope to see you out!

Steve

below- pic of me ‘n band before Symphony Concert in Saskatoon 2009

Loony Lads Leisurely Lounging

So when I’m asked to publicly comment on the Christian religion’s propensity to promote hatred and violence, my response is simply, that’s not Christianity.

People are fond of listing a litany of malicious misdemeanors as proof of Christianity’s (religion’s) destructive core. I’m always a little awestruck by this insatiable appetite for low-hanging fruit. And I acknowledge and repent of my own.

In the case of the recent Koran burning by Florida’s Rev. Terry Jones and the murderous response his mind-numbing irresponsibility triggered, there are just a couple of things I’d like to say:

1. In my own city of Winnipeg alone, there are several hundred churches that have not, have no plans to, and wouldn’t if they could get away with it, burn the Koran. Indeed, in my 20 years and 1500 concerts in Churches across the world I have never knowingly met any person or congregation disposed to such a reprehensible deed. I know they exist, I’m just pointing to their rarity.

a
 2. In Winnipeg there are also several Mosques. As far as I know, not one has advocated for a violent response to Mr. Jones’ actions. This doesn’t surprise me. In my travels around the world I have met and worked with many Muslims.  All have been lovely folk with gentle souls. I’m just sayin…
a

The word “religion” derives from the Latin religare from which we get the word ligament suggesting that true religion is that which connects and binds together, not that which dissects and alienates.* In the case of Christian specific religion, it is the Bible (Old Testament, no less) that suggests that true religion is this: to tend to  the orphan and the widow –  the marginalized (the de-ligamented.) The New Testament suggests that God “knows” those whose devotion to God is evidenced by their self-giving kindheartedness. Conversely, those whose lives are marked by self-securing callousness, God simply… doesn’t know. Indeed, the witness of Jesus in the face of “religious” intolerance and imperial aggression was to absorb the toxicity in his person (the buck stops here) allowing for the possibility of a new way of life made possible through the mechanism of humble self-donation born of an unwavering faith in the counter-intuitive power of love.

It is my opinion that Mr. Jones and those who have responded to him murderously need not shed religion; rather, they need to get some.

Below is a song from my recent album Kin.dness.  The song is in no way meant to be uncharitable to those committed to scientific progress, or dismissive of legitimate  boundaries (be they ethnic, political, religious, gender, emotional etc.) My point is this, that bereft of re-ligamenting love, it’s hard to imagine any human endeavor coming to a good end.

* Thanks to Brian McLaren for drawing my attention to  the etymology of the word religion

Click song title to listen…

ABOUT LOVE | Steve Bell/Diana Pops/Mike Janzen

It’s not about science
or benefits the dead contest
but there’s some strange reliance yet
on particles to fix the mess.

Who knows if this thing we call life
Looks fine in another one’s eyes
Or bellies-up with the goods everyone can approve of

One thing that I’ve learned in my time
You can’t win if you have to draw lines
When it comes to the struggle to show and to prove love

Oh… It’s always been about love!

It’s not about borders
Borders have their place no doubt
But who gave the orders
To abandon hope for common ground

Who knows…

a

ABOUT LOVE is available on Steve’s 2011 release KINDNESS. To view CD, listen to audio samples or purchase, click HERE…

To visit a website dedicated to Steve’s 16th career release KINDNESS click HERE…

The first few months after a new release is always very awkward for me as folks get used to new songs and new sounds.  The responses I get range from ecstatic enthusiasm to eye-contact avoidance .  But I can happily report that this disc is generating an unusual enthusiasm for so early in the release. Personally, I suspect it will eventually be regarded as one of my better projects but that is really not up to me to determine.

Anyhoo…. if you want to purchase a copy, there are several avenues to access KINDNESS:

You can purchase the CD directly from me either on-line or by phone. Remember that if you purchase two or more of my CDs we automatically throw in a free copy of Kindness for you to give away to a friend (or enemy for that matter.) This is the avenue that generates the most revenue for me so obviously I’m pleased if you choose this route.

To order on-line, click HERE. To order by phone please contact Yvonne or Faye at 1-800-854-3499

___________________________________________________________

You can also purchase the CD at most Christian bookstores in Canada. This saves you shipping fees and allows you to get the CD quicker than through the mail. It also supports the bookstores which play an important role in your community. I still do quite well financially with bookstore sales so don’t worry about that. Supporting neighborhood business is important and bookstores are struggling terribly these days. The stores have been very good to me over the years and I’m thrilled if my work can help them in return.

btw – In Winnipeg, the CDs are  available at Hull’s (downtown)  McNally Robinson (on Grant) and Savoir Fair (on Henderson at Johnson)

___________________________________________________________

Also – you can download KINDNESS on iTunes or CD Baby. This is the most inexpensive way for you to access the new CD. You don’t get the benefit of the packaging and lyrics but if you listen to music primarily on an mp3 player, it is hard to justify the extra expense. You also can feel good about choosing an avenue that contributes minimally to the environmental problems we are facing these days.

___________________________________________________________

In the end, I don’t really have a preference for how you get the music but I do hope you’ll give it a try. If you want more information about the CD – check out the dedicated website we’ve created for it.  There you can sample songs, read reviews and album notes, and get some of the back story.  If you like what you hear – make sure to send the Kindness e-card to your friends. You’ll find that feature at the top of the home page.

Cheers! And thanks for the support.

~Steve Bell

KINDNESS fan review from iTunes:

Steve Bell | KIN.DNESS | Each Song a Gem!

True art of rhythm, lyric, melody and harmony in each song.

It’s hard to settle on what I like best about each song – sometimes I’ll notice the turn of a lyric and think, Wow!” so beautifully crafted.” In other places I’ll notice the intricacies of of interesting rhythms. Oft times I’ll hear an amazing  blend of voice – who IS the female backup singer on some of the tracks? Her powerful and intriguing voice blends so sweetly and then suddenly contrasts with Steve’s in such engaging ways. And Steve’s arrangement of Stubble and Hay, juxtaposed with a “Tom Waits-ish” sort of poetic reading – awesome! And of course it goes almost without saying – there’s Steve’s guitar and voice though it all.

I love it!

Remaining cities on the KINDNESS tour schedule include Regina, Lethbridge, Calgary, Sylvan Lake, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Richmond, Victoria, Kelowna, Ottawa, Kingston, Bellville, Winnipeg.  For tour details see SCHEDULE…

Sad day in T Bay

This past Saturday, after soundcheck just prior to a concert Thunder Bay, I casually rested my guitar  against the stage  wall and headed to the back room to fetch some guitar picks.  I had only taken a couple steps when I heard the slide and the crash.  I spun around to see my beloved steed face down with the headstock snapped off just above the nut.

It’s very hard to relate all that went through my mind in that first split second. Like when a whole life flashes through ones eyes just before a car crash, the life of that guitar and the relationships and events associated with it were all suddenly present and re-membered; over a thousand concerts, treks through far away lands, the many songs co-authored, countless hours woodshedding, the pleasure…  and the friendships that led to my acquisition of the guitar  in the first place.

It was about a dozen years ago, I was performing in Sante Fe.  My friends, Lou and Fran Bruno who were promoting the concert,  took it upon themselves to fly the legendary guitar-maker Kevin Ryan and his wife Barb from LA to see the concert. I was well-aware of Kevin. He was a relatively new Luthier (guitar maker) but was already turning heads internationally with his aesthetic sensibilities, rich-toned instruments and technical/design innovations. It was such an honour to play for them and then afterward to head back to the Brunos for fine wines, elegant foods and rich conversation.

Certainly, guitars and guitar artistry were a huge part of that conversation as both Lou and Kevin are fine players in their own right.  At one point, the three of us got into detailed discussion about what we like/dislike in guitars – wood preferences, tonality, aesthetic appointments and the like. I already had a couple great guitars with no real need of another, and certainly I was not  in a financial position to even entertain getting Kevin to build me one. But none of that really mattered because  six months later this one was delivered in a crate to my door.

Now, all these years later, close inspection of the guitar reveals the many scars of a faithful old warhorse. The surface laquer is checkered like a thousand-piece puzzle.  Several large cracks have been glued and reglued  - one which extends from the strap-pin about a foot and a half up along the outer bout and into the waist. The wood around the soundhole has worn away to the abalone inlay that Kevin’s father selected for me from his “private stash” of unique pieces. And there are gouges, dents and divots enough to prove the hundreds of flights, countless careless moments, and endless hours of playing.

Needless to say – accompanying this rush of memory was a significant nausea  as I had to consider that the guitar may be irreparable.  But apparently I need not have worried.   “Jake the Guitar Whisperer”  here in Winnipeg is confident he can fix it. It may not be pretty but it’ll play. But even if her days were indeed over, the echos of her voice would reverberate for some time in the recordings and memories of those blessed enough to hear her in concert and witness first-hand the results of master-craftsmanship, generosity and love.

Just ’cause I’m being all sentimental here – I’ve chosen a song for you to hear that I wrote and recorded on this guitar…  it’s from my CD Sons and Daughters and the song is called Air Jam . Several years ago, my Chicago friend, Johnny Rutlege, asked me to write an instrumental piece  for a film soundtrack he was producing.  It had to have a decidedly  “Marlborough Man” feel to it and so this is what I came up with.   I titled it Air Jam simply because that was the name of Johnny’s production company.

Click song title to listen:

AIR JAM | STEVE BELL

Visit Ryan Guitars HERE…

See Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s recent article on Ryan Guitars HERE…

KIN.DNESS

Kind | ORIGIN Old English cynd(e), gecynd(e), of Germanic origin; related to  kin

This time last year I had no intention of releasing a new album any time soon. I had a few of my own songs lying about and a growing interest in particular songs by other writers, but I had no real pluck or vision for a new project in the immediate future.

When, in spring, Kinsey Posen of CBC Winnipeg called to say he was producing a project of Manitoba artists recording the songs of other Manitoba artists, I jumped at the chance to record a couple of gems penned by songwriters Gord Johnson and Byron O’Donnell – two of my favorite songwriters who are regrettably under-sung and under-celebrated.

It was during the recording of that project that I started to take inventory of potential songs for my own project and suddenly realized I had enough for a fairly strong album.  My manager was a little taken aback to get a call from me saying that I wanted to record. But after a two-day woodshed session with Winnipeg veterans Gilles Fournier (bass), Daniel Roy (drums) and newbie-wunderkind Joey Landreth (electric guitar), we were all convinced of the strength of the material. And so, with a little schedule adjusting and more than a few fundraising calls, we set out in late August to begin work on my 16^th career album.

Title

Initially, I wanted to call the album Changes.  The last few years have been a season of relentless change it seems.  The music industry, as we knew it, has all but collapsed. Hard-copy music formats have given away to digital ones. Traditional marketing schemes have become impotent. And the recent recession, for many of us, has greatly magnified the worrisome impact of seismic changes already underway.

Socially, we’ve seen great change. South of our border the Bush years have given way to the Obama years with an accelerated and alarming degradation of public discourse.  Among other things, it seems we have thoroughly abandoned thoughtful, public debate for vitriol and smug insult. Canada may have some vestige of decorum left but among other indicators, recent mayoral elections across the country have perhaps shown a trend otherwise – exposing a people who have “forgotten how to blush.”

Environmentally, the changes being demanded of us are enormous while collectively we are perhaps experiencing a failure of nerve to address decisively a crisis we will no doubt pass on to our beloved children. We may yet come to find the shame more crippling than the crisis itself.  Heaven forbid.

Personally, well… I’m getting older. I just turned 50. To commemorate this auspicious occasion I recently went straight from wearing no glasses to wearing progressives.  Adding to my vertigo, there are now two young children who call me grandpa while my own children are becoming peers and colleagues. As well, I’m finding that my body is less and less agreeable to the rigors of touring and the consequences of neglecting this reality are increasingly unpleasant.

I thought Changes was an appropriate title.

But in the early fall, I was testing a few of the new songs on some friends after which one of them blurted, “you should call your CD Kindness! Kindness is the clear theme running through the songs!”  This wasn’t immediately evident to me, but on a bit of reflection I realized she was right.

Kindness… hardly a quaint sentiment… is fundamental to the fabric of authentic, good life. Neither utopian nor naïve, sustainable kindness flows from a deeply internalized knowledge of the kinship of all things. What the saints have ever known, that a lived conviction of positive regard for the other, cherishing  - even enemies – is the sanest way forward. Indeed, it is a fundamental intuition of my own Christian faith that understands God to be a familial communion; a unity of self-donation, mutual othering and ecstatic overflow, which issues forth as creation –  you and I, field and stream, songbird and leviathan, soil and sky.  It’s all-good. It’s kin(d).

When I consider the songs on this recording, and think behind to the  ecstasies and agonies that created and chose them, I recognize that the simplest words carry the greatest freight:  Love, Kindness, Grace, Beauty, Truth, Goodness.  We know these profoundly and painfully in their absence.  But when they are present… glory!

Obviously this small collection of songs is ill-equipped to carry the freight of a word such as kindness, but if in any way it serves as a signpost, I am very pleased.

Be but your own good friend
And be good to the other
Cherish those sisters and brothers
Along the road

And to the earth extend
Every reverence and wonder
Tend to the wounds of your blunders
And honour God who formed our home

-excerpt from Good Friend / Steve Bell

from the album KINDESS.  Release Date: February 10/2011

My friend Heather Bishop (singer/songwriter/ painter/ activist) has a little cabin in southern Manitoba that I have taken the liberty of dubbing Bishop’s Barque. A ‘barque’ is a simple, small sailing vessel to take one out to sea. Given my history of the place, it seems an appropriate title.  It is a humble abode for sure; simple hay-bail construction, open floor plan, lots of light, wood stove, no phone, no internet.  Perfect.  I’ve twice driven down there for private retreats and both times come home with a new song.

Lady Slipper

a
Some places are just special – who knows why? It would be hard to identify the single quality that sets Heather’s place apart. If the above description isn’t enough, think:  scrub oak and whispering aspen, prairie tall grass and lady slipper, milkweed, garter snakes, chipmunk and woodpile, monarchs, hummingbirds, jays.  Big sky.

a

Old Man by Heather Bishop

Heather, herself,  lives a quarter mile down the road from the cabin in a fairly unique enviro-design home she built with her own hands (literally). And so, if while retreating you find yourself too isolated, she is usually puttering about somewhere and good for a lively conversation, a song, a healing prayer or counsel about a song-in-progress. And… Heather paints. Beautifully! Her gracious home is hung with the tender portraits of the faces that have captured her. Her subjects, and the delicacy with which she treats them, tell so much about her.  She’s the kind of person that makes you want to be better at what you do.

Last June, just before having to lay my guitar aside for several months to let a repetitive stress injury heal, I took five days at Bishop’s Barque to finish writing a couple of songs and to work on arrangements for my new CD.  I didn’t get very far on those tasks, mostly because the place lends itself far better to rest and restoration than task and accomplishment.  Mostly I slept, read and noodled about on my guitar. The weather outside was gorgeous and atypically free of mosquitoes. So I sat for hours, absolutely still, outside the cabin, drinking in the staggering complexity and miracle of the surroundings.  A chipmunk who lived in the woodpile kept me entertained endlessly.  The ants about my feet and the impossibly bloated bees fascinated.  A soothing cacophony of birdsong settled my soul while the hot sun and cooling breeze alternately invigorated the skin on my face.  At night, the sun would humbly retire so the cosmos could shine; the deep-space stillness – enchanting. I and all the other creatures drank it in – felt our kinship and our gratitude.

I had a book of poetry with me, Richard Wilbur’s Mayflies. I’ve read and reread this collection dozens of times.   Wilbur’s poetry is earthy – not the faux-earthy of one who has simply forgotten his or her manners  – but earthy like loam, like compost, like a pile of leaves in fall.  He has a way of re-animating the familiar. His words teach you to see again. And so under his eye, a “lofty stand of trees beyond the field” becomes a “great fleet of galleons bound our way / across a moiled expanse of tossing hay.” And, a mature relationship, or “long love” (which constant spirits are the keepers of)  has the quality of a finely (divinely) crafted thing, “like a good fiddle…like the rose’s scent… like a rose window or the firmament.”

The poem that was honored to give the Mayflies collection it’s name elegantly tells of the a profound kinship that is the ground of creation from quark to galaxy. And I couldn’t help but be suddenly saddened by all that is not kind.  I could not help but grief the petty meanness we humans willfully indulge, our capacity to diminish the other, the false autonomy we blindly celebrate. I must admit that as of late, the level of vitriol in public discourse has vexed me.  We have traded in debate for insult;  honest argument for cheap victory at the expense of the other.  It seems we have forgotten why we must be patient, honouring and kind, and have equally forgotten how to blush.

Rublev's Trinity

It is my conviction that, whatever else may be true of God, God is (in God’s-self) communion, unity. God is mutuality.  This is the intuition behind the doctrine of the Trinity. And as with any good poet, I assume God’s created work is an externalization of the true interiority of the artist. Therefore, kin-ness is no mere accident of evolution – it is the fabric, the logic of evolution.  And I believe we’re heading somewhere purposeful and good.  It is ours to freely choose how we will co-operate with or resist this unavoidable relationality. But our choosing makes a world of difference to the experience we know and the world of experience around us.

And so, inspired by Wilbur, and in part by a blog posting by my friend Prof. John Stackhouse, I wrote:  Be but your own good friend / and be good to the other/ cherish those sisters and brothers on the road. / And to the earth extend / every reverence and wonder / tend to the wounds of your blunders / and honour God who formed our home.

Below is a demo version of the song if you want to take a listen.  And just so you know,  “demo” in my world is what “first draft” would mean to an essayist, or an initial sketch would be for a painter.  It’s a working version I laid down in the summer. (My son Jesse was the recording engineer.)  Currently the song is being re-recorded for my new CD to be released in January. But given the advent of World Food Day, October 15, and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank’s corresponding Fast For Change – Tend the Earth campaign, I thought I’d share it now:

click song title to listen

GOOD FRIEND | STEVE BELL
Bishop’s Barque / June 2010
Lyric adapted in part from Richard Wilbur’s poem Mayflies.

On somber night
When shivering clouds bemoan
The aching of souls alone

Then stars appear
One arch of their dance shows clear
And glittering song intone

Be but your own good friend
And be good to the other
Cherish those sisters and brothers
On the road

And to the earth extend
Every reverence and wonder
Tend to the wounds of your blunders
And honour God who formed our home

When sun is low
Bright bands in forest glow
Fair fiats of love. Behold…

See shimmering flies
In their quadrillions rise
Weaving a cloth of gold

Be but your own good friend…

BURNING EMBER

“Judge for yourself how great man is – how great man may become. God abides in him and he in God so that Christ himself and not a man lives in a devout Christian; the whole soul becomes Christ’s, just as the iron in burning coal becomes fire as if it were burning – everything is fire, everything is light!” *

~ Father John of Kronstadt, Russia 1829 – 1908

Who knows why one day your eyes pass over a sentence languid and bored, perceiving nothing, and the next day your soul catches fire and flares bright with ardor and insight. I remember the day Father John’s words did so for me.  I was on a silent retreat at St. Benedict’s Priory just a few miles north of Winnipeg. The retreat was mandated as part of a soul-care requirement of the ministry I worked for at the time.  For someone like myself, growing up Evangelical and active, intentional silence and stillness were strange. And being naturally extraverted as well, the inner, contemplative pursuit was one that I looked on with curiosity but from a bit of a distance.

The sisters were lovely. They seemed to float around on a breeze. The older ones dressed in their habits, and the younger ones in civilian clothes. When they looked at you, you felt seen.  The room I was given was plain; a single bed, a desk with a lamp, and a window looking out onto the parking lot.  Nothing special. But it was serene and quiet. “Nothing much” ever happened there, just rest and prayer, and you could feel it.

Fr. John of Kronstadt

And so, in that place, reading Fr. John’s diary, I briefly caught vision of what it might mean to come alive and be fully human; to live my life in God and for God’s life to abide in me… mutual indwelling… mutual othering; so absorbed in the other that the self is forgotten yet never more fully realized. The theological word is perichorisis. The experience is joy.  Deep joy.

And then melody started to come with a lyric inspired by Fr. John’s ecstasy:

aaaaaaaa Judge for yourself how great is the one
aaaaaaaa Who lives in God, whose God is Love!
aaaaaaaa Like an iron when left in embers bright
aaaaaaaa Everything is fire! Everything is light!

It is remarkable that if you take a rod of iron and place it in a fire, the properties of the iron are such that it is able to take on the qualities of the fire. First heat and then light; glowing red initially but eventually white hot if left in long enough.  Further, when you then take the iron out of the fire, it can retain the energy and light of the fire on its own. You can hold it up as a beacon, you can warm with it, burn with it and you can start another fire with it. But if left out of the fire for long, it returns to cold metal.

And so, it has been the insight of the saints that the fullness of humanity is revealed thus: “as we lay our lives in the fire of God’s divine love, we become by grace what God is by nature.” Anything less is beneath our dignity.

aaaaaaaa Judge for yourself if a fire isn’t safe
aaaaaaaa When cities fall before its face
aaaaaaaa Yet a flower can endure the course of a storm
aaaaaaaa By bowing to the tempest’s rage
aaaaaaaa Burn forever, let me never
aaaaaaaa Curse the pain you bring
aaaaaaaa Somehow I know, I will be whole in your glowing.

Here’s the rub. Fire consumes. And love is no different. It is the Christian conviction that eventually all that is not love will be consumed by love.

Bernadette Soubirous

On the same retreat, I read a biography of the life of St. Bernadette. Singer/songwriter Jennifer Warnes had just released her celebrated CD of Leonard Cohen songs, Famous Blue Raincoat, and on that CD is a song she co-wrote called Bernadette. The song is so achingly beautiful that I had to find out who Bernadette was. In the library at the priory I found her story.

As a young girl in France, Bernadette received several visions at a grotto in Lourdes.  So remarkable was her countenance while receiving these visions, and so beautiful and elegant her words about the experience, she quickly rose to enormous fame. Eventually she was whisked away and cloistered in a convent where she lived the remainder of her short life in obscurity and ill health.  She died at age 35. But her biographer tells of her profound humility and forbearance in the face of tremendous suffering that marked her life after her brief celebrity.  “She was like a flower in a tempest. Where unbending oaks are snapped in two, the supple field flower remains.”

And so it is with love, fierce and unrelenting, humbling all that resists it – leaving behind nothing but itself.

aaaaaaaa Burning ember, shine forever
aaaaaaaa In the darkest tomb
aaaaaaaa Warmth of heaven, hidden secret
aaaaaaaa In a mother’s womb
aaaaaaaa Flame of beauty blazing through me
aaaaaaaa So that all might see
aaaaaaaa Somehow we know
aaaaaaaa We’ll all be whole in your burning.

In ancient church tradition there is much use of the censer. You’ve seen it in movies if you haven’t in person. The censer is an ornate metal cage on a chain. Inside is lit a block of incense swung about by the priest until every nook and cranny of the sanctuary is filled with its fragrance.

The censer can be thought of in several different ways; the tomb of Christ from which arises the new humanity; the womb of Mary that nourishes our hope and our future.  Or, it is I, it is you, created to “house” heaven for the sake of the earth. This is what we’ve been created for. Anything less is beneath our dignity.

Arise oh man! Arise oh woman! Know who you are!  We are too easily and woefully satisfied with so much less.

~ Steve Bell

*My Life in Christ by Fr. John of Kronstadt
Holy Trinity Monastery, Printshop of Pochaev
Jordanville, New York, USA 1994

(click song title to LISTEN)

BURNING EMBER | STEVE BELL

Music and Lyric by Steve Bell
St. Benedicts Priory  November 17/ 1992

Judge for yourself how great is the one
Who lives in God, whose God is love
Like an iron when left in embers bright
Everything is fire
Everything is light

Oh Love most beautiful you are
Oh flame of joy within my heart

Burning ember, I remember
Love’s first light in me
I was cold then, like a stone when I
Saw your flickering
Oh what beauty as you drew near me
I could scarcely speak
Somehow I knew, I would be new
In your glowing

Judge for yourself if a fire isn’t safe
When cities fall before her face
Yet a flower can endure the course of a storm
By bowing to the tempest’s rage

Oh Love, more fierce than all the rest
Oh raging joy within my breast

Burning ember, I remember
Love’s first light in me
I was cold then, like a stone when I
Saw your flickering
Burn forever, let me never
Curse the pain you bring
Somehow I know, I will be whole
In your glowing

Oh Love, more lovely than the rest
Of flame of joy within my breast

Burning ember, shine forever
In the darkest tomb
Warmth of heaven, hidden secret
In a mother’s womb
Flame of beauty, blazing through me
So that all can see
Somehow we know, we’ll all be whole
In your burning

© Signpost Music 1992
www.stevebell.com

a

The above version of Burning Ember was recorded for Steve’s CD The Symphony Sessions. To view, listen to tracks or purchase, click HERE

s

s

a

The original recording of Burning Ember was recorded for Steve’s album of the same name. To view, listen to tracks or purchase, click HERE

a

a

a

a

a

a

Check out two new songs I recorded for CBC’s Manitoba Covers Project.

To listen, click HERE

I got a call from Kinsey Posen (producer / CBC) this past spring asking if I would be part of a new project CBC was putting together. They wanted to record several Manitoba artists doing the music of other Manitoba artists, and asked if I might record two songs for the project. YES!!  CBC has always been enormously supportive of me and I was quite pleased to be invited to participate.

My  task was to pick two songs, of other Manitoba songwriters whose work I  admired, and come into CBC studios for a couple of days to record.  I immediately knew I wanted to cover Gord Johnson’s Stubble and Hay, and Byron O’Donnell’s Greatest Gift (a wedding song). Gord and Byron are both tremendous writers whose work has profoundly influenced mine.

Meg Dolovich

I also was thrilled that I could choose the musicians for the recording and took the opportunity to work with ones I normally don’t get a chance to work with: Joey Landreth (electric guitar) and Meg Dolovitch (bass) are two young musicians who have been burning up the town for the last couple of years.  Christian Dugas is currently playing for the Duhks and has already carved his place as one of our city’s great drummers. Zack Antel is  the ever-so-worthy go-to guy for keyboards in Winnipeg these days.

Studio 11 / CBC Winnipeg

We took two days (which is not a lot of time in studio-land)  in May and completed both songs.  And it was through that experience that I got the itch to start working on a new solo CD for myself.  Currently I’m well into that project and both the songs I recorded for CBC will likely be on my new disc (although different versions).

So… all the invited artists have completed their work and the songs are now posted on the CBC website for anyone who wants to check them out. I listened to all the songs this morning as was overwhelmed at what a great community of musicians and songwriters I belong to. I’m intensely proud to be numbered among these, my friends and colleagues. If you want to experience the kind of ferment that I have come out of – this is it. Go to the site. Check out the songs and please use your social networking to get the word out.

Click HERE to listen.

So here’s the “blast from the past” part:

CBC Producer Kinsey Posen and engineer Joe Dudych

CBC Studio 11 – this is the same studio I recorded the Elias,  Schritt and Bell album in 1982.

Kinsey Posen (producer / CBC) – Kinsey was a working musician when I was slugging it out in the bars. Kinsey played bass on my Comfort My People album.

Joe Dudych (engineer CBC)  -  Joe has over the years been the recording engineer on several projects I’ve been involved with. Joe also did audio editing work for me on the DVD I did with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Christian Dugas

Christian Dugas – I played clubs with Christian’s father Norm (late 70′s, early 80′s). Norm played keys on the Elias, Schritt and Bell album, and then later on my Christmas album The Feast.

Joey Landreth (guitar) – Joey’s father Wally (Walter to you) was a working musician (bass) in the days I was playing the clubs.

Gord Johnson (songwriter / Stubble and Hay) – Gord befriended me when I was just starting up.  Not only has he been among the most influential musicians in my life, he has also had a profound spiritual influence.  (Most of the songs on my recent Devotion CD were written by Gord).

Byron O’Donnell (songwriter/Greatest Gift). I played guitar and sang back-ups in Byron’s country band through the mid-eighties. Byron was the one who got me songwriting again in the late 80′s after long arid spell that lasted  close to ten years. Byron has co-written songs with me and appeared as a vocalist on my recordings as well. I recorded his song, He Will Know, for my recent album Devotion.

Joey Landreth

Then there are the other artists who contributed songs and recordings to this project: Alana Levendoski, Graham Shaw, Rick Neufeld, Cara Luft, The Ministers of Cool, Alexa Dirks, Greg Leskiw and many others. These are my peers and colleagues.What I love about this project is that it is not simple nostalgia or sentiment.  This is current ferment…

Btw – both songs, Stubble and Hay and Greatest Gift, are being re-recorded to be on my new CD (release date: January 11). You may find it interesting to see how productions morph when songs are recorded again.  I’ll keep you posted.

Moi

My official rest/rehabilitation time is over and my arm is feeling much better than it was  - but there is still a ways to go before it has healed. This morning I went in for my first session of “dry needling”, which is a fairly aggressive (and painful) procedure to get angry muscles to let go of old “wounds.”  I don’t really understand the procedure, but basically it is sticking a needle into the most painful part of a muscle knot and then wiggling the needle around till the muscle begs “a-mercy” and releases the knot.  Apparently there’s a fair bit of this  in my near future (the Doc figures I’ll need to go back a dozen times or so.) Egad!

Other fronts are moving along as well. I’ve been back in the studio for the last couple of weeks, recording my new CD.  We’ve got drums, bass and some guitars done on every song and I’m (at this point) quite enthused about how things are sounding. Recording is a bizarre swing of elation and despair. One day you’re sure it’s the best thing you’ve ever done, and the next day you’re convinced you should be drawn and quartered for ever pretending to be a musician.  It’s always like this.  But today I’m feeling fairly confident, so it’s a good day.

I’ve written, or co-written about half of the songs. The other half (as usual) are songs I’ve stumbled on, or songs buddies have written that have enchanted me for one reason or another.  I’ll be including Pierce Pettis’ brilliant song Absalom, Brian McLaren’s gentle Kindness, Jim Croegaert’s anthematic Changes, along with the half dozen or so songs I’ve written in the last year. I haven’t written a lot in the last few years so it feels good to have some new original songs to sing.

Bobble-head Steve

In a couple of days, I have a photo shoot for the CD which will proudly display my new “progressive” glasses – a sure testament to the passing of time.

This weekend begins the new season of touring as well. I’m off to California for five concerts (see schedule). It feels  a little weird and more than a little daunting to think of doing concerts again – I’ve not performed since early June which is the longest break from performing I’ve had in over twenty years. But it was good to rest.   I have to start taking seriously that I’m not as young as I once was. Part of the problem with my arm has been not respecting the limitations of my own body  -  the result of which is that now I must endure being mercilessly poked with sharp sticks

PopPop and the Lads

Otherwise, all has been swell.  Earlier in the summer I spent a glorious week with my grandsons, I took a five day silent retreat, I’ve read several great books and taken in some great live music.   Nance and I just celebrated our 28th anniversary in the same year we will both turn 50. I feel physically much better than I did, and emotionally/spiritually feel somewhat rested and renewed – ready for the new season.

Thank you to so many who were able to make donations to fund this time. Being injured is terribly costly when your income depends on your ability to perform. I’m so very grateful you have helped bear the  weight of this. We still need some funds to complete the new CD, so if you are willing and able to parnter in this project, donations can be made on-line HERE.

Soon I’ll start posting bits of the production so you can hear how it’s going. We’re anticipating a January release of the new CD.

Cheers!

Steve