New Album

WOULDN’T YOU LOVE TO KNOW?

Music and lyrics by Steve Bell
Inspired by N.T. Wright’s sermon of the same name

If you have to love the truth
Just to know that it is true
Wouldn’t you love to know?

If the essence of a thing
begs to hear your tender wooing
Wouldn’t you love to know?

If you can’t know a part
Without delighting in the whole
Wouldn’t you love to know?

If you’d never know a kiss
Without first cherishing the soul
Wouldn’t you love to know?

To know as you are known
Merely love as you are loved
Gently turn this fertile loam
To unearth the fragrance of the lover’s drug

From the far cloud-hidden star
To the solitary bug
Wouldn’t you love to know?

Frankenstein and Faust are yet the rage
Unspeakable, the severing damage done
Yet on the wind, the distant sound of drum
And the sweetness of the sage
Still might come a kinder age…
See the wonder-stricken child
Hear the elder’s wizened song
Wouldn’t you love to know?

Steve Bell: acoustic guitar, keyboards, percussion
Murray Pulver: background vocals, electric guitar
Cara Luft: claw-hammer banjo
Jenee Fleenor: violin, mandolin
Micah Bell: bass

IN PRAISE OF DECAY

Music by Steve Bell
Lyrics by Malcolm Guite and Steve Bell

There are older ways of living
Much wiser than the ways we know
Kinder and forgiving
Of the limits we’re inclined to loathe
Native to the land that God has given us to grow
The seeds of love, the shoot of faith
The tree of hope

In the spiral of our sinning
In the manufactured grim disgrace
Of betraying our beginnings
With viral acts of greed and waste
Planted in the midst of these bewildering displays
Lies a garden tended by a lover’s grace

Perhaps it’s not so bad that things decay
That ocean breakers ebb and flow away
That light ascends then settles at the ending of the day
That beating hearts can stop and start again

There’s a reverence unfolding
From the secrets of the lowly, least
And the arts of better knowing
Of letting go and planting seeds
Blessed are the ones who harrow wisdom of the past
To save us from the dreadful things that last

Steve Bell: acoustic guitar, ukulele, keyboards, percussion
Micah Bell: bass
Daniel Roy: drums
Eric Darken: percussion

GOD BLESS THE POOR

Words and music by Brian McLaren
Publishing, Revolution of Hope Music Group, all rights reserved. Registered with CCLI

God bless the poor
Bless them with the treasure that the rest take for granted
Bless them with true prosperity
To have all that they need
Enough and then some more to share
And wisdom to enjoy the priceless blessings flowing everywhere
For free

God bless the rich
Bless them with the treasure that their money cannot buy
Bless them with generosity
To realize we can only
Save the things we give away
And the only wealth worth having is the joy of doing right and good
For free

God bless the wounded
The migrant and the refugee who seek just to survive
Bless them with hospitality
To keep their hope alive
Just one more day through strangers
Who in kindness open hands and doors and borders
Until all are safe
And free

God bless us all
To never waste a heartbeat, or a breath, or day or night
Bless us with gratitude
To savor every taste
The gift of every present moment
And dance with all our strength within your rhythm and your music
To be free

Steve Bell: acoustic guitars, flugelhorn, keyboards, percussion
Ainsley Mariani: background vocals
Felice Mariani: background vocals
Brent Barkman: keyboards
Micah Bell: bass

THE STRANGE BLESSING OF BEARING

Music and lyrics by Steve Bell

On reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s sermon “The Peace of God in Affliction” (Sept. 3, 1938) circulated to seminarians encouraging them to resist, at cost of suffering, the German churches’ growing allegiance to the Third Reich. “In the church today,” he writes, “we know much too little about the strange blessing of bearing something… Whoever avoids affliction discards along with that God’s greatest gift for his creatures.”

The peace of God is with the patient ones
Bearing up under affliction
For the joy that Love has promised us
Though waves of agony wash over us
May we know
What mothers know
The strange blessing of bearing

Quietude becomes the lover
Oriented towards the other
Sufferings gladly enduring
For the sake of another’s flourishing
May we know
What martyrs know
The beautiful blessing of bearing

God, we pray that in the days to come
Ever keep before our longing
The mystery of your bleeding son
Through the night into the dawning

Love enwombed in God’s creation
Fortifies the soul’s elation
Hearts on fire to love attending
Tribulations not withstanding
May we know
What Jesus knows
The glorious blessing of bearing

Steve Bell: acoustic guitar, dobro, keyboards
Erin Propp: background vocals
Brent Barkman: keyboards
Matt Kelly: steel guitar

IN MEMORIAM

Music and lyrics by Steve Bell
In memory of Alfred Clement Bell 1936-2019

Fresh tendernesses burgeoned
with the dying of my dad
I love him all the more for it
He lived his life for others’ gain
His death, he gave away the same
I love him all the more for it
 
This son was fiercely fashioned
By his father’s dappled life
The way he loved his children
The way he loved his wife
My dad was hardly perfect
But I don’t give a rip
I loved him all the more for it
 
Not scandalized by brokenness
Not scandalized by pain
But Dad could not abide the curse
And hellishness of shame
He’d absorb another’s failures
And return them as a gift
I loved him all the more for it
 
My father was a trumpeter
Those days have long since passed
He passed along his passion to me
Eager as I was
We’d sit for hours and listen
To the Tijuana Brass
I loved him all the more for it

I tenderly remember
When a beauty left me rent
I was too young to consider then
That love is never spent
He promised pain would linger
And would probably leave a dent
I loved him all the more for it

My dad was a believer
He believed that God was good
He was certain Jesus lived
To show how everybody could
And that all our earthly sorrows
Couldn’t be the final writ
I loved him all the more for it
 
My father was a fortress
For my two sisters and I
And more-so for our mom
Who suffered so much of her life
He taught us how to live
And then he taught us how to die
And we loved him all the more for it
 
Fresh tendernesses burgeoned
With the dying of my dad
And I love him all the more for it

Steve Bell: acoustic guitar, mandolin, keyboards
Mike Janzen: piano
Gilles Fournier: upright bass
Matt Kelly: steel guitar 
Eric Darken: percussion

A HEARTBEAT AWAY

Music by Steve Bell, lyrics by Steve Bell & Diana Pops

Written as a companion piece to the book:
Am I Safe? Exploring Fear and Anxiety with Children
See: www.compassionseries.com/amisafe

When you are lonely, confused or afraid
Think of me standing by you
I am no more than a heartbeat away
Think of me standing by you

The heart is like a home
Where you are not alone
First light of morning and last light of day
Think of me standing by you

When it’s a struggle for you to be calm
Think of me standing by you
When you are worried that something’s gone wrong
Think of me standing by you

‘Cause love is like a home
Where you are not alone
Keep as a treasure the heart of this tune
And think of me standing by you

When you can’t name that fear you feel
You can still know that love is real too.

Sometimes your thoughts leave you weak and upset
Think of me standing by you
Pause for a moment to take a deep breath
And think of me standing by you

Your heart is always home
To those you call your own
Take heart, and take courage and never forget
To think of me standing by you
Think of me standing by you

Steve Bell: lead and background vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion, flugelhorn
Erin Propp: lead and background vocals
Murray Pulver: electric and baritone guitar
Micah Bell: bass
Brent Barkman: keyboards, Hammond B3
Daniel Roy: drums
Eric Darken: percussion

BECAUSE I LANGUISH FOR LOVE (Quia Amore Langueo)

Music and lyrics by Steve Bell
Adapted from 15th-century anonymous poem, Quia Amore Langueo

In a valley of this restless mind
I sought in vale and meadow
True love it was I hoped to find
But only there found sorrow
I heard a voice under a tree
And there a man lay wounded
See now, he said, how my sides bleed
Because I languish for love

From head to foot was wounded he
I saw his heart’s blood bleeding
A noble prince under that tree
With gracious face revealing
Such love for she, his sister who
He could not bear a parting
For her he suffered prodigally
Because he languished for love

Because he languished for love
Because he languished for love
For her he suffered prodigally
Because he languished for love

I crowned her with celestial bliss
Though crowned with thorns was I
I led her to a lover’s cliff
She led me there to die
“Why love the one whose love runs cold?”
Begets the puzzled query
She failed to make my love her foe
Because I languish for love

Because I languish for love
Because I languish for love
She failed to make my love her foe
Because I languish for love

Wax not weary, my dear spouse
What prize is comfort ever?
In trials do I fully reign
More fully than in pleasure
In weal and woe, I’m ever there
Dear heart, do not deny me
Your prize is fixed unto my death
Because I languish for love

Because I languish for love
Because I languish for love
Your prize is fixed unto my death
Because I languish for love

Steve Bell: acoustic guitar, ganjo, percussion
Brent Barkman: keyboards, B3
Sheena Rattai: background vocals
Jenee Fleenor: violin, viola
Micah Bell: bass
Daniel Roy: drums
Eric Darken: percussion

THE HOME OF OUR GOD (Rev. 21:1-5)

Music and lyrics by Steve Bell

Let my eyes see your glory Lord
My heart is awash with groaning
Gladden the heart of your servant for
You are the light of the morning

See the home of our God
Among these mortal plains
The city of great love
Where sorrow, death and pain
Will surely pass away
Will surely pass away

He will wipe every tear from our eyes
And adorn us with joy as a bride

Steve Bell: acoustic guitar, flugelhorn, trumpet, keyboards, whistle, U-bass
Ainsley Mariani: background vocals
Felice Mariani: background vocals
Brent Barkman: keyboardsJosh Matheny: dobro
Daniel Roy: drums
Todd Martin: French horn
Keith Dryda: euphonium
Steve Oberheu: tuba
Additional chorus vocals: Erin Propp, Murray Pulver, Joey Landreth, Roman Clark

LONG SHADOWS

Music and lyrics by Steve Bell

One can tell
That the sun is setting on our “fare-thee-well”
When our civilization’s betting on its small men casting long shadows

We aspire
With a half a billion animals on fire
To surmount the consequences of desire behind the earth’s sorrows

Those who fall into the pit
Are, finally, the ones who dig it

It’s insane
That the nations rage, and people plot in vain
Against the Lord’s anointed saying “let’s throw off these shackles”

All the while,
The one enthroned in heaven casts a smile
And terrifies the ones who know their ways are like the jackals

Those who fall into the pit
Are, finally, the ones who dig it

Steve Bell: acoustic guitar, keyboards, percussion
Sheena Rattai: background vocals
Jenee Fleenor: violin
Micah Bell: bass
Daniel Roy: drums

BECAUSE WE HUNKERED DOWN

Music by Steve Bell
Lyrics by Malcolm Guite

These bleak and freezing seasons may mean grace
When they are memory
In time to come, when we speak truth, they’ll take their place
Telling the story
Of our journey home
Through dark December
And stark January
With all its disappointments, and the dreary work
Of February
When even breathing seems to be unwelcome work

But because through all of these we held together
Because we shunned the impulse to let go
Because we hunkered down through our dark weather
And trusted to the soil beneath the snow
Slowly, slowly
Turning a cold key
Spring will unlock our hearts and set us free

Because we hunkered down
Down, down, down

Steve Bell: acoustic and electric guitars
Erin Propp: background vocals
Murray Pulver: electric guitar
Micah Bell: bass

DO NOT JUDGE (Matthew 7:1-50)

Music and lyrics by Steve Bell

Do not judge so that you may not be judged
Do not judge so that you may not be judged

For what you give is what you’ll get
So, mind that “speck” of yours

Steve Bell: acoustic guitar, percussion
Murray Pulver: guitar
Jenee Fleenor: violin, mandolin
Josh Matheny: dobro
Micah Bell: bass

TOGETHER

Music by Steve Bell
Lyrics by Kathleen Norris

Together we can bear
the sufferings of our lives
Because of the joy to come
That God has promised us

Steve Bell: acoustic guitar, U-bass
Erin Propp: background vocal
Josh Matheny: dobro
Vocal Chorus: Sheena Ratai, Joey Landreth, Murray Pulver, Roman Clarke