Friday night, December 5th we had the opportunity to go to an
Andrew Peterson concert. We have been looking foreward to it for a while, and it was definately worth the drive down to Richmond.
The concert was part of his Behold the Lamb of God Tour: The True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ. Andrew Peterson is a Christian singer/songwriter that my whole family loves to listen to, and Behold the Lamb of God is one of our favorite CDs by him. There is a group of artists(
here and
here) that Andrew Peterson is apart of, and Eric and I enjoy several other singer/songwriters in that group.
On this tour, Andrew Peterson brings several of these friends, and several others. So the concert tonight was filled with most of my favorite Christian artists. It was amazing. For the first half of the concert they took turns, each person playing his own songs with his own style. My favorites: Jill Phillip's songs (she is one of my favorite artists) were wonderful and I bought her new album. Her music is a little bit more folk/rock genra, and I love her voice and the way she uses the guitar. Andy Gullahorn (Jill's husband) played two of his songs, Desperate Man and Roast Beef. I especially him because he is an exeptional songwriter and his music is just guitar and voice most of the time, and the guitar style is different, more rthmic, but it sounds beautiful. Another of my top favorits was Bebo Norman. I've just recently gotten some of his music, but I love his style of guitar and his songs are always deep and well written. And I really like his voice too. Ben Shive sung one of the songs from his new album. Being a pianist ;) I really appriciate the lyrical way he plays piano. Also, Pierce Pettis and Andrew Osenga play some of their songs.
After intermission was the Christmas part of the concert. They all sang together the Christmas songs by Andrew Peterson. This is not your ordinary Christmas music thought. It tells a story. A true story. About the Savior of the World.
In Andrew's words: "…What I wrote is a concert that tells a story. There’s no speaking--only songs, some of which are intimate, some epic, some humorous, all with a purpose, which is to convey the true tall tale of the coming of God into the world. What makes this bunch of songs unique is that I wanted to remind (or teach) the audience that the story of Christmas doesn’t begin with the birth of Jesus. Many people tend to forget or have never even learned that the entire Bible is about Jesus, not just the New Testament. So the musical begins with Moses and the symbolic story of the Passover (Passover Us) and works its way through the kings and the prophets with their many prophecies about the coming Messiah (So Long, Moses) to the awful four hundred years of silence before God told Mary she’d be having a baby (Deliver Us). After the song called Matthew's Begats, which lists the genealogy of Jesus, the story picks up in more familiar territory with Mary and Joseph and the actual birth (It Came To Pass, Labor of Love). The final song is called Behold, the Lamb of God, which ties together the Passover and the beauty and scope of the story…”
Even after listening to this album many many times, it never seems to get old. And it was so amazing, so uplifting, listening and watching these wonderful people sing it. They were so humble, and God's love was so evedent it the evening, throught their songs, and their storys. The end of the concert was different, but it showed their humility. Instead of staying on the stage after the last song, they led the audience in two Christmas hymns, then while we were still singing they walked off. It was so peaceful, and left the attention on Christ. It was so incredible.
I thoroughly enjoyed this concert, and if you are looking for a good Christmas CD, check out Behold the Lamb of God. You can get it here. https://store.rabbitroom.com/index.aspx
