GPS (Case of the Missing Jesus)

This Year's Christmas offering is a song I first conceived about six years ago but finally can deliver to the world. A story about baby Jesus being stolen from a town Nativity inspired it. I kept with my original vision of a folk style song with Southern Gospel harmonies. It's available for download as a single at CD Baby or as part of my Christmas album "Kresh" at Noisetrade.

Mary and Joseph and shepherds
in a stable with cows and sheep near
while a baby lays in the straw
He's the fourth one we put out this year
Some vandal keeps stealing our Jesus
from the manger in our city square
to keep our Navidad feliz
our chief of police
vowed to solve the caper this year

We put a GPS in our baby Jesus
for the next time they steal Him in the night
the Wise Men followed a star to find Him
but we'll have three satellites

Just after one in the morning
the burgler appeared in the park
we watched on the security camera
to see who was lurking in the dark
the thief who was dressed up like Santa
threw baby Jesus on a sled
to keep our Noel joyeux
our officers pursued
the beacon in the baby's head

We put a GPS in our baby Jesus
for the next time they steal Him in the night
the Wise Men followed a star to find Him
but we'll have three satellites

The blip on the screen stopped moving
our SWAT team converged on the spot
they found a stash of Jesuses (or Jesi?)
in a van behind the old Dairy mart
But we never caught the perpetrator
though we solved the mysterious theft
we kept out Natale buon
though the suspect is gone
baby Jesus is back in the creche

We put a GPS in our baby Jesus
now everything is alright
the Wise Men followed a star to find Him
but we'll have three satellites
We put a GPS in our baby Jesus
Merry Christmas to all and goodnight

© 2014 David Samuel Thomas

Sweet Sacred Heart -- New Recording

It seems like every Lent and Advent I record some new songs. This year is no exception. Here is a free download from Soundcloud of "Sweet Sacred Heart". The lyrics are from a hymn by A.E. Tozer with original music and prayers from the Litany of the Sacred Heart.



When all the day of toil is done
and twilight spreads her purple wing
when starry vigils have begun
before the Eucharistic King

In light or darkness, life and death
In time and in Eternity
Devoted heart with trusting faith
we consecrate our all to Thee

In joy or grief, in hope or fear
In sin, in suffering and distress
behold a refuge ever near
to heal, to comfort and to bless

In light or darkness, life and death
In time and in Eternity
Devoted heart with trusting faith
we consecrate our all to Thee

When softly dawns the golden light
and shadows melt oer land and sea
O sweet and sacred heart of Christ
We consecrate our souls to Thee

In light or darkness, life and death
In time and in Eternity

Before Thine altar's holy throne
Where we now humbly kneel and pray
we bring to Thee, to thee alone
the offering of the newborn day

In light or darkness, life and death
In time and in Eternity
Devoted heart with trusting faith
we consecrate our all to Thee

We are Pascha People: New Music

Just in time for Holy Week and Pascha I give a musical project called "We are Pascha People" recorded under the moniker Roodscreen. Recorded during Lent 2013, this album takes you into the contemplative desert of Lent, the institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, mourning with Mary at the Cross, lamenting at the tomb, into Hades on Holy Saturday, then to the empty tomb on Easter Sunday.

Some of the songs will appear on the Roodscreen album "Calm of the Stormdriven" later this year. Like all Roodscreen projects, it will be a thematic album, this time about our Blessed Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.



Desert Darkness (words& music by David Samuel Thomas)
Ave Verum Corpus (translated by Edward Caswall, music by DST)
Mourn with Me (words by Fr. Frederick William Faber, music by DST)
The Earth was Cold, the Night was Dark (words & music DST)
He Descended to the Dead (assembled by DST)
We are Pascha People (words & music DST)
Regina Coeli (translated by Edward Caswall, music by DST)

Produced by David Samuel Thomas at Green Desk Studio--Ypsilanti, MI

New Music for Advent & Christmas

Dark and dreary is the Michigan December. Snow (which we haven't had much of this year), ice, fog and short days lead to seasonal affective disorder. Yet on the darkest days of the year we celebrate the coming of Christ, the light of the world. 

I just finished recording the final songs for my EP "Kresh" and it is available as a download from Noisetrade. This project is my meditation during the Advent season--a time of reflection and repentance wrapped in joyful expectation. 

Savior of the Nations Come is based on "Veni Redemptor gentium" by St. Ambrose of Milan. The heresiarch Martin Luther translated it into German. An American, William M. Reynolds, later translated it into English in 1851. The tune is "Nun Komm" by Johanne Walther. When I heard it sung at Mass one year I imagined it as a garage band song.

My Soul in Stillness is based on the "O Antiphons" of Advent. I'm not usually a fan of Marty Haugen songs (let's just leave it at that), but this one is a winner. I decided to do it as a chillout techno song to fit the expectant mood of the season. 

Puer Natus is an Introit for Christ-Mass, the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I sang the 1876 translation by Hamilton Montgomerie MacGill to a Norwegian tune I heard on an album by Bukkene Bruse. 

Shepherd Song is my own translation of the Czech carol “Pásli Ovce Valaši”. I play dulcimer on this one.

Gaudete! dates back to at least the 16th century. Steeley Span's recording of it in 1973 made the British top 20, but my favorite version is by the Mediaeval Baebes. For my recording I gave it a techno spacey vibe.

Glory, Glory comes from a poem by Christina Rossetti who is better known for her popular "In the Bleak Midwinter". When I read the first line it sounded like a blues tune, so that's what I did to it.

Chill December is a strange hymn written by Norval Clyne from Scotland. I love the imagery and the key shift from minor to major in the tune. Did this one techno with all kinds of phase shifting to create a wind effect.

Technical: I used Audacity for recording and mixing and MuLab for sequencing "My Soul in Stillness" and "Chill December".

      

Requiescat in Pace Dave Brubeck

One day short of his 92nd birthday, jazz piano legend Dave Brubeck died of heart failure. In 2009 I saw him perform at the Detroit Jazz Festival, and at 89 he still had the same speed and precision.

Many people aren't familiar with his choral and liturgical music, including a Mass setting. Our Sunday Visitor commissioned him to compose the Mass setting in 1980. At the time Brubeck only had a vague belief in God, but hadn't really considered a relationship with Jesus. But while composing the last song for the Mass  he had an experience that brought him home: "I dreamt the entire 'Our Father' and jumped out of bed and wrote down as much as I could." Brubeck said, "It's pretty close to the dream, and after that dream I decided I would become Catholic."

Popular belief is that they play harps in heaven. Perhaps the newly departed Dave Brubeck will hear this when he enters the City of God. Or if he's tired of hearing the song (which Paul Desmond wrote and performed with Brubeck) he'll have to listen to this version in Purgatory. You decide

May his memory be eternal!

Christ is Born, Glorify Him!

Chanted by Reader Nader Hajjar, Ottawa.
Video by kalamation and Fr. Francois Beyrouti.

The Last Song You Hear on Earth

In the mid 1980's I had a garage band called "Vladimir's Universe" that performed in local clubs. My mentor was a guy named Tom V. Silvia. He had a studio in a garage where he recorded and produced a demo tape for me.

After losing touch with him for 20 years I decided to Google him and found that he passed away in 2007. On his memorial page I found out that he was a devout Catholic who was involved at a parish here in Ann Arbor. Requiescat in pace! May his memory be eternal!

I bring this all up because there was a recording of him on the memorial page. Tom mentioned that in Catholic teaching the last sense lost when you die is hearing. That's why the priest whispers in the ear of someone who died.

Being a musician, Tom felt it was important to leave with a good song. He chose "Love Supreme" by John Coltrane--partially because of it's length.

The Eastern tradition (Orthodox & Byzantine Catholic) is to chant the entire Psalter for the dying person. I hope that my kids will do this for me. If God would allow it, I would love to pass while my oldest son is chanting Psalm 51 "Miserere mei, Deus" in Tone IV 4.