31 Albums for 31 Years

When I turned 25, I planned to write a series of articles on my 25 favorite films, 25 favorite albums, and 25 favorite books. I only finished the film article; the album article stalled and I gave up on it. Then, when I turned 30 last year, I attempted to complete the series again—now with 20% more items—but it took so long to finish the album article that I’m not 30 anymore. So here are the 31 albums that are the nearest and dearest to me. (Well, there are 32, at least, depending on how you count things.)

Read More

Introduction to Bruised Reeds

Growing up in a music-loving household full of CDs and cassette tapes, I long thought it would be fun to create an album. On July 10th of this year, that long-envisioned album finally went out into the world under the title of Bruised Reeds.

The seeds for the shape the album would take began to be planted ten years ago, when Grant Dicks and I collaborated on a score for the film Deepstill in 2012. That was my first time composing a body of music and making it available to others, an experience so satisfying I’ve been making music as a hobby ever since. With the creation of the tie-in single, “A Song for Deepstill,” that collaboration also marked the first time I wrote and sang my own lyrics, and I soon began to think up more songs. But whereas in the following years I would make a few more acoustic instrumentals with Grant (see The Jabberwocky Years), film scores for student short films at Biola University (The Undergraduate), a short album of settings of George Herbert’s poems (Mend My Rhyme), and a collection of digital instrumentals (RE:), it wouldn’t be until the pandemic year of 2020 that I finally set out to realize the singer-songwriter project in earnest. Most of the work was done in the Spring and Summer of 2021, but it took another year for me to put on the finishing touches.

Read More

"The Grace That I Talk About on All of My Records": How Andy Mineo Raps the Gospel

       In a previous essay, I made the case that Christian art should be defined, quite literally, as art about Christ. [1] Truly Christ-ian art, though it comes in various ways, shapes, and forms, is always ultimately about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the message “of first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:3): that Christ the Son of God, the sovereign Lord over all things, became a man, died for our sins, rose again, and is someday returning to judge the world and to gather up the church that He died to save. [2] 

Read More

The Stuff of Earth: Rich Mullins’ “If I Stand” and a Brief Theology of Creation

       In Rich Mullins’ 1988 song, “If I Stand” (cowritten with Steven Robert Cudworth), there is a line that captures an enduring tension in the heart of any Christian living in a material world: “The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance / I owe only to the Giver of all good things.” [1]    

       There is a paradox here, because “the stuff of earth” and “all good things” are equivalent. “The stuff of earth” that Mullins describes in the song are the rising sun, the shining moon, the warmth of a fire, the shelter of a room, the virtue of loyalty, music, the wind on the prairie, the ocean tide, the love between friends, and the gentleness of a mother toward her newborn. Clearly, the term “stuff of earth” does not represent bad things, because the stuff of earth Mullins has in mind are “all good things,” gracious gifts from God “the Giver.” And yet, these good things from God are in competition with Him for our loyalty. The implication is that “all good things,” while good in and of themselves—for they were made by God who declared them all “very good” (Genesis 1:31)—can nevertheless be bad for us when they entice us to treason. [2] 

Read More