Don't Forget to Resubscribe

Friends, just sending another reminder that I do not use blogger anymore. I switched to wordpress. If you want to keep up, you must resubscribe here:

http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=2373100&loc=en_US

I'm blogging as I tour this month, so I hope you'll follow me!

-Tracy

To My Subscribers

Hi Friends,

Thanks so much for subscribing to the blog. I have switched over to Wordpress because there are some more powerful tools I can use, which hopefully means some more frequent and interesting posting going on! So, to keep getting your email alerts, you need to resubscribe. You can do it by clicking this link now:

http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=2373100&loc=en_US

I'm also in the process of archiving past articles and resources and categorizing them. If you have your own ways of setting up blog feeds and subscriptions, here is a direct link to the new blog that feeds into restorationvillage.com:

http://restorationvillage.wordpress.com/

Finally, I also send out email newsletters every 1-2 months with Constant Contact. They are pretty with full color layouts and pictures, and I encompass more of the season than the blog posts. If you just can't get enough, here's the link for that one:

http://visitor.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1100365236458

Love you guys,
Tracy

Crazy Week and Time to Play

Hi friends. Well, after a last minute surgery last week, I'm feeling remarkably well. I'm amazed actually at how fast we can heal. This is the free mug you get from Boulder Community Hospital if you get surgery. ANYWAY...I'm just very grateful that I'm feeling good and ready to play and sing with my friends Todd and Angie from Portland. We'll be doing Agents of Future songs and some Restoration Project Songs.

If you're in Colorado, I hope you can make it to one of the shows. Todd and Angie are amazing and you won't be disappointed. Here are the details:

Thursday, Aug 21
397 All Sky Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80921
7pm suggested $10 donation

Friday, Aug 22
1120 Northfield Rd
Colorado Springs, CO 80919
7pm suggested $10 donation

Saturday, Aug 23
111 Canon St
Lafayette, CO 80026-1605
7pm suggested $10 donation

Friendship in Juarez

I'm reposting this video of a house concert I did in Juarez last year. My friends from Dios Con Nosotros were able to visit Colorado Springs this past weekend and we spent some wonderful time together. However, many of you might be aware of the increasing violence and economic problems in Mexico. Juarez in particular has been suffering and recently became the most violent city in the world as murders rose to about 10 per day. The violence is mostly due to the drug war happening between three different cartels. You can find many articles online including THIS ONE from npr.org.

My friend Claudia (born and raised in Juarez, but fluent in English) sent me this in an email before she came to visit:

"My parents business is broke and Luis is out of work. The financial world there is a saying that says that if the U.S. gets the flu, Mexico gets pneumonia. And that is what is happening over here. There is a huge domino effect on our economy because of the possible recession, gas prices etc... A lot of factories have shut down and many businesses are broke, including my parents. The good thing is my dad is retired and getting a monthly check.

Right now it kind of feels like everything is messed up. We are not sad or depressed or anything. We are hopeful, trying to discern the will of God. Please be praying for Juarez too. Since February there have been 467 drug related murders (over 500 now since the first of the year). These murders are happening in broad daylight in the middle of high traffic streets. Three men were killed last week outside of our neighborhood. So this has brought a lot of despair to the city and the people are in a general hysteria."

By a miracle my friends, Claudia and Luis, and the Pastors of Dios Con Nosotros, Manuel and Lola, were able to come for the weekend. They visited some Spanish speaking congregations in Denver and Colorado Springs and spent a day with me and some other friends. We spoke about things going on in the city and every time Claudia started to talk about the violence, or the arson, Lola's eyes would well up with tears. Manuel is more stoic, but far from unmoved. At one point, while about 7 of us were having lunch at a local cafe, he pulled the label off of the Odawalla lemonade he was drinking. He said he like to pull the labels off of things. He spoke in metaphor and prose about the need to see people's essence apart from title. "Now Juarez has won the title of most violven city in the world," he said. "But this is just another title distracting people from presence of God."

We spoke about what we could do together and what it means to be people of Peace, and friends across borders. So, right now I am planning on visiting my friends over labor day weekend. I will travel with a few others and we will manifest a higher reality, by having a concert, a party, and maybe planting a garden.

Please do pray for the city, and for our dear friends. And if you feel moved to give, you may donate through the partnership page here at restorationvillage.com. Please indiciate "Juarez" and I will include it in an offering for Dios Con Nosotros.

Interview Posted at The Other Journal

Hey friends, The Other Journal just posted an interview they did with me over the winter. Its posted at theotherjournal.com.

Todd and Angie Sing over Fill the Fields

Todd and Angie on Fill the Fields

Hi everyone,

I am dedicated to getting better at this...I apologize for three entries all at once. I've been moving all week (same area, different house) and today in my office, managed to fall asleep for over an hour. I have just been exhausted!

Todd Fadel (Agents of Future) is a very talented producer and has encouraged me in different ways. He also has been working with my friend Aaron Strumpel on some pretty incredible material. Anyway, Todd and Angie sang over "Fill the Fields" awhile back as I was considering some extra vocal harmonies. It is just a fun b-sides now, but I thought I would share in anticipation of their coming. Enjoy!

Agents of Future Tour in Colorado

Hey Friends,

If you live in Colorado, you definitely want to mark your calendars. Todd and Angie Fadel will be coming out in August and we are doing house concerts together in the Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs areas. VIEW THE CALENDAR for details. Todd and Angie are amazing songwriters and creatives. You can also check out Agents of Future on MySpace.

Minneapolis Concert this Wednesday!

Hey friends. There is still time to decide to come next week and be part of the art intensive in Minneapolis. However, if you can't make it, I will be doing a concert, open to the public at the fall out on Wednesday night, July 16 at 7pm. The evening sessions are actually all open to the public (donations accepted at the door). Then, I'm sure I will play a set during the ARTFEST Saturday in addition to the evening finale which begins at 8pm. So hope to see you there!

www.sourcemn.org

Greetings to Puerto Rico

Hey friends. I'm excited to be going to Puerto Rico in August. If you are in Puerto Rico and want to know what is happening, email Angel Huertas at april_afternoon @hotmail.com!

Art Intensive/Urban Art Festival!

There are many more photos from last years Art Intensive and Artfest in Minneapolis here: www.sourcemn.org. But I am writing to remind everyone that you can still register for this year's Art Intensive and Artfest, July 14-20. The Art Intensive is for everyone from film makers to musicians to leaders who just love art and want to see different possibilities of how it might be a fruit and catalyst for restoration and community. $150 covers food and housing for the week and if you do happen to be an artist or performer, you will also get a slot at Artfest on Saturday. Source, the host community has links to the Northumbria monastary in England as well as the 24-7 international network. Their mission is simply to be a friend and voice for at risk youth and urban subcultures in the city.

I will be speaking, leading worship and performing through out the week as well as teaching a songwriting track. I will be joined by my good friend Linnea Spransy, who graduated from Yale with a masters in paint. Her work can be found in galleries around the world and she is part of the 24-7 boiler room in Kansas City.

More information can be found at sourcemn.org and here are some QUICKLINKS for you:

ART INTENSIVE INFO AND SCHEDULE

DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION

Singable Songs

Hey friends. I read a blog post recently commenting on the singability of Restoration Project songs. I was flattered to be the topic of conversation, and thought I would respond a bit here. Historically no, I have not been concerned about writing "singable" songs in the sense that people could just know the melody and words and sing them together at will. I love singable songs...but I have always been more concerned with authenticity and unique perspective, and...I am a live performing artist and I weave songs in and out of stories and poetry. So, being a worship songwriter is actually a little newer to me. It was actually groups like COTA in Seattle that first started using my songs in their own gatherings. Lacey Brown, the then worship leader at COTA would send me an email every couple of months asking for the chord charts to a certain song. COTA was actually using songs from "Sobering" (2004) which, as an album, lands way outside the radar of industry standards. I was flattered and encouraged that the songs I shared so passionately were indeed resonating with communities, and also impressed that the group would take the time to learn some more complex songs.

In 2006 I release "Worship," which actually is not that much different lyrically and structurally then my other work. It is still very people focused and poetry driven. The difference was my perspective while writing. I had been through a pretty intense restoration process of my own, and some of the unexpected fruit was coming into a much deeper understanding and theology of worship. I did create that project wanting it to be a resource and offering to the communities I worked with, but knew it would be challenging lyrically. I mentioned recently at Princeton that though many worship industry standards are based in scripture, which is awesome. However, I have observed that some scripture seems to be a little more marketable than others. And just as the Psalms speak always of specific events and people groups and historical happenings, I think at least SOME of the music we sing should include those things. So I put the words "AIDS" into a couple of songs as it is a pressing crises of our day and I also based most of the songs in scripture as well. Songs like "Run to the Mountan" and "The Kingdom" were also shared at the 2006 MSA gathering and I have since learned that songs from that project have been sung by small groups around the country and even translated and sung in parts of Africa and South America.

Song For a Revolution of Hope, however, was a collaboration with Brian McLaren. Brian actually wrote most of the lyrics. I co-wrote and co-produced and did a lot of arranging. While we were recording the project, it was primary in Brian's heart that the songs be singable. He wanted to resource the Church with new kinds of songs. So, we did work extra hard, despite some pretty complex lyrics, to make it singable. Our success is debatable, however I have since led every single song on the album in the context of live worship, and even songs like "Atheist" have worked really well in the right situations. The two spoken word pieces, "Let's Confess" and "11-57" still have incredibly singable choruses and work really well in a liturgical call and response method.

My latest electronica EP...well...maybe not that singable if you download them and try to learn them...I describe it as contemplative electronica. But, I am a story teller and a journey facilitator in worship. So if you invited me to lead the songs in your living room, and I told you the stories of Rwanda that led to me writing "Come Out," you might find yourself singing along in the chorus anyway.

So, here's an unverified list of the most singable songs by album if you're interested. Chord Charts are posted in the download section.

Sobering:
-Arise
-Work it Out

Worship:
-Bring Me Some Peace
-Run to the Mountain
-All the Way
-I Am in Love
-The Kingdom

And all songs from "Songs For a Revolution of Hope."

An Essay Response

You might not be able to make me out in the picture, but I'm the one right between John Perkins and Jim Wallis. Yeah. Fun times. Anyway, after the Envision gathering ended, a group of Theologians stayed at Princeton to work through all of the dialogue and panels and make a declaration. I said Amen to it. It was actually a very diverse group of speakers and leaders. If you want to see it, here is the LINK. You sign it by posting a comment.

As I alluded to in the previous post, I did write an essay, a loose response on the panel about post-colonialism. I call it "Post-Colonialism and Songwriting." I'm actually starting to contribute to "The Other Journal," a publication of Mars Hill Graduate School. I'm considering submitting a better version of this, so you could help me out by giving me some feedback...mainly, did you reap anything from it at all? Thanks friends! Here's the essay:

It is good to be a songwriter. I just returned from Envision, a gathering at Princeton University where theologians, activists and leaders of all kinds gathered and dialogued with the goal of uniting the church and moving more deeply into the public square. Some of my own living heroes were in attendance like John Perkins, and some friends I have not been able to connect with in quite sometime like Shane Claiborne. There were also a slew of people who had influenced me greatly through their own journeys and books, people like Ruth Padilla DeBorst and Ron Sider. I, along with about 500 others, listened to them speak. We listened to panel discussions and response panels to speakers, and I got to share songs. I play a lot of house concerts...DOWNLOAD THE REST

Envision Reports

Hey all,  I just returned to Colorado after about a week in Princeton preparing for and participating in the gathering, "Envision 08."  I am in the midst of a deeper response to the panel on post-colonialism and will post it in the next couple of days, but here's a little video someone put together of the first afternoon.  More to come!

Real Blogging

Look at me doing real time blogging...

Today I packed up my car and dog and drove up to Boulder where I got a hair cut and checked out a cool new coffee shop on Pearl Street. I fixed some broken links in the online store and did some last minute correspondence, then went to my chiropractor, Dr. Zach, who I miss now that I live two hours south of Boulder. Then I had a great house concert with my friends Chris and Esther Cummings...super fun. Esther made chocolate covered strawberries, hummus, and spice cake among other yummy things. People from the neighborhood made up the majority of the group. I left Neve (my great dane) with the Cummings, and am crashing at my dad's house. Tomorrow morning I fly out of Denver and will spend the day getting to Princeton where I'll work with some other artist before the start of Envision!

Life is good...for those of you who knew I was having some health problems a month ago, I am doing really well. I did a yoga intensive/nutrition program post-tour, and learned a ton. Now I just have to figure out how to maintain everything while I travel. I did learn I have quite a few food allergies. Oh well...step by step...and I found really yummy gluten-free cookies at Whole Foods that I am packing on this trip.

Store Updated!

Good news friends! We have redesigned the store...or rather, we have received some incredible help from a friend. So, the store now utilizes a shopping cart, allowing you to combine multiple CD's, or digital AND physical in a single purchase. AND, you can use Google, Paypal, or credit cards to pay! I hope this makes it easier for everyone to purchase here (we do get a much larger percentage when you buy at restorationvillage.com) and please refer your friends!

Tracy Invited to Present at Envision 08!

As I mentioned before, I definitely want to unpack the fullness of the Spring tour a little bit more before plowing into the next thing, but this is really exciting. Envision is a gathering at Princeton of some amazing people, some I have met, some I have not. I met a woman named Lisa Harper at one of the last EMC gathering, hosted by the Latino Leadership Circle in the Bronx. Lisa heads up New York Faith and Justice and also is facilitating the creative teams at Envision. So, I was thrilled she invited me to be part and share some songs in the plenary sessions. If you're curious, check out the website. If you are a college student, you can apply to receive credit for attending! More to come...

The End of Tour

Well, we made it through. Actually, we not only made it, but we grew and saw hope. It was incredible. And as we parted ways after our last event together in Goshen, there was a bit of celebration, a bit of sadness, and lot’s of hugs. Of course I realize this doesn’t bookmark the end of some big event, but maybe it is an exhale. I (Tracy) practice Bikram yoga. It is a series of postures with rest in between each posture. Some of the postures are quite challenging and get the muscles twitching. However, exercise scientist have studied the body and found it is actually working the hardest and gaining the most benefit from the practice during the resting periods of the last two postures. In other words, if you don’t rest, you don’t get all of the benefits!

Brian, Linnea, Eric and I were talking about this over milkshakes in Goshen. We all want to reap the benefits, and hope others do as well. For those of you who caught one of the gatherings, do not forget to go to everythingmustchange.org and start adding content. For those of you who don’t know about the site, it won’t be officially launched until the fall, but it is just some of the fruit that has come from the relationships and connections during this tour.

There is rumor we might be doing a few Everything Must Change events in 2009…If you think your community might want to host, please contact Linnea Nilsen-Capshaw at info@deepshift.org. Thank you all who participated! I will be posting some deeper and much more detailed reports and thoughts on the tour, but wanted to at least start here. Brian posted some thoughts as well on his website, brianmclaren.net.

The Work of the People

This film was created by Travis Reed, a film and friend maker. Travis and I spoke by phone and found we have some very dear mutual friends in Brazil. This video was actually shot in Curitiba, Brazil. Dago Scheilin, a friend and fellow musician also did some of the video work and Claudio Oliver, who is speaking in the video, is also a friend and teacher. We are delighted we got to collaborate through Travis's work and friendship. The song in the video is "Come Out" from the new EP, Fill the Fields. Travis has used some other material from me in videos as well. You can check out all his work and resources at www.theworkofthepeople.com.

Reflections on the "Everything Must Change" Tour

When I started the tour, I had big plans to stay balanced, journal regularly, do my little yoga routine every day in the hotels, not over eat, and email on the planes. It wasn’t a complete loss…I did manage to go on walks regularly, and I kept up with a few friends, and I made a lot of new friends. But things never quite work out the way you plan.

It’s not just that the schedule gets twisted into the unexpected…like when you have to stay overnight at the Dallas airport because of a snow storm…in March. Or, when communication goes haywire with the local musicians and they show up ten minutes before the whole things starts. No, it wasn’t just the schedule that twisted into the unexpected, it was also the marvelous finding of friendship, and the deepening of mysterious things; Jesus.

The single biggest thing I notice…my heart seems to have grown in its capacity to love people. This is not to be confused with the capacity to do more things and visit more people in the course of a year…but my heart has expanded in its capacity to love. That is, I believe I love people more deeply. I care about people more than I did before. I’m interested in an individual’s story more than I was before. And it wasn’t any one thing…it was a transformation that transpired over a journey, with people that included joy and hard work, hearing really hard stories, and being inspired by really hopeful things, and Jesus. I’m especially grateful for Pam and Roger and Thai food in Florida…and Jay and Rick and Salmon in San Diego, Greg, the Aussie who walked around Green Lake with me in Seattle while it rained, and Vince, the dirty gospel piano player who added kindness and soul to the gathering in the Bronx.

When you’re heart expands for other people, frustration in your own life seems to dwindle. I have a great life, a wonderful life. But I have more dreams that have yet to begin. Different parts of my heart, that have laid dormant for a season, were re-ignited. The wonderful thing is that the flame added a different kind of passion to the work I have felt called to all along…I see there is more, it goes deeper, I am called to greater sacrifice, and the hope is more powerful than I believed.

And songs…there are new songs flowing out of my life, and songs that have yet to form. And I feel more encouraged than ever to be a songwriter…I am a songwriter. And I am interested in the music of peace movements and the music that flows out of and catalyzes transformation. I am interested in the songs other people write. I am excited to be a songwriter.


Each gathering was broken into five sessions. The over arching question was, “what does the message of Jesus have to do with global crises?” The Saturday morning session started us off by considering “which Jesus” we believe in. Brian gave a wonderful teaching about Jesus taking the disciples to Cesarea Philipi and then asking them “Who do you say I am?” He dug into the reality of the disciples to help us understand more fully what they might have meant when they used the words they did. He exegeted different passages and compared them to commonly known Roman inscriptions of the day. It was wonderful. We started on one list…and nearly everyone could identify with one or several of the following:

The Cute Baby Jesus
The Warrior Jesus
The Private, Personal Jesus
The Prosperity Jesus
The Fire Escape Jesus
The Second-Coming Killer Jesus
The Institutionalized Jesus

And as he spoke and shared, we moved towards one single answer for who Jesus is:

The liberating king who healed the sick, released people from the oppression of evil spirits, gave sight to the blind, gave hearing to the deaf, fed people for free, brought peace and calm to a turbulent storm, gave life to the dead, healed a paralyzed hand, empowered the lame to walk, included the excluded, confronted the hypocrites, turned the tables, died on Caesar’s cross, rose from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit.

It was the kind of message and Truth that continues to grow…so that even on the tenth time I heard the story…I was brought to tears. And I knew things were changing in me, or deepening.

So, for those of you, my friends, who try to keep up with me, I just say thank you. It was a great many different things that led me to this last season and I am so grateful. And, thanks to the team…Brian, Linnea and Eric, and so many other volunteers that I met along the way. Thank you to you, my friends. Shalom. -Tracy

Here is a link to Brian's Reflections

Here are some links to people who blogged during the events in different cities:

Eli Renner blogged in Charlotte

Jeremy Del Rio in The Bronx

Compassion Plug

Hi all. Tour is still moving full force. I've been under the weather for several days. I thought I would take the opportunity to update the blog. I've been wanting to plug Compassion International for awhile online. I've been sponsoring children for eight years and it's amazing. I've had the opportunity to visit one, Allison in Bolivia as well. I used to advocate regularly for compassion during concerts, and now am happy there are more online resources. This is a beautiful video Compassion put together, and if you want to meet some children right now who you can be in relationship with and help, click HERE. Blessings, Tracy

"Come Out" live in Charlotte

My friend Bill from Faith at Work videoed this from a concert following the EMC event in Charlotte. The song is "Come Out" from the new EP "Fill the Fields." I wrote this song about reconciliation and was specifically inspired by Amahoro, an African greeting in which people embrace and move from side to side as if to kiss each other on the cheek. They do it to let the peace between them flow. One of Brian's friends said, while he was in Rwanda, "When you've seen what we've seen and been through what we've been through, it just takes as long as it takes." So the ballad moves slowly too, to let the peace flow, for as long as it takes.

I'm only traveling with my MacBook and Motu interface. I play whatever keyboard is available with a midi port along the way, and so far no problems.

Collaboration

My friend Todd Berger is in the midst of recording and collaborating on a new Village Thrift CD. I wrote a few songs and he developed this one. I'm super excited to hear the finished version, but this is a really fun clip of some of the recording and some beautiful people in Cleveland! Check out villagethrift.com.

House Concert in Tampa

Oh yes, I am doing the electronica live in living rooms across the United States! We'll, it's exciting to me anyway. After the EMC conference in St Petersburg, I stuck around and shared a wonderful evening have dinner and playing music at my new friends Roger and Pam Sullin's house in Tampa. Roger is a wonderful musician and shared a few songs as well. They are doing amazing things with and through the production company they just started, Deer Pants Productions. Remember, the electronica EP is a digital release only...so any help spreading the word is greatly appreciated! Blessings, Tracy

Yes, in the middle of a very packed tour, I traveled to Peru for a week of meeting leaders and encouraging people through relationship, songwriting workshops and some worship gatherings. It was really wonderful and actually pretty relaxing as the pace of life is simply slower in Southern Peru. One of the most amazing parts of the trip was interacting with a couple of Quechua families from the mountains. I have been to Peru before and though I have been privileged to worship in Quechua villages before, I also know how separated indigenous life and community is from city life and culture in Peru. So I considered it a great privilege to know these beautiful people.

I have a dream. I dream about cross-culture encounters going something like this: "Tell me about what God is doing among you. Tell me of the ways you know His love. Teach me your songs so I can see His faithfulness through your eyes." How beautiful that would be. Ahh, yes, it is a dream. I felt just a taste of it when my new Quechua friend approached me and said, "Dear sister, the songs you are singing are so beautiful. Do you have the words written on paper so that I can take them with me and read them?" We had prepared CD's of live worship recordings enhanced with original recordings and chord charts in Spanish and English, but I knew my brother probably didn't have a CD player. It is likely he did not have electricity. But the way he approached me was so refreshing and inspiring. Internet and mass sharing are wonderful, but I do not wish to loose the weight and power of a single testimony, or perspective, or song.

My friends who were with me, Ben and Robin Pasley, and Tim Thornton, have prepared much more detailed blogs including video-podcasts and lots of pictures on their sites, www.entertheworshipcircle.com and www.theblackthornproject.com. And Brian didn't mind me taking the trip on a free weekend in the middle of the Everything Must Change tour. He said, as long as I had a pisco sour...and I did!

One Down, 10 to Go!

Hey all. I just got back from Charlotte and the first of 11 "Everything Must Change" gatherings with Brian McLaren across the country. We were using a crazy cross section of spaces...here, you see the speaking and music happened inside a traditional church building whereas the bookstore and many workshop conversations happened in "Area 15," a warehouse space leased to artists as well as the Charlotte 24-7 prayer community. And, many other groups use the space, including the Charlotte Emergent Village cohort, which was really the group who pulled the event off locally. It was a cool and interesting neighborhood in the city, historically "poor" and I heard some local Charlotte residents even use the word "ghetto." But the art space was amazing, and of course, there were brand new urban loft condos, complete with corrugated metal and bright color architecture being built right across the street.

Eli Renner, a worship leader and musician living in Charlotte who sang and played bass with me, blogged through the whole weekend and took pictures of the gathering, so you can see more here (elirenner.com).

Juarez House Concert

Hey everyone. I just got this from my friend Matt who videoed a concert I did with Claudia and Luis Prieto this past November in Juarez, Mexico. This song is one of the first I've written directly in Spanish (As opposed to translating it to Spanish). It was a wonderful evening of sharing. Claudia and Luis did a set before me. Some of the friends that came with me didn't speak Spanish, so you can see them being translated to at times. Enjoy!

Electronica EP!

OK...no more rumors. My electronic collaboration is mixed and mastered and available for $5.49 for digital download! You can listen to the whole CD here on the CD website. There are also notes about the songs, and Lacey Brown, who wrote all of the beats for the project, will post some loops and notes soon.

Here is a title track (click the play button) :

Tour 2008!

Hey everyone. I'm in the throws of preparing for a big 11 city tour in which I will be leading worship and presenting concerts as part of Deep Shift's "Everything Must Change" tour! Registration is possible all he way up to the day the conference begin's, but there are some early registration perks. And, I posted full song previews to "Songs For a Revolution of Hope" and the new electronic EP I've been working on "Fill the Fields." The albums will be available for digital download very soon, but you can take a listen right away! Just click the links in the left column.