The Appalachian Sound
The sound of a nation
Sound, Water, and Light are some of the most powerful and profound things in this world. Anyone of these can build or destroy. And sometimes one opens the door for all so that they may dance together. Through the sound of the words, "Let there be Light" Light was invited over the threshold to our world. Heavenly sounds played by human fingers can bring the invitation of true spiritual light deep within us so that the Father may overshadow the well of our souls with peace.
The late Rich Mullins once said that “music was one of the finest things he had ever heard.” And I must say a well-written and composed song can stop me dead in my tracks. I have no idea how many times my daily plan was interrupted by the tune of a simple song. But music is an emissary for spiritual things both good and bad.
One of the best examples I can give is the subject of the old classic hymns. For the majority of my Christian life, I can safely say that I could not stand to listen to them. And I have heard them played in just about every form a person could make happen. But sometime around 2012 I noticed something I had never experienced before. When we moved to the South, hymns started to feel different. Oddly they became something I can listen to at times.
I have pondered why for years, but I did not know until around 2017. I was telling this new revelation to a now-late friend from Tennessee who was a graphic artist. Basically, I discovered there is sound, a sound like a hidden background in the Appalachian hills that filters into all things musical, especially hymns. It's a spirit of sorrow or lament, it connects the hearers of the music to an emotion. Thereby giving it a simple sound of life, making it real, washing away any “plastic or fake feel.” Music such as this connects people in a common union that often results in reflection because of its realness and it touches the soul.
But why the Appalachians?
The history of this hill country has sorrow, and a lot of blood mixed into the land. Two major wars and numerous smaller ones plus the trail of tears. But the sound rests like smoke on the mountains. It was carried from another land, far to the east.
Scottish and Irish survivors of Cromwell, the Irish Rebellion, and The Battle of Flodden were uprooted by force from the home they loved. These stateless refugees found wives among the local tribes of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole. But with them came the emotions, fears, and hopes resting in the music they remembered.
Long centuries of battles for their homeland produced a calling of the heart for home. Many singers in our modern era who come from Appalachia, spiritually carry this same deepness within, even in their more fun songs.
Many of the famous country singers of the 1950s - 1970s carried this spirit, and each song regardless of content drew deeply on the souls of the listeners. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the success of Nashville, being planted so deeply in the former Cherokee lands.
This sound, a sound of hidden lament is deeply rooted in the core of our lands. As we listen, in some ways we are hearing the voices of the past. The voices of fallen Celtic warriors, filtered through tribal sorrows and now modern hope. It is a tightly woven cord and it’s a voice that speaks perhaps stronger than any other voice in the land.
There are several modern Christian singers who are not only deeply rooted in this sound, but to me, they seem to embody the heart of Christian America that is waking up. Singers like Beckah Shea, half Jewish and half Cherokee, or Brandon Heath are the modern carriers of this spirit, delivering hope.
Gasoline for the Soul.
Music does something powerful at the soul level and unfortunately, few within the church walls understand what it can do. Many years ago a group of us were ministering to a man with some issues. In time the Holy Spirit highlighted the type of music he was filling his soul with. He refused to listen to anything we told him, valiantly guarding the walls he had built around it “his music.” Then I had a picture I shared with him.
Me; "You like to work on classic cars right?"
Him; "Yes."
Me: "Suppose you spend all this time restoring some great classic car from the past. But when it comes time to put gas in it you put the worst gas you can find. Old gas with bits of dirt and water in it. How do you suppose the car would run?"
Him; "Very badly."
Me; "The car is you that the Lord has restored, but you filling your gas tank with the worst you can find.”
He still had to think about it for a moment but he finally got what we were trying to say to him.
Too much of the church cares too little about what we fill our souls with. Music is a hostess at the banquet of your soul. And only you are the keeper of the gate that consumes what’s on the platter.
Jesus said that Light has no fellowship with darkness. In immaturity, we consumed much darkness and planted it down deep within the garden of our soul expecting only glory. The lie of music being just sound without effect is the silliness of a demonic narrative.
How can true Holiness ever take root in a weed-choked garden of lies?
May we all learn to be the gardeners of our own souls.
