$8.99
Sold by music on Tradebit
The world's largest download marketplace
3,250,280 satisfied buyers
The world's largest download marketplace
3,250,280 satisfied buyers
MP3 John David Coupland - Which Way?
21 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Contemporary, GOSPEL: Contemporary Gospel
Details:
John David Coupland and Which Way?
At the start of 2006, I asked the Lord a question, “What sort of musician do you want me to be?” O.k. if you are not a believer you will think I am nuts but humour me for a few moments.
Origin of the question.
Back in the early eighties I was scraping a living from working in a guitar store by day and playing guitar in bars at the weekend, the Eagles, Simon and Garfunkel and the Beatles provided the bulk of my material. I had only been a Christian for a couple of years and still had a lot to learn. Even so I started playing in worse and worse places but I was getting more money for it. Danger money really, bar room brawls were not uncommon.
The problem
By now the people I was playing to were not just out for a sociable drink, they were out to get blitzed and that just did not sit well with my new found faith. So, at the end of one rowdy Saturday, after I had crammed my gear into the car, I prayed, “Lord, if you don’t want me to do this any more, just shut the doors in my face.”
Answered prayer.
A week later I returned to find the bar was closed and the door was indeed shut in my face. No need to ponder the meaning of this. My career as a bar singer was over. If only all prayers were answered so simply!
Losing money?
Of course giving up performing would hurt my pocket but the Lord is no one’s debtor. My guitar repair sideline took off from one or two a month to two or three a week
From then on I confined my music to the church. O.k. they don’t applaud but they don’t have fist fights either.
Other projects.
Over the years I have written many songs. I work on the shotgun principal; fire a hundred pellets and at least one is sure to hit the mark. Songs about shipyards, songs about war, songs for children and songs for God. Story telling is a deep rooted tradition where I live in Scotland, and the lives of the Celtic saints are fertile ground . I got a recording contract and recorded an album based on the life of St Columba. After a year’s work and a lot of their money, the company refused to market the finished product plus, because of the contract I had signed, I could not approach any other company for the next five years, hence my now choosing this independent route to reach a wider audience.
Back to the question.
With so many irons in the fire I really felt the need to focus on one thing and one thing alone. Following my prayer and much to my surprise, my compositions were becoming more and more classical in nature and my songs were moving away from the traditional verse chorus sandwich which I had previously used.
The Vision.
Yep, I’ve been having the visions again. Now visions are quite biblical, the Old Testament and the New are full of them. A quick scan over Acts 2 will show you what I mean. As I played through some of the tunes that were to become Which way? I said, “Lord I could really do with a classical guitar instead of this Yamaha APX but it would cost way too much.
In my minds eye I suddenly saw a second hand shop in town. It was one I had frequented in the past and the image was so strong that I felt I just had to go down there right away. An hour later I emerged from the “Cash Converter,” store with a somewhat abused classical guitar, with cut away and with a fitted pick up. In Scotland these are as rare as hen’s teeth so I was fair chuffed with my dream guitar. Fortunately my wife has also had the odd vision so she believed my story when I arrived home with my new toy!
Which Way?
As the tunes were written, the idea of adding some lyrics came along but what story to tell? I retreated to the garden shed and prayed. God is always easier to find in the garden shed. In there nothing sinful happens, unlike my living room where there is a TV, on which lots of sinful things happen and I watch them. News, movies, soaps and people generally being fairly nasty to one another. But in the shed I can find inspiration and there the idea was born.
The four ways.
The first way God dealt with Man was face to face in the garden. Symbolic or literal or a bit of both I am not qualified to say but I believe it to be true. After the Fall of Adam into sin however, that way was closed to us and will not be reopened before the return of the Lord.
The second way was the “Hands off,” approach. Man had decided, as many do today, to live as if God did not exist and God, being the perfect gentleman, left us to get on with it. The result was of course disaster and the Flood.
The third way is the way of faith offered to Abram or Abraham as he later became. “Go to the land I will show you.”
The fourth way is the way of law. Rules for this, rules for that but you have to keep them all 24/7 or else.
Conclusion
Now I do not know which of these four ways you are currently following but you are following one of them of that there is no doubt. So which is the right one? I give you no answer but I draw your attention to Jesus for that is my role and my purpose.
God Bless You. John David Coupland
File Data