\u00a0is a weekly column by Luke Larsen that seeks to find God amidst the newest trends in both mainstream music and independent music.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Welcome Wagon is a husband-wife duo whose rise to indie fame seems peculiar at first glance. Aside from their association with indie superstar Sufjan Stevens, there is very little about The Welcome Wagon that seems cool or hip. Frontman Vito Autio is the senior pastor of a Presbyterian church in Brooklyn and writes pretty off-handedly about the Christological purpose of his folk-gospel music. In the description of their new album, Precious Remedies Against Satan\u2019s Devices<\/em>, Autio comments that his work as a pastor has significantly influenced his songwriting style: \u201cA pastor is supposed to care for people, to help them to love God, to engage with their lives and their joys and their sorrows. I\u2019m only interested in writing music that will speak to that. I\u2019m writing as a pastor, wanting these songs to speak God\u2019s truth into those situations.\u201d If that isn\u2019t the most \u201cuncool\u201d thing to say for an indie singer-songwriter, I don\u2019t know what is. Yet on Sufjan Stevens\u2019s indie record label Asthmatic Kitty, The Welcome Wagon has received a lot of attention\u2014from both Christians and non-Christians alike.<\/p>\nAs you could guess by the title, Precious Remedies Against Satan\u2019s Devices<\/em> is an album about healing. Vito Autio has described the album as \u201cspiritual medicine,\u201d not unlike the the old 17th century Puritan book the album gets its name from. It\u2019s definitely true that these quiet acoustic songs and haunting words of praise create a sacred kind of space to find God in. It\u2019s like standing in an old rustic church and seeing the light pour in through the stained glass windows\u2014there\u2019s a sense of holy awe to it all. But it seems to me that The Welcome Wagon\u2019s music inadvertently provides healing in a much larger context as well.<\/p>\nThe band has found an interesting niche to fulfill in music made by Christians. Landing somewhere between Sufjan Stevens and The David Crowder Band, The Welcome Wagon doesn\u2019t hold any punches about its gospel roots and worshipful lyrics. But they also aren\u2019t afraid of making music that exists entirely outside the context of Sunday mornings\u2014even music that has appealed to non-Christian music fans. A quick look at the cultural exchange between the three aforementioned artists\u2014each distinctly different in how they approach music and the way they express their faith through it\u2014provides a hopeful picture. The story goes something like this: first David Crowder covers the Sufjan Stevens song \u201cO God Where Are You Now (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw)?\u201d back in 2005 on the worship band\u2019s album A Collision<\/em>. Then Sufjan Stevens produces and arranges The Welcome Wagon\u2019s debut album Welcome to the Welcome Wagon<\/em> in 2008. And now finally, the relationship has come full circle with The Welcome Wagon\u2019s new album where they beautifully cover the David Crowder song \u201cRemedy.\u201d<\/p>\nThe fact that David Crowder was willing to cover a Sufjan Stevens song in 2005 was a sign of an industry moving forward. But the fact that The Welcome Wagon is willing to cover a popular David Crowder song in 2012 is a sign of an industry finding healing and reconciliation. It\u2019s a sign of an industry that is done being an \u201cindustry\u201d and ready to appreciate the Body of Christ as the multifaceted, diverse body of believers, worshipers, and artists it is. Precious Remedies Against Satan\u2019s Devices<\/em> doesn\u2019t seem to be about \u201cus versus them\u201d or about \u201cart versus worship\u201d at all. Instead, they\u2019ve found a special place\u2014an incredibly sincere place\u2014to create music as followers of Jesus.<\/p>\n