{"id":6557,"date":"2012-03-06T08:10:14","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T13:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=6557"},"modified":"2012-03-06T08:10:14","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T13:10:14","slug":"cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Can’t no preacher man save my soul’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here\u2019s the Civil Wars<\/a>, Joy Williams and John Paul White, performing \u201c Barton Hollow<\/a>\u201c:<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nIn case you needed any further reason to love the Civil Wars, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.bread.org\/2012\/03\/the-civil-wars-raising-hunger-awareness-with-song.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Bread for the World<\/a> notes that the duo also provided the score for <a href=\"http:\/\/filmguide.sundance.org\/film\/120066\/finding_north\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Finding North<\/a>,<\/em> a documentary about hunger in America. Here\u2019s Williams on the subject:<\/p>\n<blockquote>Forty-four million people go to bed hungry in America and don\u2019t know where their next meal is coming from, and so [Finding North<\/em>] highlights food insecurity in the United States, which basically means food deserts where people literally don\u2019t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. [The film] definitely puts a face to what I would consider an epidemic in the United States.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nYou can <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=b0VNPWMDIic\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">watch the trailer here for the documentary<\/a> by Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush.<\/p>\nIn related news, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toddsnider.net\/home.cfm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Todd Snider\u2019s<\/a> new album, Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables<\/em>, comes out today. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avclub.com\/articles\/todd-sniders-folksinger-redux-of-the-wire,70227\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">AV Club\u2019s Steven Hyden says<\/a> it\u2019s full of more of Snider\u2019s \u201cfunny, sorrowful, wonderfully vivid depictions of people living at or below the poverty line\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote>Snider\u2019s characters don\u2019t bother trying to transcend their circumstances; they\u2019re just trying to figure out a way to survive them. Taken together, the miscreants and losers scraping by in Snider\u2019s universe tell one long story about the American underclass. It\u2019s like a folk-singer redux of The Wire<\/em>, only with characters too hapless to pull off any kind of criminal conspiracy.<\/em><\/p>\nCertainly the pivotal line from Agnostic Hymns <\/em>\u2014 \u201cIt ain\u2019t the despair that gets you, it\u2019s the hope,\u201d from the song \u201cBig Finish\u201d \u2014 sounds like something The Wire <\/em>creator David Simon could\u2019ve written. The anger Snider mostly keeps at bay on his earlier albums curdles here, a feeling reflected in the torn-and-frayed sound of the music, which Snider recorded at home with friends in East Nashville, usually off-the-cuff and before his band learned the songs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u201cCurdles,\u201d there, isn\u2019t meant to be a bad<\/em> thing. As Snider says, \u201cIt\u2019s a folksinger\u2019s job to be honest about stuff and then not be a dick when people boo.\u201d<\/p>\nAlso out today: <a href=\"http:\/\/brucespringsteen.net\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Bruce Springsteen\u2019s<\/a> 17th album, Wrecking Ball.<\/em> At Pop Matters,<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popmatters.com\/pm\/review\/155399-bruce-springsteen-wrecking-ball\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Steve Leftridge says<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>Wrecking Ball<\/em> is, without question, about \u2026 hard times, just as Darkness on the Edge of Town<\/em> was about Carter-era hard times and Nebraska<\/em> was about Reagan-era hard times. If Wrecking Ball<\/em> is \u201cangrier\u201d than either of those albums, as has been much reported, it\u2019s in the new record\u2019s relative overtness in its handling of its subjects. \u2026 While most of Springsteen\u2019s songs about class and society strike glancing blows at the destructive forces in charge (\u201cforeman says these jobs are going, boys, and they ain\u2019t coming back\u201d; \u201ccome back home to the refinery\/hiring man said, \u2018son, if it was up to me\u2026\u2019\u201d), the characters in \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d are less elusive about whom to blame for their troubles, cutting out the middle figures like foremen and hiring men and taking on the real culprits unambiguously.<\/p>\n\u2026 Wrecking Ball<\/em> is Bruce\u2019s most, well, Jesus-y<\/em> album to date. Most obviously, the record is threaded together with gospel-music archetypes, from wailing preachers to testifying choirs, bringing to mind the throttled, sweatball preacher shtick that Bruce ran into the ground on two straight tours during his aughties comeback. But lyrically, Springsteen turns continually to biblical themes. In \u201cJack of All Trades\u201d, the speaker hopes that \u201cwe\u2019ll start caring for each other like Jesus said that we might\u201d; in \u201c\u201dRocky Ground\u201d, we\u2019re reminded that \u201cJesus said the money changers in this temple will not stand\u201d; \u201cWe Are Alive\u201d invokes \u201ca cross up on Calvary Hill\u201d; bonus track \u201cSwallowed Up (In the Belly of a Whale)\u201d, beyond the obvious allusion in the title, calls on \u201cGod\u2019s Mercy\u201d as a matter of birthright.<\/p>\nThis is all part of the narrative structure of a cohesively designed album, sequenced to rail against economic injustice by way of catchy, rattling folk-blues numbers on the first half of the record and to rise with spiritual redemption in the second half by way of train-a-comin\u2019 rafter-raising. The first five songs are all at turns hopeless and furious. Sixth track \u201cThis Depression\u201d starts to change focus, blending worry over financial plight with the need for a healing love. \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d turns the corner, a song of endurance \u2014 \u201chold on to your anger\u201d, Springsteen sings, but \u201cdon\u2019t fall to your fear,\u201d a theme that carries through the gospel-influenced one-two punch of \u201cRocky Ground\u201d and \u201cLand of Hope and Dreams,\u201d spirituals that promise new-day salvation for all lost but faithful souls.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s the Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White, performing \u201cBarton Hollow\u201c: In case you needed any further reason to love the Civil Wars, Bread for the World notes that the duo also provided the score for Finding North, a documentary about hunger in America. Here\u2019s Williams on the subject: Forty-four million people go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[239],"class_list":["post-6557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-music"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>'Can't no preacher man save my soul'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's the Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White, performing "Barton Hollow": In case you needed any further reason to love the Civil Wars, Bread\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Can't no preacher man save my soul'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here's the Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White, performing "Barton Hollow": In case you needed any further reason to love the Civil Wars, Bread\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-06T13:10:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/\",\"name\":\"'Can't no preacher man save my soul'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-06T13:10:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-03-06T13:10:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Here's the Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White, performing \\\"Barton Hollow\\\": In case you needed any further reason to love the Civil Wars, Bread\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"‘Can’t no preacher man save my soul’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Can't no preacher man save my soul'","description":"Here's the Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White, performing \"Barton Hollow\": In case you needed any further reason to love the Civil Wars, Bread","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'Can't no preacher man save my soul'","og_description":"Here's the Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White, performing \"Barton Hollow\": In case you needed any further reason to love the Civil Wars, Bread","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2012-03-06T13:10:14+00:00","author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/","name":"'Can't no preacher man save my soul'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-03-06T13:10:14+00:00","dateModified":"2012-03-06T13:10:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"Here's the Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White, performing \"Barton Hollow\": In case you needed any further reason to love the Civil Wars, Bread","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/06\/cant-no-preacher-man-save-my-soul\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"‘Can’t no preacher man save my soul’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}