“Practice resurrection.”
- Wendell Berry
It's Easter Sunday, a good time to highlight a couple of secular acts that examine and wrestle with faith in their music. They're not out to convince anyone of anything, just to prod us to maybe think on things at a deeper level - good art, in other words.
Craig Finn is the founder, singer and main songwriter in the band, The Hold Steady. Finn, who was raised Catholic in Minnesota where the band originated, has since moved the outfit to Brooklyn, NY. Finn paints with a large canvas. Often the characters in his songs are wayward souls stumbling blindly toward some kind of redemption - broken and restless in a fallen world.
Holly, whose parents named her Hallelujah, is the central figure throughout the songs on the album Separation Sunday. She's a young girl from a Christian home, who has drifted into the turbulent local party scene and finds herself unmoored. Finn does deep soul work. It ain't Walkin' on Sunshine, but it's provocative if you're inclined that way.
And then there's U2. We all know about them. They've made a 45 year career out of, among many things, exploring matters of the eternal. Like many artists with a voluminous catalog, there's much that isn't always well known.
So here's a few things. Happy Easter.