On this episode of the podcast, I talk with two members of the band The Ruralists, Luke Hawley and Laremy Devries, about their new album, Trying. You may recognize the name and their music from the intro and the outro of this podcast. This was the 40th episode of the podcast, and we recorded it live on the stage of the B.J. Haan auditorium at Dordt University, with a small studio audience. They play three songs off the new album (lyrics below) and we discuss, along the following topics:
The story of the band, the name of the band, and the name of the album
What "ruralism"...
On this episode of the podcast, I talk with two members of the band The Ruralists, Luke Hawley and Laremy Devries, about their new album, Trying. You may recognize the name and their music from the intro and the outro of this podcast. This was the 40th episode of the podcast, and we recorded it live on the stage of the B.J. Haan auditorium at Dordt University, with a small studio audience. They play three songs off the new album (lyrics below) and we discuss, along the following topics:
- The story of the band, the name of the band, and the name of the album
- What "ruralism" is and what it means to celebrate and advocate rural life
- How teaching and spending time with college students shapes the songs
- What it means to use faith as "a lens and not a hammer"
- What it means to say that song is a "Dooyeweerdian" song
- What it means to say that songs should be more like sermons and less like prayers, and the relationship is between making claims and exploring possibilities
Get the album: https://fullyruralized.bandcamp.com/album/trying
Listen to the album: https://www.fullyruralized.com/trying
More on the band: https://www.fullyruralized.com
***Special thanks to Alex Priore, Jack Underwood, and the production arts team who made the event happen with excellent quality and stellar style.***
Lyrics to "Murmur"
You’re a murmur of starlings
Darling
All your ever-shifting parts
A work of modern art
That I cannot understand
And I can’t look away
Or convey
All my slip-sliding thoughts
All twisted up in knots
Explaining how I feel
So I’ll keep writing you all these love songs
All my life long
Trying to get it right
And you’ll keep asking me
Why I do it
Why I can’t quit
But I just don’t know how
It’s just like breathing now
I’m an old tv set
Trying to get
The picture to come in
With strips of kitchen tin
Wrapped around my ears
But it’s mostly just snow
Even though I’m giving it my best
I just haven’t got it yet
As clear as it can be
So I’ll keep writing you all these love songs
All my life long
Trying to get it right
And you’ll keep asking me
Why I do it
Why I can’t quit
But I just don’t know how
It’s just like breathing now
There’s a word that I learned
From a friend
About saying what you’ve got
By saying what it’s not
Possible to say
So then all that I know
I suppose
Of language and of rhyme
Of being and of time
Means nothing without you
Lyrics to "Mother Mary"
I keep trying to see the face
Of mother mary full of grace
In an apple core
In a sticky bun
In a stretch of clouds
In the setting sun
But all that’s there is just the flesh and peel
Just the carmeled crust and the pink and teal of harvest dust
I keep trying to tell you how
I have always loved you like I love you now
But my tongue gets thick and my brain brain goes slack
And all these words come out bric-a-brac
And all that’s there is just the metaphor
It’s not the whole of you
It’s not the crux and core
It’s not the through and through
I keep trying to understand
How a dram of atoms makes the man
And the woman too
Is that the whole of us?
Just a clump of dirt?
Just a cloud of dust?
And that’s there is just some chemistry
The arithmetic of you and me
And the human heart is just a fine machine
Not a work of art filled with kerosene
Not a mystery of colossal scope
Not a duffel bag of fear and hope
Not a megaphone of love and hate
Not a talisman to keep us safe
Not a rattletrap always breaking down
Not a spiderweb
Not a shantytown
Not a creaking bridge
Not a tank brigade
Not an oracle
Not a masquerade
Just a thing that bangs and beats and pounds
And throbs and churns and wails and sounds
And maybe all we are is dust
Maybe that’s the whole of us
But maybe we are magic too
Impossible and completely true
Through and through
Lyrics to "People are People Too"
People are people too
Just like me and you
From the tops of our heads
To the foot of our beds
People are people too
You seem to think they’re not
You seem to think they’re not
You treat them like things
And not human beings
But people are people too
Of course it’s the same for me
Of course it’s the same for me
It’s hard to admit
But I often forget
That people are people too
So then what can be done
So then what can be done
Just what do we need
For us to agree
That people are people too
People are people too
Just like me and you
From the buds of our tongues
To the air in our lungs
People are people too
People are really strange
People are really strange
We do what we won’t
And believe what we don’t
But people are people too
Sometimes they drive you nuts
Sometimes they drive you nuts
So we try to negate
With our labels and hate
But people are people too
Time here is really short
Time here is really short
So let’s make up a plan
To be as kind as we can
Because people are people too
