my mind is on music today

My friend Wendy called from Nashville last night and said she had a couple of free tickets to a concert...

I was rendered speechless when she told me who.

I'm about to hop in my car and head north on I-65 to see these two:

That's right. James Taylor & Carole King - I can't handle it. I've seen James Taylor only once before, years ago in Charlotte. It was the best concert I've ever been to, save maybe Patty Griffin. I have always wanted to see these two in concert together.

Sigh.

On another note, I wanted to share a song that I'm loving right now.

A friend in my community group at church, Bryan, shared this stunning song with us last week - Emmylou Harris' "The Pearl," also covered by Matthew Perryman Jones. Both versions are beautiful.

I love it because she fearlessly stares into the eyes of the dilemma of what it is to be human and remains resolutely worshipful in the face of our all too apparent mortality.

If you're not already familiar with this song, it's worth the download:

"The Pearl"
Emmylou Harris

O the dragons are gonna fly tonight
They're circling low and inside tonight
It's another round in the losing fight
Out along the great divide tonight

We are aging soldiers in an ancient war
Seeking out some half remembered shore
We drink our fill and still we thirst for more
Asking if there's no heaven what is this hunger for?

Our path is worn our feet are poorly shod
We lift up our prayer against the odds
And fear the silence is the voice of God.
Of God, of God

And we cry Allelujah Allelujah
We cry Allelujah

Sorrow is constant and the joys are brief
The seasons come and bring no sweet relief
Time is a brutal but a careless theif
Who takes our lot but leaves behind the grief

It is the heart that kills us in the end
Just one more old broken bone that cannot mend
As it was now and ever shall be amen
Amen, amen

And we cry Allelujah Allelujah
We cry Allelujah

So there'll be no guiding light for you and me
We are not sailors lost out on the sea
We were always headed toward eternity
Hoping for a glimpse of Gaililee

Like falling stars from the universe we are hurled
Down through the long loneliness of the world
Until we behold the pain become the pearl
The pearl, the pearl

And we cry Allelujah Allelujah
We cry Allelujah

Here is MPJ's cover of the song: