Simon Miner, Family & Friends “The Dwelling Place Project “ Album Review

Prime Cuts: The Love You're Looking for (Sedric's Lullaby), The Story of Our Good, Beneath This Christmas Moon

In our day of superficiality, love gets the short end of the bargain.  Though many of us may confer that loving others is an altruistic endeavor; but that is only if love is convenient, shallow and temporary.  How many of us have truly loved when love costs us our convenience, our time, and our long term commitment?  Adoption is one of the best demonstrations of such love.  It is an irreversible acceptance of somebody into your home knowing full well that he or she may wreck your sanity, bankrupt your coffers, and deprive you of your dream vacation.   Like many of us, Simon Miner, having three kids of his own, never had adoption in his purview until he attended a Steven Curtis Chapman.  During the concert when Chapman challenged the attendees of the plight of orphans that warmly stirred Miner's soul.  As a result, Simon Miner and his wife Rosemary have ever since been ardent advocates of adoption.

"The Dwelling Place Project," the follow-up to Miner's solo debut "Awakenings," is an important record.  Its utility is found in more than its highly enjoyable songs, but it's a collection of songs that seeks to bring to an awareness that adoption is and should be at the cynosure of the Christian life.  These songs not only celebrate the joy of family, but it also surfaces the truth that we are all adopted sons and daughters of our heavenly Father.  Enlisting his children (both biological and adopted) and his friends to sing with him on the project, the album is very much a concocted affair of familial bonds.  Recorded in the basement of their church, Miner's church family members were also involved in the recording: from singing backings to playing the tin whistle to hammering dulcimer lines to drawing the pictures that go along with the CD booklet.

With its shoelace budget, there is an inevitable "demo" or grassroots feel to the recording that makes the songs striking raw, poignant and it greatly enhances the homespun tenure of the record.  Opening number "Make Us One" sets the stage for what is to come.  A song that echoes Jesus' desire for his church to be united in our Lord's High Priestly Prayer, "Make Us One" reminds us again of how God calls us to belong in communities, be it the church or the home, and it's never God's will for anyone to be lone rangers. This theme of the community surfaces again in "As We Gather at the Table," which we hear Simon's wife Rosemary and Mark Vienneau on vocals. Going into modern worship terrain with crashing guitars and heavy percussion is the title cut "Dwelling Place" a song that contains lyrics that recall the Psalms.

Revealing his fatherly heart is the gorgeous piano ballad "The Love You're Looking For (Sedric's Lullaby)," a song that ought to be textbook material for all dads who seek to be Godly fathers.  If you love the flowing arpeggios created by the tinkling of the ivory keys on a grand piano, don't miss "The Story of Our God."  With his James Taylor-like tenor, Simon Miner walks us through the redemptive story of Scripture with charming perspicuity.  While Alison Dunfee's folky guitar-led "Carried" trumps on Dunfee's sweet and affecting delivery. And the song that was the clincher that compelled Simon Miner to walk the journey of adoption is the sweeping ballad "Beneath the Christmas Moon." 

"Dwelling Place" is ultimately an important record.  It's one that not only strings together the various threads dealing with community, family, worship, God, parenting and adoption together cohesively, but it's a record that stirs boldness in our hearts; boldness to love God and others not in trite rhetoric, but in actions that have longevity and depth in view.

To find out more about Simon Miner and the "Dwelling Place Project," visit: http://dwellingplaceproject.com 

 

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