The weekend is here, yip yip yahoo! It's been a long week. I started it off with a stomach bug and work was very busy to boot.

I got a new CD last Saturday. It's by the Passion Worship group. The name is Hymns: Ancient and Future. What they did is took 14 hymns that were at least 100 years old, modernized them and added choruses to a few. Now, along with the Integrity folks, Passion are the cutting edge of contemporary praise and worship. So, it was quite a leap for them to re-do a lot of 'old' songs. I grew up signing hymns. Each church we went to from Presbyterian, to Methodist, to Baptist, had their own favorites and some that only they sung. So I have heard a wide range. I love hymns. They are beautiful both poetically and in their truth. However, I think the style and melodies are a bit dated. This CD addresses that in a wonderful and fresh way. A lot of folks would feel it is wrong to set these hymns to different music and give them new melodies. The fact is, most were written without melodies and were set to different songs of the day. Eventually, each one settled into a melody and that is what we have today. So most hymns had their words and melodies written at completely different times by different people! So I think bringing them up to date gives us the best of both worlds. As usual, the Passion folks are very solid in their presentation and it's impressive that the entire album is live and of such a high quality. 4 of my favorite Worship Leaders show up on this album: Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Charlie Hall, and David Crowder. If you love Praise and Worship music and hymns, this CD will be an absolute delight.

I also bought the new Todd Agnew album. I originally thought he was going to be a Christian version of disposa-rock, however after meeting and talking with him a month or so ago and now listening to his album, I was mistaken. I'll tell you all about it soon.