Dear friends,
With great joy and anticipation, we cordially invite you to the Nehemiah Foundation for Cultural Renewal’s very first Dinner and Artist Showcase!
The Nehemiah Foundation for Cultural Renewal has completed recording and mixing our sixth studio album: In Clover by Fiery Crash, and we need your help to get it out into the world.
Visit the Fiery Crash In Clover Kickstarter page to watch the video, read the story, hear some clips, and pledge your support. Unless we reach our entire goal by January 18, this project will go entirely unfunded. We have a little over a week left, and we are just over halfway there.
I remember every time I played “Naysayers” with Micah Stout. People would cringe. I could see their faces changing when Micah would get around to the chorus, singing in a bracing nasal register just slightly above his range:
Naysayers go to hell! I think you will do we-e-e-ll … Naysayers go to hell, I think you will do well … to say yes to Jesus.
And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kings 19:11-12; KJV)
In its best moments, Monarch, by Zach Winters, effortlessly creates silence. That music can create silence is one of many paradoxes you are going to have to get used to if you want to get to know this record. In the violence and foment of our instantaneous age, there are few things more alien than quality silence and intentional waiting. In all the hot noise of our weird, wired, wide, webbed world—noise which we often mistake for information and connectedness—our inner ears have become accustomed to ignoring the still small voice of God.
2014 has been the busiest year yet for the NFfCR. We have been experiencing exponential growth: adding new artists, new patrons, and new audience members, and pushing forward an incredible number of new artistic projects.
I wanted to highlight some of what has happened this year, in case you missed it: