For years I’ve been listening to a kid from Nashville named Andrew Peterson. You’re likely to have been listening to him too. He’s the one with the voice as smooth as a cello, and the story-telling intuition of Garrison Keillor (Andrew is also an accomplished novelist).
These days, musicians are releasing what should be a record of b-sides with one or two decent songs. I don’t blame them. There’s not much of a commercial reason to stick a bunch of hits on one album. But Counting Stars is not such a release. From the first track, I stopped working and turned it up and leaned back in my chair. It felt like a record I’d heard before, something immediately familiar. It’s the record you are searching for for a long night-drive in the country. It will make you want to cut the roof off your car so you can see the stars. And if you’re driving with friends, forget talking. You’ll just feel together.
Tracks to pay attention to: Many Roads, World Traveler, You Came So Close and Dancing in the Minefields
Many Roads is a sly smile against cynicism. It’s Andrews way of saying some things are miraculous, mysterious, good, and that you and I are not accidents. World Traveler is not about world traveling as much as it is about staying home. After hearing the song a few times, I wrote to a friend and told him my favorite place on earth to visit was the .29 acres on which I live. World Traveler is not about looking for something, it’s about having found it. You Came so Close is another thumb at cynicism and hopelessness. Dancing in the Minefields is a song about risk, a requirement to love and be loved. But these aren’t little happy songs. Peterson has the tone of a man who has seen very hard things, but finds light behind whatever it is that is causing the shadows. He sings about that light.
I list these songs in case you are going to head over to I-tunes and sample the record. But do me a favor. Get the whole thing. You can always duct tape the roof back on your car come winter.
Thanks Andrew. I needed this one.
Andrew gets a little more love when you buy the record here.
Here’s a sample from the new record. Dancing in the Minefields:
Great review, but don’t buy it from iTunes! Apple’s got enough money. Show Andrew your support by downloading it from his own store at the Rabbit Room.
https://store.rabbitroom.com/music/group/counting-stars
WOW!!!
I cannot remember the last time a song moved me to tears due to its pure beauty and truth. I must share this with others.
Check out his song “Family Man”; it’ll have the same effect on you. The guy is spiritual/emotional genius.
[...] Miller just gave a review of Andrew Peterson’s new album Counting Stars and introduced me to this great song “Dancing in [...]
Dang, that’s good.
Yay! Love it!
Yep, I’m sitting here at my desk wiping tears from my eyes. Thank You, Jesus, for my dear wife who dances in the minefields with me. And thanks Don for posting this. The video was one of those rare ones that actually enhances the quality of the song.
so nice! Feel like I just found buried treasure, he is all new to me
On Monday, I will have been married to Amy for 14 years. That video undid me. Thanks. Andrew captured the risks and rewards perfectly.
Congrats on your anniversary, Larry.
People kept telling me I’d like Andrew Peterson’s music…and that by extension, through a magical-ether way, I’d like him. A noted contrarian, all this predicting made me avoid Andrew’s music.
But, then I couldn’t avoid it anymore. And I fell in the great celestial whirl of his musical ministry, where I even found God behind songs that initially seemed like they didn’t have anything to do with God. Thanks, Andrew.
Thanks, Don. Really beautiful!
Sold.
I have learned that if you recommend music, I should just go ahead and buy the whole damn thing.
This is beautiful on a multitude of levels.
Thank you for sharing.
I am with Carol. That is such a beautiful song, well done.
Thanks for the posting Don.
“…we bear the light of the son of man, so there’s nothing left to fear.”
No more excuses when it’s put like that, and delivered with that voice. Hmm. Suddenly feel quite nervous!
Love Andrew Peterson! So glad he’s got some new songs. Thanks for sharing and also appreciating Andrew as well.
Yesterday I commented on Lucy’s blog that I pray for God to keep my heart soft, so I guess He knew I really needed it to melt…because this made it melt.
Music reaches depths that are magical and enchanting, and I love how it awakens the soul to get ready for the next step, the next scene, the next miracle in life.
Amen.
What a lovely song.
I’ll check the rest out on Napster.
Thoughts:
An accordion! Woo!
Damn…aren’t his feet cold in that creek?
Huzzah when they all start dancing!
Wow Don…I read your review and immediately downloaded the CD to my iPod and took a walk. It’s a fabulous piece of work. I was somewhat familiar with Andrew as I accompanied a soloist in my church last Christmas on Labor of Love which is an amazing song. As a huge fan of David Wilcox I’ve been spoiled as far as good, wise, and truthful lyrics go but Andrew has measured up. Thanks!
I’m looking forward to hearing this, especially World Traveller. The details in your review are exactly my sentiments lately. I was once a travel junkie, but over the past three years or so I have no urge to go anywhere because I’m so happy wherever I am. I thought it was a phase at first, but my wife informed me that it was God in my life. I beleive she’s right, and I can still hardly believe it.
This is exactly the thing that makes me not understand your (Don) disagreement with the “God is the your missing puzzle piece.” metaphor that I’ve heard you downplay a few times. Maybe the way it was presented to you was different than it was to me. I remember you saying something like it was presented to you as if there would be no more problems for you after you got the Jesus-shaped puzzle piece. I didn’t understand it that way. I don’t think it was presented as if being whole was necessarily in correlation with being problem-ridden. I have a sense of wholeness with God in my life that I certainly lacked before and I still have problems. The void is filled. I still encounter problems though. I submit that the problems actually fortify the small cracks between the puzzle peices once they completley play out rather than remove anything.
Anyway, thanks for this review. I’m surely picking it up.
Beauty. I love it when there are those moments in music when everything comes together in such a sweet way…words, melodies, skills, colaboration. You can just close your eyes and feel beauty. Loved it.
Thanks, Don. I love Andrew’s music, and I’ve never understood why he isn’t more well-known. Hopefully this blog will help get his music to some people who hadn’t yet heard it. Incidentally, for any of you who haven’t seen it, his Christmas tour he does every year called “Behold the Lamb of God” is definitely worth checking out.
Thanks for the intro to Andrew!
Beautiful. And yet another gift from one of this era’s greatest and most creative poets/artists. Listening to his music is like being shown how to shut the noise off of life and “see” life from yet another (and more important) angle. His music is the kind of stuff that tears your heart out, stomps it on the ground, puts it back together again and makes you FEEL more deeply than you did before… and you walk away fuller for it. It’s well, IMPORTANT.
And if you like Andrew Petersen, check out Jason Gray; yet another storyteller with heart, humor, and lyrical richness beyond words.
Amen Sylvia
Jason Gray is another gem that is perfect for any fan of Andrew’s… as is Andy Gullahorn, Andrew Osenga, Jill Phillips and Eric Peters.
All amazing “Square Pegs”
thanks for the tip. i have always loved him and didn’t know he came out with a new album. i also loved the billy collins work. i bought his book. it is amazing.
After I listened to this albulm I thought “Wow, Andrew Peterson and Donald Miller were probably childhood friends.”
AP is my absolute favorite and moves me more than any other. I pre-ordered this CD and it has been playing non-stop since it arrived last week. Love & Thunder is probably my favorite but I have NEVER disliked any of his recordings. I could go on and on……. So glad to know you appreciate him too!
Hey, Don-considering you taste in music, I am curious to know if you have ever heard of Mark Heard. He is my absolute favorite Christian songwriter and lyricist of all time. If you’ve not heard him, a must -hear is the compilation “High Noon.” It is available on Amazon from $8.71 on up-it is cuts from his last three cds, what many consider to be his finest recordings. What made me think you may like him is what you said about Messr. Peterson songs not being “happy little songs.” Mark wrote beautufully about the darkness of the human condition and God’s ability to overcome it.
Yeah. I kind of love him a little bit. Okay. I actually kind of love him a lot. Next to Donald Miller, that is. Actually, it’s a toss up, but Peterson can sing and I’m not sure Miller can carry a tune. Would be an interesting album though. Don? You up for the challenge? Your audience demands!
When I first heard Andrew Peterson, I, like you, stopped what I was doing, turned him up, and just listened. It’s beautiful music and heart-felt lyrics.
Made me weep. I’m sending it to several friends. Thank you!
An incredible release…Peterson sings really well. You should write more about music, Don. Greetings from a brazilian fan of your books.
This is amazing. Thanks for sharing
Donald Miller, you just gained cool points in my books by recommending AP. Props to a guy who has made amazing music for so long starting to make some money off of that music… I love to see music like his reach the ears of many. So thanks Don
Yay! I was just thinking a couple of days ago that I needed a new cd for some new inspiration! Your blog post came just in time!
Thanks Don!
What a beautiful song and video. My wife and I just held each other and cried watching it. Beautiful.
Beautiful.
What a beautiful description of marriage for a lifetime – “dancing in the minefields.” I loved it and will listen to it again and again.
“in the night”, “God of my fathers” should be added to your tracks to pay attention list, but I guess the list would be too long
Dear Don,
So very glad that you are introducing your fans to Andrew Peterson. The “hip” Christian radio stations in my town never play his work; you have to listen to the “old people’s” radio station, WKCL to hear his music.(I love all of the Christian radio stations in my city, and listen to them all,so I am not trying to be surly toward the hipsters. I am thankful for this recent phenomenon of all types of Christian Music on the air.)
But anyway, I have loved him for years and cannot wait to hear the new one.
Thanks for the review.
Kathy
[...] You can read more here. [...]
Thanks for making more people aware of Andrew’s music. It is so tough to find fantastic songwriters in this generation! If he is ever playing somewhere near you, please go. The stories behind the songs make the lyrics that much more moving.
Beautiful…reminiscent of James Taylor and Bob Dylan, but a completely unique voice, in my mind anyway. Great stuff; exquisite words. Thanks!
I just downloaded this album… I think I have a new favorite artist…
Wow…
What an amazing piece of musical storytelling – It’s beautiful, sincere, inspiring, and humbling all at the same time! I WILL be buying this album!
Also, Andrew’s books are equally wonderful. They’re “technically” written for kids, but I loved reading them! I’m always on the look-out for books to recommend to the kids I work with, and a while back, I picked up the first of Andrew’s “Wingfeather Saga” books: “On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness.” He had me pulling out my check card within seconds of reading the first paragraph of its introduction. They’re brilliantly clever, witty, and fun, and yet, the rich depth of emotion and truth within them speaks to Andrew’s incredibly ability as a storyteller.
Amazing album I had not heard him before. Thank you Don. “In the Night” was one of the most awesome songs I have ever heard in my entire life and became an instant worship mainstay for me. I am amazed and filled with wonder and awe. That one song is worth the whole album by itself but so many of the songs are really good I am humbled. I will be following Andrew all the time now. Thanks again.
Over the past couple of years, Andrew has risen to the very top of my list of artists that I love and who really reach me. I got to see him perform a one-man concert last year at a small church in Knoxville, TN. It was truly a soul repairing kind of night.
After the concert I got to meet him in the hallway of the church and told him (after much stammering and fumbling of words) that his music “made my life better.” I can’t think of a whole lot of artists I feel that way about, and even fewer that I would dare to say it to their face.
But AP’s music really does make my life better. And listening to this new album is like a meeting a good friend for the first time. I think it makes perfect sense that Don is also an Andrew fan.
What a well-written review. I’m sold!
[...] we become disconnected from the very stories we’re living in.” And you can click HERE for Don Miller’s review of the new album (that’s right, Don Miller of Blue Like Jazz [...]
[...] came across this recording while reading Donald Millers Blog. Don also has written a review of the CD and it was compelling enough to make me want to download it, I encourage you to check out [...]
Don, thank you, thank you for reviewing this. My father gave me this CD last week after I posted on Facebook how good “Dancing in the Minefields” was. The whole album is exactly the refreshing car ride on a beautiful day you described.
But I had no idea as the album approached the last five songs that it would resonate deeper, from places of great sorrow and fear. “Fool with a Fancy Guitar” is an ode to falling short and it still being okay. “You Came So Close” is a powerful message of not giving up, and absolutely necessary to precede the darkness revealed in “The Last Frontier”, where I felt Andrew Peterson had accurately summed up what depression feels like. I’ve been down that well and had God’s love surrounding me, too.
Incredible the power of music to speak to the soul.