Tired of Tremulous Tenors

I like this article.

Have you noticed the improvement in Contemporary Christian music? There have always been great songs and talented singers. Michael W. Smith, for example, was an accomplished writer of church music before he was famous. But at some point I just lost interest in him and the other men on the scene. Or, more accurately, I liked them "okay" but wasn't much of a fan. I kept wondering when I would hear something with a little more . . . testosterone.

I like this article.

Enter Third Day with their Travis Tritt sound, and Casting Crowns, and the rockers Kutless, and Jars of Clay, and others. Doesn't it seem like the men singing Contemporary Christian music just hit puberty? Didn't the collective pitch drop about an octave? (Okay, a fifth?) I like that, and not just because I'm a bass. It's a whole mindset. James Dobson writes about it with insight in his book Bringing Up Boys--boys and girls are different and that's normal and that's okay. John Eldredge celebrates the differences in Wild at Heart, paraphrasing a Biblical passage about God thusly:

The Boy is a Warrior, Warrior is his name.

This post may be misleading, but it's not really the music I'm concerned about. I'm thinking about a culture, schools, and even churches that may not be addressing the needs of men. Some have written that we have "pared the claws of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah." Now we're doing the same thing to boys made in His image.

Did I mention, I like this article?

P.S. I have always thought being able to sing tenor, first tenor even, would be awesome. It's just hard to imagine that every talented singer out there is a tenor. I'm happy to finally hear a few baritones--otherwise this post is not really about the singing. To put this in American Idol terms (some of my best friends are quite literate in that language):

Would you rather listen to Ace (the most tremulous tenor ever) or Chris Daughtry (future owner of vocal nodes)?

Say what you will about Chris--his image is simple and masculine. No girly Bo Bice hair, no nasal falsetto runs, and a voice as dramatic and fresh for rock as Clay's was for pop. (But I worry about the abuse he heaps on his instrument. He may end up like Satchmo if he spends his career belting it from the neck.)

I like this article.

P.P.S. TIM MINER CUT HIS HAIR and washed off the make-up. The androgenous 1980s are officially over.