Be Free

I’ve loved Joy William’s music for a while now. Her EP,  One of Those Days, landed in my hands a couple years ago when I worked for Clear Channel’s station: The River.

That’s when I found out previous to One of Those Days, she wrote lots of CCM. And I thought … “Well, way to go. This Joy chick jumped out of the box and wrote some fabulous stuff that did so well it landed on Grey’s Anatomy.” Gifted God lover with a major platform. Bravo!

Imagine my surprise when last weekend my 21 year old, Emily, came home for the weekend and introduced me to The Civil Wars … a duo with one Joy Williams. They were actually here in Austin last week – featured at SXSW 2011. Check out their sound on ‘Barton Hollow.’ Kinda wow.

I am so glad for her artistic exploration. And I love the fact that she had the freedom to move from one sound to another. From one genre to another. Check out what she says here in an interview at Awaken Generation about her transitions.

“I don’t think I actively think about the musical chapter I feel like I’m in. I enjoyed what I learned in the process of being in CCM for about six or seven years, but I think, too, on top of that, I started feeling a little bit boxed in. I think within that genre of music, it’s very important to overtly express the worldview that you have versus what you see actually through that worldview. So I’ve been really enjoying the freedom of being able to write what I see through my worldview. And I think writing about truth and beauty in a way that plays with dark and light is really fascinating to me and something that I really enjoy. Beauty can be bittersweet and truth can be hard to swallow, and I think we inadvertently write within that tension with what we do—though it’s never actually discussed.” Joy Williams

She reminds me it’s okay … to be free.

I like that. I think Jesus likes it too.