Beautiful Day (U2 Cover)

(Posted on Easter Sunday, in celebration of the most Beautiful Day in all of history)

This song is the soundtrack to my life.

"The heart is a bloom, shoots up through the stony ground".
My father bought me a U2 album when I was about ten, as part of my musical education. I cranked up the volume on my headphones, and tried to play drums to it. Unfortunately for the neighbours, I did not know how to play the drums. Fortunately for me, I couldn't hear what I was playing.

"You thought you found a friend to take you out of this place
Someone you can lend a hand in return for grace"
There were days in high school when trouble in my family weighed like the world on my shoulders. Peter would prance up and warble "It's a beautiful day! Don't let it get away!" He was right.

"See the bird with a leaf in her mouth/
after the flood all the colours came out"
After our wedding ceremony, we walked demurely down the aisle to the serene notes of the Wedding March, which suddenly morphed into 'Beautiful Day'! We would have broken into dancing and leaping and running if the aisle was longer.

"What you don't have, you don't need it now"
Here we are, on a beach in Wales, forgiven, grateful, joyous. It really is a beautiful day.

These Songs are for You

Dear Friends,

‘The Micah Pact’ is due to come out at some point during the next few days. These are songs that I’ve written over the years. I wrote them in an attempt to grapple with suffering, both my own and others’. Divorce, fatherlessness, loneliness, broken families, disease, poverty, untimely death – these things are real. Yes, tiny, malnourished children in South India live in a hospice, infected with AIDS because of the foolishness of their parents. Yes, so many people are lonely, so many marriages are crumbling, so many struggle for hope and meaning. Yes, I’ve felt the sting of these things, and so I will not offer trite answers or belittle the big questions.




“I can’t say your way’s convenient
Deus Ex Machina isn’t how my story ends, but
When push comes to shove, is it enough? Is it enough
That you have shown me that you love me more than life itself?”
(How You Save Me)

These songs are for my brother, Micah, and for the kids at PACT, Chennai. Life might have tried to name you Ben-Oni (Son of Sorrow) but the Father has named you Benjamin (Son of my Right Hand, Son of Strength), and I pray He carries you on His strong shoulders (Deuteronomy 33:12).



“I know you’re small and weak and fell right through the cracks in the land
But you are precious to me, chosen son of my right hand
And I will hold you till your crimson sorrow fades away
There’s a safe place for you nestled between my shoulder blades, and
Now I will love you till the sky falls down in sheets of flame
And I will love you when the world is still and new again
You can believe me when I say from now we’re family
Nothing can separate us for all of eternity”
(Ben Oni)

These songs are for my cousin, my brother, my friend, Reuben, who dreamed of living a life of uncommon generosity. He went to be with the Father long before we were willing to let him go, but we know we will see him again, in the twinkling of an eye, when the right Person speaks the word “Arise”. (1 Corinthians 15:52)



“Calling all the dreamers, fell asleep before you lived your dreams,
Arise.”
(Ben Oni)

These songs are for Cousin Abi, for Paul, for Masrat, for everyone who has been through the dark night of the soul. ‘Don’t forget in the dark what you knew in the light’ – God is still loving and faithful and kind, and everything’s going to be just fine. (Romans 8:37) He’s going to fix everything, we will hope in his promise until it comes true.



“When the shadows grow so tall and the night hangs heavy over you,
Though you feel you’ve lost it all, lost your sense of what’s real or true
If the night sky takes you in, what you knew, know it again:
That the light, the light will come again
The light, the light’s in you my friend,
The light, the light will surely win, will surely win
We’ll surely win”
(Not Alone, Not Afraid)

There, I’ve bared my heart again. I’m making quite a habit of this.

I do hope you enjoy the music, I hope it wraps itself around you like the strong embrace of a Father.

Love,
Taryn

Stand On One Foot, Raise Your Hat

"I understand why the Scholar of Guildford has a pile of books. I think I understand why he's raising his hat. But why on earth is he standing on one foot?"

"That pose looks strangely familiar. It's almost as if he's...doing...the Tightrope!"



Now, replace the pile of books with a tray piled with cake and coffee mugs, and the hat with a pair of fuzzy cardboard bear-ears, and you have some idea of what Peter and I were doing last week. We weren't literally doing 'the Tightrope'. Well ok, so we did feel the need, every now and then, to get up and wag a foot about in a manner that was undeniably cool and smooth, almost indistinguishable from Janelle Monae's original.



(Lee's expression as he looks at the camera says it all: "What style! What moves!")

Peter and I signed up to be part of a 24/7 Mission Week in Guildford, which turned out to be a combination of hosting a free cafe and organising various family activities to demonstrate God's freely given love to the people of Guildford. The cafe seemed to attract those who fell through the cracks of well-educated, affluent, upwardly mobile Guildford society - construction workers, struggling single mums, lonely elderly people. The aim of the week was to have real conversations, to build relationships that would connect people with church community beyond the mission week. On the day of the 'Teddy Bear's Picnic', one of our team had a deep conversation with someone who then explained "it's because you just look so approachable with that teddy bear face painted on!"

To tell you the truth, I felt like the Guildford Scholar statue most of the week, awkward and anxious. I was in a new place, with new people, doing new things, out of my depth and my comfort zone. The physical exertion of a very intense week left me with no time to work on my upcoming EP. The emotional toll of engaging on a deep level with numbers of new acquaintances every day meant I had no time to think about how I was feeling. The packed schedule of every day meant that when someone asked me to sing something for the "Music, Lyric and Rhyme" night, or to provide background music for the Community Barbeque, I hadn't much time to hone the songs to studio-quality perfection or spend hours fussing over my hair or clothes in the name of 'stage presence'.



In fact, it was the very thing I needed. I had prayed, a few weeks ago, "God, I want to step out of myself and never step back in", and He had answered with characteristic humour. There I was, standing on one foot, the other poised to 'step out of myself' - raising my bear-ears, contents of my tray toppling, the words "Ohhhh cra...nberry juice" frozen on my lips - sometimes it's good to not be in control. It can rid you of vanity and time-wasting inward-looking overanalysis, it can stretch your faith and develop emotional stamina, and if nothing else, it makes for an amusing freeze frame.

Reviews of the Young & Free EP

[Click on the name of the reviewer for their full review]

Positive reviews:

The Universal YellowKeys:
The ‘Young and Free EP’ by Taryn Leia Prescott is just that. The whole sound is young and pretty free, and it is now the sort of sound we are covering now and then. So here we go.

And, just to mention, I chose this EP to start off our lightening things up a bit occasionally because this EP is so excellent for that and is of such a particular quality that even I cannot deny it's awesomeness despite its inability to bring me to tears, make nations rise up against oppressors, or simply keep someone out of the local pub. Actually, it could keep someone out of a local pub. Unless they're playing it in the pub... which would attract a lot of customers. This 'just to mention' is getting too long and free, so let's just go straight ahead to the music and the lovely, disgustingly talented Mrs Taryn...

I wasn’t sure what rating to give the EP, since it is too different from most of what is in my library to compare, so I’ve decided to simply judge it for what it is... An excellent 8.0/10 should do just dandy and match up well to the high quality of the EP.


The Upturned Microscope:
...the music and lyrics are different in style to Bride [see that review here], with some humour, a more upbeat flavour and a strange sweetness that’ll make you drop what you’re doing and listen. Along with young love, Taryn also explores some interesting instrumental arrangements and even goes demi-bluesy on track 2, Thought Train. The last track, Meant to be, oozes with childhood sweetness and a heart-aching violin solo.

A small, deep and beautiful sound for the summer.


Free To Be Me:
My incredibly talented friend/sister, Taryn Leia Prescott is on the road to world fame. I'm not kidding, she really is. Just listen to this music and dare to disagree with me! Go on.


Just Being Here
Right after posting the Songs of The Bride review I got a message from the Taryn Leia Prescott Facebook page letting me know about this new album - I figured I would go ahead and do the review quickly, here at lunch.

The music style is really not any different (no reason that it would) and I am still very much enjoying the vocals - like I said in the last review "Strong and Powerful - full of spirit!"

Really good - feel very much the same about both albums!

____________

Negative Reviews:


(None thus far)

____________

All reviews are much appreciated, and we'll keep adding to the list as more are written. (And if you know of any that we've missed, then please let us know!)

If you haven't yet downloaded the EP, it's freely available here.

Young & Free

Big things can happen while you're taking an afternoon nap. Peter and I got back from Prescott Family Holiday today, and, reunited with my very own bed, I felt a nap was in order, to celebrate the reunion, you know. I woke up an hour or two later to find that my humble little EP, "Young and Free", had been uploaded to Bandcamp by my incredible husband, adorned and made complete by the inimitable artwork of our brother Phil Jackson, given a glowing review by our friend Nik Papageorgiou, advertised on Facebook by my lovely sister-in-law, 'liked' by family and friends, and even downloaded. All without me lifting a finger, or indeed, an eyelid.

I am constantly surprised and humbled by how much encouragement and help people have generously given me. Freely, freely, I have received, and I am unspeakably grateful.

It's a privilege to have Phil Jackson's artwork gracing my virtual album covers. I don't know how many fledgling indie artists have truly world-class cover art - not many, I imagine. Having wandered happily through Phil's pictures time and again, I'd have to say number 26 is my favourite. I feel an immediate affinity with the tiny girl in the towering garden, because I sometimes feel very small, too, and it's not necessarily a bad feeling. If I look at the picture long enough, I feel like I've stepped into it, like that really is me, gazing up at a colossal dandelion, soaked in the magic and impossibility of it all. I don't know if any other picture has so captured my imagination, nor, indeed, am I able to fully express what it is that so intrigues me about it.

In this wrapping paper, then, "Young and Free" is now available for your listening joy.

'Influences' Part 3: Deep-Sea Creatures

You might be surprised to learn that this delightful creature you see above has a quality I want to emulate. No, it's not the jagged teeth (this fish obviously didn't spend the most self-conscious of its teenage years wearing braces and get nicknamed 'Metallica' by its own mother) nor is it the pink mohawk, but rather, its ability to go deep without being crushed.

Life, like an over-eager swimming coach, seems to like pushing people in the deep end. My swimming coach pushed me in when I was about nine, so I couldn't say the feeling was unfamiliar when Life did the same thing a few years later.

And there were times, to be sure, that I felt like I was going to be crushed by the pressure of difficulty, but, as speakers at youth camps are wont to point out, we have internal pressure that opposes the external pressure. When circumstances weigh down like the Atlantic Ocean on your back, "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4b)

Ha! I am that deep-sea fish.

I love it when songwriters dare to go deep, to take the pressure, to wrestle with God like Jacob (Genesis 32) and come away with a limp but a new light in their eye (no, not at all like the light in the fish's eye; stop getting distracted), when they dare to pray a prayer like 'take my world apart if it'll teach me to love you, God'.

I look beyond the empty cross, forgetting what my life has cost,
so wipe away the crimson stains, and dull the nails that still remain,
so steal my heart and take the pain, take the selfish, take the weak,
and all the things I cannot hide, take the beauty, take my tears,
this sin-soaked heart, make it yours...
take my world apart, take my world apart
(Worlds Apart by Jars of Clay)

Or when they dare to admit just how filthy are our rags of righteousness before God:
I am a whore I do confess
But I put you on just like a wedding dress
and I run down the aisle and I run down the aisle
I'm a prodigal with no way home but I put you on just like a ring of gold
and I run down the aisle to you
(Wedding Dress by Derek Webb)

It's not that I have a penchant for sad music. I have a theory that when Jesus said he was giving us 'life in abundance' he was saying we'd have the lowest of lows and the highest of highs, a good heaped serving of life, pressed down, shaken together, running over. I want to write songs like the ones above, unabashedly honest about our own sin, our inability to save ourselves, our undeniable suffering, but laced with redemption in the midst of pain, light greater than the darkness, hope in the midst of suffering, joy in the midst of mourning, salvation despite our helplessness. It's just that only when I admit how low I've been do I see the miracle of how high I've been lifted.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morningand dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
(Psalm 139:7-12)

C.S. Lewis said: "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." I don't want to make mud pies or dip my toes in the little frothy waves, I want to go deep (Metaphorically, you understand; I have nightmares about sharks even here in Cambridge, miles from the sea) so I can say something deep. Or maybe just 'look at all these pretty jellyfish. I hope they don't get me.'



This is the third in a series. Read the others:
'Influences' Part 2: Jesus
'Influences' Part 1: The Music Of My Childhood

'Young And Free' EP -- Press Release

Taryn Leia Prescott's second release 'Young And Free' is a refreshing breeze on a warm July afternoon. Contagious melodies, tightly-crafted rhyming couplets and some pleasingly quirky instrumentation all combine with delightful effect in this catchy summer EP.

If previous release 'Songs of the Bride' was a meditation on marriage, then these five songs take the exploration of those themes of love and longing in a fresh direction. Still drawing inspiration from the twists and turns of her relationship with teenage-sweetheart and now-husband Peter, Taryn here casts a nostalgic eye back to the years before marriage, and the resulting collection of songs is an unabashedly enjoyable tribute to young love.

Young And Free EP by Taryn

Opening track 'I Am Here' claims that "there have been days when my tale seemed a lazy man's poem without rhythm or rhyme", but the songs presented here are far from committing the crime of poetic laxity. Rather, the carefully crafted lyrics reward repeated listening and reveal an endearingly whimsical set of images. Take for example the confession in 'All Your Time For Me' that singing "love songs in the rain//... fills the ocean in my soul//with the downpour in my brain".

But neither can Taryn be accused of being more a writer of poems than a real musician. She clearly has a gift for writing a memorable tune but also manages to avoid the pitfall of same-ishness that the songs of so many aspiring artists fall into. From the opening track's doo-wop backing chorus to the melancholic violins which close the EP, there is a wide and wonderful variety of influences here on display.

The 'Young and Free' EP is being released on the 31st July, in celebration of the first anniversary of Taryn's marriage. It will be available for free download from her official website www.tarynleiaprescott.com, together with all of her other recordings. Why such generosity? Because, as Taryn muses on her blog, "the best things in life are free" -- or better, she suggests, "the best things in life are gifts".

Track List:
1. I Am Here
2. Thought Train
3. Waiting Is What I Do
4. All Your Time For Me
5. Meant To Be

Release Date: 31st July 2011