Present Joys

Insanely evocative snapshots of Sacred Harp singings, northern Mississippi, early 1980s.

Thine’s all the glory / man’s the boundless bliss

The Lord is ris’n indeed! Hallelujah!
Now is Christ risen from the dead,
And become the first-fruits of them that slept.
Hallelujah, and did He rise? did He rise?
Hear it ye nations! hear it, Oh ye dead!
He rose, He burst the bars of death
And triumphed o’er the grave.
Then I rose, then first humanity
Triumphant passed the crystal ports of light
And seized eternal youth.
Man, all immortal hail,
Hail heaven, all lavish of strange gifts to man,
Thine’s all the glory,
Man’s the boundless bliss.

This past sunday, my friend Allison and I drove to Dayton for the annual Ohio Sacred Harp Convention! We sang for hours in a small, plain room! And we had wonderful potluck dinner on the grounds! Here’s a photo of some fellow Columbus friends.

I have a band called Nigel Ewan and the Orange Vic, and we just released an album called VicCafé. I’ll be posting some songs here later today, but you can download the whole album for free now! The included digital booklet explains everything.

I spent the past couple days with my bible study group at a cabin by a lake, and it was truly one of the nicest weekends I’ve ever had. Yesterday was a perfect day:

• 9:30am: wake up
• 11am: brunch (I fried 18 eggs)
• 12pm: hymn singing
• 1pm: sledding (with some injuries)
• 4pm: deep conversation + knitting
• 6pm: dinner
• 7pm: games
• 9pm: prayer
• 11:30pm: more hymn singing
• 1:30am: sleep