ChristiTutionalist Politics | Christian Perspectives on Constitutional Issues

CTP (S3E134) Country Faith, Old Songs, New Voice

• Joseph M. Lenard | Christian Activist & Author in Politics • Season 3 • Episode 134

Share episode

"GIVE FEEDBACK (no-reply-text (2-way comm: https://JosephMLenard.us/contact))"

CTP (S3E134) Country Faith, Old Songs, New Voice
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond  
A veteran country artist returns to talk faith, gratitude, and why classic songs still land today. We trace the story behind his cover of Why Me Lord and the moment a live radio prayer sparked a new wave of songwriting.
• Kristofferson’s Why Me Lord as a grateful confession
• balancing homage and originality in a cover
• Cowboy Church and finding a place to worship
• why younger listeners gravitate to classic country
• the spark behind Pray On The Radio
• faith, hardship, and learning from pain
• new release details and where to find Richard’s music  
RichardLynchBand.com

https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP  
CTP Audios: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBuzzsprout 
CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/JLDonBITCHUTE 
https://tinyurl.com/CTPgear  

A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

Support the show

JLenardDetroit SUBSCRIBE-
Author, Blogger, Podcaster

SPEAKER_00:

Hello, welcome to another episode of 322 Jones Podcast. I am your host, Joseph Manner, at L-E-N-A-R-T at the front. Oh. Thank you for tuning in. As Brandon used to stay on his show. Let's get on with the show. This is gonna be a quick cheat intro segment. I'm gonna be lazy. I've got so many guest recordings built up. I'm gonna get lazy and cheat on some Saturdays. I don't have to dream up a monologue topic this way. So, and I'm also not gonna say what guest will be appearing because I'm gonna be lazy and cheat and use this same intro several Saturdays to intro a guest show. So, as Graham Norton used to say, let's get on with the show. Surprise interview. Joining me, I think maybe setting a new record or tying the record for a number of appearances. This is my third season. This Richard Lynch's third appearance on the show. So this might be a little shorter one. I urge all of you, of course, to dig deep into the Christitutionalist archives and see the other two shows with Richard Lynch. Welcome to the show, Richard. How are you?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'm doing good, and many thanks for having me back. I sure appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, I got well before I hit record, you saw me thumbing through one of my recent books is a short story, a lasting legacy. It's about Ryan and it it's journal entries of fictional character Ryan. And I was looking for and found page 56, chapter five, journal entry, age 35. I mention, I want to mention it because in the author note kind of each chapter is dedicated to some people, and in that author note, one of the things I mention is for the good times from Chris Christofferson. Nice. And then I get an email from uh from Michael saying you've recorded Chris Christopherson's why me, Lord. And it's like, wow, aren't we on the same page, kind of?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know, sometimes a uh a thought will lead to something a little more substantial, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, I thought of um for the good times, it relates in the story. I had sadly kind of forgotten about Chris doing why me, Lord. And for those if you're not familiar, it isn't oh why me, Lord. It's why me, Lord, for these blessings, a big difference in the tone there, and it's like, wow, I had forgotten that song. I so much love that song. And when I heard you did it, I'm thinking there's similarities there. You both kind of have, and I don't mean this in a negative way, I mean this, right? A good, creatively different kind of scratchy voice similarity.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, sir. Well, you know, I've I I've always loved Chris Chris Topperson's music, and uh I recently just did a recorded a uh Songs of Inspiration C D uh in Nashville, and I I wrote uh 10 of the 12 songs, and I thought, you know, I've always loved Chris Chris Topperson music. It'd be nice to go ahead and and uh add one of his because the whole world remembers Why Me Lord, and uh if they don't, they should.

SPEAKER_00:

Or they did like me and forgot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I I just I just felt like I would like to uh give that a really good country version, and uh just because I've always felt it, and whenever you entertain it or whenever you hear it, whenever I perform it, you can watch people. They they um they they give their heart on their sleeve, they wear their heart on their sleeve, they just get and so emotional over that song.

SPEAKER_00:

Anyone who's actually remotely a good Christian, that song will melt, right? Right, as opposed to Dennis Quaid, who coined the term, I'm a little jealous, he thought of it before I did, churchianity. You know, some who may go to a building that happened to have a steeple on it, but it's really a humanist club. If if you're really a person of faith and in Christ, you hear that song and it's like, whoa.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. You know, for me, we've been going to a cowboy church every Tuesday night, and uh it's a Gretby beautiful barn, and the back half of it is uh is an actual living horse barn, cattle barn, goats, chickens, and the front half of it is a ministry where they have a live band, and uh, and there'll be a hundred and fifty of us come every Tuesday night. And for me, I I can I can take that that country aspect of my life. You know, I grew up in a country household and I I connect with that. And everybody needs to find that connection they make, whether it's uh you know, uh an old barn or they can pray to the Lord out here walking across the lawn, or they can go to church on Sunday or Wednesday, but they need to make that connection as to how they how they feel comfortable and what what gets in their heart. If they feel it from their heart and other folks are preaching from the heart, you know what you can't help but be right, and you want to connect with that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, another song comes to mind is like Lynn Anderson. I beg your pardon. I never promised you a rose garden, right? We're in an imperfect world, you're not promised perfect, but indeed, why me, Lord? Why I'm so I need to express how grateful I am for these blessings uh you've given me.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you're exactly right. We're the two songs you just mentioned come from you know a back in the 1970s, and as they were written then, but they're they're as much or more today, prevalent today as ever. They mean more today or as much as they ever did.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I I this and aside the way my OCD brain works, but non sequitur, not important really to this conversation, but I write it before it's news.com and a few places. Like when Trump announced that he was redoing the Rose Garden, I thought, well, won't I be clever? I will take the Lynn Anderson song, right? I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden and put as my article name. I beg your pardon, I never promised you in then parentheses, I keep a rose garden before he remodeled it. So, you know, a little wink, wink, nod, nod, tongue-in-cheek, but serious uh article. And yeah, I love the chance to bring up a lot of these old tunes, especially younger generations don't know, and it's good they hear.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, exactly right. And I've I've discovered that you know, um uh the younger generation, if they actually have an opportunity to hear some of these great traditional country songs, um, they tend to gravitate to it, or or they'll sit back and say, Wow, what have I been missing? And then that all of a sudden they're looking for something else to kind of kind of you know the to capture them. And but you know, a lot of folks have been blessed to have parents and grandparents that kind of give them just a little taste of that music. And if they if they have a chance to hear it, they tend to gravitate to it. I I do I do believe that.

SPEAKER_00:

I hope. Uh something that comes to mind is uh on YouTube, uh you know, a lot of viral videos for whatever reasons are this this twins or this husband and wife couple, blah blah blah. Younger people react to videos, right? Like reacting to Phil Collins in the air tonight or the the police messaging about whatever, whatever, older songs, and them here seeing it, discovering it, watching it or listening to it for the first time and reacting. And indeed, most time it's like wow. I mean, that's like this that music was such so much more substantive than than it is now. Now, hopefully, we can get somebody out there to watch your why me lord music video and react to it and help boost boost your ver your cover version of the song now.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you for saying that. I really appreciate it. You know, I I want to give whenever I whenever I record my music, I I put my heart and soul into it. And this is really the first time I've really done a cover song. And uh I I still wanted to have my own flavor to it. I wanted to make sure, you know, I I I had it to where when they hear Richard Lynch, I didn't I didn't keep all the Chris Christopherson licks. I I made I made sure I had the feel of the traditional country that I that I that I want to hear. And I I give it my own my own take on his great song, I guess I'm what I'm trying to say.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Uh a delicate balance, like some some cover songs, like the bangles, uh uh what's the leaves or brown hazy shade of winter. A lot of people have no clue that was a Simon and Garfunkel, or was that a Paul Simon song? Uh but what the the cover sometimes takes off more than the original, and other times people think it's like, oh god, that new version is horrible. The original was so much better. So it's the question of balance, right? Paying homage to the original, but yet at the same time, your own slant.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly right. And you know, I uh there's a lot of folks that follow my music, and I'm so thankful and grateful that they do. And they've come to realize that whatever music I do, they're going to get one thing that's consistent. That's a real country sound.

SPEAKER_00:

Richard Twangy Lynch.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll take I'll take that.

SPEAKER_00:

I dubbed thee Mr. Twangy. Uh well, that uh again, just the way my OCD brain works, it goes off of the we're talking about country, right? It brings to mind the old David Allen Cole, the perfect country song. Remember? Oh, yeah. I love that song. It's just it's not the perfect country song because nothing about mama and trucks, trains, trains and prison, and so you had time that last word. That what is that David Allen Coe? I can't remember the name of the song, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh you said it. The title is the perfect country song. That is the title.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that is the title? Okay, I didn't remember that. Yeah. I love that song. Yeah, like uh like David Allan Coe, Arlo Guthrie, and others who would do like, do you have anything such coming? Like kind of a tongue-in-cheek comedy, country parody almost in a way.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, uh, you know, I I really haven't gone that far. I mean, I maybe I I might be out on the tractor working at the farm or something, and I hear a song and I might give my own little intake to it or input to it, I guess I should say. But I've really I've never really gotten a studio and re-recorded it as a parody, but never say never. You never know what can happen for me.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. You could be the weird L of country next.

SPEAKER_01:

That would work, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

I also I I've got to tease you, right? Because people may not remember Chris Christophens and A Star is Born with Barbara Streisand. I was never a big Barbara Streisand. My my mother was, so I heard Streisand growing up. Uh I loved the movie, but then of course Brad Cooper made a remake with Lady Gag Me, I call her. I'm not a big fan of hers either, although poker face is a brilliant tune. All the kudos in the world and credit for that song. You take a common phrase and put a great spin on it like that, fantastic. But I'm not a fan, but I'm not her demo. But any chance Richard Lynch teams up with, say, a Miley Socrus or uh uh or or a Taylor Swift uh to to make uh another reboot of the stars board?

SPEAKER_01:

Well well, I got a granddaughter that would probably uh really like to hear that, but uh you know, reality probably wouldn't work for me. But that's all good. You know what I've realized is that you know, the older I get, the more I'm still in the game, and how many things I've been so blessed by by the fact that I got good health and I've got people that surround me that want to see me succeed. I got the best wife in the world, and we uh we strive to make things as good as possible. And we um, you know, we put out good music, we're writing good music, and um, you know, life is good for us here on the farm. We every now and then we'll get a hiccup or stub your toe. Well, you know what? We get up and we keep going, and we thank our Lord and Savior that we we learn from us from some or other, or some bad experience, or it doesn't even have to be a bad experience. If you get out and and get um you know overheated or whatever, you need to learn from it. You sit down when you get it. In other words, we appreciate everything that comes our way.

SPEAKER_00:

I hear you, I hear you. And in the Michael Stover release, here's the picture of you. Uh see, I scribbled some notes. One of the notes was a star is born, Miley Suckers, Lady Gag Me, Rough Voice. So I could, you know, I don't script shows, but I try to make notes. So as I think of things to ask or talk about, I write them down. But indeed, in there it says uh blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Where was I looking? Uh, set to release is heartfelt version of Why Me Lord November 14th. We're recording on November 12th. By the time the show airs, it'll be later than that. So the song will be out. Uh, latest single from Inspirational LP, Pray on the Radio, Songs of Inspiration. So, indeed, Christian show can't pass the pun. What was the genesis of that th concept?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know, I've I've always believed in the Lord. I've always I've always felt his presence, and like and I touched on it a little bit earlier. The old older I get, the more I realize, man, he's been with me the whole time, whether I knew it or not. You know what I'm saying? And and I see things that's happened to me, and I've I've got through situations and circumstances that only the Lord could have got me through it. And and and now that I'm older, I see it clear as the as the nose on my face. And I, you know, I my songs I write, I'll I'll let somebody else determine whether they're gospel or not, but I just call them songs of inspiration because they speak of the Lord. And they'll they'll tell of a situation that I lived and I experienced, and I wasn't afraid to thank the Lord for that inspiration. As a matter of fact, I was doing uh a radio tour here a few years ago, me and my wife, and uh we had just left Nashville from radio station, and we were on our way to Memphis, and a uh we got a phone call from our uh producer and promoter said, Hey, be expecting a phone call from California. Um they want to do an interview with you. So I just hung up, I think Michael called me and said, Hey, uh, just he just hung up the phone, and sure enough, the phone rang, and it was a radio personality in California uh wanting to do a live um you know broadcast interview over the over the telephones as we were driving down the interstate, and he was talking to me and we were having a great conversation. He was playing my song at the time, it was called American Proud.

SPEAKER_00:

I remember that one.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and we were driving down the interstate, and uh all uh all of a sudden he said something to me that I I had never heard before or since. He said, Richard, do you mind if we pray on the radio? And I was overwhelmed with emotion, and normally there would never be a pad of paper anywhere in the truck. Me and my wife were driving the truck at that time, but there was a pad of paper between us, and normally we would never find a pencil or a pen, but there was a pen right there on the dashboard, so I got my left hand to my ear talking, my left knee steering the steering the truck down the interstate, my right hand on the pad of paper, and my right leg on the gas. And I'm trying to write this as I'm driving down the interstate, and my wife looks over at me, all big-eyed, and so she grabs the pad of paper, and what she hears me say during the rest of this interview. And the song basically wrote itself it's called Pray on the Radio. So I had this wonderful song, and I decided you know what? I'm going to keep the concept of the Inspiration, the Lord had given me his inspiration, and I had never recorded an inspirational album before, so this is my first, and I can't tell you how proud of it I am.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you mentioned about the Lord always being with you, whether you realized or recognized it at the time. What comes to my mind is that old footprints uh picture and phrase. Uh, why Lord, were there's only there's two sets of footprints, then one and then two. It's like why Lord, in that part there where there's only two footprints, did you abandon me? I never abandoned you. That's the time I was carrying you.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Absolutely. But it takes a little bit of time, takes a little bit of uh of appreciation to ever understand where you actually are with the Lord, at least for me, anyhow. I mean, like I said, I've always believed and I've always wanted to follow the Lord, but you know, you you you don't necessarily understand it until a certain thing happens in your life and you realize only God could have got me out of this mess, or only God could have put me in this opportunity. And the older I get, the more I realize that, you know, I you have every person has to go through a little bit of um, you know, it may be not necessarily a hard time, but you got to go through the bad times to ever appreciate the good times. And uh I learned from all my experiences.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and that kind of brings to mind Garth Brooks's unanswered prayer song, right? You may be going through something you don't appreciate or didn't want, or there's something you want, and why Lord, can't I have that? But hey, I may have it's great we're given free will, but if we let ourselves go, indeed, a door may close, but a window may open, right? Just saying, God may close one door and another opens. It may be not part of our plan, but overall, eventually it is part of his plan.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. Exactly. That's exactly right. And that's that you know, that's life. If we if we just just open our eyes a little bit and look around, you know, what we think we want now is not necessarily the best for us. And the Lord said, Hey, you know, you might think you might want this year, but uh if something happens here, and then a year or six months down the road, and you realize, well, I'm glad I didn't get that, because look what I just had had handed to me. I know exactly what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it reminds me too, kind of of Star Trek four or five, I forget which movie it's the one where we discover Spock has a long-lost stepbrother we never heard of for three decades. But that aside, right? Uh, what does God need with a spaceship? But the point being, give me your pain, let me take your pain, and Kirk in the line. No, you can't take my pain. I need my pain. It's what made me who I am today. Indeed, why do bad things happen to good people at times? It may not be fun, but those things, even the bad things, make us who we are now.

SPEAKER_01:

Very well said. And I I hope I hope some young folks are listening to this because you know they may they may be in a situation or experiencing something that that they're like, why'd this happen to me? But ultimately, somewhere down the road, it will make sense as to what happened to you, and something better will ultimately come from that. But it's okay to hurt, it's okay to fall down, it's okay to skin your knee, but learn from it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and not all good might come in this life, but remember, eternity is far more important than necessarily the short time on this fallen world, yes?

SPEAKER_01:

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_00:

And well, I said this would be a shorter show, but boy, time has flown as we've gone along, so it is a little shorter than I would normally do, but um finding you is RichardLynchband.com, yes?

SPEAKER_01:

That is correct. Just go to RichardLynchband.com. You can see anything we're doing, all the new material, the new CDs, our schedules. Um, yeah, just go there and you'll find anything you want to know about me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. The good, the bad, the ugly.

SPEAKER_01:

You got it.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, Richard. It was great having the chance to talk to you again. Give my regards to your wife, Donna, right?

SPEAKER_01:

You got it. I'll tell her I sure appreciate you guys. Thanks for having us on.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, I should remember because that was my mother's name, Donna. So anyway, and and smack Michael upside the head for me next time you see him. Thank you, Joseph. Thank you, God bless. Love you. Announcing Christitutionalist podcast gear, CTP gear, or CTP wear, if you prefer. Like hat, torso gear, apparel, drink gear, mugs and glasses, and the sort. So subscribe to CTP at tinyurl.com slash subscribe to CTP. Get your CTP beer via tinyurl.com slash ctp here. And of course, get your Joseph M. Leonard media manuscript via JosephMLeonard.us slash shop. And again, that's Leonard without an O. Joseph M L E-N-A-R-D.us slash shop. Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned into another Christitutionalist podcast show. I really appreciate that you stop by. Again, please like, share, subscribe. We need you to help spread the constitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. God bless. Love you all.

Head Shot

Joseph M Lenard

Host