Have you ever been listening to a band and really wished that they were a worship band?  Perhaps something about their music seemed to speak to you in a spiritual way.  It’s important that we as worship leaders be listening to all styles of music, so that we can continue to spur on our creativity and not become stuck in a rut.  So, I’ve decided to start a series here called “Wish they were a Worship Band,” about a band whose music is moving me right now.

I’ve kind of broken the rules this week, because the artist I’m talking about today is not a band per se, but he’s been recording with a full band lately and touring with one sometimes, so I’ll go ahead and share him with you in this post.  Paul Curreri is a dusty young folk singer out of Virginia, and his unmatched live energy brings life to a rather archaic musical form: acoustic folk-blues.

I was first introduced to Paul Curreri through his relationship with the amazing Kelly Joe Phelps.  Phelps produced one of Curreri’s early albums, Songs for Devon Sproule.  This album revealed to me a magnificient new world of sound from the acoustic world.  Since then, Curreri has explored even new sonic varieties, utilizing the sound of a clean Telecaster to reshape his signature fingerstyle sound.  His collaboration with a full band on albums like Are You Going to Paul Curreri and the Velvet Rut force the folk genre out of its own Velvet Rut.

Although Curreri’’s intricate guitar work blows my eardrums, I find the strength of Curreri’s work in his poetry.  He has an unmatched grasp on the creation of Faulknerian atmosphere in his lyrics, and his improvisational style sometimes obscures just how brilliant his lyrical creations are.  In “Greenville,” Curreri sings:

Oh, perhaps I might sleep, but the screen door’s a guilt bull
Stuck plainly on sticking me through.
Had I the blood boiled, or the fist like a marker,
I’d haul off, and dot his eye blue.
But that bull just wants a word, the night just wants to barrel,
Bet the sunrise’ll want a piece of me too.
The back window creaks as I head over heels;
You say, “Greenville,” so it’s Greenville with you.

Curreri’s style reflects a solid desire to create regardless of critical response.  He plays in a genre that will probably never launch him into international fame and fortune, yet his honesty and courage shines from every song he plays in every 200 seat folk club across the world.  Curreri’s fingerstyle power and gutsy improvisation help me as a worship songwriter to consider my place in the world, and do my best to honestly fit into it.