Austin City Life

Austin is an arts city plain and simple. From crazy bicycles that are custom made to be twice as tall as a normal bike being ridden by people dressed up in costumes or speedos to classy art museums & galleries featuring some of the worlds finest art...we got it all! Occaisonally we like to spotlight our artists so that others will be able to engage in the art that they make. We believe that music is also art and Austin being.... ehhem.... the "Live Music Capital of the World" we'd like to spotlight Trees of Lyres the Austin based duo of Matt and Joanie Oakes, who combine a love for old and new, loud and soft, layered and bare.Crafting songs to be carried in your head and to carry your heart. We hope that you enjoy!

FREE album download from Trees of Lyres
"Like" TOL on Facebook
 Join their mailing list @Reverbnation

Every second Sunday of the month we gather all those artists and lovers of art in our community to share art and truth. If you are an artist, or take an interest in the arts, join us at 2:30pm at Luke & Miranda Dodson's (email for directions mirandad@austincitylife.org). It will be a time to share truth and art. Bring yourself and a piece of art to share if you would like. See you there!

Arts Pastor David Taylor has a new book out called "For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts". It is a collection of essays written by experts in the fields related to the Arts in the church. David also contributes to the content detailing some of the things that he learned while serving as Arts Pastor at local congregation Hope Chapel. This Saturday, June 12th @7PM there will be a book signing hosted at Hope Chapel to celebrate "For the Beauty of the Church". Here are some of the details:

David will be asked a few questions about the authors of the book, the process of editing it, and the responses received so far to it (which include reviews in Christianity Today, First Things, and The Christian Century). Other questions that might be explored are:

- How should churches use the arts well?
- How can churches and pastors respond to artists well?
- How should Christians conceive their role in creating art in the marketplace?
- What can artists teach churches and their pastors?

The evening will also include:

1. Some of the visual art that was featured in the book.
2. A musical performance by professional musicians Ellen Johnson (flute), Karla Hamelin (cello) and Kim Perlak (classical guitar).
3. Possibly a modern dance piece.
4. A reception at the end of the evening, courtesy of gourmand Randy Lewis


We will be there... and we highly encourage you to be there as well, it will be a great night!

Veritas Fashion is more than a brand of really cool clothing, it is a network of hope. Using art, fashion and networking to make this world a little better. Founder and CEO of Veritas Fashion is Ty Clark, who is also the artist also known as SAMO4PREZ and designs all of Veritas Fashion. Ty’s network of friends involved in art, film, music, literature, fashion, dance, sports and humanitarian work stretches across the globe. His vision is to pull them all together through a specific medium in order to combine efforts and creativity to help those in need. Using skills and knowledge of the retail industry he learned in five years of working for Quiksilver, the world’s leading actions sports retail company, he began to map out a vision that could utilize his passions, creative gifts, and his network of friends through a fashion brand. In 2007, years of ideas finally came together to create Veritas.

I love Ty & his wife Mande for many reasons, but the reason that I am letting you know about them is because, they felt God's leading them to a vision that is unlike any they had ever seen or heard of before, and they stepped out in faith and began to create & network with excellence. The art and fashion that they make is excellent, they work hard and walk in faith everyday.

Check out Veritas HERE. Buy a wicked cool shirt...attend one of their events. Spread the WORD!

There we sat… 11 of us… in my living room… group of artists, and art patrons in ACL’s first open meeting about “the arts” to unveil the vision of how ACL aims to engage the arts & artists and to share our art with one another. Here are some reflections of our time together…

 

1)    No Arm Twisting Here: There were 11 people who didn’t feel a duty or an obligation to participate in yet another “Church” function, they were genuinely excited to gather on a Sunday afternoon to talk about the arts and to share their art with one another. We made two semi-ambiguous announcements at a Sunday Gatherings and sent out an email about an “arts collective” happening on Sunday afternoon. Blessed by the turn out, and it showed me that our community is hungry for a place to consider the Gospel & the arts.

 

2)    “I don’t consider myself to be an artist”: This was something that almost every single person said or agreed with as they entered my home, no matter their medium or level. I think that the term “Artist” has become synonymous with “elite”. This can be two-folded elitism, the first, art being “high-brow” and the piddly little things that we create aren’t “high brow” or clever enough or good enough to be considered ART. This is a sentiment that I believe kept many people from joining us to discuss and share art that day, this is something that we want to tear down, and I think that we started tearing it down well as we shared our art and encouraged one another.

 

3)    Many People Shared: I thought that we may have to ask specific people to bring some art to share so that I wasn’t just the Arts Leaders sharing and everyone else sitting quietly. But we had many people open up and share… some weren’t planning on sharing but when they was the warm and welcoming group encouraging one another… they were compelled by kindness to share. This told me a lot… it told me that a safe place to share our art is crucial. It told me that artists encouragement is life giving. It told me that we were on the right track.

 

There were many other observations made, and we learned a lot as a group with a common interest gathering around the Gospel. We are excited about our next Arts Collective: June 13^th. Hope that you can make it.

Miranda Dodson // Worship & Arts Director

On Sunday, May 16th ACL will be hosting it's first Arts Collective gathering to gather all those artists and lovers of art. If you are an artist, or take an interest in the arts, join us at 2:30pm that Sunday at the home of  Luke & Miranda Dodson (email for directions mirandad@austincitylife.org). It will be a time to share where we see God leading ACL to engage artists in Austin, as well as sharing our art in progress. Bring yourself and a piece of art to share if you would like. See you there!

Music For The City is a movement that combines Music, Art & Charity. On Saturday night MFC released their first compilation album of 14 local bands benefitting two local Austin charities: Safeplace, who provide a safe haven for victims of domestic violence & Austin Children's Shelter, who provide emergency shelter to children who are in life threatening situations.

To support these organizations purchase your copy of Music For The City | Volume 1 NOW!!

Miranda Dodson is one of the Music Leaders here at ACL and also serves on Staff at ACL as the Worship & Arts Director. Miranda has been hard at work over the past year working on her latest musical endeavor, "Change A Thing" which is due out on June 15th.

Last Tuesday Miranda pre-released her single "Too Late" which is the first track on her upcoming album. You can stream and Download the single for FREE for a limited time HERE.

Be sure and follow her:

 

Recently we have made some wonderful additions to ACL staff and my position has changed from mostly admin/worship leading to "Worship & Arts Director". Which a hard pill to swallow because I had already made up my mind not to work for a church... or be "in the ministry"... kind of funny really.
So now I find myself in the position of trying to figure out deeply theological stuff like "What is Worship?" & "How do we create and implement gospel-centered theology of art?" and I am finding that the answers are changing everything.

These weighty question carry with them a weighty responsibility... responsibility that I have avoided out of selfishness and fear. But God has placed me here to lead and grow in leadership, understanding and gospel-joy. My search for answers as led me to read Unceasing Worship by Harold Best. This book has totally shifted my perspective of what worship is and what worship is not. Best suggests that God is a continually out-pouring being because he poured out himself when he formed creation. he didn't just create and walk away but the bible tells us that He continues to out-pour by holding all things together. Man is made in the very image of God... therefore Best argues that man is a continually out-pouring being. God continually out-pours his lordship over all creation and man continually out-pours his worship back to God. Before the fall this cycle of lordship/worship worked in perfect harmony or "authentic worship" as Best calls it, after the fall we did not cease to worship but started worshiping other, lesser gods...enter sin. And if we think about it deeply... we find that we will make an idol out of anything to avoid worshiping the one true God.

With Best's help our Music Team Leaders and I came up with this Definition of Worship:
"Everyone is always worshiping something. Worship is a continual out-pouring of all that we are in mind, soul, heart & body towards that which we desire most."

If you notice there is no mention of "authentic worship", or even God, this teaches that all men worship something, it could be work, or being a good parent, finding our identity in the instrument we play or the amount of money in our checking account.... the list can go on and on. We believe that the gospel calls us to confront these idols and pull them out by the root, we do this through City Groups & Fight Clubs (Another great resource we use for confronting, fighting and repenting of the sin in our lives is You Can Change by Tim Chester).

This new view of worship has both expanded my perspective of God and humbled my view of myself... if I am worshiping something every second of every day... I am more in need of divine grace than I am fully able to comprehend, and I am more grateful for it than ever before!

Miranda Dodson // Worship & Arts Director

Austin City Life is a church that is full of artists & musicians. We have several folk in our church that will be out and about in our city making good music and culture. You should go check them out!

AlphaRev: Our very own Dave Wiley plays with AlphaRev as their cellist you can catch AlphaRev several times this week:

•  Thursday, March 18 at 11:00 PM Dirty Dog Bar

• Wednesday 9AM, KGSR/Four Seasons showcase

Miranda Dodson: Our Worship & Arts director is also a singer/songwriter. Catch her at SXSW!

• Tuesday, March 16th @ 8PM Thunderbird Coffee (e. manor)
• Saturday, March 20th @ 7PM Eastside Yoga

Jordan Whitmore: Jordan is a partner here at ACL and is also one of our Music Leaders. You can catch Jordan this week at:

• Saturday, March 20th @ 7PM Eastside Yoga

Trees of Lyres: This husband/wife duo... also known as Matt & Joanie Oakes are partners here at ACL as well as Music Team members. Catch them here:

• Saturday, March 20th @ 7PM Eastside Yoga

Trevor Of Doom : Trevor serves us weekly with his mad bass skills.... we just love having him around! Here is where you can catch him this week:

• Saturday, March 20th @ 4:15 @ The Pure Volume House backing up Jason Poe
• Saturday, March 20th @ 7PM @ Annie West's with J_Dub and the Tease
  

Lay Back in the Sun (EP Version) - Spiritualized
Let Down - Radiohead
Sing - Blur
Don't Look Back in Anger - Oasis
Riot Van - Arctic Monkeys
Wonderful - Beta Band
Holes - Mercury Rev
Powder Blue - Elbow
Oh Larsen B - British Sea Power



Special Thanks to Andrew Prewitt

This is a great resource for finding free day shows during SXSW...
I use it every year... and am never disappointed. Enjoy :)

Miss the World - Comet*
Gender Bombs - The Stills
Combat Baby - Metric
Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear
Good Souls (Soulsaver Remix) - Starsailor
City Bird - Of Montreal
They Cannot Let it Expand - Midlake
Theologians - Wilco
Cath... - Death Cab for Cutie


by: Andrew Prewitt

This past Sunday we experienced a really sweet time of Worship by way of music. We sang a new (to us) song by Bobby Gilles of Sojourn Church out of Louisville called "Lead Us Back" (off of their 2007 release "Before the Throne"). This contemporary hymn of confession cut many of us and called us to repentance. There aren't many confessional songs that are from the Church...glad to have this one. While researching this song I stumbled upon this blog post by the author on why and how he came to write this contemporary hymn. Here are the lyrics:

Falling down upon our knees
Sharing now in common shame
We have sought security
Not the cross that bears Your name
Fences guard our hearts and homes
Comfort sings a siren tune
We’re a valley of dry bones
Lead us back to life in You

Lord we fall upon our knees
We have shunned the weak and poor
Worshipped beauty, courted kings
And the things their gold affords
Prayed for those we’d like to know
Favor sings a siren tune
We’ve become a talent show
Lead us back to life in You

You have caused the blind to see
We have blinded him again
With our man-made laws and creeds
Eager, ready to condemn
Now we plead before Your throne
Power sings a siren tune
We’ve been throwing heavy stones
Lead us back to life in You

Purchase "Lead Us Back"
Explore more Sojourn Music

Every week our very own artist & music lover, Andrew Prewitt, compiles a new Sunday Pre-service playlist to enhance our gathered worship. These artists are more often than not... not explicitly "Christian" but we believe that all good art can be worship to God. These artists are worth a listen and a purchase... join us in supporting good art. (** Remember, just because we recommend a song or artist doesn't mean that we endorse all of its content.)

If you hear something on Sunday that you love... you can always ask Andrew or find it here on the blog. We hope that this becomes an avenue of discovering good art....enjoy!


1. Who Makes Your Money - Spoon
2. Cat's Meow (Acoustic) - The Bad Eliots
3. Daylight - Matt and Kim
4. Run - Vampire Weekend
5. Elevator Love Letter - Stars
6. Fake Palindromes - Andrew Bird
7. Dark as Days - Army Navy
8. No Cars Go - The Arcade Fire
9. My Girls - Animal Collective




-Special thanks to Andrew Prewitt for putting this together.

Midlake's newest work "The Courage of Others" is due out Feb. 2
...until then stream it for free on NPR's All Songs Considered.


Listening to it right now...it is not hard to see why this album is already finding critical acclaim.
Give it a listen and let us know what you think!!

NPR's All Songs Considered is streaming SPOON''s new album "Transference" the band's first self-produced album. Which is due out JAN 19th.

Stream it for free... HERE.


You're Welcome.... and Let us know what you think :)

             What is the best gift you have ever given? The qualities of a great gift are simple in description but often complex in execution. A great gift always demonstrates an intimate knowledge on the part of the giver. The giving of a great gift is often a sacrificial undertaking because part of the giver is given with the gift. Lastly, when a gift is considered great it demonstrates an intimate knowledge of the recipient and contains not a lifeless item, but evidence of life shared, it will lift up the recipient, serve them, and better them in some way. It will be an act of love.

Gospel-Centered Art, because of its nature, should mirror the qualities of a great gift. Gospel-Centered Art demonstrates at least some knowledge of the recipient. It either reminds a person of the blessing their life is, or challenges them to believe the gospel more fully across all spheres of life. Gospel-Centered Art is also sacrificial, it will take the risk to be open and honest with its encouragement & commentary. Lastly, because it is given as an act of love, it will be patient and kind, not self seeking, and will rejoice in the truth, not evil. As artists our art can be the way in which we help ourselves and others acknowledge the reality of our brokenness and the greater reality of healing in Christ.

Unfortunately, the sinful nature of the artist often stands in opposition to the idea of art being a gift of service. Artists often allow their art to itself become the end goal. This is tragically demonstrated in Oscar Wilde’s book, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde begins his book with an introduction that states, “All art is quite useless.”  He means that art’s only purpose is to be beautiful. Wilde tells the story of a young painter, enchanted with the beauty of his subject Dorian Gray, who paints a portrait of Dorian that so well reflects his personal beauty that it leads to his corruption. First Dorian sees his own beauty and is seduced by it, thinking too highly of himself as a result. But the portrait’s influence does not stop there. For every sin that Dorian commits, the consequences are shown on the portrait, in wrinkles and lines, while Dorian’s true physical appearance remains unchanged. Dorian comes to believe that since his physical appearance is unaltered by his sin, his actions are not really immoral. He becomes a hideous man, a murderer, thief, and adulterer, all the while feeling no guilt because his beauty is his only concern. Wilde was a vocal member of the Aesthetic Movement, a 19^th century movement in Europe that can be summed up in its mantra: “Art for Art’s Sake”. In the Aesthetic Movement art means experiencing beauty… a thing is only good if it is beautiful, not beautiful because it is good.

"...art, specifically music in this case, is not an end to itself, but a medium in which to communicate the gospel."

In stark contrast to this stands the biblical description of Art’s purpose. Paul writes in Ephesians 5:19, that we should “speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.” The context of this verse is a chapter that begins with the phrase “be imitators of God.”  It describes a righteous life lived in community. In Colossian 3:16 Paul encourages us to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Again the context of this verse is a chapter on holy living, focusing on how God uses community to make us more like Him. In light of these words we see that art, specifically music in this case, is not an end to itself, but a medium in which to communicate the gospel, a “light that makes everything visible” (Eph 5:14).  21^st Contemporary Artist Makoto Fujimura puts it this way: "All art forms attempt to translate what is unseen into what is seen." What is it that we are translating?

"Let us paint portraits of tears, because we know the one who wipes them away. Let us act out tragedies because we know that death is not the ultimate calamity, and the grave is not the final judge."

Now I know for some of you the warning lights are going off in your mind. You see that art should communicate the gospel and your mind instantly envisions images of golden dove and cross logos, and songs that simplify the Christian life to that of a vacation from pain and trials. I am not proposing we create art with a disconnected worldview or clichéd aesthetic. I am proposing we create art based more firmly in reality, art made more beautiful as it reflects truth.  Let us sing about the hard times because we live in the reality of the hope of the gospel. Let us paint portraits of tears, because we know the one who wipes them away. Let us act out tragedies because we know that death is not the ultimate calamity, and the grave is not the final judge. If we believe in a God who is ever present, revealed in a Gospel that addresses all of our lives, let us give the great gift of the Gospel through art that encompasses all of life’s experiences.  If we desire to be “imitators of God” we need to stop trying to create just to create (which is idolatry) but we should create to build up one another and push each other toward Christ. This is art as a great gift. 

Written By: Matt Oakes | singer/songwriter - trees of lyres

In the last post on NPR's Best of Music 2009 we narrowed their 2009 picks a bit. One that we included was Patrick Watson a Canadian Singer/Songwriter with a great sound. Today I came across an article on the front page of CNN that included an interview with Patrick Watson. It shows a unique insight into a true collaboration of different musical backgrounds coming together to create something all-together its own.

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Patrick Watson is a creature of the moment.

CNN sat down with Patrick Watson (the frontman) before a show in Los Angeles.

CNN: How did you go from your ska band (Gangster Politics) to what you do now?

Watson: (laughs) The old days! Well, it's like saying, "how do you get from your girlfriend in high school to the girl you married?" When you're 18, you look for different things than when you're older. We just did it to cause trouble.

CNN: No one could classify your sound as conventional. Are there any precursors for this music?

Watson: The big ones people would know would be Radiohead or Pink Floyd, bands that have that instrumental feel to their music and mix it with pop songs. But then, when you get to the roots of the other influences, they go from classical composers like Debussy or Stravinsky for arrangements and instrumental stuff. The song stuff is influenced by the Beatles to Nick Drake, even Johnny Cash. So there are touchstones in a lot of areas, but no artist that has all those touchstones. And also, the other band members come from different areas. Robbie and Simon come from a contemporary jazz-noise scene. Mishka comes from more pop and rock, and I come from more Beatles and classical. All those things come together to make [our] sound.

CNN: I've heard you say this band is much more than Patrick Watson ...

Watson: So much more. We tried to find a band name, and [it didn't work]. I would prefer a band name. If we could go back five years, I would've used a band name.

CNN: Is the writing process completely democratic?

Watson: Yeah. On "Wooden Arms," Mishka is one of the main writers and writes a lot. Robbie wrote the "Homage" instrumental ... everybody participates. It's not necessarily democratic. It's usually about what [each] song needs. Usually the person who writes that particular song will carry the veto for that tune.

CNN: How important is spontaneity to what you do?

Watson: Pretty important. And all these musicians have been playing all their lives. So I find to keep these musicians together -- that are playing with lots of different people all the time -- we have to lock ourselves away in order to get things done. That happens in some pretty crazy places, and we go on these adventures and see what happens.

CNN: Any idea where you want your music to go?

Watson: I'm not set on anything. We've been on tour and in the studio so long. We haven't had time to just gather new ideas. It wouldn't be as interesting if we went right away, again. We have time to digest new things that we like and will make things even better, you know?

CNN: It wouldn't be your style to premeditate too much.

Watson: Exactly.

To read the whole article click HERE.

NPR's (National Public Radio) All Songs Considered "Discussion: Year In Music, 2009" has been out for a while... but it is a great resource to find some great little gems that you may have missed in 2009. You can hear full clips from all of their picks at All Songs Considered.

Some of my favorites from their picks:
(Click on the Album to preview/purchase)

Just before my annual holiday trip out to the dusty plains of west Texas, I received my Dec/Jan edition of Paste Magazine. I love Paste, the articles are always thought provoking and always leave me more excited to create good art. I didn't get far... just to page 15 before I was both artistically challenged as well as challenged in my view of art & social justice. The brief article that took just over a quarter of a page was about 25 year old Timothy Brady. The article by Michael Saba describes Brady as soft-spoken, tall and slim with short curly hair. Brady is the founder of Soulbird American Academy of Kurdistan, a safe haven for artists in a region where they are targets for torture and murder. After becoming disenchanted with the American art scene by playing music with a band out of NYC called "One Hand Loves the Other" Brady wanted more from the creative experience not only for himself but for others as well.


Here is an excerpt from the Paste article...

    "...I think after 9/11 and two wars its difficult to justify doing art that's so insular," he (Brady) says. "Artists have the responsibility to project their creative growth outward, and address the world around them." in 2007, he founded Soulbird Inc., a non-profit that uses art as a vehicle for social change. He spent the next summer in Erbil (Kurdistan) teaching a workshop on music composition, which catalyzed his decision to create the academy.
    Performers had been persecuted under Saddam Hussein's regime, Brady notes, but the chaos following the American invasion allowed extremists to enact a campaign of violence against artists of every stripe. Though Kurdistan remains relatively safe, simply carrying an instrument case in Iraq makes you a target...."you could be killed for it"


As an artist I am drawn to the statement: "Artists have the responsibility to project their creative growth outward, and address the world around them." Do we?... As artists is it our "responsibility" to create an outward expression? To answer this question I have to ask myself another question "What is Art?"  I have struggled with this question for years... (good one to ask yourself over and over). I have come to very little conclusion except that all art has one thing in common... it is expressed. Art cannot be art until it is expressed for others to see, hear, taste, smell, touch and experience. Therefore, I agree that artists do have a responsibility to project their creative growth outward. What do you think?

As a believer in Christ I am also confronted with a second aspect of this article, using "...art as a vehicle for social change." A very worthy endeavor indeed... Brady's efforts to create a safe environment for Iraqi's to express their creativity are tremendous. In doing so he has put himself in harms way... his passion and commitment to the arts are to be applauded.
At Austin City Life we believe that God as the creator of ALL things is the ultimate artist. And therefore as the only beings created in the very image of God we connect with God in a unique way through our ability to create. But we don't create as an end in and of itself, to puff ourselves up or to find our identity in being an artist (though we have to fight the sinful pride)...we create art as an expression of a worshipful life with God's ultimate glory as the end. Where Soulbird uses art to seek social change... we would use art as a vehicle to seek social change to the ultimate end of God's glory. All things are in, through and to Christ!

What do you think? How can we as Christian artists use our gifts to create "good" art that compels change, to ALL humans in need of reconciliation in a very broken world? Brady is putting his very life where his mouth is...are we?


Miranda Dodson | Worship & Arts Director
Austin City Life

Imagine art that is risky, complex and subtle!
Imagine music, movies, books and paintings of the highest quality!
Imagine art that permeates society, challenging conventional thinking and standard morals to their core!
Imagine that it is all created by Christians!

This is the bold vision of Steve Turner, someone who has worked among artists--many Christian and many not--for three decades. He believes Christians should confront society and the church with the powerful impact art can convey. He believes art can faithfully chronicle the lives of ordinary people and equally express the transcendence of God. He believes that Christians should be involved in every level of the art world and in every media. Yet art and artists have not always been held in high esteem by conservative Christians. Throughout this stimulating book, however, Turner builds a compelling case for Christians engaging the arts of all levels. He shows that if Jesus is Lord of all of life and creation, then art is not out of bounds for Christians. Rather it can and should be a way of expressing faith in creatively, beautifully, truthfully arranged words, sounds and sights. This stirring call is must reading for every Christian who has been drawn to the arts or been influenced by them.

Snap Shot:

* a fresh and positive perspective on Christianity and the arts

* shows how art can faithfully represent both "real life" and divine truth

* challenges common Christian objections to the arts

* encourages Christians to be involved in every level of the art world and in every media

* written by a poet and journalist well-known in the popular music scene

Check it out HERE

Daniel Aranda
Devils Cove?
Silk Screen, Acrylic on Canvas
32x48

Currently on Display at
J.Black's (710 W. 6th St)
Call 512.351.5934 for info

Daniel Aranda
South First II
Acrylic, Silk Screen on Canvas
72x41












Daniel Aranda
SOCO?
Silk Screen, Acrylic on Canvas
60x48

Currently on Display at
J.Black's (710 W. 6th St)
Call 512.351.5934 for info

As our church grew, so did the need for new songs of worship. From the beginning of our church, when there were just 12 of us meeting in our pastor's living room, there were three experienced, song-writing worship leaders. We knew God was up to something. Our involvement in the early stages of our church allowed us to grasp the vision from the beginning, and to write music that reflects our theology and vision. Before a single song was written, we were growing in the Gospel, living in community, and serving on mission. Shortly thereafter we all began to write and just over one year into our plant we released our first Worship EP: ONE, which reflects the themes of gospel, community, and mission.
Itunes
Reviews:
"I'm not a fan of most Christian music, and I'm not usually very excited about new worship music. I'm happy to say I can heartily recommend this EP."
Reformissionary: Steve McCoy

"Looking for the diamond in the rough? That little known gem hiding from any mainstream press and yet as good as anything you’ll find on store shelves? Then allow me to help you out. Austin City Life is a missional community in Austin, Texas – the home of many a talented musician. So it should come as no surprise that Austin should also provide some fantastic worship music as well."
Soul-Audio: Matt Connor