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Yeah, I’m watching the CMA Awards. I don’t even know why; I am not a huge C&W fan. During the commercials I am googling John Newton, the writer of ‘Amazing Grace.’ Earlier today I heard a story that a slave trader wrote ‘Amazing Grace’ one stormy shipboard night after he realized the evil of his ways. Touched by God, Newton wrote ‘Amazing Grace,’ quit the slave trade business, and went on to become an abolitionist. An inspiring story. And nice to hear that the song was written about a real change. Unfortunately, it turns out this story is an urban legend. Newton did eventually leave the slave trade and become a minister, but he didn’t start to speak out against slavery, or write ‘Amazing Grace,’ for another 30 years. Barbara Mikkleson writes:

The bare bones of the story are true: A former slave trader did compose one of the most moving hymns of our times. But the meat of the claim that a horrific event spurred a sinner to immediately repent his evil ways, penning ‘Amazing Grace’ as an expression of his repentance fails on the facts. Newton’s storm-driven adoption of Christianity didn’t change him all that much; he continued to make his living from the slave trade for many years afterwards and only left the trade when his wife insisted upon their living a settled life in England. (Indeed, less than a year after his storm-driven conversion, Newton was back in Africa, brokering the purchase of newly-captured blacks and taking yet another “African wife” while there. He was hardly the poster boy for the truly penitent, at least at that point in his life.)

Newton did eventually grow into his conversion, so that by the end of his days he actually was the godly man one would expect to have penned ‘Amazing Grace.’ But it was a slow process effected over the passage of decades, not something that happened with a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning. In Newton’s case, the “amazing grace” he wrote of might well have referred to God’s unending patience with him.

I like that. Cuz when you are as stubborn as I am, you need a patient, steadfast God.

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If you have been following this blog for a bit then you know that I am very fond of musical fusions. The musicians blending their sounds in the below video are Polish hip hop artists Grammatik & Fenomen and Polish classical jazz pianist Leszek Mozdzer. I especially like the way Mozdzer’s piano translates some of Grammatik’s roughness into beauty. Even lending a sublime weight to the lyrics. As someone once told me… beauty justifies itself.

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This video from the Danish rock band Kashmir came out last year (the song was out in 2005). But hey, you know, sometimes i feel like listening to old stuff. Kashmir is huge in Denmark.

For those who speak Danish, or are hardcore Kashmir fans, a video trailer for the 2003 Kashmir documentary, “Rocket Brothers,” directed by Kasper Torsting.

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