One of the things I love about Google alerts is that they let me check out stuff I might never hear about otherwise. Being immersed in the CCM fishbowl, I get to see some of the stuff happening on the fringe, but not much.
So when I stumbled upon this story about David Eugene Edwards by Andrew Gilstrap, Associate Music Editor at PopMatters.com, I had to share it. Not only is Gilstrap a great writer, but I’d never heard of Woven Hand or David Eugene Edwards before.

From the story, it’s clear that Edwards is a Christian, raised in the Christian faith, and still devout as an adult. But his music is less easily labeled.
Gilstrap says, “In a world where you can have a Christian version of pretty much any genre, Woven Hand’s David Eugene Edwards is a real outlier because you wouldn’t know where to put him if he were a secular artist.”
I don’t think the Christian industry has a pigeon hole for him, either. The band’s MySpace page labels them “Visual/Experimental” and last time I checked there wasn’t a category for that at the Dove Awards.
Gilstrap quotes Edwards:

As he once told an interviewer, “There’s beauty in music because God is the author of music. And so with that, I try to be true to the creativity of it and to make it interesting and beautiful. Or maybe confronting, or peaceful, or angry, or whatever the mood is. I try to stay true to my own creativity as well as the message.”

That an artist can connect to the Creator and put out music that not like anything else on the CCM charts is a good thing, folks. And while it might not be your cup of tea, musically (no, you can’t sing along while you’re driving the kids to soccer practice, Becky), that’s not to say that it can’t challenge you or offer a unique perspective on the human spirit and our relationship with God.
Anyway, in the spirit of my occasional “are we sick of CCM yet?” attitude and my dismay that I might be completely ruined for actual art (I’ve had several people ask why I haven’t covered the Taylor Swift/Joe Jonas breakup and I’m seriously considering it, heaven help me), check out Woven Hand. Just as an experiment.
And read Gilstrap’s article to learn more about Woven Hand.