Combing through Country Music

An overall-wearing, wheat-stem-chewing banjo player from southern Mississippi two-steps into your mind as you hit the play button on Luke Combs’ opening track, “Beer Never Broke My Heart.” After just the first two measures of the song, however, our Billy-Bob-looking friend slings his banjo over his shoulder and hops behind a drum kit. He smacks those skins harder than anyone ever has, thumping us into the blazin’, twangin’ country-rock sound of Combs’ new album, “What You See Is What You Get.” Luke Combs’ second full-length album crashed into the country scene on November 8, although he had previously released several of its songs as singles. The record deals with many of the themes that Combs has become trademarked for, like rueful breakup stories and beer—lots of beer. Combs is quickly ascending the Coors-stained staircase of country music, and he has used his new connections with the genre’s legendary superstars to land features from the likes of Brooks & Dunn and Eric Church. 

Even though the new album is driven by heavy rock drums and flashy electric guitar riffs, an attuned ear can detect the authenticity in the classic mandolin, banjo, and dobro twang in Combs’ music. Some of his songs highlight country’s deep roots more than the others. “Dear Today,” for example, begins with pure acoustic guitar. Combs’ lyrics are especially rich with the experience of a blue collar country boy. He even has a song on the album called “Blue Collar Boys.” In this track, along with many others on the record, Combs sings about the beautiful simplicity that lies at the heart of his, and many of his fans’, rural American upbringing. His thematic range also includes tender, emotional topics, like fatherhood in “Even Though I’m Leaving,” that pluck the twangy heartstrings of country fans. He stays true to the style of authentic country by avoiding the snap tracks and house drums that have become a staple of modern pop-country, and thus keeps the respect that he has earned from old-school country music homers who want to preserve the genuine country sound. 

Luke Combs is a relatively new country star who has, with his new music, jumped boot first to the forefront of the tradition-rich genre. So if you decide to give “What You See Is What You Get” a listen, fire up your truck, roll them windows down, trade your flatbill for that worn-out ball cap on the dash, and crank it on up.

Spoken Word is Important for God’s People: Quina Aragon

Photo by Eden Anyabwile

Quina Aragon is a spoken word artist based out of Tampa, Florida, and on November 7-8 she came to share her art and her work with Covenant’s community. Aragon lives in Tampa with her husband and three-year-old daughter, and has recently published a children’s book entitled “Love Made,” as well as contributed to the devotional “His Testimonies, My Heritage,” edited by Kristie Anyabwile. 

Aragon performed three of her poems in chapel on Thursday night, and then afterward sat down on the chapel stage and answered questions about her practice, her experience as a Christian woman of color who is also a performance artist, and the inspiration behind her poems. 

Aragon began writing poetry when she was in high school, and when she first did a poetry project for her English class, she did not do well and never thought that it would later become such a huge part of her life. However, she continued to write, especially after she became a believer, saying that, as an internal processor, poetry was the best way for her to process all of the things she was learning. Eventually, one of her teachers found out about her closet poetry writing and encouraged her to attend a poetry slam event and share some of her poems. Aragon described this as a formative experience for her, as before then, she had not publicly shared her faith through her art. 

Photo by Marie Bowen

When asked about how her work is important for the church, Aragon responded that poetry is a beautiful way to share with others what God has been doing in the poet’s life. She went on to say that it is not selfish to share work, but rather it is a way for God to articulate for others what He has been doing in them in ways they might not be able to, building and encouraging community in a sweet and unique way. 

Harmonee Keitt ’20, English major and spoken word artist who performed as E.M.O. in Mountain Affair this year, commented on this idea of spoken word as ministry, saying, “I think it’s one thing for someone to verbalize ‘Oh, this is the gospel,’ and maybe provide some examples, but there are some people that need a visual, or need metaphor and that sort of thing in order to understand, and I think spoken word provides that.” 

As performance art, spoken word not only provides visual pictures, but is an actual embodiment of words, mirroring Christ in the way “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.” (John 1:14) 

When asked about the embodiment aspect of spoken word, Keitt said, “I think that poetry in general is meant to be spoken. Even with the pieces that I’ve written, I was like, ‘Yeah, this could easily be published and I could sell it as a book, but it doesn’t necessarily mean anything if no one’s at least heard me speak before.’ If they’ve heard me speak, then they know how I would possibly put inflections on words, versus if they’ve never heard me speak, they’re just kind of guessing their way through it.” She went on the describe how the interactive aspect of spoken word is particularly important to the message, and the audience is able to understand and respond in unique ways because of that. 

Aragon’s performances on Thursday night and Friday morning provided a new way of thinking about how art can function in the church, bringing theology to the people of God in a new and unique way, and encouraging those who have these gifts to share them. Keitt summed it up by saying, “I would encourage those people that are closet poets to come out, because your work needs to be heard.”