Occasionally, a Work of Breathtaking Beauty Appears...

And today, it's Mat Kearney's song, "Breathe In Breathe Out." Those who follow this blog will know that I greatly enjoy the music of Mr. Kearney, and I wholeheartedly encourage you to watch the video. I don't exactly understand the video, but I can say that I find the music altogether beautiful, and I think you will, too. Sometimes a song comes along that you feel compelled to play eight times in a row simply because of its musical power. This is one such song for me, and even if you don't play it eight times, you'll likely enjoy the haunting vocals and powerful guitar and piano mix.

Here's what Kearney, a professing Christian, had to say about the making of this song--it's pretty interesting if you like the art of songcraft:

"this month to date has been a good one. a few weeks ago during some unexpected time off in nashville, i walked upstairs to my piano and wrote one of the best songs i have written in a long time called 'breathe in breath out'. i walked back downstairs an hour later and rang paul moak, a good friend of mine who has recorded and played guitar on a lot of my songs, and asked him if we could record a demo--his studio being just down the block. we started with just piano and vocals two days later but soon had all the bass and guitars on tape as well. while standing in line on our lunch break, i noticed a girl wearing a bright green shirt with 'oregon' across the front and asked her where she was from. she said she was from australia and then i realized i was speaking to butterfly boucher a musician whom i am very fond of. through an act of sheer graciousness she was back at the studio tracking drums later that afternoon--by the end of the day we had the song done."

Sometimes a song just seizes you by the sheer power of its music and the lucid message of its lyrics. "Breathe In Breathe Out" is one such song. If you've never heard of Kearney, if you don't like Christian music, or if you're a huge fan of his, I would nevertheless encourage you to engage with his music. It is accessible to both Christian and non-Christian alike and is clearly art made with an eye to excellence and witness. I support that, and I hope you do, too.