Saturday, December 21, 2019

Marc Martel, The Impersonator


Marc Martel is one of those guys for whom I have the greatest of respect. He is talented beyond the level of many in the music industry and has made music with a diverse group of people. This Christmas, I am glad to see him making music with Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant. They have put together a Christmas album and are following it up with a limited tour in support of the album.

Of course, Martel has made music with many other artists including Jason Gray, Buddy Greene, Plumb, Scott Mulvahill, and Ron Block of Alison Krauss & Union Station. But beyond collaboration and Christmas music, Marc Martel was formerly the front man for CCM band downhere and leads his own Ultimate Queen Celebration, where he impersonates Freddie Mercury with great panache.

His first solo album: Impersonator contains the following title song. The entire album is filled with great original songs that speak of life on the road and the challenges of sounding like (and even looking like) another famous singer. Perhaps the most tragic song on the album is this title song. In it, he recognizes the value of impersonation but also laments that his own voice and personality gets lost in the music. And he finds himself saying that, “you would not have me any other way.” Read and listen to the words below.

Marc Martel – Impersonator

I wonder if my own eyes would recognize
Whatever I become when I live your lies
I should've made a break, for the fire escape – warning signs I didn't take
And all the things you bought – just to break

But I am the impersonator
You can be the reason for my insanity
I am the impersonator
I give you everything you want from me
Whatever makes you happy

What's done is done, this is what I become
And now you would not have me any other way – so why stay?
Let me go on, like nothing's wrong, just to keep you holding on
A flash before my eyes as I fade away – and I fade away

I am the impersonator
You can be the reason for my insanity
I am the impersonator
I give you everything you want from me
Whatever makes you happy

And so I, I put on my show with my life
I wear the weight of my disguise, to drown out the silence
So you never read the signs
I lose myself to have you, and you don't even have a clue
I am the shadow, who keeps you in the light

And I am the impersonator
You can be the reason for my insanity
I am the impersonator
I give you anything you want from me, but you know
I'll never make you happy
Whatever makes you happy.

Songwriters: John Randall Fields / Lily Kershaw / Marc Martel; © Strawberrius Music.

Thursday, December 12, 2019

In Another Light



One of the greatest songwriters of the past 50 years is Wayne Kirkpatrick. I have sung his praises before. To my knowledge he has only produced one solo album, entitled, The Maple Room, and from that album comes the song, “In Another Light.” Although the song is obviously written about a marriage relationship (“Hey, that’s my ring on your finger”), perhaps it has something to say to all of us about seeing things in another light. How often do the “shadows of our yesterday” get in the way of our love for one another? Don’t we sometimes need a new perspective that “tends to the wounds of the past” but looks beyond the wounds of the past. In marriages and other relationships there will always be “demons that rummage through the past of what” we’ve done to each other. In a highly polarized, easily wounded atmosphere, life might be better if we took a step back and looked at things in another light.

On his Facebook page, Kirkpatrick says that he has been “married since 1985 to the same girl I went to high school with and we are still rockin'!” So, despite the challenges noted in this song, he seems to know how to navigate the ups and downs of married life. Take a listen to the song and see if it rings true in one or more aspects of your own relational life.


In Another Light
Words and Music by Wayne Kirkpatrick

Standing like statues
Stubborn unmoving but breakable
You say there’s nothing wrong
But that look is so unmistakable
Angry and wounded
Well I’m sure your reasons are justified
You’re searching for changes
Oh, but there are quite a few you’ve yet to realize

And you would see things differently
If you chose to look at me
In another light
Shadows of our yesterday,
Bow to love and melt away
In another light

Changing the angle
Well baby that could be our only chance
Some new perspective on it
That tends to the wounds of our circumstance
Cause I feel like screaming
Damned if I don’t, damned if I do
Chasing those demons
That rummage through the past
Of what I’ve done to you

You would see things differently
If you chose to look at me
In another light
Shadows of our yesterday,
They bow to love and melt away
In another light

Hey, that’s my blood on your sabre
Hey, that’s my voice in your dark
Hey, that’s my ring on your finger
Hey, that’s my love in your heart
That’s my love in your heart.

You would see things differently
If you chose to look at me
In another light
Shadows of our yesterday,
Bow to love and melt away
In another light

In another light.
Yeah, in another light.
In another light.
And, in another light.

Maybe a love should be strong enough to look beyond the past.
Oh, our love should be made to last.