Rascal Flatts

Now, ordinarily you would not find me listening to country music. I've been forced to listen for the past 10+ years due to Denise liking it.

I will admit, however, that every now and then there's a pretty good country song. I've become somewhat acclimated. I no longer twitch when I hear that twang that's so prevalent in country music.

I'm sure I had heard a Rascal Flatts song prior to this, but what made me stand up and take note of them was their song, "My Wish". What a cool song. If I could sing, I would sing that song to each of my kids. It made me think that these guys must be Christians. I even liked the song so much that I bought the CD. YES, I bought a country CD for ME, not Denise. Will wonders never cease?

After I got the CD, I read the liner notes. Those notes can tell you a LOT about an artist. Especially the 'Thank You' section. Since these guys thank their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I think it's probably a good bet that they are Christians.

This post is not about that song, by the way. It's about another song on the album called "He Ain't The Leavin' Kind".

I saw a commercial the other day for some CD where country artists are singing gospel songs, and this song was included. I said, "Huh? How's that a gospel song?" Once again I have victimized myself by not paying attention to the lyrics. You hear the chorus of "He ain't the leavin' kind, He'd never walk away" and you kinda think, "Oh, that's nice, they're singing about a faithful husband or something like that." While that would definitely be a honorable thing to sing about, what they are actually singing about is much more important.

They're talking about that, despite people's best efforts to get rid of God, He won't leave us. No matter how unfaithful we are to Him, He will always remain faithful to us. Romans 3:3-4 says, "3 What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? 4 Not at all!"

This is something I think we need to cling to in these times. With economic uncertainty and this crazy election and the possibility of a man like Barak Obama being our president, we need to remember that despite people's efforts to kick God out of this country, God will not leave us. He ain't the leavin' kind.


He Ain't The Leavin' Kind - Rascal Flatts

They tried their best to drag him out
Of a courthouse down in Montgomery
And now they wanna kick him out of school
And take him off our money
They can take those words off of paper and stone
But he ain’t gone, no

Chorus
He ain’t the leavin’ kind
He’d never walk away
Even from those who don’t believe
And wanna leave him behind
He ain’t the leavin’ kind

She stayed mad at him for a lot of years
For takin’ her husband
Started losin’ her faith
And thinkin’ that her life meant nothin’
But when she looks at those kids she raised all by herself
She knows she had some help, yeah she knows

No matter what you do
No matter where you go
He’s always right there with you

Even from those who don’t believe
And wanna leave him behind

He ain’t the leavin’ kind
No, no
He ain’t the leavin’, he ain’t the leavin’ kind
He ain’t the leavin’ kind
He ain’t the leavin’ kind

Cheap Trick/Journey

Got to go see Cheap Trick and Journey in concert on Saturday, and I was pleasantly surprised.

I had never been a Cheap Trick fan. I liked a few of their songs here and there, but never bought an album. I'm still not a Cheap Trick fan. Despite Wikipedia saying they have a "reputation as "the greatest live band ever", their live performance was lacking. The audio sucked and their singing was awful. It was more like screeching. You could not make out the words most of the time, even if you knew the song by heart. While I recognized most songs, the most recognizable was their cover of The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" and "The Flame". I simply was not impressed.

Journey, however, was a different story.

My first impression of Journey when I was a kid was that they had very cool album covers. They still do. They have a lot of cool songs too. Obviously, the Steve Perry years defined Journey as a band. That's why I was somewhat apprehensive about going to this concert. They have a new lead singer that they found on YouTube, who has only been with them since December of 2007. And he's some guy from the Philippines.

Well, I decided to go. After all, it was free tickets and I really had nothing better to do, so why not? Let me tell you, this Filippino guy, Arnel Pineda, is incredible. He sounded so much like Perry that if you closed your eyes, it would be hard to tell that it wasn't him. It was the first time I had ever seen Journey live, and I'm glad I went.


It was really fun watching the stupid drunk college kids too. One of them only knew how to do 'the pony', and he did it for the entire concert. It was hilarous.

All in all it was a fun night. I got to spend some time with my friend Russ and hear some good old classic rock.