{"id":17425,"date":"2013-06-19T10:19:50","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T14:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=17425"},"modified":"2014-08-18T15:05:07","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T19:05:07","slug":"band-gives-old-hymns-new-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/band-gives-old-hymns-new-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Band Gives Old Hymns New Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Walking Roots Band<\/a>, a Harrisonburg, Virginia-based band made up of primarily Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) graduates, is taking centuries-old hymn texts and putting them to music that is accessible and appealing to younger Christians.<\/p>\n

Their first album \u201cShelter: A Hymn Reclamation Project<\/a>\u201d was released in June 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many really meaningful texts in old hymns,\u201d said Seth Crissman, a 2009 EMU graduate, who is also a current student at Eastern Mennonite Seminary<\/a>. They have deep profound spiritual truths that are sometimes inaccessible because of the music.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Greg Yoder, a 2009 graduate of Goshen College added, “Seth found these great hymn texts that he wanted to use at Eastside Church<\/a>, where many people who come to worship didn’t grow up singing hymns.”<\/p>\n

Eastside Church is a recent church plant in Harrisonburg where Crissman serves as a music pastor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic is incredibly formative,\u201d Crissman said. \u201cWe are being shaped in our theology and our understanding of who we are by music.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn churches where \u2018praise music\u2019 is the main music, we generally only sing things written in the last 10 to 15 years, when thoughtful writers have been writing music for churches for 1,500 years. There is rich theology that can be accessed by arranging these hymn texts so that they are appealing to a more modern ear.\u201d<\/p>\n

One example is a hymn called \u201cCome Down, O Love Divine.\u201d The text was written in 1367 by Bianco da Siena. Crissman encountered this song in the \u201cHymnal: A worship book.” The arrangement was written in 1906, but most members of the band had not sung it often despite many of them singing hymns in their congregations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good introduction to the richness of the text,\u201d said Mitchell Yoder, a 2009 EMU alum.\u00a0 \u201cFor people who have grown up singing traditional church hymns we chose a lot of texts that people tend to not sing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several of the band members started playing worship services at EMU in 2007. In 2010, they added band members Greg Yoder and Michael Yoder. In 2012, they became The Walking Roots Band, which they describe as \u201cacoustic Americana, faux-folk, blue-ish-grass, roots music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we are mostly a folk band, faith and church music is definitely where our roots are musically and personally, so it made sense to do this album first,\u201d said Jackson Maust, a 2009 EMU alum.<\/p>\n

They will be touring Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana in early July. The group intends to release a folk album in the fall of 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t just a band that plays reclaimed hymns,\u201d said Greg Yoder. \u201cIf you come to a concert you\u2019ll hear some of our folk music, some silly songs and some reclaimed hymns. We are Christians in the world, and we’re also complex people and we want our music to reflect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

To see The Walking Roots Band tour schedule, order a CD, or hear a sample of \u201cShelter: A Hymn Reclamation Project\u201d visit their website at www.thewalkingrootsband.com<\/a>. The band will be playing in Harrisonburg on Sunday, July 14, at 7:30 p.m., in EMU’s MainStage Theater<\/a>. Tickets are available at the door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Walking Roots Band, a Harrisonburg, Virginia-based band made up of primarily Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) graduates, is taking centuries-old hymn texts and putting them to music that is accessible ... read more about Band Gives Old Hymns New Life<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":17434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,7931,265],"tags":[14997,9200,14996,14998,14995],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-17425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-arts","category-seminary","tag-greg-yoder","tag-jackson-maust","tag-mitchell-yoder","tag-seth-crissman","tag-the-walking-roots-band"],"yoast_head":"\nBand Gives Old Hymns New Life - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/band-gives-old-hymns-new-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Band Gives Old Hymns New Life - 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