Description
Mr. Buechner’s Dream, a double disc, is the thirteenth studio album by the American alternative rock band Daniel Amos, independently released by Stunt Productions in 2001 with exclusive manufacturing and distribution through Galaxy21 Music. The album was recorded and mixed by Chris Colbert at The Green Room in Huntington Beach, California; with additional engineering by Frank Lenz and band member Terry Taylor. Produced by Terry Taylor and the band for Stunt Productions. Music written by the band with lyrics provided by lead singer Taylor.
Although the album includes 34 songs, the band did not set out to record a double album; one disc entitled Mr. Buechner’s Dream and a second disc entitled And So It Goes. Lyrically the album reflects the tumultuous events experienced by members of the band in recent years: the death of two young and very dear friends, including singer/songwriter and engineer/producer (and owner of The Green Room) Gene Eugene of Adam Again and Lost Dogs fame, cancer in Taylor’s family and in the families of other close friends. The “Mr. Buechner” referred to in the album title is Pulitzer Prize nominated author Frederick Buechner, who had been a major inspiration on the band’s lyrics for years. The album also pays tribute to authors Walker Percy, T. S. Eliot, G. K. Chesterton, Flannery O’Connor, Lewis Carroll, and Dorothy L. Sayers.
Some of the studio sessions and rehearsals for the album were filmed by friends of the band. Those films were later edited together to create a “behind the scenes” DVD, appropriately entitled The Making of Mr. Buechner’s Dream.
When Terry Taylor sings “There may not ever be anything new here to say/ But I’m fond of finding words that say it in a different way,” he’s explaining how his band Daniel Amos survived over 25 years on the margins of Christian music. A veteran of the Jesus Movement, Daniel Amos formed in the mid-1970s and quickly became one of the bright spots in this emerging genre. But, as Taylor continues in «Ribbons and Bows», on the band’s first studio disc in seven years, “We’ve got some gates to crash/ We’ve got a fire to light/ Burn down the pious trash.”
With Mr. Buechner’s Dream, Daniel Amos continues its musical legacy in grand style, serving up 33 songs spread across two discs. It continues to celebrate the Christian faith and the amazing grace at its core, but also burst the bubbles of those who want to over-simplify by robbing Christian art of its innate honesty. Inspired by novelist Frederick Buechner and the likes of Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, G.K. Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers, the band wants to tell the whole truth about life and faith, the paradoxes and the process – and do so in fine rock ‘n’ roll fashion.
Musically, Dream, and the second disc in the set titled And So It Goes, is astonishingly consistent; for a recording of such length it’s void of anything that sounds like filler. Perhaps not groundbreaking in the way that Alarma and Darn Floor Big Bite were in their day, but here vocalist/guitarist Taylor, bassist Tim Chandler, guitarist Greg Flesch and drummer Ed McTaggart continue to make delightfully creative rock music with a timeless quality. Like old friends whose new life stories you want to experience for yourself, Daniel Amos has made peace with its past and has nothing to prove. But if it did, Mr. Buechner’s Dream does it. [Brian Q. Newcomb, CCM, December 2001]
For over 30 years Daniel Amos have been labouring away creating some of the most amazing music in Christendom. Now Terry Taylor et al have surpassed themselves with this immense set. 33 songs spread over two discs, this 2001 album gives you 105 minutes of music without any filler. It’s great value but it can also be a little overwhelming at first. Lyrically, Taylor has always been extremely well read and literate which has meant that unlike a lot of the fluff out there, he has plenty to say and a very clever way of saying it. On this set he’s not scared to examine difficult issues, particularly the struggles of the faith. There’s a tribute to the late Gene Eugene, plenty of songs that examine the struggles of biblical characters and overall a gorgeous mix of reality and hope that is seldom captured by other writers more likely to sugar coat their songs.
Musically and lyrically this is a diverse set which gets better with every listen. The first CD is one of those concept pieces that Taylor is so fond of recording. Highlights are «Ribbons And Bows» where he creates new ways of communicating his thoughts. «My Beautiful Martyr» examines the sacrifice of Christ. To be honest, there is so much good stuff here that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to single out special songs. On the second disc «Easy For You» examines why faith comes so easily to some but not to others whilst «Pretty Little Lies» is a clever little love song with a difference! I won’t spoil the twist! Listening to the whole set, it seems as though Taylor was so overjoyed to be making music with his band once more that he couldn’t turn off the tap of creativity and boy am I glad about that! In a career that has included quite a few classics, perhaps this set tops them all! [Mike Rimmer, Cross Rhythms, May 2008]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/mr-buechners-dream-collectors-edition/453136576)
2CD tracklist:
Disc One – Mr. Buechner’s Dream (The First Collection):
1-01. This is the One
1-02. Mr. Buechner’s Dream
1-03. The Author of the Story
1-04. Your Long Year
1-05. Who’s Who Here?
1-06. Thick Skin
1-07. Ribbons & Bows
1-08. Ordinary Extraordinary Day
1-09. I Get to Wondering
1-10. Faithful Street
1-11. The Lucky Ones
1-12. Rice Paper Wings (A Song to Our Daughters)
1-13. The Tale You Told (A Song for the Artist)
1-14. Meanwhile
1-15. Over Her Shoulder (A Song of Lot’s Wife)
1-16. The Staggering Gods
1-17. A Little Grace (A Song of Job)
1-18. My Beautiful Martyr
1-19. Mr. Buechner Wakes Up
1-20. Joel (from Joel 2)
Disc Two – And So It Goes (The Second Collection):
2-01. Pretty Little Lies (A Song of Eve)
2-02. Child on a Leash
2-03. Small Great Things
2-04. Nowhere Is Someplace
2-05. Easy for You
2-06. Maybe All I Need
2-07. Pregnant Pause (A Song of Abraham and Sarah)
2-08. She’s a Hard Drink
2-09. So Far So Good
2-10. Flash in Your Eyes (A Song for Gene Eugene)
2-11. Nobody Will
2-12. Fingertips
2-13. Steal Away (A Song of the Flood)
2-14. And So it Goes
Note: Re-issued on CD by Retroactive Records in 2011, featuring an expanded booklet and one unreleased bonus track; “Nowhere Is Someplace.” Available at Bandcamp:
https://terryscotttaylor.bandcamp.com/album/mr-buechners-dream-disc-1
https://terryscotttaylor.bandcamp.com/album/mr-buechners-dream-and-so-it-goes-disc-2
“Joel”, Live in Concert, Phoenix 2011
The Making of Mr. Buechners Dream DVD Trailer
Speaking What They Feel – Daniel Amos and Frederick Buechner Open Up Their Veins.
Although the seventy-something year-old Buechner may never be a big Daniel Amos fan, it is not hard to think of these two creative entities as kindred souls residing on the outside of their respective genres. The connection for me started with the liner notes to Daniel Amos’ great record, Motorcycle, that encouraged me to actually check out some of Frederick Buechner’s writing. It was Buechner’s Wishful Thinking, that was the inspiration for such Motorcycle tunes as «Grace Is the Smell of Rain» and «Banquet at the World’s End». Wishful Thinking has since become one of my all time favorite books, and Buechner one of my favorite authors. How wonderful to find that Daniel Amos’ just released project is a double CD of all new material titled Mr. Buechner’s Dream. Buechner has a new summer book release, titled Speak What We Feel, in which Buechner reflects on one work each, by four of his favorite authors.
One of the most striking parallels between Daniel Amos’ and Buechner’s latest projects involves a quote from Red Smith in which he observed, “It’s really very easy to be a writer – all you have to do is sit down at the typewriter and open a vein.” In the introduction to Speak What We Feel, Buechner uses the quote to describe truly good writers, ones who genuinely write from the heart. On Mr. Buechner’s Dream, lead singer and premier songwriter, Terry Taylor borrows the vein-opening image for a line in «Thick Skin». A song in which Taylor describes his song writing process and his hope that DA’s music will get under the listener’s skin. He says in the final verse, “I’ve opened up a vein and let the ink get out/ It’s dripping from the hand I’m moving.” While it may be a coincidence that both artists make use of the vein-opening image, it is not surprising given their mutual tendency to write out of their own, often painful, personal experiences.
It is painful personal experience that Buechner finds at the heart of the works of the four authors he discusses in Speak What We Feel. In the works by Gerard Manley Hopkins, Mark Twain, G.K. Chesterton, and Shakespeare he finds a common commitment to portraying the darker side of existence without necessarily offering a happy ending. Although Buechner only mentions it briefly in the after word of Speak What We Feel, those who are familiar with his body of work, know that he has had quite a bit of sadness in his own life. Among other hardships, his father committed suicide when Frederick was just a boy. It is these types of experiences that appear again and again in Buechner’s memoirs, and are at the heart of his fiction. Offering readers insight into, not just the author’s pain, but also their own. As the author writes in the introduction to the new Speak What We Feel, “all of our stories are at their deepest level the same story.”
Taylor has had his own share of personal sadness in the last year, with the deaths of his father and of his friend, and Lost Dogs band-mate, Gene Eugene. But like Buechner himself, and the authors he writes about in Speak What We Feel, Taylor has never been afraid to confront the darker side of faith and doubt in his art. In «The Author of the Story», a song about a girl’s death, Taylor sings “But that’s how it has to end/ On this side of glory/ Some wounds will never mend/ Says the author of the story.” And later in the song Taylor admits, “Sometimes there seems to be no author of the story/ These thoughts occur to me on this side of glory.” A bold confession in the usually feel-good/God-makes-everything-better world of Christian music. But as Buechner writes, in his definition of ‘doubt’ in Wishful Thinking, “If you don’t have any doubts [about faith] you are either kidding yourself or asleep.”
This type of honesty, this willingness to open a vein and speak what they feel has largely kept Buechner and Daniel Amos from gaining widespread acceptance in their genres. Daniel Amos will probably never win a Dove award or be offered a tour with Steven Curtis Chapman. (!) Buechner will probably never find his name anywhere near Tim LaHaye’s or James Dobson’s on the Christian bestseller list (though he has been nominated for a Pulitzer). Both men recognize their unique positions and are not interested in preaching to the choir. At a recent press conference Terry Taylor described Buechner as, “too spiritual for the world and not . . . cliche-ridden enough for the Christian world.” He could just as easily have been describing himself and Daniel Amos. As Taylor sings in «Ribbons and Bows», “Love is a question mark/ Life’s in a shadow box/ God hides himself sometimes/ Inside a paradox,” yet most people want their truth “…lined up in little neat rows.” In their unwillingness to ignore the paradoxes and doubts inherent in faith, Buechner and Daniel Amos have effectively alienated, and at times offended, a large portion of the Christian music and book buying public. But those that are willing to take a chance may find comfort in discovering they are not the only ones with unanswered questions about faith and life.
In the title track on Mr. Buechner’s Dream, Taylor imagines the author dreaming of a gathering of great writers such as Flannery O’Connor, Graham Greene, T.S. Eliot and G.K. Chesterton. A group of authors who, for the most part, share a spiritual vision with Buechner and Taylor. And, like them, more often than not wrote what they felt, even when it wasn’t pretty. Who knows, maybe someday Buechner will write a story in which Terry Taylor dreams of a gathering of great songwriters; Brian Wilson, John Lennon, or Paul Simon maybe? The majority of the world may never make the connections between Taylor and better known song writing geniuses, or between Buechner and the great authors Taylor imagines him dreaming of, but for those who have taken the time to listen and to read, there is little question of their own commitment to open their veins and write what they feel most deeply. [Jason Burton, The Phantom Tollbooth, 2001]
CREDITS. Produced by Terry Taylor and Daniel Amos for Stunt Productions. Recorded and mixed by Chris Colbert at The Green Room, Huntington Beach, California, with additional engineering by Frank Lenz and Terry Taylor. Digital editing by Andy Prickett. Mastered by Chris Colbert at The Green Room. Jacket Design by Ed McTaggart, The Coloredge, Costa Meas, CA. Photography by Kristy McTaggart, Ed McTaggart, Jason Hoffman, Dennis Grimaud, and Tom Gulotta. Music by Daniel Amos. Lyrics by Terry Taylor. Dedicated to Frederick Buechner; author, pastor, mentor.
Musicians: Daniel Amos – Terry Taylor (Vocals, Guitars), Greg Flesch (Guitars, Piano, Keyboards, Harmonica, Accordion, Mandolin), Tim Chandler (Bass, Guitars), Ed McTaggart (Drums, Percussion). Additional Musicians: Frank Lenz (Additional Keyboards and Percussion), Vince Hizon (Saxophone – tracks: 1.10, 2.7), Shaunte Palmer (Trombone – tracks: 1.10, 2.7), Tim Jacobs (Trumpet – tracks: 1.10, 2.7).
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