Voices In My Head (The Rick Lee James Podcast) Episode 446: Chosen Road - Appalachian Hymns

Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, a singer, a songwriter, an author, a worship leader, and an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. The Voices in My Head podcast is where I discuss music, movies, books, pop culture, theology, and more with friends, colleagues, and sometimes just by myself. Now make sure to let me know what you think of today's episode by leaving me a review on iTunes or by tweeting at me @RickLeeJames on Twitter. And please join my mailing list at RickLeeJames.com where you can receive an email every time a new episode is released. By the way, in case you're interested in a daily dose of kindness and encouragement beyond this podcast, I also run the Twitter account @MrRogersSay where I post daily quotes from Fred Rogers, one of the voices in my head. Well, I guess that's it for the intro, so sit back, relax, and listen to the latest episode of Voices in My Head.

Welcome back to Voices in My Head. As always, I'm your host Rick Lee James, and I'm so glad that you can be with us here again today for what I know is going to be another excellent conversation. Chosen Road has carved a singular niche in the musical landscape with their world-class Appalachian instrumentation combined with the passion for sharing and living the gospel. Comprised of founding member Jonathan Buckner, along with Zachary Alves, Tyler Robertson, and Josh Hicks, the group has been carefully honing their craft since 2009 releasing 6 albums and performing at festivals, fairs, churches, and theaters across the United States, as well as overseas. Their 2020 recording Appalachian Worship reached number 4 on Billboard's Top Bluegrass Albums chart and remained a fixture there for a notable 30 weeks. On November 12th, Chosen Road released Appalachian Hymns, produced by the groups Zachary Alves and Tyler Robertson. The 12-song collection pairs the band's unparalleled acoustic instrumentation and vocal harmonies with classic songs of faith and the church. Jonathan Buckner from the group has stopped by the podcast for a visit today, and we are going to have a visit right after we listen to the lead single from the new album Appalachian Hymns. Here is Be Thou My Vision from Chosen Road.

Oh, be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Naught be all else to me Save that thou art thou my best thought by day or by night, waking or sleeping, thy presence my light. Oh, be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word. I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord. Born of thy love, thy child may I be. Thou in me dwelling, and I one with thee. Riches I heed not, nor vain empty praise. Thou mine inheritance, attends now and always. Thou and thou only, the first in my heart, ruler of heaven, my treasure thou art.

And that was "Be Thou My Vision" by Chosen Road from the new album Appalachian Hymns. Jonathan Buckner from Chosen Road is my guest today. Jonathan, welcome to Voices in My Head.

Thank you for having me, Rick. Thank you.

Well, you know, throughout your career, Chosen Road has garnered 6 top 10 bluegrass radio singles, including the number 1 song "When I Get Home," which is amazing. And, uh, and they've performed on stages alongside such greats as Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Daley and Vincent, and the Isaacs. You've been all around, but as I understand it, Chosen Road, like the song we just heard, has a Scotch-Irish heritage to it. So with all your traveling, you still have these Scotch-Irish roots. So I thought it might be fun to talk a little bit today about the connection between Irish music and bluegrass and maybe gospel and kind of some of those roads and some of the ways that they intersect. So maybe let's talk a little bit about that, 'cause they definitely have some overlap.

They do. There's a lot of intersecting points. And without a doubt, bluegrass music would not exist if it wasn't for Irish music and our Scotch-Irish ancestors. And so yeah, there's a lot of points where those two worlds collide. And when they do, it's a beautiful thing.

Yeah. Well, and I think that, You know, it's— bluegrass is sort of the— I don't know, I think it was Bill Monroe who called it sort of the American music and sort of the American— one of our only true American forms. Maybe jazz music would be considered an American art form in that too. But it's definitely heavily influenced by that Scotch-Irish kind of Celtic even tradition together. And when I think of people like the music that you make or even when we think of music like the hymns of Keith and Kristin Manghetti, people like that who do such a good job of combining all of these different styles together. They just fit so well, and it fits so wonderfully with these hymns. And here you have this wonderful album of classic hymns together, and there's just something about, um, the way that they flow so well. And I think it would surprise a lot of people to find out that originally some of these hymns that you've even recorded for this album, um, they didn't necessarily come from really big, like high church, like big pipe organ type, type sounds originally. They came probably from what we're hearing now, and I just wonder if you have any, any kind of comment on that when, as you think about the way you play them.

Yeah, no, I definitely think that's the case. And, um, you know, I was actually doing an interview last night and we actually were talking some about the a cappella singing, and we might get into that later, but all the way from the fiddle and banjo music, basically, where we live here in Appalachia, their culture has definitely influenced their music, bluegrass music, and then the acoustic music that we do. And basically what happened was, really quick flyover, was you had the fiddle that came from Ireland, Scotland, and then you also had then eventually the banjo that came from Africa. And so what happened was those two at some point in time came together. And so we had old-time music for a long time. Then you referenced Bill Monroe. We call him the father of bluegrass music, and he literally created an entire American genre of music right here in these mountains. And so it's an amazing thing. And then, like I said, the a cappella singing, and there's a lot of those hymns that were even on this album that we might have— we did two a cappella numbers, but then The rest of them, there's instrumentation. But here in these mountains, there was a big Primitive Baptist presence. And so I can remember as a boy going in churches and hearing those songs sung without any music whatsoever, but hearing the most beautiful, chilling harmony singing that you would ever hear anywhere. Just mountain harmony, an entire congregation singing together. And so yeah, there's, uh, some really beautiful things. We actually— we had the opportunity to go to Scotland a few years ago and play our music over there, lead worship at some churches, and it was an amazing trip. And aside from the hymns, which they knew a lot, a lot of the old hymns that we would sing, they knew those by heart. What we really found interesting was when we would be on the streets just walking through the towns, they would have people on the side of the street, they would be busking, and so they'd be sitting there playing a fiddle, or we even found some that were playing a banjo, bagpipes, And what we found though several times was there'd be a fiddle player and there'd be somebody playing the bagpipes, and they would be playing what we call here in our genre of music fiddle tunes. And they would be playing something almost exactly the same, very similar. They would call it a different name than what we call it here now, but without a doubt it started there, and they still had that original name. Then it came over here to the mountains when our ancestors came over, and we kind of changed it up a little bit and gave it a different name. But it's, yeah, a lot of intersections between the two music. Wow.

Yeah.

That's fascinating to me. I always wonder too just how far back it goes because we do have those connections when you go overseas in different parts of the world. And you already mentioned this morning, like the banjo. I think it would surprise a lot of people when they hear that the banjo comes from Africa because we wouldn't usually associate that with being an African instrument. Instrument because it is so, at least in our country, connected with like bluegrass. But, you know, when we think of like the Book of Psalms, for instance, which really was Israel's hymn book, and we don't have those tunes and those melodies anymore because they're so ancient and so long ago and music wasn't written down the way it is now, so we just don't have it. But it makes me wonder sometimes with the way that melodies carry over for so long. And as you talked about just now, some of the melodies that you would hear in different places that it's seems like they're a little bit recycled from one region to another. And you can kind of hear one melody in one place in another area of the world, and you go, oh yeah, I recognize that song. And you just kind of wonder how far back it goes, you know, in time and places.

Yeah, and that's the exact case with like Be Thou My Vision. You know, they say that's quite possibly the oldest hymn that we have in the English language. And that tune, that melody that we sing Be Thou My Vision too is actually an old Irish folk song that's not as old as the poem, I don't believe. Maybe that was written that became the song, but it's a very old Irish folk tune that that song was put to.

Yeah. Oh, just fascinating. I love it. Well, and I love how versatile the hymns are anyway, because you're able to take them in so many different genres and styles. And you all in your group have done such a wonderful job on this new album of taking them in some beautiful directions, not only again with the instrumentation but with your vocals and the way that you've done it together. Let's talk a little bit, if we could, just sort of about the makeup of Chosen Road and the different parts that the different people in the band play together, because I know every member plays an essential part. And if there was just one of you, it would be completely different. It would be a solo project then, you know. But, but, uh, like a well-oiled machine, uh, you all have your parts to play. Um, so, so talk about some of, uh, some of the sort of responsibilities that each of you carry out as, as members of the band together as Chosen Road and, and the parts you play in the band. We'd love to hear a little bit more about that.

Yeah, so we're really just like one big family, and, um, we work together like a close family. It's first and foremost, you know, it's a ministry, but then there's the business aspect of it and just being able to keep it all going and keep it all on the road, keeping the new music coming out. But we're just really, really blessed to have a really tight-knit team. And I play guitar with the band, and usually I'm on the baritone vocal. Every once in a while I'll sing lead on a song. But I've been doing this— started the band 12 years ago, so 2009. This is their 12th year of music ministry. And Zach Alves plays mandolin in the band, and he sings the majority of the lead vocals. Interesting thing about Zach, he's has also been here since we started in 2009, and he's 24 now. So when we started this, he was 12 years old.

Wow.

Yeah, pretty, pretty crazy. He spent half of his life, years on this earth, um, traveling, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ through this music. And so he's been here for 12 years since he was 12 years old. Tyler Robertson plays bass. In the band, he played banjo for about almost 5 years, I guess, and then moved over to playing the bass just this year, actually. And then Josh Hicks on banjo. He's from Hartwell, Georgia. And the rest of us, all of us are from West Virginia except for Josh. He's actually from Hartwell, Georgia. And so, but as far as what roles we play in the band, it's really a collective effort. There's not one person that just says, hey, this is the way we're going to do it. And everybody has to live with it. We really come together as a team and try to make every decision that has to be made together for the most part, all the way from arranging the music in the studio. We just had a Christmas rehearsal last night, and so— all day yesterday, so— for a Christmas tour. And so we all get together, go through the arrangements together. There's not one person that calls the shots. We want everybody to have a voice. It's just a beautiful thing. Um, so from all the way from the music, everybody's involved, uh, um, buying a new bus, everybody has input. So yeah, it's just, it's really a collective effort for sure.

Well, that's great. I'm so glad to hear that. And it, and it sounds like, you know, when you've been together that long, you really do kind of become a family when you're traveling together so much. And, and, and literally, as the one band member that you mentioned, uh, he literally is growing up with you guys, uh, on the road. That's, that's awesome. I love hearing about Yeah, for the longest—

for the longest time after we would get done with a service where we'd be leading worship, if it was a concert or festival somewhere, people would come up to the table and they would say, "It must be such a joy to play music with your son." And I would say, "No, it's not. He's not my son. That math does not work out." That's funny.

Oh man, what a great story. Um, well, you know All of you are such talented instrumentalists and singers, and you had mentioned before, just talking about some of the vocal aspects though, what it means to sing a cappella and what it means to sing in those ways. And I know that's a whole other kind of music making when you're coming together. Sometimes, you know, for me as a guitarist myself, I play music on guitar and piano and a few other instruments and things. And one thing for me, the reason I like to play instrument is I'm a little bit shy and it gives me something to hide behind. Uh, sometimes, you know, it can be a little bit scary when there's nothing between us, you know, and we're just using our vocals. So, um, talk to us a little bit about when, when your band is, is just doing that and you're just singing and just using your, your own instrument that God gave you, just your vocals, and, and kind of the magic that comes from that. And, and, uh, when you guys choose to do that, because it really does sound amazing and it, and it takes on such a different dynamic, but it can be a little bit scary too, I think, in some ways.

Yeah, so we definitely choose not to do it on Sunday mornings.

Okay.

Yeah, no, we definitely, we definitely want to be warmed up. So if we get asked to lead worship on a Sunday morning somewhere, usually those songs don't make it out of the gate. Okay. But now we've always, as a band, collectively as a team, we've all grown up around a cappella singing, and I think a lot of it is cultural here in the mountains that we live in. I remember some of my earliest memories as a child was growing up in the church that my grandfather pastored, the church that he started in here, and my family sang a cappella during those worship services. And they would also, you know, have music. We weren't Primitive Baptists, but they— that is— that cultural aspect still carried through to where about every week there would be a song that would just be done a cappella, and it was just a beautiful thing. I think it does two things. It is magical when you get those voices together and there's that special blend. You can hear all three or four parts equally and they just blend beautifully, and it's just something— it's just different. I think one really— one thing that I really love about it is the fact that if you pick the right song, it highlights the lyric of the song so beautifully because there's nothing else there. And so on a song like on the album, I think probably the one that we've had the most comments has been "How Beautiful Heaven Must Be." And if you just stop and think about the lyrics to that song, it's beautiful. It's a song of hope. And especially at a time, or in a time like we've all been through over the past going on 2 years now, just to stop and hear the lyric to that song, "How Beautiful Heaven Must Be," and there's nothing else going there, it's just on the listening side of it, just sitting there listening to that being sung, it's just a beautiful thing. And it— I know whenever we were in the studio working on these tracks, um, in that song in particular, um, we were encouraged just in there making the music. We would get in there and we would sing them, and it was just magical. Then we'd sit back and listen, and we were encouraged ourselves. And the interesting— we were doing that at the height of the COVID pandemic, we decided to start on this album when we couldn't be on the road doing anything else. And so just to sit there, listen to that, to the lyrics of that song with nothing else, it was, it was really, really special. Um, but as far as, you know, what songs we choose to do that to, um, really I think that the big thing for us is just songs that, that would fit an a cappella arrangement. There's some songs that you just couldn't do a cappella. It just they wouldn't make sense. And so a lot of times hymns do. Hymns usually will work well as a cappella arrangements. Um, there's one song on the album that, um, kind of gives a nod to the old shape note style of singing, um, where in the mountains and some other— in other places I'm sure too, they used— years and years ago they would have singing schools where like somebody would come to a church like once a year maybe and literally teach people how to sing shape note style, how to look at the notes and sing your part, and which is totally removed. Man, that just doesn't happen anymore.

Yeah.

And so that's kind of a dying art form. And so how we choose to do the songs, the lyric— we want to pick one that is really just rich lyrically speaking, and then we like to also find songs that kind of fit the mold of what we think an a cappella arrangement should sound like. Yeah.

Wow, that's terrific. And I'm glad you mentioned that too about, you know, really highlighting what the lyrics of the song are. Sometimes it's almost like it, I don't know, it helps us to take a breath a little bit in the songs that we're singing and really pay attention. And I found that sometimes even in church when we encourage on a hymn that we're singing together, it doesn't even necessarily have to be a hymn, but I found that at times when we allow our congregation just to sing out a cappella, there's something beautiful beautiful that happens when the congregation can even hear each other and just hear each other's voices. And it doesn't always happen anymore. Sometimes we can be maybe a little too boisterous with our sound systems and our instrumentation and things, and we don't always hear each other anymore. And so I love your emphasis on, you know, getting back to using just the voice a little bit too and allowing ourselves to hear each other.

Yeah, and I think, yeah, and you know, we— I sometimes, if we get started on stuff like that, I can tend to be pretty passionate about it. I love gear, we love sound equipment, we love getting new toys and we use them. But just, yeah, a cappella, pretty much every time that we step on stage, there's usually at least 3 moments throughout the time that we're on stage that we'll break away and we'll just sing a cappella with the congregation. And I think that that's something that in the church that has been lost. And so that's a beautiful thing. And I think that acoustic music in itself lends a helping hand to, like you said, the audience or the congregation being able to hear themselves sing.

Yeah.

And I think that's one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. I love great music and I love all the different art forms, but there's just something so beautiful and I don't think there is anything that can replace it, and that is hearing God's people join together and sing to Him.

Yeah.

And I know we do a lot of work with North American Mission Board in church replanting and church revitalization, and so a lot of times I will talk to pastors that are laboring in churches that have been shut down and they have been replanted, and so they might just have 20 members present, or I am talking to a pastor that he is just trying to bring life back to a church church through Christ that is barely hanging on. And I mean, I've talked to churches that, you know, down to 10, 15 members, like, we don't know how we do our music during our worship service. And, uh, you know, we don't have anybody to play the piano, we don't have anybody to play the guitar. And my number one go-to when I talk to those guys, I say, get the hymn book out and sing. Yeah, I think that could be one of the most biblical forms of of worship music in the church that we, that, that we could possibly do. I think it's a beautiful thing.

Yeah, yeah, I think, I think you're right. You know, one, one Sunday a while back, um, this, this would have been probably about 3 years ago now, we just had one of those Sundays where, uh, at my church we just lost power and everything went out. We didn't have screens, we didn't have, uh, mics that work, nothing happened. So we just did exactly that for a change, and it struck me the kids didn't understand what to do with the hymn book. So parents were like— the parents were like showing the kids how to, you know, find the page and then kind of look at the notes. And I thought, oh, we need to do this more. I was feeling guilty about like, you know what, we haven't— we have not grabbed our books in a long time, and we need to do this more and get the hymn books out. So you're on to something, I think, when you say that. And yeah, yeah.

And I'll do that. I'll do that from time to time. I did that actually just a few weeks ago. So sometimes we go into churches for a worship event and there are no hymn books in the seats. And that's okay, and we'll put the words up on the wall. Totally fine with that. We do it all the time. But every once in a while, if we go into a church and I'll see that they have hymn books in the pews, I'll pull one out, look at the page number, and I'll find the hymns that we're going to do, and I'll jot them down on a piece of paper, put them at my feet. And when we get to those in the program, I'll actually ask folks, "Can you get your hymn book out and turn to this?" Because like I said, so many folks, they're not used to doing that anymore. And they're— and, and then you don't have to do it, but there's something special about it. And we actually were— we did a spiritual heritage tour, the— the Music for Spiritual Heritage tour a few years ago. And there was a, a group of like 100 and some people from California that came from a big church out in California where we'll actually be at. We've got a tour stop there, I think, in January. But they were out here and we were really just tracing out our Baptist roots. And we were at this this little church called Sandy Creek, um, which is in North Carolina, and they call it the mother really of all Southern Baptist churches, um, here in the United States. And you can trace them all back to this one point where an awesome revival happened back in the 1500s, late 1500s. And, um, so we were in this little old Primitive Baptist church that is literally— just looks like a shed, and we had like 100-some people crammed in there and we got to just sing a cappella. And there were so many people that were there that had their kids with them from California that said the exact same thing— our kids had never done that. And, and there were several of them that they said, you know, same thing— now I feel guilty because their kids will never know what that feels like.

So yeah, wow, that's amazing. Well, this is— this has been really great to get to talk to you today. I'm really enjoying your music. I'm so glad that, uh, You know, Turning Point sends out these press releases all the time, and the great people at Turning Point Media, they've been friends of mine for years now. And when your latest album came across in the press release and I got to hear it, I contacted Emily and I said, can I, can I please set up an interview with somebody from Chosen Road? Because the music, it's just wonderful. It's— I'd love to do anything I can do to maybe share a little bit of it would be great because I just feel like this type of music, for me anyway, It's so refreshing for my soul and my heart, and I love what you're doing with the hymns and the style that you're doing them. And it's sort of a palate cleanser, and it just hit me at a time when I needed it on a day. I'm personally in a very busy season in my life, and I just needed the vibe, I guess, of the album and the truth of the hymns that were coming across whenever I found it. So on a personal note, I guess I'll just say thank you to you. For the good music that Chosen Road is making. And, uh, and I, I want to take a chance, uh, to, to share another song today as we close out our, our podcast time together. But before we do that, is there anything that, that you wanted to talk about today from the new album, or anything that Chosen Road has going on that we didn't have a chance to cover in, in our short time?

Man, you know, I just, I hope that we hope that folks are encouraged, um, through the music. We hope that, that as they hear the music, that they don't just listen, but we hope that they sing along with us. Yeah, and, um, that's how we create it. And, uh, and if they don't know anything about us, we'd love to meet them sometime. Chosenroadmusic.com is where you can find all of our stuff, and we just love to get the chance to worship with folks.

So yeah, terrific. Well, we will make sure in our podcast notes of the show to put links to your website and to the new album as well. And if it's all right with you, we'll close the show today by playing Brethren, We Have Met to Worship And that's one of my favorite tracks off the new album from Appalachian Hymns from Chosen Road. My guest this week has been Jonathan Buckner from Chosen Road, and, uh, it's been so great. Thank you for being one of the voices in my head this week.

Brethren, we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power while we try to preach the word? All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, Pray and holy manna will be showered all around.

Reverend Seepor Singh.

The banners round you, slumbering on the brink of war. Death is coming, hell is moving. Can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and our mothers, see our children Children sinking down, brethren pray, and holy manna will be showered all around. Sisters, will you join and help us? Moses' sister helped him too. Will you join and help us? Will you help the trembling mourners who are struggling hard with sin? Tell them all about our Savior, tell them that He will be found. Sisters, pray and holy men, Manna will be showered all around. Let us love our God supremely. Let us love each other too. Let us love and pray for sinners till our God makes all things new. When he'll call us home to heaven, at his table we'll sit down. Christ will gird himself and serve us with sweet manna all around.

Thank you for joining me here this week on Voices in My Head. I hope you'll visit me on my website at rickleejames.com where you can find out more about me, get my music on vinyl and CD, follow my blog, and even schedule me for a concert or a speaking engagement. Better yet, even a book signing in your neighborhood. You can find all that and more at rickleejames.com. Also, it would mean a great deal to me if you could write a review of this podcast on iTunes. The more positive The more positive reviews that we receive, the more visible this podcast will be online. And now for the benediction: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. God bless you, and thank you for listening to Voices in My Head.