Caedmon's Call concert last night

Most contemporary Christian music (CCM, a genre with its own magazine) is sour, at least to my uneducated tastebuds. The exceptions are few: Jars of Clay, still rockin it; Switchfoot, world famous, but it's obviously still a Christian band; Jennifer Knapp, before she stopped making music; Ginny Owens, the blind pop pianist; Leigh Nash from Sixpence None The Richer... I'm just about petered out there.

And then there's Caedmon's Call, a group of singer-songwriters with world-music percussion. They've been around for over a decade, and they have a lot of strong music.

The show started with founding member Derek Webb, who went solo a few years ago, but came back recently for the latest Caedmon's Call album and tour, Overdressed. He makes great music about religion, love, politics... His latest album, The Ringing Bell, is not to be missed. He did an hour of music, then a few minutes later the whole band was on stage.

There are eight people in Caedmon's Call now: lead singers Cliff and Danielle Young, singer/songwriters Derek Webb (twelve string) and Andrew Osenga (guitars), drums and percussion by Todd Bragg and Garett Buell, Jeff Miller on bass, and Josh Moore on keyboards etc. They had garbage cans, riffs, organs, big thumpy drums, three and four part harmonies... they've really got it all, this band.

By the end of the three-hour concert, my ears were stuffed, but it was a great time. For some reason, I have a need to write down the setlist... they did something like 34 songs.

One thing Sarah noticed was that nobody would stand up. For the vast majority of the concert, we were sitting down. Once in a while, they'd bang the drums really loud and people would stand and clap and sing along, but not that often. Maybe that's what you get when you do a concert in a church.