Hey! I hope you're enjoying the series on Grace! This has been a lot of fun so far. More to come!

I'm interrupting the normal schedule to bring you this special bonus edition that I hinted at in Part 1.

PLAYLIST: The Songs that Inspired Grace

As I was writing this story it was fun to recount the specific songs that inspired the sounds, rhythms, textures, and structures you hear on Grace. So I created a playlist. I've been listening to it lot the past week and remembering how much I love these songs.

One curious thing you might notice is there are no "worship" songs on this playlist - a fact that will be immediately apparent to some. The reason is we simply weren't listening to worship music. It wasn't on our radar. We weren't trying to establish ourselves in the Christian Music world, we were just trying to make something that inspired our community and sounded like the music we loved. It makes sense when you think about it because Grace doesn't sound like a worship album.

As I said in Part 1, in my mind a worship leader was a failed musician. I realize how uncharitable and arrogant this sounds, but the joke's on me here. To this day I remain a failed musician. Ha! Regardless, artistically speaking, it's well known that Christian music generally lags behind where culture is by about a decade. Our thinking was why wait when you can go to the source now? To us, the most worshipful thing to do was to aspire to the highest form of our art as possible, something that would resonate in our context. It was about an authentic expression of faith. To say it plainly, we wanted to make a record that we and our friends would want to listen to. We were all very active playing outside the church, involved in the Seattle indie scene. So, it makes sense that our influences were simply the bands that we and our peers were listening to.

Here's the songs. I call a couple of these out directly in Part 2 which will hit your inbox Tuesday:

• We Never Change by Coldplay
• Magnolia Mountain by Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
• Where Will I Be by Emmylou Harris
• Radio Cure by Wilco
• Station Approach by Elbow
• My Mathematical Mind by Spoon
• Hang Me Up To Dry by The Cold War Kids
• Uncle Mountain by The Fire Theft
• Secret of the Easy Yoke by Pedro The Lion
• Untitled #4 (Njósnavélin) by Sigur Rós
• Rabbit in your Headlights by UNKLE (feat. Thom Yorke)
• One by Aimee Mann
• Newborn by Elbow
• Magazine by Pedro the Lion
• Sparks by Coldplay
• The Greatest by Cat Power
• The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine by Spoon
• Goodnight Rose by Ryan Adams
• One Day Like This by Elbow

My guess is you might not have heard of a few of these. Exciting! One of my favorite things is discovering old music that speaks to me today. There is so much of it! As you listen, I hope you hear moments in these songs that remind you of moments on Grace. There are many.

Listen to the Songs that Inspired Grace on Apple Music, Tidal, or Spotify. Enjoy!

Talk soon...

P.s. Has Grace meant something special to you?

Would you want to share that with the rest of this community? I'm considering doing an entire email devoted to your stories about Grace. If you have something you'd like to share with this community (or privately) just reply to this message.

The Story of Grace

GRACE - An Introduction
Grace Part 1 - Mt. Vernon, WA
Grace Part 2 - Mars Hill
Grace Part 3 - Recording, Mixing, and the Artwork Grace Part 4 - Reflections and the People
BONUS: The Songs that Inspired Grace
Listen to Grace
Help Make Joe's Next Album