WAVES MAY CRASH

Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land
A weary land, oh, a weary land
Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land
A shelter in the time of storm

Text:
Music: Seth Crissman

Lead vocal: Rachel Mast
Harmonies: Lauren Yoder and Kristina Yoder

“I doubt that “Shelter” was the first hymn that we ‘reclaimed,’ but it has that feel. It has walked with us through weary lands and years, and each of us has needed this chorus along the way.

“Seth originally arranged this song for a friend who was passing through difficult moments, and while their need was for something greater than a song, a song is what he could offer. Music brings a healing that is both personal and communal, and even if a song cannot solve our problems, it can accompany us through life’s seasons and speak into our days.

“We often teach and sing this chorus together with an audience, and when everyone listening joins in and the moment changes from a performance to a shared experience, it is a powerful reminder that we are not alone. YNWA.” - Mitch

From the valley
From the valley of the shadow we
Bow our heads and bend our knees
Blessed be the least of these
Blessed be

In the desert
In the desert, in the wilderness
The hollow sound of our distress
Echoes in the emptiness
Give us rest

Don’t look away
Keep watch over us
Keep watch over us

Could the mountain
Could the mountain know the valley’s pain?
The ocean hear a cry for rain?
The wild wind feel the weight of chains?

Fill us up for we are dry
Fill us up for we are dry
Thirsty bones breathe brittle sighs
With the stones, oh hear us cry
Hear us cry

Don’t look away
Keep watch over us
Keep watch over us
Don’t look away

Deep is crying out to deep
Deep is crying out to deep “Has the shepherd left his sheep?
And did the watchman fall asleep?”

© 2021 Seth Crissman and Greg Yoder

Lead vocal, electric guitar, and organ: Seth Crissman
Harmonica and harmony: Mitchell Yoder
Harmonies: Rachel Mast, Jackson Maust, Lauren Yoder, Kristina Yoder, Greg Yoder

"I started writing this song in 2017, and it took three years before it was finally finished, and another year for it to be shared in the world. It’s probably the longest it has ever taken me to see a song to completion. Originally, the title was “Hosanna” which means, “Save us, Adonai (LORD).” Hosanna is a word asking God to save, crying and pleading for God to reach out and liberate. The name Jesus shares the same common root with Hosanna, יָשַׁע (pronounced yasha).

"I worked hard on this song in 2017 and just could not make any progress on it. I was completely stuck. So I sent it to Greg and he worked on it, writing a really beautiful song based on the text/ideas I was describing to him, even including the lyrics I had started. But it wasn’t right, and we both knew it. So after a month of passing it back and forth, we set it aside.

"In the spring of 2020, I found myself returning to themes of wilderness during Lent (and in the months afterward, it felt like Lent just kept going in 2020). This song floated back into my heart and ears, so I picked it back up again and worked on it. Again, I was stuck, unable to finish/finalize ideas that seemed to be rising to the top. Through much collective reworking (thanks Jax and Greg), together we sensed that it finally said the things we hoped and needed for it to say:

Fill us up for we are dry
Thirsty bones breathe brittle sighs
With the stones, oh hear us cry
Hear us cry

"The Holy Spirit continues to teach me how to pray through the Psalms, especially the ones that are simple prayers/cries to God. Sometimes they seem to come from a place of disbelief, other times from a place of intense belief but recognition that not all is well and all will be lost without God acting and saving. This song tries to speak in the voice of the psalmists who dared to hope that the LORD (Y–H) God could hear their cries, saw their pain, and would reach out in love to save them. With the psalmists, the disciples and the very rocks, we cry out: Lord, save us! (Psalm 118:25a NIV)" - Seth

Matthew 8:25: The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” (NIV)

Ring those bells, another round
Of keeping the world from burning down
Just hide a key and let me in
To step into oblivion

I’ve seen brothers, sisters, strangers and friends
I’ve seen those saints go marchin’ in
You ring your bells and we’ll sing our song
But you know, you can’t get blood from a stone

Strength on strength is just enough
To stay above the wetter stuff
But see the scene when someone falls
And you can barely swim at all

I’ve seen brothers, sisters, strangers and friends
I’ve seen those saints go marchin’ in
You ring your bells and we’ll sing our song
But you know, you can’t get blood from a stone

Ring the bell, and be ye found
Pick yourself up off the ground
Or take my hand and walk with me
Into a new humanity

I’ve seen brothers, sisters, strangers and friends
I’ve seen those saints go marchin’ in
You ring your bells and we’ll sing our song
But you know, you can’t get blood from a stone

© 2021 Jackson T. Maust

Lead vocal and bass: Jackson Maust
Harmonies: Rachel Mast and Mitchell Yoder
Guitar: Greg Yoder
Octave mandolin and organ: Seth Crissman
Violin: Kristina Yoder

“Blood From a Stone was written several years pre-pandemic, and was one of those songs that was written before its time. As healthcare providers for over a decade, Katie and I have been places where we've been with people through the very worst of times. Walking by certain houses or driving on certain stretches of road in our community never fails to take us back to places we'd rather not be. Depression and PTSD are notoriously prevalent in first responders, and we have felt that weight for ourselves, for each other and for our colleagues.

“I wrote a first draft of this song on my own after one particularly striking experience in my first response role, then we "finished" the song together as a group (as we often do). We even played it at a few shows, but it never felt completely settled. Then a few years passed, the pandemic engulfed all aspects of our lives, and the song took on new and more significant meaning. Some musical refinement from Greg and Seth took it across the finish line, and now it is a song that I feel deep down whenever I hear it or sing it.” - Jackson

When the winter nights were long
I was working on a song
The melody danced sweetly round my head
Then spring came in a rush
And my singing voice grew hushed And now I’m almost out of words again

When the grass began to green
The world appeared serene
And life was bursting forth from things once dead
But me and my love knew
What a dreary day could do
And now we’re almost out of words again

Don’t place no roses by my window
I can’t see no flowers, and I’ve felt my share of thorns
I still walk that long dark night I keep looking for the light
And now I’m almost out of words again

As the summer nights wear on
Long days of work may make me strong
And sweet dreams may come once more to my bed
But when you see my eyes
And they're searching empty skies
That's when I’m almost out of words again

Don’t place no roses by my window I can’t see no flowers, and I’ve felt my share of thorns I still walk that long dark night I keep looking for the light And now I’m almost out of words again

I’ll always walk that long dark night
But I’ll keep on looking for the light
Even when I’m almost out of words again

© Greg Yoder 2016

Lead vocal: Lauren Yoder
Harmonies: Rachel Mast and Kristina Yoder
Piano: Seth Crissman
Clarinet: Greg Yoder

“When I was thinking about songs for this EP, I knew I wanted to go back to our old catalog and do something different with one of the songs. I wanted to connect us to who we’ve been and what we’ve been through together, but bring it into the present moment. I wrote this song originally in 2015 when Kristina and I were living through a different kind of heartbreak, but the grief of that song rings true in this moment.

“When we recorded it for the Way Back Home album, it felt like it needed to be a solo piece, but I’ve always wanted to sing harmony with it whenever I’ve listened to it since then. Putting it in Lauren’s voice and having Kristina and Rachel sing harmony was definitely right. I wasn’t in the room when they recorded it, and I got major lumps in my throat the first time I listened to it to ‘see if they were on the right track.’ They were.” - Greg

As she walks off the floor with her heart in her hand
There’s a wave, come to wash her away
She steadies herself in the parking garage
Turns the key, and heads home for the day

She pulls onto the ramp of the interstate
And she watches the mountain roll by
There’s a mother of twins staring back at her
The girls turned seven last night

How many times has she shattered
Like glass giving way to a stone?
She walks in the door, gives her husband a kiss
And Maggie is breaking, alone

As she lies in her bed with the sun coming up
There’s an old man hooked up to machines
She goes to the window and closes the blinds
And sinks into the work of her dreams

How many men has she given breath,
And they won’t take no more on their own?
Heavy her eyelids, and heavy her rest
And Maggie is sinking, alone

She arises as dusk starts to rosin its bow
And slips on her resolve, robed in red
There’s a young woman dying to sing her a song
Alarms like a choir by her bed

How many nights will she waltz through these halls
To the symphony of beeping and groans?
She floats room to room, and Death asks for her hand
But Maggie is dancing, alone

© 2021 Greg Yoder

Vocal and accordion: Greg Yoder
Piano: Seth Crissman
Violin: Kristina Yoder
Bass: Jackson Maust

“Songwriting is often kind of an out-of-body experience for me. If I get the premise and the first couple lines right, the song can take over and write itself in a very short time. This song was a matter of hours from the initial idea to a rough demo that is essentially what’s on the album (with one or two minor lyric tweaks, a different key, better piano playing, an accordion, and so many strings). I share that only because it illustrates the extent to which I got the premise right, or more accurately, the premise meant something to me. Because while it’s kind of heartbreaking, this is a love letter to Kristina. She is written into every line. The work she did as an ICU nurse was incredibly weighty, and she would come home from the crazy hours she worked exhausted in every sense of the word. She would tell me stories, and I would listen to her vent, but I know she never got it all out. She carried that work with her in a way that only other healthcare professionals can really know. And I watched her carry the beginning of the pandemic with her in a way that I couldn’t. She walked those floors. She heard those alarms in her sleep. She knew what it really meant to put someone on a ventilator, what it was to tell a family something they weren’t ready to hear. So this song is for my Maggie, and for all the Maggies the world over who have been carrying all of us far longer than we even know. ‘She floats room to room, and Death asks for her hand, but Maggie is dancing alone.’ My hope is that you can share this song with the Maggies in your life as a way of saying ‘thank you.’ We see you. We are trying to dance with you. Keep dancing.” - Greg

Rosemary kneels on the ground,
With the weight of the world pushing down
But she’s singing in the garden as she moves the dirt around
And she’s planting the seedlings of hope with the sound

Grace knows the strength of a wave, crashing into a dream she she can’t save
But a heart that withstands breaking is too strong to be a slave
To callous voices making speeches ‘bout how we should behave

She’s singing light into the darkness
Singing light into the darkness
Until the darkness is overcome

Mary was young, far too young for a son
But the angel heard courage where others would show none
And knew fear had no power over the song she had begun

Singing light into the darkness
Singing light into the darkness
Until the darkness is overcome

Until the darkness is overcome
Until the darkness is overcome

© 2021 Greg Yoder

Lead vocal: Rachel Mast
Harmonies: Lauren Yoder and Kristina Yoder
Guitar: Greg Yoder
Banjo: Seth Crissman
Harmonica: Mitchell Yoder
Bass: Jackson Maust

For a moment when the world stopped,
I was silent, holding my breath
In the stillness of the cave-in
Deep underground
The song grew stale in my chest

Then I called out like a canary
Worried, stunned, in disbelief:
“Are you wounded? Can you hear me
Are you buried in the landslide of your grief?”

Choking on the dust, with fire in my lungs
Words came more whispered than sung

“Sing for your sister
Sing for your brother
Sing for the light in the eyes of another
Sing for the stranger
‘Cuz you’re singing for your neighbor
Sing, and let love be the fruit of your labor
Sing the song as long as you have breath to pray
And you’ll be singing when the stone rolls away”

© 2021 Greg Yoder

Lead vocal and organ: Greg Yoder
Harmonies: Seth & Theresa Crissman, Grayson & Rachel Mast, Katie & Jackson Maust, Lauren & Mitchell Yoder, Kristina Yoder