Singing the language of faith

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, June 10th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Singer-songwriter Steven Delopolous may not be a household name. Yet most people who have kept up with Contemporary Christian Music for a number of years will be familiar with Burlap to Cashmere. The band burst onto the scene with a 1998 release titled, Is Anybody Out There?

The band is currently on hiatus, but WORLD Correspondent Steve West recently talked to Delopolous about the band, his solo work, and the life of faith as a musician.

VIDEO: [BASIC INSTRUCTIONS]

STEVE WEST, REPORTER: This rousing video of Burlap the Cashmere playing “Basic Instructions” is a live version of the fan-favorite Dove Award-nominated song from their 1998 release. Over two decades later, the energy of the song, and its straight ahead message of faith, crackles from the screen.

VIDEO: [BASIC INSTRUCTIONS]

Delopoulos grew up in Brooklyn before his family moved to New Jersey. He floundered in school for a while as a kid but credits his mother with helping him find his place in music, for helping him find his gifts and nurture them.

DELOPOULOS: My mom realized that I had a talent in the arts and in music, and that's when I really flourished. [M]usic was not really something I sought after. It really enveloped my childhood. And it saved me from a life of miscommunication and not really understanding how the world works. But music–I understood thoroughly how that world worked.

AUDIO: ["ORCHESTRATED LOVE SONG"]

Throughout his career, Delopolous’ cousin, Johnny Phillipidis, has been by his side. He was there for the debut record: 1998’s Is Anybody Out There. He was also there when a revived band recorded a self-titled release in 2011 and Freedom Soul in 2015.

AUDIO: ["PASSOVER"]

DELOPOULOS: Me and Johnny had that camaraderie and that same language early on, and there was nothing you could do to stop us. He just knew how to play with me better than anyone else. Like he just understood my language. And keep in mind that we, our fathers are from Greece. They're not second generation. They're from Greece. So there was that language barrier as well on top of it. So that's why it was hard for us to understand how to do anything else, or even really speak the language well, or understand the language.

Burlap to Cashmere toured extensively in those years, opening for Jars of Clay and Caedmon’s Call, as well as playing their own gigs. But touring proved to be exhausting. In 2003 Delopolous recorded a solo album, Me Died Blue, where he explored some of his folk influences that couldn’t flower in the give and take of the band. You’ll hear traces of songwriters like Harry Chapin and Paul Simon in the music—something he has continued to do in a series of digital only releases.

AUDIO: ["JUNGLE TRAIL"]

The songs which Delopolous writes contain a lot of Christian imagery. But as is often the case with poetry, one can’t always immediately say what some of the songs are about—meaning can be elusive, even to the writer.

DELOPOULOS: You think, well, it could be this could be that and, but, um, hopefully, you know, for me, it's about a feeling. You know, you can't be an engineer to understand what I'm saying. You kind of have to understand this as more of a painting.

AUDIO: ["SWEET REMISSION"]

Even though the meanings of his songs may often be veiled, even mysterious, Delopoulos uses the language of faith to communicate. That’s not surprising given his upbringing in the Greek Orthodox Church. But it’s also because the faith he was schooled in as a child is a living reality for him now.

DELOPOULOS: I remember having this other perspective in my childhood, almost like I was watching a play or a movie. So there was a lot of things that made me question this mystery of life and and really wanting not to solve it, per se, but to connect. And I think faith came to me. I didn't come to it.

AUDIO: ["I WILL FOLLOW"]

DELOPOULOS: Faith isn't something that I chose. I feel like faith is something that's enveloped my being and given me no other option, and just to say that this is, you know, I'm here for you, this is your safety net, I'm your safety net, you know, I'm your place where you're gonna go back to and you're gonna drink, you know, freshwater. In a world that's, you know, kind of has some drought issues, let's be honest.

Now in his late forties, the singer-songwriter is still growing in his faith, grateful that he’s not alone but surrounded by a loving God.

DELOPOULOS: I'm also still trying to get to the most important place in my faith, which is complete surrender. And knowing that everything is in the hands of our Creator, you know, and just having that faith in my walk.

You can catch Delopoulos along with Johnny Phillipidis on their Simon and Garfunkel Tribute tour this Fall, where he’ll take a look back at some of the songwriters that were so influential in his writing.

AUDIO: ["SOUNDS OF SILENCE"]

DELOPOULOS: It won't just be songs of Simon and Garfunkel, it'll be the era of the Sounds of Silence–that era of Bob Dylan and Harry Chapin and, you know, John Denver and Don McLean, and all those guys and with a mix of some of our own stuff, it'll basically be me and Johnny doing what we do.

AUDIO: ["OTHER COUNTRY"]

I’m Steve West.

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