The music that binds our hearts

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the hymns we share.

Regardless of your church background or tradition, there are many Christian songs from the past that we’re all familiar with. Favorites we often return to.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: This summer, four musicians took ten of those timeless classics, and reimagined them in traditional folk and bluegrass stylings. The project is titled: Hymns That Made Us. I listened to the new renditions and have a review for you

MUSIC: Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood….

On vocals…Adam Wright and Connie Skellie…they also play the mandolin and violin.

MUSIC: What can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus…

Picking the bass and guitar are Tim Carroll and Chris Griffin. Together, the foursome make up the quartet, Act of Congress. It’s an unusual name Griffin says he and Wright picked up in college.

CHRIS GRIFFIN: We were looking for a time to practice in college and someone said it would take an act of congress to get you guys together and it kind of stuck. But it’s always a good conversation starter.

And once you get used to the name, you can focus on other things. Like the near perfect way Wright’s and Skellie’s voices blend in the hymn, “Nothing But The Blood.” Or how the two musically emphasize the hymn’s most important phrase.

MUSIC: Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood…

Tim Carroll and Chris Griffin don’t sing but the two musicians do get high marks for the way they fill in the instrumental gaps.

GRIFFIN: We don’t have a drummer. So, if you’re thinking through things musically, the bass player, he acts like the drummer’s kick pedal. And the mandolin player acts like the snare on a drum set. So we’re constantly trying to pass around the rhythmic nature of the song so it feels like you still have a drummer, even when you don’t.

MUSIC: [Nothing but the blood]

Based in Birmingham, Alabama, all four band members are in their early forties, married with children and have day jobs both in and outside of the home.

GRIFFIN: Adam and I both work in local churches. Connie, the violin player, her husband is a worship leader at another local church. Tim, his wife, is a pharmacist, but Tim is raising their three children. They have three boys. Tim is a stay at home dad.

Together for nearly two decades, the band is known for its genre-bending sound. They’ve brought pop, folk, gospel and bluegrass to venues around the world. Over the years, the group has moved through different phases.

GRIFFIN: There was the band that traveled all the time and we were gone for six and eight weeks at a time. There’s been the band that’s played a lot of symphonies around the southeast. There’s been the band that’s played a lot of weddings.

Between twenty and thirty weddings a year! So producing another album seemed unlikely.

GRIFFIN: We always wanted to do ministry together in a worship space but could not find cohesion.

Griffin says that’s because all four have different backgrounds and worship styles. Two are presbyterian, one is baptist and the other non-denominational. Hymns brought them together.

CHRIS GRIFFIN: Classic, timeless text. And it seemed like a natural fit for us to do.

MUSIC: Come thou fount of every blessing…

Each band member got to include their favorite hymn on the project and the story behind it. For Griffin, “Come Thou Fount” is a tribute to the early years of both his marriage and his faith.

GRIFFIN: In my first house with my wife, I would sit on the back porch, and I would practice playing that song right out of college when I became a Christian.

Other group favorites will likely be some of your own…

MUSIC MONTAGE: What wondrous love is this oh my soul, my soul, what wondrous love is this, oh my soul….when peace like a river attendeth my way…

But this project also introduced me to hymns I’d never heard of before.

MUSIC: Dear refuge of my weary soul. On Thee when sorrows rise…

“Dear Refuge,” originally titled, “The Soul’s Only Refuge,” was written by Anne Steele, a prolific English hymn writer and essayist who lived in the 18th century. Lyrically, their arrangements mirror the original songs. Most selections are word for word from the hymnbook. But there are other instances where the group takes what I would call theologically sound creative liberty. John Newton’s “Amazing Grace”:

MUSIC: And when this flesh and heart shall fail. And mortal life shall cease…

It’s worth noting some arrangements aren’t as strong as others. I found it hard to keep up with the meter changes in their rendition of “How Great Thou Art.”

MUSIC: What joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble…

After 17 years of performing as independent artists, Act of Congress is entering a new phase of ministry.

GRIFFIN: A year ago we’ve become the Nashville band. So, we’re traveling to Nashville every four weeks and taking a new step in some career moves.

With those new opportunities and plans, Griffin says their prayer is that they’ll continue to stand on Christ the solid rock.

MUSIC: On Christ the solid rock I stand……on Christ I stand.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.