Singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer has a new album that was released October 13th. Titled A Great Wild Mercy, the chorus of the title track conveys what so many feel today.

I’m tired of all the rage / tired of all the worry / I’m ready for a great wild mercy.

As I wrote in a post earlier this year, Carrie Newcomer has always explored “the intersection of the spiritual and the daily, the sacred and the ordinary. Over the course of her career she has become a prominent voice for progressive spirituality, social justice and interfaith dialogue.”

It was the richness of the voice, along with the depth of her spirituality and the accessibility of her songs, that drew me in when I first heard her live in 2014. “We are living moments of grace and wonder, shadow and light,” Newcomer says. These are the moments she captures in her music.

Hers continues to be a voice we need to hear today.

Take More Time, Cover Less Ground from the new album has an almost jaunty sound that nonetheless shares important truths. As Newcomer wrote on her most recent A Gathering of Spirits newsletter, the song is based upon a Thomas Merton quote and “it’s about the practice of attention and developing a sense of gratitude and awareness even in the midst of a busy day.”

The song begins with . . .

I’m an old wind up clock in an ancient tower / I’m a long table lamp and the appointed hour

I’m what’s never been named and what’s nameless still / I’m the echo that comes back from the bottom of the well . . .

And it works its way down to the chorus.

Time to pick it all up and lay it back down / Time to know what I seek has already been found / Time to listen to what never made a sound / Time to take more time and cover less ground.

Writing in her newsletter, Newcomer tells a story that helps explain the concept of taking more time.

My friend Parker tells the story of a surgeon who is explained something important to a new resident who would be assisting during the surgery. The surgeon said, “This is a very delicate and important moment in the procedure and I will have only 3 1/2 minutes to make the repair and tie off the vessels.” The new resident said, “I get it, at that point you really need to hurry.” But the surgeon replied, “ Just the opposite. Because this is delicate and so important, I need to slow down, be completely focused and do each movement intentionally.”

Take More Time might be what the doctor ordered, to expand the moment from the inside with interest, curiosity and gratitude.

The spiritual also comes to the forefront in Start With A Stone. Newcomer says that it “isn’t in the bread, it’s not in the wine, it’s not in a scroll or in any one line.”

Start with a stone, the humblest of things / From this relic of bedrock eternity springs / Go back to the source, go back to your home / Heaven is waiting but start with a stone.

The full album of A Great Wild Mercy is now available on all streaming platforms as well as available for purchase through Newcomer’s website store, I-tunes or wherever you get your music.

Here’s the Direct Spotify Link for the full album.

On her A Gathering of Spirits newsletter — which includes music, poetry and commentary on art, spirit and life — Newcomer wrote a post in late December 2022 entitled Singing in the Dark, which is a song on the new album.

It begins by describing a recent visit to a monastery.

Last weekend I visited The Abbey of Gethsemani, which is the oldest Trappist monastery in the United States. There is a small hermitage on the grounds where monk, author, mystic, poet and social activist, Thomas Merton, lived and wrote his more than 50 books on spirituality, interfaith understanding, eastern and western mystic contemplative practice and peacemaking. The Cistercian (Trappist) monks of this community are dedicated to lives of simplicity, prayer, contemplation, meaningful work, solitude and union. Together they practice the daily Liturgy of the Hours, which means seven times each day they stop everything they are doing to gather as a community and sing. They believe this practice of regular prayer and singing is a way to express their devotion and that it is a manner of doing service to all humankind.

And then she writes about going to the 3:15 a.m. vigil around the Winter’s Solstice, when the monks sing in the darkest hours of the year. She’s honest about her feelings around the problems of “deformed religion.”

And yet, I found myself so deeply touched, moved by the idea that a community of monks keeping vigil, faithfully singing for those (awake or asleep) at 3AM, the most vulnerable time of the day. I continue to be comforted by the fact that there are so many of us who literally and metaphorically continue to sing in the dark, lean into the light and believe in what is still so worthy and beautiful, despite all the brokenness of a suffering world. I am encouraged that what continues to connect us may not be gravity (that pulls us down), but rather a song (that lift us up).

The lyrics to Singing in the Dark speak to that searching and hopefulness.

I’m a wayfaring stranger / hungry for some grace / A soul forever searching / a pilgrim to this place / I’m here to meet whatever is listening for me here / while all the world is waiting at the turning of the year

Singing in the dark / calling out the day / Joining with the voices / opening the way / sitting here . . . waiting for the spark / that bursts into being / singing in the dark.

Author Barbara Kingsolver has written of Newcomer, “She’s a poet, storyteller, snake-charmer, good neighbor, friend and lover, minister of the wide-eyed gospel of hope and grace.”

Carrie Newcomer is currently touring in support of the new album. A Great Wild Mercy — like so much of her music — is a gift to us all.

Enjoy!

More to come . . .

DJB

Carrie Newcomer portrait by Jim Krause via carrienewcomer.com