Winnipeg singer-songwriter, and Southern Manitoba favourite Steve Bell, has released his 23rd studio album. It's called "The Glad Surprise", and the title track was inspired by the words of black theologian Howard Thurman in his 1948 work "Jesus and the Disinherited".
"The title track of the album actually is one of the last songs written," noted Bell. "I had a collection of songs just kind of percolating over the last couple of years, and usually when I start to get close to ten songs, and I'm just like time to put on an album. Then I start looking at if there a theme because I don't really determine ahead of time if there's a theme, I just look at the songs that are there, and then see if something jumps out as sort of a central thing."
While Bell was considering putting together the album he had been reading the work of Howard Thurman, who knew Martin Luther King Jr., and who the civil rights movement leader considered a mentor.
"Apparently he (King Jr.) never left home without Howard's book in his in his briefcase, so I read that somewhere and I thought, well, I should probably read this book," said Bell who indicated he read it about three times last year.
"It was stunning," he stressed. "Howard Thurman wasn't an activist. He didn't march. He was a pastor, and a pretty profound theologian. In his book, and I'm just summarizing here, his real encouragement to the people that were fighting, getting going on the civil rights movement, is if you don't love your enemies, you have nothing Christian to say to them. He just insisted on it, and this is why that movement ended up being a non-violent movement. That was at the absolute heart and core of the civil rights movement. If you don't love your enemies you may have lots to say to them, but you have nothing Christian to say."
You win your enemies, you don't fight your enemies
Bell shared the central thesis of the book was, if you're looking for Jesus, if you're looking for God, go where He clearly said you'd find Him amongst the disinherited, the thirsty, the hungry, the alienated and marginalized.
"Jesus clearly said that's where you'll find me," said Bell. "When you give them water, you're giving me water. When you give them food, you give me food. When you visit them in prison, you're visiting me in prison. So you're saying we know where Jesus is? If you're interested that's you'll find them."
It was at this point Bell found himself inspired to write a lyric which ultimately became "The Glad Surprise"
"That's kind of when I turned to the front of a book, and I wrote "Jesus of the Nazi gallows, Jesus of the lynching tree, Jesus of the gas and rubble, Jesus of the refugee, Jesus of the queer beleaguered, Jesus of the Haunted Child, Jesus of the Missing women, native to the sacred wild. Oh, what, love. Oh, what love.'"
From that lyric, Bell found further inspiration in another of Thurman's books, a devotional titled "Meditations of the Heart".
"I'm just reading it here, 'Such is the glad surprise. It is the announcement that life cannot ultimately be conquered by death... that there is strength added when labours increase, that multiplied peace matches multiplied trials, that life is bottomed by the glad surprise,'" read Bell from the book. "And when you think if I, as a white privileged mana says life is but a glad surprise you should probably just roll your eyes. But if Howard Thurman, a black man in 1948, writes that, you should probably sit up and pay attention. That's when I realized I had 'The Glad Surprise'. That phrase just really kind of whipped threw me like a like a hot knife, and I knew that was the title of the album."
Album message
Within the context of that inspiration and story, what does Bell hope listeners will take away from the album?
"I don't want to be overly negative, but I think the near future could be quite frightening for a lot of us," reflected Bell. "What happens when people get afraid? Canada, we're considered very polite people, but is that because we can kind of afford to be, is that a virtue, or is that just something we can do because we're kind of wealthy? We're not, as people used to instability, and do we have the virtue to do that well, if it comes."
Bell feels we have to decide now what kind of people we're going to be when things get difficult and challenging.
"I'm hoping the album, to some degree, highlights the fundamental dignity of all people, no matter who they are, where they come from, no matter what political ideology they're from, what orientation they're from," he explained. "I'm hoping there's an optimism there that isn't Pollyanna. I think we're heading for frightening times, but I think we can be hopeful. I think we could be neighbourly. We can be loving. We can serve others during that. We could be non-contributors to the anxiety. We can be a calm presence, or non anxious presence, and I think that's really important, so I hope my music in general does that."
Steve Bell and his latest album "The Glad Surprise" is being featured on Made in Manitoba this weekend. You can listen to the program, below.