My friend DJ is very into all things spiritual. She’s even a certified minister. I think she got it through a mail-order program and I’m not sure what the official denomination is, but I know she can perform weddings and all the other things that ministers do. She doesn’t have her own church (yet) however.

 

Last year, through some of her connections, I sang at a few churches. I thought it went well. I know the minister of one of the churches obviously enjoyed my music because he’s shown up at my last few concerts, BUT, turns out some of the songs I had selected for my church appearances weren’t spiritual enough for the room, and there were some grumblings among the congregants.

 

I just found this out today when DJ and I were talking and I told her I was performing at a church this weekend and may be interested in getting back into the church circuit again. She said “if you want to do that, than you’ll need to increase your spiritual repertoire.”

 

I said “What’s wrong with ‘Buy the Bitch a Cadillac?’” She said “well, you know that I think that’s a spiritual song, but as you know, there are others who aren’t as evolved as we are.

 

So she took out a songbook that had hundreds of spiritually-oriented, church appropriate folk songs. At least that’s how the book tagged itself, but I thought some of it’s selections were quite a stretch. “California Dreamin’?” “Desperado?” C’mon!

Once we got past the obvious book-filler-songs, there were actually some very nice ideas. If my church performance this weekend goes well, I’m going to learn “Down by the Riverside.” Then maybe I’ll learn “California Dreamin’.”