Jukebox Sunday Service

Every Sunday, seven songs for your own private Praise & Worship Service. Because music is a religious experience.

I grew up a Midwest Methodist boy. Everyone who went to our church was related to someone else who went there. One of those farm community congregations that make you wonder about the longterm effects of similar strands of DNA mixing together over multiple generations. Still, I enjoyed my time in the church, even if I wasn't blinded by the sunlight dancing in the stained glass windows. 

Every Sunday, like a good Christian woman, mom would pile Bunny and Peanut (my little sisters) and myself into her minivan and haul our ungrateful butts to Cairo United Methodist Church, in the hopes that Jesus would keep us safe from Satan and all his temptations. I spent most of the time flirting with Andrea Freckles, one of the few girls my age that wasn’t my cousin from some branch. I called her that because she had the cutest freckles on her nose and cheeks. She played baseball, soccer, and knew sign-language. I thought she was the bees knees. These days, she runs a farm with her husband where they have a corn maze in the fall with hay rides and a pumpkin patch where you can choose your own gourd for carving, eating, or tossing off an overpass. The best part, though, is the local honey and the fresh apple cider you can hand-press yourself right there. Hot apple cider, with a touch of honey (and a nip of bourbon) when you get home after a corn maze? Now THAT is a religious experience.

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Track List:

·Astrovan - Mt. Joy

And maybe there is no heaven / And maybe we're all alone together now / And I don't wanna see those tears again / you know Jesus drives an Astrovan

My mother drove an Astrovan. I hated that embarrassing rusty blue p.o.s. But Jesus can drive whatever he wants, he was dope.

·Bells of Every Chapel - Sierra Ferrell feat. Billy Strings

I swear the bells in every chapel / were ringing the day that I met you / from high in the trees birds were singing / singing of you and me

Sweet Sunday sentiments... *contented sigh* 

·The Mississippi Squirrel Revival - Ray Stevens

the day the squirrel went berserk / in the First Self Righteous Church / In that sleepy little town of Pascagoula (Pascagoulaaa!)

How many prayers did I spend asking for something like this to happen just once? Not once did It answer my prayers... and my mother wonders why god is dead to me.

·Baby, Baby - Amy Grant

go walking through the forrest / the birds above a'singing you a chorus / stop for a minute / baby they're so glad you're mine

Kinda weird you think the birds give a damn about your love life Amy but ok.

·Jesus Walks - Kanye West

I'm just saying the way that school need teachers / the way that Kathie Lee needed Regis / that's the way I need Jesus

I miss Kanye. Rest In Peace, you brilliant nutball.

·Just Like Honey - Jesus and Mary Chain

Listen to the girl / as she takes on half the world / moving up and so alive / in her honey dripping beehive

Just like honey, just like honey... 

·The Saint of Lost Causes - Justin Townes Earle

If you really stop and think / throughout time, between a wolf and a shepherd / who do you think has killed more sheep?

Remember... Don't be charmed by the twinkling stained-glass and free wine (or grape juice, as it was)- membership comes with a price.