One of the huge blessings of being the dad of three daughters are the father-daughter dates we've had through the years.  Whether it's taking Naomi out to breakfast, Jona-Lynn to the Portland Museum of Art or Rose swimming, these are the moments I will remember forever, and I hope they do, too.  Some of these daddy-daughter moments aren't exactly 'dates': taking Naomi to have her wisdom teeth extracted, Jo to the emergency room or staying home with Rose when she's sick, but they're all sweet memories. 

This week, Rose and I had one of those magical moments.  We are both big fans of Noah Gundersen, an indie folk singer from Washington state.  My oldest daughter turned us onto his music, and Jo and I have already seen him in Austin, Texas. So when he came to Portland, a mere 40 miles from home, I made sure I purchased tickets.

Noah's music falls primarily in the folk genre, and almost all of his songs are original. He headlined the Newport Folk Festival a few years back, and is all over the internet.  It's hard to compare him to anyone specific. His lyrics are a bit of Janis Ian and a bit of Bob Dylan.  Vocally, he reminds me of early Eric Andersen, but not really.  He sings with an emotion that is rare. While he often tours with his sister, Abi, who plays violin, but in Portland Noah was solo.

The State Theatre in Portland is an interesting venue. There's an open area near the stage where much of the audience was standing, but we sat toward the back, high enough to see over those standing up.  The concert opened with "Fear and Loathing" a brand new song that we felt was one of the best of the night.  "Ledges", the title song of the CD Rose and I play often in the car, was played half way through. What it lost by not having Abi to play the violin part was made up for by Noah's slowing the tempo down so that each word was filled with heart: "Here I stand on the edge of the ledges I have made, trying to be a better man for you."

The concert was so good, we weren't even bothered that he didn't sing our favorite Noah song, "Jesus, Jesus". This heart breaking ballad is the anthem of so many church kids (Noah's dad is a pastor) who have been hurt by the church world and who struggle with questions, refusing the cheap, pat answers often preached at them:  

Jesus, Jesus, if you're up there won't you hear me
‘Cause I've been wondering if you're listening for quite a while
And Jesus, Jesus, it's such a pretty place we live in
And I know we fucked it up, please be kind
Don't let us go out like the dinosaurs
Or blown to bits in a third world war
There are a hundred different things I'd still like to do
I'd like to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower
Look up from the ground at a meteor shower
And maybe even raise a family

Jesus, Jesus, there are those that say they love you
But they have treated me so goddamn mean
And I know you said ‘forgive them for they know not what they do'
But sometimes I think they do
And I think about you...

Yeah, not easy to listen to, but a plea that we in the church need to be ready to really hear and speak truth to.

What I loved about our evening together is that Rose is at that age where we can really talk about the issues Noah Gundersen's songs bring up.  We even talked about why he might be bitter toward Christianity, and how his songs reflect the tension between wanting to walk away, but also knowing that there really is more to life than the physical, even if those who profess that have caused him so much hurt.

But mostly we talked about how cool it was to go to this show, see one of our favorites sing songs to us with nothing but a guitar and harmonica. And how nice it was to have an evening together.