Easter Redux Depending on Your Moon or Song of the Month

DC Rocks has come to an understanding with itself that it needs something new now and then to keep things interesting. And though we don't do reviews here, I can make up the rules as we go along and have decided to create a Local Song of the Month column to shed a bit of light on local music for all you shut ins who cannot get out as often as you'd like.

April's selection is "Matter and Light" by Marshall Keith - a song that fits in with this mystical season of natural and spiritual renewal when seemingly dead things come back to life. I take some delight in the fact that Easter,  the most important date on the Christian calendar, still bows to Mother Nature, and therefore must fall on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. (No wonder it's so hard to keep track of Mardi Gras.)

And to further muddy the holy waters, here comes Greek Easter which will take place this weekend. The Greeks like to use an astronomical full moon and a Gregorian calendar just to keep everybody guessing and practicing their algorithms.  This is why I shy away from organized religion which has way too many rules and exclusion clauses.

And so it was a Sunday when I first listened to Marshall's CD Roadside Shrine, and my first thought was to take a nap. I figured I'd lay down on the couch, take in the music and fall into a lovely stupor. But the music was too powerful; I had to sit up, entranced, with both my eyes and ears wide open.

"Matter and Light" is my favorite track on this CD, and what I refer to as my kind of church music though not in the traditional sensibility of 100 years of boring. This is a song which feeds and soothes the angst filled modern soul and gives us the possibility of renewal just like Spring.

Give it a listen and see what you think.