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I Heard a Cry in the Wilderness (2017)

from Merry Christmas Songs by Numbers And Letters

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Kevin Ridolfi
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about

This is the second Christmas song I've tried writing, the first being "Alleluia Anyway" ten years ago (still up on the Bandcamp/Soundcloud).

"I Heard a Cry in the Wilderness" riffs on the first eight verses of the book of Mark, an anticipatory narrative starring John the Baptist. It's a reminder that hope doesn't necessarily spring from familiar or sterile places, but from the wilds — unblinking, chaotic, unknown, "unsentimental" (as my pastor calls it), and even lonely places.

Jesus was born poor and vulnerable among noise, messiness, shabbiness — his mother Mary super stressed out — and yet all advent season we long to arrive at an animals' manger.

It's been a challenging, mysterious, and difficult year. When a voice cries out when in the wilderness, I've needed to be still and quiet in order to hear the call.

For the song, I dug into some of ~my~ familiar places like traditional hymns and little vocal licks in the cheesy worship tunes I used to love singing. (Unlike those hymns and songs, I kept the verses to two and tried not to vamp the chorus a thousand million times, rolling in at two minutes. Shout out to all the former Young Life kids.)

I didn't make a Christmas song last year. Sorry about that.

lyrics

From wilds within the wilderness came John in humble wooly dress
In camel hair, and at his faith's behest:
We seek the Son, the blessed Prince,
in boarded crowded tenements
And on his cheek the Mother Mary's kiss

Make road clear for a savior
Newborn crowned inside a manger
With stirring that lies still within my chest

I heard a cry
I heard a cry
I heard a cry in the wilderness

Now angels sing and nations rise
Emmanuel, the kingdom nigh
The desert sands all boasting his design
I lose you not in the wild
My star and compass holy child
An ageless sound to quiet every pride

Adoration loud and speechless
Heaven's strength in infant weakness
And longing, forth and without dissonance

I heard a cry
I heard a cry
I heard a cry in the wilderness

credits

from Merry Christmas Songs, track released December 24, 2017

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Numbers And Letters Kansas City, Missouri

Numbers And Letters is fronted by Katie Hasty.

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