- 6 days ago
CTP (S3E134) Country Faith, Old Songs, New Voice
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond
A veteran country artist returns to talk faith, gratitude, and why classic songs still land today. We trace the story behind his cover of Why Me Lord and the moment a live radio prayer sparked a new wave of songwriting.
• Kristofferson’s Why Me Lord as a grateful confession
• balancing homage and originality in a cover
• Cowboy Church and finding a place to worship
• why younger listeners gravitate to classic country
• the spark behind Pray On The Radio
• faith, hardship, and learning from pain
• new release details and where to find Richard’s music
RichardLynchBand.com
https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP
CTP Audios: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBuzzsprout
CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/JLDonBITCHUTE
https://tinyurl.com/CTPgear
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond
A veteran country artist returns to talk faith, gratitude, and why classic songs still land today. We trace the story behind his cover of Why Me Lord and the moment a live radio prayer sparked a new wave of songwriting.
• Kristofferson’s Why Me Lord as a grateful confession
• balancing homage and originality in a cover
• Cowboy Church and finding a place to worship
• why younger listeners gravitate to classic country
• the spark behind Pray On The Radio
• faith, hardship, and learning from pain
• new release details and where to find Richard’s music
RichardLynchBand.com
https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP
CTP Audios: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBuzzsprout
CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/JLDonBITCHUTE
https://tinyurl.com/CTPgear
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Hello, welcome to another episode of Perstitutionalist Podcast.
00:06I am your host, Joseph M. Leonard.
00:10That's L-E-N-A-R-D.
00:12It's the French. It's not. It's Leonard without an O.
00:17Thank you for tuning in, as Graham Norton used to say, on his show.
00:24Let's get on with the show!
00:26This is going to be a quick cheat intro segment.
00:31I'm going to be lazy. I've got so many guest recordings built up.
00:37I'm going to get lazy and cheat on some Saturdays.
00:41I don't have to dream up a monologue topic this way.
00:45And I'm also not going to say what guest will be appearing,
00:50because I'm going to be lazy and cheat and use this same intro several Saturdays to intro a guest show.
01:01So, as Graham Norton used to say, let's get on with the show!
01:06Surprise interview!
01:08Join me, I think, may be setting a new record or tying the record for a number of appearances.
01:18This is my third season.
01:20This is Richard Lynch's third appearance on the show.
01:24So, this might be a little shorter one.
01:27I urge all of you, of course, to dig deep into the Christitutionalist archives and see the other two shows with Richard Lynch.
01:39Welcome to the show, Richard. How are you?
01:42Well, I'm doing good, and many thanks for having me back. I sure appreciate you.
01:45Yeah, well, I got, well, before I hit record, you saw me thumbing through one of my recent books is a short story, A Lasting Legacy.
01:59It's about Ryan, and it's journal entries of fictional character Ryan.
02:06And I was looking for and found page 56, chapter 5, journal entry, age 35.
02:17I mentioned, I want to mention it because in the author note, kind of each chapter is dedicated to some people.
02:26And in that author note, one of the things I mentioned is, for the good times, from Christopherson.
02:36Nice.
02:37And then I get email from Michael saying, you've recorded Christopherson's Why Me, Lord?
02:48Yes, sir.
02:49And it's like, wow, aren't we on the same page, kind of?
02:56Well, you know, sometimes a thought will lead to something a little more substantial, if you know what I mean.
03:03Yeah.
03:04Well, I thought of, for the good times, it relates in the story.
03:11I had sadly kind of forgotten about Chris doing Why Me, Lord?
03:18And for those, if you're not familiar, it isn't, oh, why me, Lord?
03:23It's, why me, Lord, for these blessings?
03:28A big difference in the tone there.
03:34And it's like, wow, I had forgotten that song.
03:37I so much love that song.
03:40And when I heard you did it, I'm thinking there's similarities there.
03:47You both kind of have, and I don't mean this in a negative way.
03:51I mean this, right, a good, creatively different kind of scratchy voice similarity.
04:00Yes, sir.
04:03Well, you know, I've always loved Chris Christopherson's music.
04:07And I recently just did, I recorded a Songs of Inspiration CD in Nashville.
04:14And I wrote 10 of the 12 songs.
04:18And I thought, you know, I've always loved Chris Christopherson's music.
04:22It'd be nice to go ahead and add one of his, because the whole world remembers Why Me, Lord?
04:29And if they don't, they should.
04:32Or they did like me and forgot.
04:35Yeah.
04:36And I just felt like I would like to give a really good country version.
04:43And just because I've always felt it.
04:45And whenever you entertain it or whenever you hear it, whenever I perform it, you can watch people.
04:51They give their heart on their sleeve.
04:56They wear their heart on their sleeve.
04:57They just get so emotional over that song.
05:00Anyone who's actually remotely a good Christian, that song will melt.
05:08Right?
05:08As opposed to Dennis Quaid, who coined the term, I'm a little jealous.
05:14He thought of it before I did.
05:16Churchianity.
05:17You know, some who may go to a building that happened to have a steeple on it, but it's really a humanist club.
05:25If you're really a person of faith and in Christ, you hear that song and it's like, whoa.
05:35Yeah, absolutely.
05:37You know, for me, we've been going to a cowboy church every Tuesday night.
05:41And it's a beautiful barn.
05:44And the back half of it is an actual living horse barn, cattle barn, goats, chickens.
05:52And the front half of it is a ministry where they have a live band and there'll be 100, 150 of us come every Tuesday night.
06:00And for me, I can take that country aspect of my life.
06:05You know, I grew up in a country household and I connect with that.
06:09And everybody needs to find that connection they make, whether it's a, you know, an old barn or they can pray to the Lord out here walking across the lawn.
06:18Or they can go to church on Sunday or Wednesday, but they need to make that connection as to how they feel comfortable and what gets in their heart.
06:28If they feel it from their heart and other folks are preaching from their heart, you know what?
06:33You can't help but be right and you want to connect with that.
06:36Yeah, another song comes to mind is like Lynn Anderson.
06:41I beg your pardon.
06:42I never promised you a rose garden, right?
06:45We're in an imperfect world.
06:47You're not promised perfect, but indeed, why me, Lord?
06:52Why?
06:53I'm so, I need to express how grateful I am for these blessings you've given me.
07:02Well, you're exactly right.
07:03The two songs you just mentioned come from, you know, back in the 1970s.
07:09And as they were written then, but they're as much or more today, prevalent today as ever.
07:16They mean more today or as much as they ever did.
07:19Yeah.
07:20I, I, I, this, and aside the way my OCD brain works, but non sequitur, not important really to this conversation.
07:30But I write it before it's news.com and a few places.
07:35Like when Trump announced that he was redoing the rose garden, I thought, well, won't I be clever?
07:43I will take the Lynn Anderson song, right?
07:46I beg your pardon.
07:48I never promised you a rose garden and put as my article name, I beg your pardon.
07:54I never promised you in then parentheses.
07:58He's, I keep a rose garden before he remodeled it.
08:05So, you know, wink, wink, nod, nod, tongue in cheek, but serious article.
08:13And I love the chance to bring up a lot of these old tunes, especially younger generations don't know and good they hear.
08:25Well, exactly right.
08:27And I, I discovered that, you know, um, uh, the younger generation, if they actually have an opportunity to hear some of these great traditional country songs, um, they tend to gravitate to it or, or they'll sit back and say, wow, what have I been missing?
08:44And then all of a sudden they're looking for, for something else to kind of, kind of, you know, the, to capture and, but, you know, a lot of folks have been blessed to have parents and grandparents that kind of gave them just a little taste of that music.
08:58And if they, if they have a chance to hear it, they tend to gravitate to it.
09:02I do, I do believe that.
09:04I hope, uh, something that comes to mind is, uh, on YouTube, uh, uh, you know, a lot of viral videos for whatever reasons are this, this twins or this husband and wife couple, blah, blah, blah.
09:24Younger people react to videos, right?
09:28Like reacting to Phil Collins in the air tonight or the police message, you know, whatever, whatever older songs and them here, seeing it, discovering it, watching it or listening to it for the first time and reacting.
09:46And indeed, most time it's like, wow, I mean, that's like, that's, that music was such, so much more substantive than, than it is now.
09:59Now, hopefully we can get somebody out there to watch your Why Me Lord music video and react to it and help boost, boost your, your cover version of the song now.
10:16Well, thank you for saying that.
10:18I really appreciate it.
10:19You know, I want to give, whenever I, whenever I record my music, I put my heart and soul into it.
10:26And this is really the first time I've really done a cover song.
10:30And, uh, I still wanted to have my own flavor to it.
10:33I wanted to make sure, you know, I, I, I had it to where when they hear Richard Lynch, I didn't, I didn't keep all the Chris Christopherson licks.
10:42I made, I made sure I had the feel of the traditional country that I, that I, that I want to hear.
10:48And I, I give it my own, my own take on his great song.
10:51I guess I'm what I'm trying to say.
10:53Yeah.
10:54Uh, a delicate balance, like some, some cover songs like the bangles, uh, uh, what's the leaves are bright hazy shade of winter.
11:07A lot of people have no clue that was a Simon and Garfunkel or was that a Paul Simon song.
11:15Uh, but what the, the cover sometimes takes off more than the original and other times people think it's like, Oh God, that new version is horrible to the original was so much better.
11:28So it's the question of balance, right?
11:32Paying homage to the original, but yet at the same time, your own slant.
11:39Exactly.
11:40Right.
11:41And you know, I, I, there's a lot of folks that follow my music and I'm so thankful and grateful that they do.
11:46And they've come to realize that whatever music I do, they're going to get one thing that's consistent.
11:51That's a real country sound.
11:56Richard Quangy Lynch.
11:58I'll take, I'll take that.
12:03I dub thee Mr. Twangy.
12:09Uh, well, that, uh, again, just the way my OCD brain works, it goes off.
12:16And we're talking about country, right?
12:18It brings to mind the old David Allen Coe, the perfect country song.
12:26Remember?
12:27Oh yeah.
12:27I love that song.
12:29It's not the perfect country song because nothing about mama and trucks, train to prison.
12:37And so you add on that last word.
12:41What is it?
12:42David Allen Coe.
12:44I can't remember the name of the song, but yeah.
12:48You said it.
12:49The title is the perfect country song.
12:52That is the title.
12:53Oh, that is the title.
12:54Okay.
12:55I didn't remember that.
12:55I didn't remember that.
12:56Yeah.
12:58I love that song.
13:00Did I like, uh, my David Allen Coe, Arlo Guthrie and others who would do like, do you have anything such coming?
13:11Kind of a tongue of a tongue of cheek comedy, country parody almost in a way?
13:18Well, you know, I really haven't gone that far.
13:21I mean, I, maybe I might be out on the tractor working at the farm or something and I hear a song and I might give my own little intake to it or input to it, I guess I should say.
13:30But I've never, I've never really gotten a studio and rerecorded it as a parody, but never say never.
13:36You never know what can happen for me.
13:38Right.
13:39You could be the weird al of country next.
13:42That would work.
13:46I also, I, I've got to tease you, right?
13:49Cause people may not remember Chris Christopherson, a star is born with Barbara Streisand.
13:56I was never a big Barbara Streisand.
13:58My, my, my mother was, so I heard Streisand growing up.
14:04Uh, I loved the movie, but then of course, Brad Cooper made a remake with Lady Gag Me.
14:12I call her.
14:12I'm not a big fan of hers either, although poker face, brilliant tune, all the kudos in the world and credit for that song.
14:21You take a common phrase and put a great spin on it like that.
14:27Fantastic.
14:27But I'm not a fan, but I'm not her demo, but any chance Richard Lynch teamed up with, say, a Miley Socorus or, uh, uh, or, uh, Taylor Swift, uh, to, to make another reboot of the stars board.
14:48Well, I got a granddaughter that would probably really like to hear that, but, uh, you know, reality probably wouldn't work for me, but that's all good.
15:02But you know what I realized is that, you know, the older I get, the more I'm still in the game and how many things I've been so blessed by, by the fact that I got good health and I've got people that surround me that want to see me succeed.
15:16I got the best wife in the world and we, uh, we strive to make things as good as possible.
15:22And we, um, you know, we put out good music, we're writing good music and, um, you know, life is good for us here on the farm.
15:30We, every now and then we'll get a hiccup or stub your toe, but you know what, we get up and we keep going and we thank our Lord and Savior that we, we learn from a, some, from some or other, some bad experience or doesn't even have to be a bad experience.
15:44If you get out and get, um, you know, overheated or whatever, you need to learn from, you sit down when you get it.
15:49In other words, we appreciate everything that comes our way.
15:52I hear you, I hear you, and in the Michael Stover release, and here, here's the picture of you.
16:03I see, I scribbled some notes.
16:05One of the notes was, A Star is Born, Miley Socrates, Lady Gag Me, Rough Voice, I could, you know, I don't script shows, but I try to make notes so as I think of things to ask or talk about, I write them down.
16:21But indeed, in there it says, uh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, where was I looking?
16:28Uh, set to release is Heartfelt Version of Why Me, Lord, November 14th.
16:34We're recording on November 12th.
16:37By the time the show airs, it'll be later than that, so the song will be out.
16:43latest single from inspirational lp pray on the radio songs of inspiration so indeed christian
16:54show can't pass the pun what was the genesis of that concept well you know i i've always
17:05believed in the lord i've always i've always felt his presence and i and i touched on a little bit
17:11earlier the older i get the more i realize man he's been with me the whole time whether i knew it
17:16or not you know what i'm saying and and i see things that's happened to me and i've i've got
17:22through situations and circumstances that only the lord could have got me through it and and and now
17:28that i'm older i see it clear as the as the nose on my face and i you know my songs i write i'll i'll
17:37let somebody else determine whether they're gospel or not but i just call them songs of inspiration
17:41because they speak of the lord and they'll they'll tell the situation that i lived and i experienced
17:47and i wasn't afraid to thank the lord for that that inspiration as a matter of fact i was doing a
17:54a radio tour here a few years ago me and my wife and uh we had just left nashville from radio station
18:01and we were on our way to memphis and a uh we got a phone call from our uh producer and promoter said
18:09hey be expecting a phone call from california um they want to do an interview with you so i just hung
18:16up i think michael called me and said hey uh just he just hung up the phone and sure enough the phone
18:23rang and it was a radio personality in california uh wanting to do a live um you know broadcast
18:31interview over the over the telephone as we were driving down the interstate and he was talking
18:37to me and we were having a great conversation he was playing my song at the time it was called
18:42american proud and i remember that one yeah and we were driving down the interstate and uh all
18:49all of a sudden he said something to me that i i had never heard before or since he said richard
18:55do you mind if we pray on the radio and i was overwhelmed with emotion and normally there would
19:04never be a pad of paper anywhere in the truck me and my wife were driving the truck at that time but
19:09there was a pad of paper between us and normally we would never find a pencil or a pen but there was
19:14a pen right there on the dashboard so i got my left hand to my ear talking my left knee steering the
19:23truck down the interstate my right hand on the pad of paper and my right leg on the gas and i'm trying
19:31to write this as i'm driving down the interstate and my wife looks over at me all big-eyed and so she
19:39grabs the pad of paper and what she hears me say during the rest of this interview and the song
19:49basically wrote itself it's called pray on the radio so i had this wonderful song and i decided
19:56you know what i'm going to keep the concept of the inspiration the lord had given me his inspiration
20:03and i had never recorded a inspirational album before so this is my first and i can't tell you how proud of
20:10it i am well you mentioned about the lord always being with you whether you realized or recognized
20:19it at the time what comes to my mind is that old footprints uh picture and phrase uh why lord were
20:30there's only there's two sets of footprints then one and then two is that why lord in that part there
20:38where there's only two footprints did you abandon me i never abandoned you that's the time i was
20:45carrying you absolutely absolutely but it takes a little bit of time takes a little bit of uh of
20:53appreciation to ever understand where you actually are with the lord at least for me anyhow i mean like i
21:01said i've always believed i've always wanted to wanted to follow the lord but you know you you don't
21:06necessarily understand it until a certain thing happens in your life and you realize only god
21:12could have got me out of this mess or only god could have put me in this opportunity and the older i get
21:18the more i realize that you know i you have every person has to go through a little bit of um you know
21:25it may be not necessarily a hard time but you got to go through the bad times to ever appreciate the good
21:30times and uh i learned from all my experiences yeah and that kind of brings to mind garth brooks's
21:38unanswered prayer song right you may be going through something you don't appreciate or didn't want or
21:47there's something you want and why lord can't i have that but hey i may have it's great we're given free
21:58we will but if we let ourselves go indeed a door may close but a window may open right just saying god
22:09may close one door and another opens it may be not part of our plan but overall eventually it is part of
22:19his plan exactly exactly that's exactly right and that's that you know that's life if we if we just
22:26just open our eyes a little bit and look around you know what we think we want now is not necessarily
22:32the best for us and the lord said hey you know you might think you might want this year but uh
22:38if something happens here in a year or six months down the road and you realize
22:42well i'm glad i didn't get that because look what i just had had handed to me i know exactly what you're
22:48saying yeah it reminds me too kind of of star trek four or five i forget which movie is the one where
22:56we discover spock has a long lost stepbrother we never heard of for three decades but that aside
23:04right uh what does god need with a spaceship but the point being give me your pain let me take your pain
23:12and kirk in the line no you can't take my pain i need my pain it's what made me who i am today
23:22indeed why does bad things happen to good people at times it may not be fun but those things even the
23:33bad things make us who we are now very well said and i hope i hope some young folks are listening to this
23:41because you know they may they may be in a situation or experiencing something that that
23:47they're like why this happened to me but ultimately somewhere down the road it will make sense as to
23:53what happened to you and something better will ultimately come from that but it's okay to hurt
23:58it's okay to fall down it's okay to skin your knee but learn from it yeah and
24:04not all good might come in this life but remember eternity is far more important than
24:14necessarily the short time on this fallen world yes that's exactly right and well i said this would
24:23be a shorter show but boy time has flown as we've gone along so it is a little shorter than i would
24:30normally do but i'm finding you is richard lynch band dot com yes that is correct just go to
24:38richard lynch band dot com you can see anything we're doing all the new material the new cds our
24:44schedules uh yeah just go there and you'll find anything you want to know about me yeah the good the bad
24:50the ugly right you got it all right richard it was great having the chance to talk to you again give
25:00my regards to your wife donna right you got it right i'll tell her i sure appreciate you guys thanks
25:07for having us on yeah well i should remember because that was my mother's name donna so
25:12anyway and smack michael upside the head for me next time you see him
25:21thank you joseph take care god bless love you announcing christianalist podcast gear ctp gear or ctp
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