In the CD player.

Steve Earle: Jerusalem

I’m a new discoverer of this name-you-know, and I’m enjoyng the political stuff very much. Highly recommended.

Brian Houston: Big Smile

If you’ve heard of this guy, then I’m impressed and I must ask which part of Belfast you’re from? (Only kidding…) At the risk of sounding like Steve Stockman’s liner notes on one of Houston’s earlier CDs, I really don’t like listening to worship music. Add to that the damning reports I’d heard about this disc from a couple of my friends, and you’ll understand why I’m only really listening to it now - it’s a 2000 release!

However, I was really fed up tonight (fed up with being ill all week - although I’m much improved this weekend - fed up with not getting much time with my wife, dare I say it a little fed up with work just now - it’s been a tough few months - fed up with the stress of trying to move house, fed up with all the things I’m just a little bit fed up with) and as I was leaving to drive Rebecca to work I reached into the CD collection and my hand came out clutching this. Just what the doctor (or more likely the Big Man) ordered, it succeeded in lifting my spirits for the duration of the drive home, and I really didn’t want to get out of the car: in the car you can sit in the dark by the side of the road in a quiet, darkened, night-time street with the volume way up catching the wave of truly honest yet worshipful lyrics over some properly joyful guitar lines, and feeling the bass and drums deep within you in a way that you just couldn’t get away with in a tenement at ten o’clock at night!

Still rather fed up, but with just a little hint more of a smile on my face.