Blog Tour: Favorite Andrew Peterson Songs

This week, I'm participating in a blog tour for Andrew Peterson's newest children's book, North! Or Be Eaten. (My review will be up tomorrow!) While I'm not a huge fan of his books, I can't emphasize how much I just love, love, love Andrew Peterson as a musician: a singer/songwriter. He has been recording music since 2000*, his albums include: Carried Along (2000), Clear To Venus (2001), Love and Thunder (2003), Behold the Lamb of God (2004), The Far Country (2005), Appendix A: Bootlegs and B-Sides (2006), Slugs & Bugs & Lullabies (2006), and Resurrection Letters, Vol. 2 (2008).

As I mentioned, I'm a big fan of his music. He is without a doubt one of my all-time favorite musicians. I can (and do) listen to his music all the time.

So which songs are my favorite? It depends on my mood.

If I'm feeling silly or happy then it really doesn't get much better than Alien Conspiracy, or The Cheese Song. Here it is in part...

What is that white stuff on my nachos?
It’s too thin for melted cheese
It’s too thick to be just milk
So won’t somebody tell me please?
What is that white stuff I’m consuming?
Cause it’s so consuming me

Well you know they’ll never tell you
Cause then they’d have to kill you
There’s a mother load of cheese juice
That they found at Machu Pichu
At the temple of the Incas
There’s fountain flowing cheese dip
Then they smuggle it to Texas
Then they trick us with the free chips

It’s mind control
In a salsa bowl
I’m not even sure I remember how I got here

Well, give me some of that white stuff on my nachos
It’s too thin for melted cheese
It’s too thick to be just milk
In its sublime consistency
What is that white stuff I’m consuming?
Cause it’s so consuming me

So this is sorta a love song
It’s a kind of confession
As for me you see I’m long gone
So consider this a lesson
They wanna make us into zombies
Lurching to la hacienda
To gobble up the chimichangis...

And let's not forget that he's the genius behind The Monkey Song...and The Biscuit of Zazzamarandabo.





But you can't be silly all the time, so here are some of my other favorite songs:

The Chasing Song from Carried Along
Loose Change from Clear to Venus
Alaska or Bust from Clear to Venus
Just As I Am from Love & Thunder
Tools from Love & Thunder
Mystery of Mercy from The Far Country

He has a gift for making me laugh, smile, and cry. But more importantly, he makes me think.

Here is "More" from The Far Country

More by Andrew Peterson

This is not the end here at this grave
This is just a hole that someone made
Every hole was made to fill
And every heart can feel it still--
Our nature hates a vacuum

This is not the hardest part of all
This is just the seed that has to fall
All our lives we till the ground
Until we lay our sorrows down
And watch the sky for rain

There is more
More than all this pain
More than all the falling down
And the getting up again
There is more
More than we can see
From our tiny vantage point
In this vast eternity
There is more

A thing resounds when it rings true
Ringing all the bells inside of you
Like a golden sky on a summer eve
Your heart is tugging at your sleeve
And you cannot say why
There must be more

There is more
More than we can stand
Standing in the glory
Of a love that never ends
There is more
More than we can guess
More and more, forever more
And not a second less

There is more than what the naked eye can see
Clothing all our days with mystery
Watching over everything
Wilder than our wildest dreams
Could ever dream to be
There is more

*His site lists an album, Walk, from 1996, but I haven't been able to track down a copy anywhere...and so I'm not sure how widespread this release was. Amazon has three copies available used starting at $33.47 so apparently this one is hard to get these days.

Other participants in the tour:

The 160 Acre Woods, A Christian Worldview of Fiction, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Booking Mama, Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Fireside Musings, Homeschool Book Buzz, KidzBookBuzz.com, My Own Little Corner of the World, My utopia, Novel Teen, Olive Tree, Reading is My Superpower, Through a Child’s Eyes

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews