Folk-influenced American Rock: Koine in Concert, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Manitowoc, WI, October 19, 2006

I entered Immanuel Lutheran Church, here in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, expecting that Koiné, a band based out of Milwaukee’s St. Marcus Lutheran Church, would present an hour of hymns with the sound of Jars of Clay’s Redemption Songs. And I was exciting about that. I thoroughly enjoyed Redemption Songs, so I was all set to enjoy seeing this 6-piece church band tap into that same Americana approach at a local level.

However, it was 11 songs into their set before I truly heard the Jars of Clay sound. The first 10 songs tapped into so much more than I expected, and the experience was fresh approach to hymn playing that calls on American music history to unleash the soul of the hymnal. At one point during the concert, lead singer Brian Davison said, “We take our hymns for granted,” but I think it is more that we in the Church have ignored how folk, blues, singer/songwriters, and Americana artists have gone back to our hymns, seen the beauty in them, and then have played them in their own way. Koiné can lead the way with bringing that approach into church music.

The evening opened with “From All That Dwell Below the Skies” with its march dance rhythm on the refrain after the driving build up on the stanzas. Guitarist Benj Lawrenz then laid down an acoustic forlorn beginning to “Chief of Sinners Though I Be” that felt like we were outside of a prison on a hot, dusty road, with the band coming down the land with a rhythm to send us “in the way that Enoch trod.”

Lawrenz does a bluesy take on electric guitar to begin “Abide with Me,” a sound that comes from some hesitating place with glimpses of an old Sun Records rockabilly. This hymn comes from the same soul-gut place as the blues and rockabilly. It’s no surprise that Elvis and Johnny Cash drenched their music with that earnest hymn voice.

Listening to hymns have these modern settings, it’s hard not to think of Christmas hymns and songs, because that’s been the most common set of hymns that have been transposed to rock and roots. Koiné actually played one Christmas hymn, “Once in a Royal David’s City,” to let the congregation get a taste of what they do at that time year. With a trap set rhythm and harmonica, they brought Dylan’s Gospel years jamboree to Bethlehem.

It wasn’t hard to let my prayers ascend while listening to “Lord, Teach Us How to Pray Aright”. Seth Bauer leads off the hymn with a George Winston piano, and the band enters with a drive that matches the piano’s wave feel. As we cast our eyes to heaven, Lawrenz closes the hymn solo, his guitar mimicking the piano’s opening rolling pattern.

The Jars of Clay sound (I didn’t forget to listen for it) came on “Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word” and “This is My Will.” With the latter, the band gave it a great rising sound that allows the hymn’s 3/2 time signature to truly groove. In a similar vein to Jars of Clay’s combination of rock, Americana, and praise music, “Now Rest Beneath Night’s Sky” has the potential for the sweeping atmospherics and Americana of the David Crowder Band.

More than once Koiné took a rock approach to a hymn as can be heard in Echelon’s work. On “Crown Him with Many Crowns,” the vocals stretched out the hymn’s melody and form while letting the instruments break it up as a rock song.

There’s room for growth for Koiné. Davison goes a little outside of himself on the Gospel styling of the vocals for “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” Also, if female harmony vocalist Tracy Fedke got stronger, she and Davison could have a sound similar to Jonathan Rundman and Beki Hemmingway’s beautiful Tennesota. Finally, drummer Seth Kock will need to avoid trapping the band back into a rhythm pocket as happened on “Jerusalem, My Happy Home.” The song starts on an altered, AltCountrified melody, but that pocket brings on a sameness to the arrangement until the final stanza where Kock breaks into a march snare that makes a fine accompaniment for the final stanza.

The evening closed with “Built on the Rock”’s double-speed snare. Peter Reese’s bass pounded out the brooding feel while Lawrenz’s guitar sent out the eerie, weary world sounds. The breakdown section emphasized the bombardment of Satan’s forces hitting the walls of the Church, but the melody held as steady as Christ holds the Church.

For more information—including Koiné’s first self-titled album and news about the soon-to-be-released second disc, please see www.koinemusic.com.