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Back in Spring 2012, tucked away in the sleepy wine country of Edna Valley, inside a smoky garage full of amps and instruments, tobacco pipes and wrecked motorbikes, Ryan Delmore and Drew Barefoot recorded the five tunes that make up the ‘ Blind Man See ‘ ep.
Mutual admirers of each others music, these two friends set out to combine Ryan’s simple americana hymns with Drew’s indie, panoramic soundtrack style; all wrapped up in the crackle and hum of a 60′s folk record.
Themes of belonging to God the Father, the goodness and mercy of God, His strength in our sickness and weakness, His faithfulness to His children, and the Shepherd’s promise of rest, weave in and out through these songs.
Ryan and Drew played the instruments: acoustic and electric guitars, lap steel, banjo, acoustic bass and percussion. Anicia Barefoot and Sarah Delmore sang the beautiful harmonies. Drew captured the sounds and mixed them together real nice. We hope you like ‘em!
April | Visalia
April 29, 10am ~ Sunday morning worship service
Radiant Church
316 Northwest 3rd Ave
Visalia, CA
(559)635-2543
May | Kansas City
May 4th, 6:30 pm ~ Night of worship/CD release party with Chris Lizotte
May 5th, 5pm ~ Saturday evening worship service
May 6th, 9:15 am/11am/5pm ~ Sunday morning & evening worship services
Vineyard KC North
12300 NW Arrowhead Trafficway
Kansas City, MO
(816)734-8100
“Ties of Kinship” is a collection of some new and some not-so-new songs recorded here and there over the last five years with my friends and family in California, and with my brothers and sisters in Kentucky, Georgia and Michigan. We recorded these songs for various Vineyard Worship compilations in makeshift living room studios as well as a couple “pro” studios along the way, always with the warmth, humor and intimacy that comes from making music to Jesus with your close friends. I am really proud of the songs written and the music performed here, so I figured we’d put them all on one disc.
I am humbled and honored to be part of a family of such amazing musicians and songwriters featured on these recordings: Jim Folkrod, Bobby Hartry, Mike O’Brien, John Barnett, Ben West, Hannah Daugherty, Sarah Delmore, Kirk MacLane, Mark Folkrod, Adam Russell, Daphne Rademaker, Aaron Craner, Greg Kellogg, Larry Schubert, Emily Blunt, Ethan Burns and Donovan Lorenzen.
My prayer is that these simple songs would invite you into sweet communion with Jesus. That they would inspire and encourage you to dig up those gifts buried in the sand and tune up those dusty harps that are sitting on the shelf. It’s time to dream again. It’s time to sing again.
Blessings on you and yours today,
Ryan Delmore
Buy Ties of Kinship Here:
Check out this great interview of Ryan on Country Standard Time! There is a free download available there of Sing Like Mary Sang from his last album The Spirit, The Water, and The Blood so go get it.
Best known for contributing songs to the Vineyard’s “The Burn Service”, “Never Looking Back” and “Sweetly Broken” compilations, Nipomo, CA’s Ryan Delmore releases his full-length debut “The Spirit, the Water & the Blood”, a remarkable album of new material on Vineyard imprint Varietal Records. …. Delmore, a worship leader in the Vineyard church for over 15 years, has crafted one of the most well-made, honest and unique worship albums I’ve come across in a long time. By blending his alt-country, rock, folk and gospel influences, Delmore mines territory inhabited by like-minded artists such as Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Ryan Adams. I find it difficult to make any comparisons within the Christian community because aside from some of Delmore’s earlier work, I honestly haven’t heard anyone else bring this particular sound to worship music before. …. The album’s eclectic batch of songs range from louder, full-band praise songs featuring B3 organ and pedal steel (“Provide For Me”, “Jesus’ Name”, “The World Can’t Take It Away”), to more intimate acoustic guitar-based worship songs (“Sacred”, “Nowhere To Be Seen”, “True Religion”). Most of the songs feature Marc Ford’s exceptional electric guitar work, and female vocalist Kirsten Ford, who counters Delmore’s grittier vocal style with honeyed tones that are occasionally a dead-ringer for Emmylou Harris. The album was brilliantly recorded and produced by fellow worship leader Chris Lizotte, who also contributes harmony vocals, and who knew exactly how to bring out an authentic, rootsy sound without over-producing the recording to the point of homogenization. There is a warm and genuine nature to the sound of these songs that you don’t often hear in today’s worship music. At times the playing can sound quite loose, but the musicianship is definitely there, and it adds a ton of character to the album as a whole. …. Not only does “The Spirit, the Water & the Blood” come from an authentic place musically, but it is spot-on lyrically as well, especially from a spiritual standpoint. Delmore borrows liberally from Scripture in every song, including references to Luke 1:46-47 and Isaiah 61:3 in “Sing Like Mary Sang”, James 1:27 and Luke 4:18 (among others) in “True Religion” and many, many more. In addition to praising God’s other attributes, most of the songs tend to focus on Christ’s sacrifice for sins, His redemptive and transformative love, the life He has brought us out of and what He desires of us from that point forward. …. As an added value for worship leaders, the enhanced CD features printable lyric sheets and chord charts for every song on the album. I can see quite a few of these songs being used regularly in worship services or to accent a message or Scripture passage referenced in a particular song. I recommend this CD to worship leaders seeking songs with a country-rock feel for their Praise and Worship, and to anyone who is a fan of the folk-rock, country-rock or alternative-country styles of music. …. For my money, it’s one of the best releases of the year in any genre. …. Review by Marc Dooley -
Thanks to Kyle Campos for his review on Our Rising Sound!
This album has been out for a few months and I’m glad I’ve waited to review until I was really able to dig into it. I’ve known about Ryan for many years, we were both leading worship in the Vineyard in our youth, Ryan was about an hour north of me in the 5 Cities area on the coast of California. We shared many of the same friends but our paths never crossed until recently when I sat down to interview him upon the release of this album.
His music, voice, songwriting has all matured so much from The Burn days. I can’t tell you how blown away I am by this album. Songs like Jesus Name, Sing Like Mary Sang and The World Can’t Take It Away immediately grab you, you don’t need any more listens than 1 to love. Then songs like Sacred, True Religion and Love of God grow in your heart on each listen, the depth to these songs deserves and calls for repeated listens.
Ryan has all the sensibility of Tom Waits and Petty with the grit and country hooks of Ryan Adams. The absolute worst thing about much of the Christian contemporary music is the cheap, cheesy melody hooks. You won’t find any of those here. The richness and sincerity of these songs and production can’t help but make you feel like you just wandered into a basement worship session to hear Ryan’s love songs to Jesus.
If you’re wondering how many of these could be done in church, I pretty much plan on doing every one of them, I’ve never said or done that with any other album. This truly is one of the greatest worship albums I’ve heard. Period. If you don’t like alt-country-folk-rock and are looking for another Hillsong album, well move along, but if you love some twang and soul then buy all means this is the album for you. You can and should buy the entire album on iTunes.
By Kyle Campos