Formerly ain't the same as has been ...

My new Pontiac has a factory-installed XM satellite radio ... along with a 90-day free trial. XM radio is cool for a lot of reasons: the music is commercial-free, the stations stay with you wherever you travel (even the backroads of rural Saskatchewan), and most of the 120 XM radio channels play music that commercial radio won't touch. Good music. Music you can't hear anywhere else. Music worth hearing.

One night, I was heading home down Portage Avenue listening to Bluesville -- channel 74 on the XM radio dial. A song began with a haunting electric guitar riff, followed by a female voice singing out the opening lines, "I got trouble, trouble up around every bend". This was real gritty blues about a momma who's got to do what it takes to get by. The song built up in intensity with every verse, then launched into a gospel-style chorus. Slide guitar, B3 organ riffs, and thumping bass lines with a touch of growl laid out an eerie, but compelling, groove. Then, midway through the song, some subtle Tele-style licks. I was hooked. (Check out this excerpt and listen for yourself.)

My XM radio display showed that I was listening to Freedom by Alice Stuart and The Formerlys. (You can download a full version of the tune from iTunes.) When I got home to my computer, I looked her up. As it turns out, Alice Stuart is a well-established artist. In the 1960's/70's, she had a successful career as a singer, songwriter, and guitar picker (including a stint with Frank Zappa and the Mothers). That's Alice in the picture at the top of this post ... back in 1970 or so!

However, the Alice Stuart song I heard on my XM radio wasn't an old track. Freedom was the title track of Stuart's brand new album released this summer. (See the Freedom album cover below, where Alice Stuart is rockin' out in her bright blue high-tops.) She took some time off in the 1980's/90's to raise a family, but she's back. And she's better than ever. Her voice isn't as pure and sweet as it was on her 1964 release All the Good Times or 1970's Full Time Woman, but she's got way more soul, a great guitar sound, and the accolades to prove it. Alice Stuart and The Formerlys won The Seattle Weekly award for Best Blues Band in 2004 and Best Guitarist in 2005, and were again chosen Best Blues Band in 2006. The band was also honored by the Washington Blues Society as the Best New/Reformed Band for 2006 and Stuart was given the award for Best Songwriter in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Alice Stuart might be old enough to get the senior's discount at Safeway, but this lady can rock!



Too many people think getting older is the same as being washed up. Artists like Alice Stuart, B.B. King, Tony Bennet, and The Rolling Stones are blowing that misconception out of the water, but it's a misconception that dies hard. It's been around since the beginning of time. I've been rummaging around the book of Genesis this month, where I recently revisited this story from the lives of Abraham and Sarah, two senior citizens who thought their best years were behind them:

Genesis 18.9-14
‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’ The Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.’

Sarah thought she was old and washed up, but she only got the first half right ... which meant she got it all wrong. Old isn't washed up. It's vintage. It's mileage. It's pedigree born of experience. Sarah needed a little Alice Stuart spirit in her life. She needed to ask the same thing the Lord asked out loud: Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? That's a question we need to ask each and every time we come up against our own self-imposed limitations: Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? What a difference when we start thinking in terms of what God can do, rather than what we can't do.

Incidentally, Alice Stuart originally recorded Freedom way back in 1970. Not a bad song back then, but more than three decades later, she's topped herself with a fresher, funkier version. This formerly famous artist ain't no has been. (Need more proof? Check out her 2002 version of Big Boss Man. Go momma!)

Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?