Drew wanted to surprise me with an outing this past Friday night, but I guessed what it was in two seconds.

With his typical sly grin, Drew asked if I had anything planned for Friday. I responded no, and he said, “I think I’ll surprise you.” His eye twinkled in his devious little way.

Without skipping a beat, I responded, “Derek Webb in Jacksonville?”

“Damnit!” The twinkle disappeared.

He teased me that he wasn’t going to take me since I had ruined the surprise, but I begged and gave him the puppy dog eyes and he bought tickets anyway. (I don’t think the puppy dog eyes had anything to do with him buying tickets. I’ve tried, and he’s pretty much immune. Darn.)

A little after five last night, we were on the interstate heading to Jax. We were going to be a little late, but there were two opening acts, so we weren’t too concerned. All was going great and we were making good time until we hit construction about five minutes from our destination. SO frustrating. Our five minutes turned into about thirty. Our plans on being a little late turned into an hour late. Luckily, we didn’t miss much. I think Derek was on his first or second song, so we caught most of it.

I’ve been a fan of Derek Webb for about fourteen years. I began listening to him back in the day when he was a member of Caedmon’s Call. He went solo about ten years ago. He’s an acoustic guitar playing, folk-y, clever lyric writing kind of musician. I love him. He played stuff from his newest album, Stockholm Syndrome (which I bought at the merch table),

as well as stuff from his older solo albums

and classic stuff from his time with Caedmon’s Call.

I always enjoy hearing the new stuff from musicians. It’s great to hear fresh stuff and see what creative direction they’re going in now. But I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed hearing the old stuff again. Often, when I hear music that I enjoyed years ago, I’ll listen and think, “Wow, this is lame. Why did I ever listen to this?” It’s never that way with Caedmon’s or Derek Webb. The lyrics are still as fresh and inspired as the first time I heard them. And I often get something completely new and different from it.

We stood to the left side of the stage in the renovated movie theatre turned concert venue. When I grew tired of standing, I sat on the stained commercial carpet and softly sang along to old memories. I was surprised at the emotions evoked when he sang his ballad to singles everywhere, Table For Two. I was transported back to my single days of anxiously awaiting my hubby to be. I resisted the urge to hug the legs of my husband standing behind me.

The concert greatly encouraged me. Being a Christian singer/songwriter, many of his songs are of a spiritual nature. I was encouraged as he sang some of my old, forgotten favorites. As he sang “Broken Heart,” I was reminded how much the lyrics convict me.

I’ve got faith in the bank
And money in my heart
I’ve got a callous place where your ring used to be, my love

I’ve traded naked and unashamed
For a better place to hide
For a righteous mask, a suit of fig leaves and lies

…And now I want a broken heart.

The thing I love most about Derek is that he is not the typical “fluff” Christian songwriter. He isn’t afraid to tackle tough social and political issues and write some extremely challenging lyrics. I grow tired of the same old formula for songwriting on Christian radio and I find his style of writing refreshing. It seems much of his newer stuff is getting more and more controversial. I think I read somewhere that someone walked out of one of his concerts because they were offended. Awesome.

I was also encouraged as I watched him share the songs and stories from twenty years of writing music. Just hours before, before we’d hit the road, I had been rummaging through my bin of journals. In the bottom of the bin was a file folder labeled, “Song lyrics and ideas.” In it were pages and pages of snippets of lyrics and attempts at song writing. Some pathetic, and some not so bad. The desire to song-write has been rekindled. We’ll see where it goes.

And sadly, though he was taking requests and someone shouted out “Better Than Wine,” he did not play it. Sorry, Em.