Kyle Matthews rocks

At our Sunday School party on Tuesday, we had a really cool special guest who gave us a mini-concert of Christmas music.  It was SO awesome.  Kyle Matthews is a local singer/songwriter/really cool guy who also happens to be the son of one of our church members.  And dude, I just found out from his website that two of my favorite songs -- "If You Want Me To," recorded by Ginny Owens, and "God Forbid," recorded by Point of Grace -- were written by him.  DUDE!  I wish I had known that on Tuesday . . . no, I don't, I would have totally gushed about it and looked absolutely stupid in the process.  Heh.

So anyway, he sang a lot of Christmas songs that he wrote and that are on his "Timeless Christmas Child" CD.  If you click on that link, you can listen to every single track on the CD!  (Well, half of each song -- enough to really get a feel for them.)  They're all so deep and beautiful.  If you're tired of all the traditional Christmas music out there and feel like there's nothing inspirational about them any more, this is the CD for you.  Every time I hear Kyle sing -- he has visited our church before -- I get chills.  And I laugh.  And I cry.  This Christmas music is totally relevant and Christ-centered.  Two of the songs -- "Inconvenient Christmas" and "Everything Santa Knows" are really funny but at the same time really deep.

I've been getting pretty cynical and stressed about the whole Christmas thing -- trying hard this year not to be, but you know it's not my favorite holiday to start with.  This CD was just what I needed.  In "Inconvenient Christmas" he says "So when the stress hits each Deecmber how it helps me to remember / God is with us most when things just can't get worse."  That's my favorite line in the whole album.  And in "The Gifts We Give" he says "May the gifts we give this Christmas meet the needs that go unmet / May they heal the hurt between us, may they say what's gone unsaid / May we find, at last, in Jesus, the gift we've always sought / May the love we show each other be the gift we give to God."  That's such a wonderful way to view the Christmas season.

I can't decide which is more impressive about Kyle -- his songwriting, or his piano playing.  You can't really tell from the CD, because there's a back-up band in addition to his playing, but he is an amazing pianist.  At the Christmas party it was just him and a piano -- and holy cow.  It's like he and I play different instruments.  My friend Jen was there -- my piano student Alexis' mom -- and I told her that.  She told me that she's sure if I practiced a lot I could play like him.  Ummmm . . . no.  Not so much.

Anyway, I've been listening to this CD all week in my car, over and over.  When we were running around on Wednesday I made mom and Kathy listen to it, too.  At one point, Kathy said "You know, he really does have a really nice voice" and I was like "DUH, Kat."  LOL.  If you're in the market for some new Christmas music, you can buy a CD from Kyle's website.  Let me know if you get a chance to listen to his stuff!!!