Books by Dale Harris

Books by Dale Harris
A Feast of Epiphanies

Though I Walk, A Novel

Daytime Moons and Other Celestial Anomalies, a book of poems

Second Wind

Second Wind
An album of songs both old and new. Recorded in 2021, a year of major transition for me, these songs explore the many vicissitudes of the spiritual life,. It's about the mountaintop moments and the Holy Saturday sunrises, the doors He opens that no one can close, and those doors He's closed that will never open again. You can click the image above to give it a listen.

The Song Became a Child

The Song Became a Child
A collection of Christmas songs I wrote and recorded during the early days of the pandemic lockdown in the spring of 2020. Click the image to listen.

There's a Trick of the Light I'm Learning to Do

This is a collection of songs I wrote and recorded in January - March, 2020 while on sabbatical from ministry. They each deal with a different aspect or expression of the Gospel. Click on the image above to listen.

Three Hands Clapping

This is my latest recording project (released May 27, 2019). It is a double album of 22 songs, which very roughly track the story of my life... a sort of musical autobiography, so to speak. Click the album image to listen.

Ghost Notes

Ghost Notes
A collections of original songs I wrote in 2015, and recorded with the FreeWay Musical Collective. Click the album image to listen.

inversions

Recorded in 2014, these songs are sort of a chronicle of my journey through a pastoral burn-out last winter. They deal with themes of mental-health, spiritual burn-out and depression, but also with the inexorable presence of God in the midst of darkness. Click the album art to download.

soundings

soundings
click image to download
"soundings" is a collection of songs I recorded in September/October of 2013. Dealing with themes of hope, ache, trust and spiritual loss, the songs on this album express various facets of my journey with God.

bridges

bridges
Click to download.
"Bridges" is a collection of original songs I wrote in the summer of 2011, during a soul-searching trip I took out to Alberta; a sort of long twilight in the dark night of the soul. I share it here in hopes these musical reflections on my own spiritual journey might be an encouragement to others: the sun does rise, blood-red but beautiful.

echoes

echoes
Prayers, poems and songs (2005-2009). Click to download
"echoes" is a collection of songs I wrote during my time studying at Briercrest Seminary (2004-2009). It's called "echoes" partly because these songs are "echoes" of times spent with God from my songwriting past, but also because there are musical "echoes" of hymns, songs or poems sprinkled throughout the album. Listen closely and you'll hear them.

Accidentals

This collection of mostly blues/rock/folk inspired songs was recorded in the spring and summer of 2015. I call it "accidentals" because all of the songs on this project were tunes I have had kicking around in my notebooks for many years but had never found a "home" for on previous albums. You can click the image to download the whole album.

random reads

The Longing of His Heart, a devotional thought

There's this place in Hosea 7:13 where God bears his soul to us, so to speak, showing us the inner longings of his heart with a tenderness and a transparency that should stop us in our tracks. Throughout the chapter, he's been grieving the spiritual rebellion of his people. They've rejected his Way; they're counting on foreign alliances to prosper them rather than trusting in him; and they're worshipping hand-made things instead of enjoying life with him. And then in verse 13, he gives us a little glimpse of his heart for us: "I would redeem them," it says, "but they speak lies against me." The NIV's translation is even more poignant: "I long to redeem them, but they speak lies against me."

God, it turns out, is passionate about redemption, longing to be the redeemer God in our lives. And one of the things that keeps us from experiencing him like this, it seems, is holding to an untrue, inaccurate or self-deceptive view of him. To be redeemed is to be set free from God-lies--the false perceptions of God that we cling to because they're easier, because they're safer, because they're ours to control, or whatever the reason--and in order to be redeemed, Hosea would add, we must let go of these things. To let God be God as God is, our own human limitations on what a god can or can't do or be damned-- this is, perhaps, a scary way to be sometimes; but it is also, I think, a path to the deepest kind of life with him.

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