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.

Scared Sacred, a song

 Last spring I was leading a verse by verse Bible study through the Book of Revelation at our church. There are no end of compelling themes and difficult images to be drawn from the pages of this mysterious book , of course, but what stood out to me especially this time through was the tension between God's beauty, on the one hand, and his fearsomeness, on the other. The Jesus revealed in the Book of Revelation draws us into his light and then drops us on our faces, trembling and undone by the sheer glory of his presence. A while ago I came across the expression "scared sacred" in a book about Christianity and the creative life by Andrew Peterson. The line found its way into my commonplace book and re-emerged as I was pondering the "fearful Holiness" that I was glimpsing in the apocalyptic visions of the Book of Revelation. The line inspired a guitar riff, which morphed eventually into this song. I'm not sure the final result quite captures the unbridled awe I was feeling as I wrote it, but there are one or two places where it comes close. And for what's missing, I suppose, yet one more journey through the Book of Revelation will easily fill the gaps.


And when you speak to me from the whirlwind
And your lightning lights up the sky
And when your dark clouds are gathering
And I’m standing in the eye of the storm

And when I hear the sound of your thunder call
Over the crashing waves of the sea
And in the roaring of your waterfall
The deep cries out to the deep in me

Cause your glory leaves me trembling
All my defenses are unraveling
And your eyes pierce my secrets
In your presence I’m scared sacred
Scared sacred, I’m come undone
Scared sacred

And when you call to me from the holy place
With a cry that makes the heavens shake
And every seraphim is covering their face
And every saint is quaking inside 

Cause your glory leaves me trembling
All my defenses are unraveling
And your eyes pierce my secrets
In your presence I’m scared sacred
Scared sacred, I’m come undone
Scared sacred

I’m come undone before the Holy One
I’m come undone before the Holy One

Cause your glory leaves me trembling
All my defenses are unraveling
And your eyes pierce my secrets
In your presence I’m scared sacred
Scared sacred, I’m come undone
Scared sacred

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