If Jesus walked the Earth today, I think he’d still be a carpenter by trade, but I can see him fronting a bluegrass outfit on nights and weekends.  I can just picture him slapping an upright bass and singing high and lonesome harmonies with the apostles all gathered around a single microphone.  Blasphemous?   Not if I’m imagining they’re playing songs from The New Bluegrass Hymnal.

In 2012, Reverend Amy Sens found herself in a quandary.  She had recently founded and become pastor of a new church in Baltimore.  Located in the Hampden neighborhood, six:eight was the embodiment of Sens’ vision of an inclusive, welcoming, socially-conscious, faith-affirming church. (The name six:eight comes from the Old Testament’s Book of Micah 6:8, which reads: Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.)

Her problem was the music.  Six:eight didn’t have an organ, piano, choral director, choir, matching robes, or any of the other trappings of the usual church music scene.  And it doesn’t take a Master’s of Divinity from Harvard (which Sens has, by the way) to know that a church service needs music the way an Oldsmobile needs gasoline (or a Tesla needs batteries, for those so inclined.)

Aside from needing something that was workable within the space they were renting, e.g., instruments that were portable, easy to setup and breakdown, and required few people to play, Sens said, “I wanted a style of music that avoided the worship wars.”  Blessed are the peace makers…

The battle over Christian church music, which has come to be known as the “worship wars,” has been raging among the faithful for many years.  In every generation, there’s a new iteration of the fight depending on the notions of the popular music of the day.  At one extreme are those aligned with the strictly traditional (think pipe organs and How Great Thou Art) and at the opposite end are those who only want to hear contemporary stuff (think digital drum kits and Stryper.)

“I didn’t want to do either of those things,” Sens said.  She was looking for a musical common ground in the worship wars between the old and the new, the well-worn and the edgy, the familiar and the fresh – all while being accessible, easy for a small group to play and sing, and requiring no instrument that took more than one person to carry.  And she found it.  In bluegrass music.  (Yes, bluegrass music.  It’s better than it sounds.)

Although the genre is said to have originated with Bill Monroe and his band the Blue Grass Boys in the 1940s, the roots of bluegrass go way back to the ancestorial homes of the Scottish immigrants who first populated Appalachia.  “I wanted music that had a history,” Sens said.  “People had been singing this for a long time, so they’ve kind of worked the edges off, which is true of the old hymns, too.”

Sens was learning to play mandolin, it wouldn’t be too hard to find someone who could play guitar, and who can’t play bass?  Bluegrass checked all the boxes.  Or so Sens thought, until she started actually looking for hymns to play at the services.  “One thing that’s been tough is finding hymns, songs and spiritual songs that have a progressive theology to them. There are a LOT of gospel hymns in the lexicon, but many many many of them are about life after death, and very few about life before death,” Sens said.

She heard about a church in her home state of Minnesota that was using a hymnal that might be right up her alley, but when she inquired about getting a copy, they said that they weren’t at liberty to share it because of copyright issues.  Besides, it was a country music themed hymnal and decidedly not bluegrass, per se.

And so, out of necessity, Sens began compiling, adapting, and writing musical pieces for church services – work that she proved to be quite good at.  The New Bluegrass Hymnal would ultimately take her four years to complete.  The music leader of six:eight, Luke Chohany, was instrumental in the process, transcribing much of the music.  “I probably wouldn’t have done all this without Luke’s help,” Sens said.

Published in 2016, The New Bluegrass Hymnal is a compilation of 43 compositions in the bluegrass, folk, and Americana veins.  Sens describes it as a combination of “good music and progressive theology for a starter kit of music that churches can use to lead their own bluegrass worship services.”  She said, “The New Bluegrass Hymnal is what I wish I had when I was starting a church.  It has a variety of songs, for a variety of parts of the worship service, and for a variety of times of the year.”

The hymns themselves can be sorted into three categories, the first of which are the traditional hymns adapted for acoustic stringed instruments but otherwise left pretty much intact.  Amazing Grace is a good example.  Where others have been inclined to dial back the song’s undercurrent of self-loathing, changing its second line, “That saved a wretch like me!” to “That saved and strengthened me” or “that saved and set me free,” Sens had the wherewithal not to mess with this mainstay of the canon.  “You can’t.  You just can’t,” she said.  As far as hymns go, Amazing Grace is hard to top.

Then there are the classic hymns that she’s reworked, which make up the bulk of The New Bluegrass Hymnal.  By updating their lyrics, swapping out their tunes, or sometimes both, Sens created liturgical pieces that are new, yet traditional- the sweet spot in taming worship warriors.  Take A Mighty Fortress is Our God for example.  Written by Martin Luther in 1527, it’s easily the most popular hymn in the Protestant tradition and is often described as “the battle hymn of the Reformation.”

Its melody, which is attributed to Luther but may have originally come from a tavern song, is “really hard to play on guitar” Sens said.  She got the inspired idea of reworking A Mighty Fortress is Our God by giving it a different, more guitar-friendly melody, one that just happened to come from an early 19th century Appalachian murder ballad.  Down in the Willow Garden tells the story of a man who killed his pregnant sweetheart by poisoning her, stabbing her with a sword, then throwing her in a river.  Sens somehow saw beyond the narrative to recognize that the tune fit nicely with the lyrics she’d reworked from a five-hundred-year-old hymn written originally in German by the father of the Reformation.  A Mighty Fortress is Our God Two Point Oh evokes many of the same qualities of the original, but is more inclusive and progressive, and can be played anywhere a stringed instrument is handy.  And that in a nutshell is the beauty of The New Bluegrass Hymnal.

And finally, there are the originals.  There’s no excuse now for not following Psalm 33:3 which instructs people to, “Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts.”  Sens includes more than a few new songs in her hymnal, all of which involve strings, if not the shouts.  More Light More Truth Left was inspired by a hymn in the United Church of Christ playbook which was inspired by the farewell sermon to the Pilgrims when they launched from Holland on their journey to the New World in 1620.  Their paster, John Robinson, who was not joining the Pilgrims on the voyage, said that day, “I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth from His holy word.”

Sens loves the sentiment that the Bible is not done revealing itself, but she thought there was a problem with the UCC hymn of that theme.  “It doesn’t have a regular rhythm to it,” she said.  “It stops and starts a lot.  So, I took its ideas, and I wrote new words.”  She borrowed a melody from another traditional Appalachian song, Gold Watch and Chain, which was first recorded by Ephraim Woodie & The Henpecked Husbands in 1929, although the Carter Family’s 1933 version is the most famous.  To this she added her own lyrical take on Robinson’s sermon from four hundred years ago to create a brand spanking new old hymn.

Aside from being a great song to sing and play, More Light More Truth Left also presents a pretty good summation of the scriptural worldview of Sens:

The limits of just one perspective
or even a whole culture’s worth,
can never encompass the beauty
or the greatness of all of God’s work.

– Rev. Amy Sens

Although six:eight hosted its last worship service on April 8, 2018, in many ways its legacy continues through The New Bluegrass Hymnal.  Congregations around the country have purchased the hymnal and are featuring its songs in their services.  Pastors of established and start-up churches alike, facing the same problems Sens encountered, now have a path to follow in developing their own music programs.  Even people who aren’t church pastors have downloaded the songs and are playing them in their cars on their morning commute.

Sens recorded the songs of the hymnal, which she released as an album titled The New Bluegrass Hymnal: Hear & Learn the Songs, as a companion to the book.  “This way,” she said, “people who learn better by ear can hear, play along, and learn the tunes.”  Although the songs were recorded with little accompaniment and are intended primarily to be a teaching tool, the album stands on its own as something inspiring and affecting to listen to even if you’re not trying to learn to play the songs in time for next Sunday’s service.  Sens’ straightforward vocals and guitar playing beautifully convey the sincerity, authenticity, and great faith of her hymns.  Nobody sings Sens like Sens.

“My experience is, and I’ve seen it happen,” Sens said, “good church makes peoples’ lives better. And part of what makes a church good is inclusive, singable music. So, I want to contribute music to the larger church that helps build beautiful, joyful, nourishing community.” Since 2019, Sens has been the Community Missioner at Church on the Square (CotS) in Baltimore’s Canton neighborhood, where, among other things, she uses music to foster connections among the congregants and community members. 

St. Augustine, the fifth-century bishop, theologian, and philosopher, once said, “Those who sing pray twice.” At the risk of one-upping the great saint, I would like to add my own take on the subject: “If those who sing pray twice, those who sing and play bluegrass hymns on the mandolin pray three times.”

Sens is still writing and adapting hymns, developing new songs as the need arises to accompany places in the worship service and times in the liturgical calendar where just the right song doesn’t exist.  She hopes to one day publish a second volume of the hymnal.  And let’s pray it won’t take her too long.

The New Bluegrass Hymnal and its associated sheet music, lyrics, recordings, merch and swag are available for download and stream on the bandcamp site: AmySens.bandcamp.com