Bluetree, God Of This City

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With bombings, a long history of bloodshed between those who actually claim to love and serve God, and random acts of violence the stuff of daily headlines in Belfast, the band's lead vocalist and guitarist Aaron Boyd admits that "you eventually grow so numb that when you hear that a car bomb killed 10 people, you immediately go on with the mundane business of the day without as much as giving it a second thought."

That's precisely why Boyd and his bandmates, which includes drummer Johnny Hobson and deejay Pete Kernoghan, have never been interested in writing feel-good worship songs that may incite a few goosebumps on Sunday morning, but don't exactly inspire change and action once the church service has ended.

"What we often forget sometimes is that we're the solutions," Boyd says. "Jesus Christ has already done everything, and now, we are His hands and feet in the world. Let's not just ask God to change everything, but let's be a blessing and speak words of life into people's difficult circumstances. That's where I've been writing songs from—the simple truth."

Driving the message home is Boyd's emotive vocals and the album's lushly crafted soundscape that brilliantly underscores the very real hope that's alive and well when we actively pursue a relationship with God. While an unabashed attitude of worship runs through all of the songs on God Of This City, even a sunny track like "Each Day" wasn't inspired when life was leisurely coasting along. Instead these songs reflect the highs and lows that inevitably come with the journey of faith.

While "Each Day" is ultimately an upbeat declaration of a believer's unwavering trust in God, when Boyd sings of "You never leave me alone/Even when storms cloud my way/And I can't see the breaking day/You never leave me alone," the lyrics were actually born out a season of struggle when his daughter Lily was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis not long after birth.

"When I first heard the news, I freaked out. I didn't even know what cystic fibrosis was," Boyd shares. "This thing just rocks your world because you really begin to look at what you believe. God is a loving God. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And I know He does not bless you with an incurable disease to teach you a lesson. He does not do that. So I suppose I got to a place where I struggled, even when I knew that God is a good God."

And that's exactly what Boyd hopes that listeners will experience when listening to Bluetree—hope not necessary dictated by circumstance—the moment when God does some of His best work and shaping.

Armed with encouraging words for a hurting world, Bluetree has made it a priority to live missionally, which eventually led them to a life-changing gig in the Red Light district of Pattaya, Thailand, a beautiful city badly tarnished by sexual slavery. Known as the capital of the world's sex trade, Boyd admits he was "a bit frightened" by what he'd gotten himself into. But "the intense darkness" the band "simply couldn't miss" inspired Bluetree to lead worship in the most unlikely of places, a club which doubles as a brothel known as the Climax Bar.

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