Sounds of December: 'Perfect Light' is predictably unpredictable -- and brilliant!

Chris Tomlin and David Crowder are alike in that they are great at taking a traditional song we’ve all heard and enjoyed a million times, making a couple changes here and there and make it something fresh.

Several songs from Tomlin’s 2009 release “Glory in the Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship” are mix tape mainstays. None of Crowder’s songs are on mix tapes because his Christmas CD is so incredible that it demands its own playlist.

Seriously, immediately check out “Oh, For Joy.” We’ll get there in the blog soon enough.

I augment the “Oh, For Joy” playlist with other Crowder songs I found on other Christmas compilations. And it was building that playlist this year that I stumbled across this 2015 song with Tomlin and Crowder joining forces.

I don’t know how I’ve missed it these last few years. I knew Tomlin’s “Adore” was out there but had not had time to give it a quality listen, except for his version of “Hymn of Joy.” It’s awesome, though I still prefer Red Collective’s effort just a bit more.

“Adore” was recorded live with a singing audience. It’s a mixture of originals and rearranged classics, like “Perfect Light.”

The only predictable thing about Crowder is that he is entirely unpredictable. I had no idea what to expect when I saw he was collaborating with Tomlin. He moves effortlessly from rock to bluegrass to techno to everything else.

But never, I confess, did I think he’d start the song like a beat poet, reciting verse as the music swells behind him.

“Across the desert

Wrapped in scarves

One is brighter

In a chandelier of stars

Tired and lonely

Over miles of mountains and sand

The prophets tell of a Baby

He's born to save

Like graffiti on our hearts

The world will know His name

Heaven like a highway exit sign

Points to Bethlehem”

Isn’t “One is brighter in a chandelier of stars” brilliant? Then Tomlin and the audience burst into the chorus of “We Three Kings.” You know, “Star of Wonder, star of night.” It gets us to the song’s title. Then Crowder is back, with increasing urgency and emotion.

“When they saw the Child

They dropped to their knees

The answer to a million prayers

In a Newborn heartbeat

And the words He would say

Would be written in red

And the gifts they've carried

They lay at His feet

In the eyes of Mary

A tear runs down her cheek

Jesus, the Messiah

In a lowly manger bed.”

Then Tomlin and the audience are back with the chorus, some new lyrics and someone’s drummer boy pounding away with everything he’s got. I hear a banjo in there somewhere, and that has got to be Crowder because the instrument is a staple on his albums.

They hit the chorus again and collapse into cheers. It’s wonderful.