Today’s post was written by Paul.
The cool song I’m sharing today was written by my friend Curt Oxford. Curt was featured on the BPA channel a while back, sharing some of his original songs, like “Hey, Idaho;” “Burning Down the House;” and “Call Upon the Name of Yeshua.”
Curt lives down in Florida and hasn’t been able to make it back up our way in a while. I asked him if I could do his “donkey song” for my Original Thursdays series, and he was happy to oblige.
I hooked up with my good buddy, Wayde Powell, III to do the song. Wayde had never heard the song, and I only ran over it briefly the night before, so to avoid making too many catastrophic mistakes, we simplified Curt’s song quite a bit. Both the chorus and bridge have a lot more chord changes, including a couple of extra minors, that we left out.
When Curt first sang the song for me, I could immediately identify with it.
Probably most of us have had some well-intentioned, overly legalistic friends who seemed devoted to adding lots of requirements to salvation.
Curt shared that this song was inspired by a friend who frequently lectured him about such things. Curt couldn’t figure out the best way to express a mild rebuke of what was going on, until he overheard a little, old lady (who was eating with her friends at a table behind Curt at a church function).
He heard her say to her friends, “Now burdens are for donkeys, and I’m no donkey.” Curt whirled around and told her how much he liked what she had said, and he asked her if he could use it in a song. She said that would be just fine, so this song was born.
Curt also shared that he eventually sang the song for his legalistic friend. His friend said that he liked the song and that it was good, but he didn’t make any further connection with the song. Curt’s friend was married, and his wife walked in and said, “You know that he’s talking to you with that song, right?” Everything went amicably from there, and Curt’s friend began to give him fewer lectures. 🙂
Wayde and I had a blast playing Curt’s song, and we hope you enjoyed it too.
Wayde’s father, Wayde Powell, II, took the cool photos you see at the end (including the one of the little donkey nearby), along with the short color clips in the first take, shot from different perspectives. He is an amazing photographer.
We planned to shoot this video in front of a donkey, but the donkey had other ideas and stayed too far away for us to collaborate.
Paul
Original singles released on Spotify.
Shepherd of My Soul (Album released in 2016).
The Wilson Brothers Words of Life Album released in the 70s.
Great song!! Thanks for sharing!!
Hi Paul. I enjoyed the video and song. It reminded me of my days filming music videos at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN where I obtained my BS in Mass Communication /Broadcasting /Radio/TV and Film. Love ya.
That was astounding! Thank you so much.
Pam in Virginia
Amen! Great song; great playing and singing!
Enjoyed this video when I saw it on YouTube and enjoyed watching it again. The song really does speak truth.
Great song, Paul and Wayde! I really enjoyed it!
There’s burdens for donkeys, and there’s “Buridan’s Ass,” the donkey caught halfway between two bales of hay of equal quantity and equal quality. There’s no reason the animal should pick one over the other. And so long as it doesn’t pick one, it will just stand there and it will eventually starve, from being a stubborn ass and not just picking one and getting things over with. “Buridan’s Ass” is a philosophical and theological argument for thinking that, whether you ultimately really do have free will or not, in the particular moment, you have to act as if you do, and sometimes you need to act rather than get caught in the paralysis of analysis.
Great job! Loved it!
Paul & Wayde – you make a great duo. thank you for sharing, Tipper.
I was greatly blessed by Curt’s song, “Call Upon the Name of Yeshua.” Thank you for sharing such wonderful music with us, Paul! It’s a dark and stormy morning here in West Central WI. We have a metal roof and the sound of the rain and occasional thunder is very cozy and relaxing to me.
Allie, I was going to wait until tomorrow to answer your question. Yes there has been a big change in the weather for my area, especially in the last 25 years. It is common to have hot dry weather during the summer in the south, but years ago it seemed we would have an afternoon thunderstorm at least once a week. Now it is day after day of hot dry weather for long periods- I think last summer over 30 days of above 90 degrees and no rain. My mother was 85 when she died in 2011, a few years before she died the creek on our property along with others dried up with nothing but pot holes in them, she said that was the first time in her lifetime she had ever saw the creek dry up. It has happened a few more times since then. Today the forecast is for record breaking temperatures and less than 10 percent chance of rain for the upcoming week and this is just April.
Thank you for sharing that with me, Randy. It’s very interesting to me. I love history and also weather patterns. I pray this year it turns around for you and you get more rain.
Great song! I know some people I’d like to sing that to! Blessings
Your hiraeth short video had no place to type a comment.
Strange! Hopefully YouTube will fix the glitch soon 🙂
I just listened to BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE and this CURT OXFORD HAS THE VOICE OF AN ANGEL-simply gorgeous!!! WC Fields said if you’re depending on children and animals in a show, it may not go the way you planned. I think you and Wade played beautifully and you’re both picking and grinning especially well. If I was a donkey I’d be proud you’d come see me, make me a video star by singing and playing for me and taking my lovely picture. Paul, this song is fantastic and tells like it truly is and BURDENS ARE FOR DONKEYS-don’t lay it on me!!! You’re way too critical of yourself cause I hear perfection, Paul. I’d love to have an ounce of your talent just an ounce and I’d be thrilled… thanks for the great song!!!
Thought-provoking. About 2/3rds of the bible, the Old Testament, is about legalism. Then in the four gospels it is brought into sharp focus, such as “burdens grievous to be borne”. But the Lord brought ” my yoke is easy and my burden light.” One might say that the triumphal entry into Jerusalem was love, grace and mercy riding in on the law “which neither we, nor our fathers were able to keep”. You all at BP&A sure set me to thinking more often than not. Thank you, helps keep the brain rust off and Lord knows I need the help. That donkey picture could use a caption like “I ain’t stubborn and you’ll never make me believe it.”
Always love your posts Paul. The donkey you wanted to have in the video reminds me of a Sunday morning at Kawaiahao Church in Honolulu. I was a deacon there and one of my duties was to write a prayer for the community and recite it over the radio. Our Sunday service was broadcast to all the islands. We were a Hawaiian Christian church and served the Hawaiian population of the islands. So once a month I would be tasked to write a prayer that would express the love of God for all of us. Since I am a poet my prayers were poems. I would use the beauty of God’s creation in my prayers. At the ending of one prayer I prayed that everyone would take the spirit of aloha with them and hug someone and tell them that God (Akua) loves them. I was very proud of the prayer. After the service the church had a church lunch where church members and guests could meet and eat together. As I was eating one of our church members walked up to me and stated very loudly, “No matter what you say I will not tell anyone that God loves them or hug them. I won’t do it!” After that she turned and walked away. So sad. So stubborn. Like the donkey. The good part was the reality check where not everyone is going to react to the prayer you are praying. Let us be like sheep following the Good Sheppard and not the donkey. Bless you Paul for the post.
God bless Paul and Wade, thank you for the presentation
Really enjoyed this!!! Thanks!
Oh my goodness!! That was just delightful! I loved the tune and the lyrics were hysterical. Very nice job, Paul & Wayde III.
Good song
Thank you
Loved it Paul!