"And to surrender is to win, to welcome death is to begin.
To be the words they speak of, to hold my weakness that's the love."
Mike Mangione's music is fantastic. He's a powerful entertainer with a bright mind and an open heart. I had the opportunity to witness him perform recently and it was awesome. He was raw and as authentic of a performer as I've seen. That same authenticity that's a hallmark of his songwriting and performance is very much present in "Three Days." It's a song of expectation, you get the feeling you're exploring some wild landscape as you listen. The lyrics capture's the hero's journey, from the Call to Crossing the Threshold, to the Ordeal and the Resurrection. If you don't know what I'm talking about, do yourself a favor and read about the Hero's Journey. It'll make all your art better.
Mike uses Catholic imagery the way that Flannery O'Connor did. It's always unexpected, sometimes shocking. Three Days is deeply Catholic. In a way, you follow Christ through his experience of ministry. The song beings with a young adolescent that must be about his fathers work, eager to begin. It moves to uneasiness, at the poor's "hatred in disguise," and ends with an embrace of death and weakness. In a way, the song put me in touch with the humanity of Christ, especially in the discovery of the crowd's fickle nature. Though I wish more did, not many artists make me feel that side of Christ and the Christian life like Mike does; the dirty, gray, human side that we so often are afraid to hold.
That's why I'm really excited to get Mike's EP when it comes out. In the meantime, I'll be listening to his music here.
For those of you that haven't listened to Mike's Podcast, "The Time & The Mystery," I'm going to include one of my favorite episodes here. His interview with Bishop Donald Hying is profound. Enjoy!