Tokens cast member Greg Lee, guest Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show and host Lee Camp.
Lee C. Camp’s bad idea nagged and nagged at him.
Camp, a professor of theology and ethics at Lipscomb University, had this notion about combining music and theology, about offering up songs and academic inquiry in a way that wouldn’t be sacrilegious or patronizing or dumbed-down or cheesy.
He had this notion about a kind of social justice variety show.
He wanted to greet audiences with warmhearted challenges, and with theological and ethical questions. Not church audiences, mind you ... we’re talking about the general public.
But, as any commercial art purveyor along Music Row or Studio City will tell you, the general public doesn’t want to be challenged or questioned. We want to be celebrated and ratified.
Concerts aren’t for thinking, at least not beyond things like, “I think Bob Dylan is singing ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,’ but it’s hard to tell ’cause for the past 15 years he’s sounded like he’s gargling razor blades” (geezer rock version); “I think I’m way too old to be here” (Justin Bieber version); or “I think the last six songs have all been about pickup trucks, and I feel celebrated and ratified because I myself have a pickup truck” (country version).
Anyway, Mr. Camp, how do you plan to market something so amorphous, when even super-bright newspaper columnists in major Southern cities can’t even write “amorphous” without using spell check?
“All along, we’ve known there is no good market niche for this,” Camp says.
Sounds like a great first step to success. Pressed further, though, Camp does unleash a little marketing jargon to whet the general public appetite.
“I’ll say it’s like Garrison Keillor meets Bill Moyers,” he says. (Cue the shot of screaming teens and hipsters running for the exits.) “Or it’s like Thomas Merton goes to the ‘Grand Ole Opry.’ (Cue the shot of readers Googling “Thomas Merton” and finding that he was a Trappist monk and mystic who wrote books on pacifism and social justice, followed by readers Googling “Trappist beer,” followed by readers wondering if it’s too early in the day to have a beer.) Or I’ll say we’re about breaking down false dichotomies.”
Hoo boy. A sure-fire winner here. But it was Camp’s idea, and it nagged at him, and nobody likes to be nagged.
Attracting talent
Camp went to Randy Goodman, a respected Music Row player and former Lyric Street Records boss who has helped shape the careers of stars including Dolly Parton and the Dave Matthews Band. Goodman served as a mentor and adviser, helping Camp to bring his concept to fruition and helping to recruit some big-shot musical guests who would add star power and world-class talent to the programs that Camp branded “The Tokens Radio Show.”
From the beginning, when Camp came to him in 2007, Goodman was sure this would work.Check that. From the beginning, Goodman was not sure this would work.
“I remember before the first one started (in 2008), I thought, ‘This could be a disaster,’ ” Goodman says. “But then within five minutes, I was sitting with my mouth agape, thinking, ‘This is amazing.’ ”
And, actually, it is amazing. It’s amazing that Camp has integrated music, humor and scholarship into something so seamlessly entertaining.
Thomas Merton would laugh his Trappist butt off at a Tokens show, and then he’d sit there listening to Dailey & Vincent sing splendid bluegrass duo harmonies, and his mouth would, just like Goodman’s, be agape.
And then Camp would weave some narrative together about how agape isn’t just when your mouth is wide open, it’s also the way to spell "agape," which is an ancient term for divine and self-sacrificing love.
And then Camp would ask some hard questions about how best to live in a way that exemplifies agape, a way that boosts others’ spirits and that defies cynicism. And the questions would spur thought and wonder but not necessarily answers.
And then Vince Gill would sing just like Vince Gill, and then “Brother Preacher” would offer a sermon filled with commentary like, “Humor is all through the Bible. Case in point: Adam and Eve. Naked gardening. I did that one time. Never again.”
On Sunday night (November 18), the Ryman will play host to Tokens’ “Welcome Table” show. Proceeds will benefit Room In The Inn, which shelters and aids people in need of shelter and aid.
Camp has planned a program that examines hospitality and tolerance, and that features Gill, Dailey & Vincent, Brian McLaren, The McCrary Sisters, Charlie Strobel, Buddy Green, Brother Preacher, The Most Outstanding Horeb Mountain Boys, The Nashville Choir and The Tokens Radio Players.
It’ll be an ecumenical, thought-provoking, gape-mouthed, music-filled hoot.
It’ll be another chance to watch Lee Camp make the best of a bad idea.
If you go
What: Tokens at the Ryman: The Welcome Table
When: 7:30 p.m. today
Where: Ryman Auditorium, 116 Fifth Ave. S.
Tickets: $24.50 and $34.50, with discounts available for students. Tickets are available at the Ryman box office, www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 1-800-745-3000.
