The truth of the Christmas story and the lies of Randy Travis

This past Saturday, Melinda and I drove up to New Milford to see Behold the Lamb of God, Andrew Peterson's annual Christmas tour. We caught the show once before when we lived in Charlotte and were so glad to hear it was coming up to Connecticut.

If you've never heard the album Behold the Lamb of God, you need to pick up a copy. It's so unlike any other Christmas record. And it's actually about Christ. There's no Santa Clause or snow or chestnuts or reindeer or anything like that. Instead, AP starts in the Old Testament and tells the story the story of Jesus' coming from Israel's perspective. The record and the show do a great job of showing the unifying story of Scripture.

Just before the intermission, AP made a passing comment about how he hopes his art will last. He's not interested in making something that will be popular for a month and then forgotten. And he wants to write and sing about truths that don't change. Obviously, the truth of Christ doesn't change, so it's pretty safe to write and perform a Christmas show. His latest project is about the resurrection, so again, it's pretty safe since he's shooting for timeless.

And that reminded me of King of the Hill. Let me explain. There's an old episode where the Hills head to Nashville for Fan Fair, that week-long festival of country music concerts and events. In the episode, Peggy Hill is convinced that Randy Travis has plagiarized one of her songs. In real life, Randy Travis seems like such an honest, down-to-earth guy, so it's hard to think of him as someone who would steal another's song. The episode is funny because it turns out Randy Travis is kind of a praise-hogging jerk.

But what does that have to do with Andrew Peterson? Last year, Melinda and I were watching Larry King Live's Christmas show. Mr. King had invited musicians to come talk about their Christmas albums and play songs. Randy Travis was one of his guests, and played the song, "Labor of Love" from Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God. In the show and on the original CD, the song is beautifully performed by Jill Phillips. It's definitely one of the more memorable songs from BtLoG, and Randy decided to record it for his Christmas CD. That's all well and good, and I'm glad that Andrew Peterson received a royalty check for the song, but here's the thing: Larry King asked Randy about the song and Randy simply called it "an original," implying that he wrote it himself! He had the perfect opportunity to draw attention to Andrew Peterson's music, but did not.

Peggy Hill, the world might not believe your story, but I do; I've seen Randy Travis' true colors.