Every Life Has a Soundtrack.

If you’ve ever had the opening bars of a song transport you back in time or remind you of a pivotal spiritual moment, Matthew Paul Turner’s honest—and frequently hilarious—musings will strike a chord. Straight-forward and amusing, Hear No Evil is Turner’s “life soundtrack,” a compilation of engaging personal stories about how music—and music’s ability to transform—has played a key role in his spiritual life.

Groove along on his journey as young evangelical Turner attends forbidden contemporary Christian concerts, moves to “Music City” Nashville, and dreams of becoming the Michael Jackson of Christian music.

Cosmic and compelling, keen and funny, every page is a new encounter with the people, places, and experiences that have taught the music-editor-turned-author some new things about God, forced him out of his comfort zone, and introduced him to a fresh view of grace along the way.

◊◊◊◊◊

Both entertaining and enlightening Matthew shares his thoughts throughout this book about growing up in a church that had its finger on the pulse of what they felt should and should not be listened to and considered appropriate Christian music.

Lighthearted and laying it all on the table I laughed through sections on this book on his love of Amy Grant and a particular song that spoke to him, Lead Me On, which Matthew describes as a song that made him want to change.

Good music changes me, shocks me, makes me feel uncomfortable, and drives me to think and hope differently.  And once in  a while, it makes me cynical and sarcastic.

Matthew Paul Turner uses this book to share stories of his past and experiences with Christian music that wasn’t always considered acceptable in the/his church. There are full chapters of this book that I would love to just copy and paste here to give you samples of what a true treat this book is.  Instead, I am going to ask you to take my word for it.  This book spoke to me from growing up in  what I would call a traditional church to where I am now where we play all the modern Christian songs you are hearing on the radio.   Pretty much the music that is played in my church today would cause my old church I grew up in much stress.  Unnecessary of course.

This is a book that I plan to go through again as I read it quickly and have decided that I would like to go back and spend a little more time in this witty read that I feel would appeal to most readers and certainly those who have a love for music!

Listen to the 10 minute interview by clicking here!

My Amazon Rating

Thank you to Waterbrook Multnomah

I read this at home in the comfy chair of the reading room!