Bluetree is touring in America with a new album due for February release. Not many Christian music hits are written in a bar in a city in Thailand known for its sex tourism.
But Bluetree’s “God of This City” erupted from a stage in a bar called Climax. Aaron Boyd and his bandmates from Belfast, Ireland were touring in Thailand when they were offered a chance to play a two-hour set in this bar as long as they brought enough of their Christian friends to buy Coca-Cola to keep the bar busy.
“There were tourists walking buy and I know they had to be wondering what was going on in this bar with Jesus music coming out of there,” Boyd said. As he tried to imagine what these people were thinking about what they were seeing, the band started playing and he began singing the words he thought God was saying about this city.
It wasn’t long before the song had taken shape.
Now dozens of artists – most notably Chris Tomlin – have recorded the song, which begins with the lyric, “You’re the God of this city. You’re the king of these people. You’re the Lord of this nation. You are.”
That doesn’t bother Boyd at all.
“I don’t mind at all when other people record our songs,” Boyd said. “We don’t really feel like they are our songs. The songs we write are filled with truth. I want people singing songs of truth.”
The band, nominated for Best New Artist at the 2010 Dove Awards, are putting the finishing touches on a new album called Kingdom that should be released sometime around February of 2012.
Many of the songs originated in the same way, although in very different locations, as God of This City.
“A lot of our songs have that element in them,” Boyd said. “I think every song on the new album is better than every song on the last one.”
Boyd said the song “Rest” on the new album came about in the same way.
“We were singing at our home church and those words started to come,” Boyd said. “We need to rest in the Lord. It is an active rest, but we need to rest knowing that God has our back.”
Bluetree led worship for the church service at Church of the Harvest in Oklahoma City Nov. 13. They played in concert there later that evening. They had played in Sulphur, Okla. the previous day and in Georgia the day before that.
After getting off their plane from Ireland, they will spend weeks on a bus going from town to town leading worship and playing their own music in concerts. Boyd said the band enjoys both although, even in concerts they prefer to be leading others in worship rather than starring in a show.
“We don’t want people making more of us than we are just because we are on a stage,” Boyd said.
The 30-year old from Belfast remembers the religious riots in his home country from just over a decade ago. He recalls all cars being checked before being allowed into parking lots, riots in the streets and nights full of action.
“I remember helicopters flying around and bomb scares,” Boyd said. “But now, there is just a very small minority who are trying to keep that alive. The economy is much better and 99 percent of the people there just want to live their lives.”
As extraordinary as Bluetree is writing most of their songs live, the boys from Belfast have even more surprising hobbies.
They are true outdoorsmen.
The Irish accents sound out of place when telling stories on stage about noodling – hand fishing for large catfish – and hunting for all types of large game.
They will even be featured on a show called Final Descent on the Pursuit Channel – a hunting and fishing network.
While touring America, they plan on hunting for Moose and other big game, fishing and even hunting alligator gar with bow and arrow.
In the meantime, they will continue to tour, singing in churches and concert halls across America and working to finish the new album.
You can keep up with them at www.twitter.com/bluetreeband or www.facebook.com/Bluetree.