Poetry Books + Albums
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BRAND NEW
STORY BEATS and
RHYME DROPS
Poetry for Young Peeps book
by Joel McKerrow
Inside this poetic collection you’re gonna find words that refuse to stay on the page. Poetry that is alive and kicking. Rhythm and rhyme that is soaring and roaring and whispering and just generally...getting in-your-face. Or maybe it’s getting in the face of your heart. If your heart had a face. Now that would be strange. Either way, it’s poetry that will make you laugh and cry and dream and soar. It’s poetry that is so addictive you’ll want to be a poet.
I am not even kidding.
Aimed at 8-16 year olds, but really for anyone.
AVAILABLE
NOW
2023
2023
BRAND NEW poetry book by Joel McKerrow
“In the midst of everything that exists
there is a solitary city
and in this solitary city
there is a leaning building
and in this leaning building
there is the smallest flicker
of an orange glow...”
Phosphorescent words to guide the way.
Even Lost Things Glow is a collection of Joel's poetry from the last years. It is the words that were written to bring light into the dark spaces of our lives. Glow-in-the-dark words. Phosphorescent. A glimmer of hope. Brand new poetry and some older pieces too. And it includes QR code links to 21 different spoken word/music tracks so you can listen along as you read for an immersive poetic experience.
AVAILABLE
NOW
2023
The BRAND NEW,
fully improvised,
poetic meditation album
by Joel McKerrow
(with special musical guest Chelsea McGough)
Flow: An Improvised Poetic Meditation is like nothing you have heard before.
Improvised poetry.
Improvised Meditation.
Improvised Cello.
It is a bringing together of a number of different creative-experiments into one beautifully meditative and reflective album. This is the kind of music/poetry that you want to put on some headphones, get comfortable and let it wash over you and take you where it wants to. Give yourself to the flow, as Joel and Chelsea both did in their improvisation, and see what comes up within you.
Chelsea McGough is a cellist, composer, and producer based in Nashville, TN. Her compositions have been featured in films, television, social media and ad campaigns in the U.S. and abroad. You can hear some of her most recent work on the latest season of the Bridgerton podcast and the Showtime network docuseries VICE. She was a featured cello soloist in the 2018 Lionsgate feature film “I Can Only Imagine”. When she’s not creating in her studio, you can find her playing with artists such as Needtobreathe, Copeland, and Gungor, and working as a session cellist in Nashville.
2023
The GROUND-BREAKING Album
by Joel McKerrow & the Mysterious Few
2016
Released in 2016 there is not really even a specific genre for what Joel McKerrow & the Mysterious Few created here. It could be called something like acoustic-driven, intimate, folk rock poetry; a mash up of Passenger, Sigur Ros, Daughter sitting beneath passionately delivered spoken word.
Whatever it is Joel McKerrow and the Mysterious Few are pioneering a unique meeting place of artistic forms through an explosion of poetic verse, impassioned performance, soaring vocals and intricate musicality. The songs/poems (or pongs for short) are both inspiring and moving, attention grabbing and thoughtful, articulate and powerful, in-your-face and under-your-skin. This is not just poetry with a thin musical veneer, this is music perfectly and intentionally woven in with spoken word.
Accompanying the lyricism of frontman poet Joel McKerrow is a host of musicians at the top of their game. Josh Furhrmeister (guitars, keys), Richelle Boer (vocals and guitars), Jhana Allan (Violin) and Leah Scholes (Percussion).
“...perhaps the loveliest thing you have ever heard. If you know the work of Joel McKerrow you expect lovely, you expect inspiring, you expect lump-in-your-throat beauty. But all that has been kicked up a notch.”
~ Indie-feed Performance Poetry Podcast ~
An Upside-Down World
A Poetry/Music collaboration with Grace Naoum and pianist David Andrew as part of TEARFUND AUSTRALIA.
From the stories of some of the least fortunate throughout the world this is a creative project with TEARFUND AUSTRALIA that saw Joel and Grace responding poetically to these stories of courage and hope and survival. An honouring of their bravery. A challenging of the way we perceive the world to be. A self-confrontation. This album is sure to confront anyone who listens, yet also invite them into a new way of being. Backed by the piano of David Andrew with poetry interspersed between Joel and Grace, it is a masterpiece in storytelling.
Available for streaming wherever you stream your music.
2022
The ALBUM from the EXHIBITION
HUMAN: An Exploration of the Inner Life
Through the visual arts, the zoological, the poetic and the musical HUMAN is an exploration of the drive that makes us...well...human. With a philosophical base in the identity framework of the enneagram (plus a few extras), this is your chance to explore your deeper desires, your compulsions, your hopes and your fears and how they shape your life for better and for worse.
Available for streaming wherever you stream your music.
2021
2019
Creative, Non-Fiction Memoir
A book about the Spiritual Journey
(GOODREADS- 4.4 rating).
When a white, middle-class, Christian, heterosexual, able-bodied man begins to question all of these cultural realities that he has been raised within, something is sure to give. The cultural fishbowl is sure to be cracked. Woven is such a story. The gradual awakening of a man to his gender, economic, and racial privilege. It is the story of growing up within contemporary evangelicalism, the dissatisfaction that began to arise, and the subsequent journey of self-discovery.
Woven is a story of dissatisfaction. A story of struggling and wrestling, and questioning. It is the story of self-confrontation and institutional-deconstruction and spiritual-reformation. Woven is a naming of the realities we would prefer not to name, the owning up to our own bigotry and entitlement. It is an audiobook that is sure to challenge both the conservative and the progressive, whilst also paving a way forward for all of us seeking to grow in our humanity and connectedness. Published by Acorn Press, and launched Nov 15th 2019 at The Justice Conference Australia.
"This is more than just a memoir. Joel invites us into his story and asks the reader to reflect on their own life... Of all the books I’ve read that deal with making sense of a spirituality and world view you are born into, this is the most generous, inclusive and graceful. Joel’s prose is stunning and his heart is authentic. In conversations that usually end up in binary, boxed and unhelpful sides and structures, this book invites us to imagine a much more holistic and meaningful way of being. So grateful for this book."
(Alison- GoodReads)
The AudioBook Version
A book about the Spiritual Journey
(AUDIBLE- 4.9 rating).
The audio version of Joel McKerrow's WOVEN is read by the author (and being that he is a performance poet, it is a wonderful listen) with music by David Andrew. Joel Mckerrow doesn't just read you the book, he gives you an experience of it. It can be found wherever you get good audio books.
"I didn’t intend on binge listening to this book, but that’s exactly what happened. Joel McKerrow your words were Medicinal, your story so humbly raw and honest. I honour you as artist, as Christian, as fellow human being. I have 1 hour and something to go of my 7 hour audiobook journey, but I have cried 5 times & my heart has been gripped more times than I can count. Thank you for your medicine: 🙏 Get your ears and eyes around Woven... A beautiful tapestry of faith that brought me comfort and discomfort the way art and faith should..." (Allison- GoodReads)
2020
2020
Celebrating TEN YEARS of Poetry
A compilation of New tracks, Old tracks, Live tracks, remixed and more. Available through all streaming services NOW. Released 21st September 2020.
Hollowed Out Lungs
(Released 27th June 2018)
When the writer comes to the page they do not just share words and ideas, they share the very essence of their vulnerable self. They open up their insides and ask the world to take a look. They allow themselves to be hollowed out and writ across the page.
The poems found on these pages therefore are the inner lives of writers Joel McKerrow and Zoe Boyle. They are the writings of their everyday reality. They are the hoping and the doubting and the shame and the courage poured straight out upon the paper. So please enter. Find your own yearnings expressed. For the knife that carves these writers hollow is the same that carves you.
Joel McKerrow's third published work of poetry. Hollowed out Lungs is co-written with Zoe Boyle and features inspiring and challenging writing from both writers.
2018
"Hollowed Out Lungs holds the breath of two people – Joel and Zoe – working out their days, watching their God, learning their bodies, and loving their families. They traverse identity through encounters with strangers and friends. They dissect the very big things and very small things, calling on the simplicity of nature, of death, of children, of love. In an act of wild sacrifice, they have turned themselves inside out – their furiously working bodily organs spilling out onto these pages. They are in process, and they are proud of it. As you read the insides of these poets, may their holy mess enter into your holy mess. May they get under your skin and into your system. May they fill you with desire, anger, grief and pure joy." (From the foreword by Anna McGahan).
2018
Recorded Live at the Launch of Hollowed Out lungs the Book
Hollowed Out Lungs (live album)
A live recording from the launch of Joel McKerrow's book Hollowed Out Lungs. Book
Released October 26, 2018
Poet- Joel McKerrow.
Female Vocals- Richelle Boer.
Guitars- Richelle Boer.
Piano- Meena Shamaly.
Recording and Production- Lachlan Bannan.
These Wandering Feet (Book)
In the frenetic restlessness of Western Society, our lives have grown too busy, our attention too lazy. We have lost the sacred art of being present — to the fire that burns inside us, to the wind that blows above us, to the water that flows between us, to the earth that stands below us. We have ceased to see the deeper reality, the ‘mountain behind the mountain’, the soul of our landscape and our connection with it.
It is time to open our eyes, to come to attention.
These Wandering Feet is a poetic exploration through the sacred lands of pilgrimage. Australian poet Joel McKerrow invites the reader to join him as he traverses outer landscapes from Australia to North America, Europe and the United Kingdom; while at the same time walking the inner landscapes of shadow and faith, doubt and light, presence and absence. From unfolding with the questions to wrestling with the unknown, it is a journey of depth into what it means to truly see and to truly listen— in a world that is always speaking.
2014
OUT OF PRINT
These Wandering Feet (Album)
These Wandering Feet is Joel’s second studio album, debut release with The Poatina Tree Label and first collaboration with Tasmanian based producer and composer Spike Mason.
An assortment of other musicians have come on board for this exciting project incorporating twenty two tracks of the passionate spoken word of Joel McKerrow with the beautiful sounds of piano, viola, acoustic and classical guitar, clarinet, duduk, percussion and trumpet. This musical score takes Joel’s inspiring poetry and embodies it with stirring melodies and wistful strings.
Written throughout a worldwide trip taken by Joel in 2012-13 the album is a poetic exploration through the sacred lands of pilgrimage. Wrestling with themes of spirituality, relationships, self-identity and connection to the land it holds out a challenge to come to attention to a world that is always speaking.
2014
One Foot in the Clay
2012
‘One foot in the Clay’ is Joel McKerrow’s debut spoken word album. Sixteen tracks, many backed by the breath-taking musical soundscapes of Meena Shamaly, this album captures some of Joel’s most profound and passionate spoken word poetry. From the spiritual journeyings of ‘Table’ and ‘God’, to the lamenting Confessions series, to the social wrestlings of ‘exile’ and the explosive ‘Boomsha’, this album will challenge and inspire and leave you with a deeper understanding of life and a greater yearning for something more.
2012
Beyond Rhetoric:
Writings in the Tradition of Kahlil Gibran
‘Beyond Rhetoric: Writings in the tradition of Kahlil Gibran’ is a book of poetic and mystic ponderings crafted around the story of a homeless prophet and those that gather to listen to his wisdom. It is a modern fable in the same vein as the work of the late poet and philosopher, Kahlil Gibran and brings together a critique of modern society with the whisperings of a new social and personal reality. Weaving together action and contemplation, the aesthetic and the analytical, self-understanding and social engagement, it is a holistic dive into themes of power, faith, peace, justice, truth, freedom and sexuality. This is a book that will touch more than just your intellect, it shall bring together the gap between your heart space and the actions of your hands. With stunning illustrations by Elise Hanscamp and foreword by Franciscan priest Father Richard Rohr.
OUT OF PRINT
Maybe wisdom is recognized first by those who love beauty. We Franciscans frequently believe that beauty might, in fact, be the truest name for God. You will find such wisdom beauty here.
~ Father Richard Rohr ~