“Music is the language of the spirit,” wrote Kahlil Gibran, author of The Prophet. “It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.”

Music has the power to change lives. The power to bring peace and comfort. The power to help us make sense of our emotions and feelings, both the bitter and the sweet. The power to push back against strife and division in our lives and our world. The power to suggest answers to the questions we ask, and to guide our spirits.

In Spirit in the Sky: Pop, Rock, R&B, and the Search for the Transcendent, a life-long student of recorded music – what the author calls his “language of the soul” – explores a mosaic of influential artists as he constructs a spirituality of pop, rock, soul, and R&B music and guides readers to be attentive to their souls, their hopes, their questions by listening to music past and present with an ear for the voice of God. Along the way, readers will be introduced to (or reminded of) a host of artists who have pointed the way forward through a diverse range of styles and approaches: Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Staple Singers, The Indigo Girls, Janice Ian, Carly Simon, Marvin Gaye, Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens), The Beatles, Van Morrison, and others.

Equal parts memoir, popular musicology, and spiritual exploration, The Spirit in the Sky is a book borne of a pursuit of the spiritual life, formed in large part through paying attention to the content of popular music and the questions it has prompted.