"Music can make us come alive, provided that we bring our lives to the music. For each of us, life and music intertwine. Without songs and music making, neither one of us could understand the stories of our particular lives. And without songs and music making, neither one of us could understand what words like spirit and spirituality mean either. For us music and song are intimately related to spirituality, to being alive to what is deepest in and about the human journey," write Don Saliers, professor of theology and worship at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and his daughter Emily Saliers, one-half of the popular musical group the Indigo Girls. Over the years, he has been a composer, a cantor, and a church musician while she has found many fans as a folk-rock musician and social activist. For them, music is a spiritual practice for Saturday night and Sunday morning.

There is always meaning available in song to those with open hearts and listening ears. The Saliers are rightly convinced that coming alive to music is one of the joys in life. In chapters on embodiment and identity, grieving and community, justice and joy, they spell out the magic and the mystery of this art form and spiritual practice.

This book will challenge you to trace the songlines of your life from childhood to the present. Whether writing about Christian hymns, the worship wars in churches, karaoke, or popular ballads, the Saliers demonstrate on each page their deep and abiding love of music.