Power In The Blood

Steve Stockman and myself were on the William Crawley programme last Sunday, talking about religion and rock and roll. The starter for the discussion was the success of Bluetree in the American religious market. In the course of the next few minutes, scores of Northern Irish musicians were 'outed' as members of the greater Christian community.

It doesn't take any great insight to note that Neil Hannon, Foy Vance and Nathan Connolly are all sons of preacher men. Even the Presbyterian Moderator, Stafford Carson has a direct connection to the local indie scene. Add to that the likes of Brian Kennedy, who learned how to sing in Clonnard Monastery, and you'll see that music from these parts is still coloured by religion in a way that our counterparts in Coventry and Stoke may not be.

For me, the ultimate question is: does it produce interesting art? When I returned to Belfast after 11 years in London, I was very wary of the church scene at the time, and the support they were lending to rather wishy-washy material. I thought it was vesting a false sense of importance to music that wasn't creative. But interestingly, a lot of those artists have become great songwriters, informed by useful record collections. It's more about Sufjan Stevens and Nick Cave than Sir Cliff.

Some of the acts have actually come out the other side of organised religion. Others are happy to find the ambiguity and the stealth in their mission, using the 'Achtung Baby' stratagem. Which amounts to a fascinating discussion and some sparky recordings. Which is a good thing: right?