Thirty-five years into his career, Steven Curtis Chapman still finds amazement in living his dream as a musician. The beloved Christian singer-songwriter tells Apple Music that Still, which follows the 2019 bluegrass album Deeper Roots, embodies this amazement, offering the kinds of songs afforded only by his age and career longevity. “I just knew there were some songs and things that I could only say now, at this point in my life and with all that I’ve been through, all that we’ve been through in the world,” Chapman tells Apple Music. “And so, at that point, it was like, ‘I still want to sing. I still want to tell new stories. I still love to do this. I still love to say something new and have a new conversation or a new perspective.”
Still opens with “Welcome Back to Wonder,” a literal invitation for listeners to reconnect with everyday sources of awe and joy. The album also includes the studio version of the somber “A Desperate Benediction,” a Tom Douglas co-write that Chapman released in unfinished form on the afternoon of the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol, in response to the violence he witnessed on the news. Below, Chapman shares insight into several key tracks on Still.
“Welcome Back to Wonder”
“‘Welcome Back to Wonder’ was a theme for me of almost this whole season of life. And I think it is for a lot of us, but especially those who’ve been around for a while, like myself, and who’ve experienced incredible mountaintops beyond anything I could have ever imagined, but also a lot of sadness and grief and loss, personally for me and my family with the loss of our daughter 14 years ago. But then, so much of this pandemic, and so much of what has happened in our world politically, racially, socially—even within the church, which I write a lot of music for—has felt heavy and weighty.”
“Still”
“The word ‘still’ is really anchored in the fact that I’ve sung songs for years and years about how I believe God is faithful and God is good, even when life is not, even when life is really hard. I have learned, at this point in my life, that I’m going to keep learning it, and I'm going to keep forgetting it. It’s not like I’ve got it down or I’ve got it figured out, but I can honestly say God is still good. God is still faithful at this point in my life, even with hard, hard things that I’ve gone through.”
“I’m Alive”
“I’ve got breath in my lungs right now, and there are some who are not with us still. So, in a way, it’s, ‘Why am I still here?’ And the fact that I am still here is enough. That’s why I’m here, to be alive and to breathe in the air and feel my heartbeat. And if I’m sad, to be sad and cry and taste tears and face fears. I am scared. I am afraid. I don’t know what’s coming, and yet I’m still alive so I can fight it. I can face it. And there was something in all of that for me that just was wind in my sail and put some fight in me.”
“A Desperate Benediction”
“I started writing that song about three or four years ago. It was before the pandemic even hit. And I was just so troubled with, particularly on the political front, the fighting and division and how that had started to divide even friends and families. I got with Tom Douglas again, and I said, ‘I just want to write a prayer of benediction speaking a blessing over our world, all of us, on all extremes, just to say we need peace.’ On January 6th, after the election and all the crazy stuff that went on in Washington, it just intensified the division so much. I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to release a version of this song, just as a prayer into this craziness right now.’ And so, it was a live version with my son Caleb and my daughter-in-law, Jillian, that we recorded in my studio.”
“Trying to Get Back Home”
“I wouldn’t have written that song five years ago. And there are certain lyrics and things that I was thinking about, particularly the lyric ‘Be kind to yourself/And to everyone else/On this long and winding road/Because we're all just trying to get back home.’ So, it just felt like, after taking this whole journey with us [on the album], it’s like, ‘We’re not there yet. We’re not home yet.’”