Some buzz about Jamie’s music….
The Listeners Speak
“You Are the Catechism Instructor….”
You should be aware that you are the catechism instructor/leader in our church, unbeknownst to you. At least 5 families with at least 3 children each, age 6 and under – live and breathe your music on a daily basis. Pastor Steve hasn’t even realized this yet. The music is a reference point in many ways for them. They will hear a verse [or] a biblical character, or a story and start singing one of your songs in response. My daughter can barely go a day without saying “Daddy can we listen to Jamie Soles?”
God bless you, brother. You have set the standard very high for children’s music and we are truly blessed by it.
Matthew Gonella
“Wonderful Teaching Tools”
Mr. Soles,
My husband picked up two of your albums at the Auburn Avenue conference two weeks before our fourth child was born. Your music has been, not only entertaining, but wonderful teaching tools for our kids! They love to sing your music in Wal-Mart, and enjoy listening to it as much as I do. I really appreciate your work! I could say so much more!
My husband (Steven Wright) gave me three more CDs for Christmas! We now have “The Way my Story Goes”, “Up From Here”, “Fun with Prophets”, “Good Advice”, and “Weight of Glory”.
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks to you and your family for the great music we have been enjoying. May God richly Bless you!!
Allegra Wright
“My Three Year Old Only Listens to Your Music!”
Lately my three year old only listens to your music. His favorites are “Biblical ABCs’ (he calls it “Cater-lay-homer”) and “the 12 Apostles”. I love listening to him sing Bible songs. Thanks for such great music!
Rachel Booth Shipp
Texas
“We Love Them!”
We have had 3 of your cd’s that we bought at the OCHEC convention. WE LOVE THEM! We have listened to them a million times. All day, every day! In the house, in the car, outside and even sing them when they aren’t playing! Even the three year old goes around singing the lyrics!
We are having a big yard sale this weekend, and any money we make will go to buying some more cd’s!
God bless you and your family for such an incredible ministry.
Much love,
The de Jongs:
Mark, Debbie, Holly, Dana, Reilly, Ginger, Sophia, Tabitha, Zoe and Nicole
(yes, that’s 8 girls!)
“Your Music is a Blessing!”
I came upon your music through a freebie ad in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine that offered a free download of a few of your songs. I took advantage of the offer and am so glad I did! I am always looking for good kids’ music because we have five kids that we homeschool (ages 8, 6, 5, 3, and 2) and I want them to have good, quality music to listen to. I am so delighted in what I found in your music. You write songs about things in the Bible that nobody else does and in a very entertaining way. My kids especially like the Kings of Israel song — and so do I! It makes us all smile and is definitely the only way we’d ever even get close to memorizing them! So thank you for doing what you do and may the Lord bless you in your efforts as you serve Him faithfully.
In Christ,
Lorna Halverson
“We are Being Blessed….”
To all the Soles Family singers (and the non-Soles, too!), I, my husband, and our children have been gulping deep draughts of Sole music daily over the past month or so and wanted to send you a thanks!!! We are being blessed through your faith-full and joy-filled music and hope to see you continue in this good work.
John and Jamey,
Jack, James, Grace, Kaylinn, Justus, and Liberty Jackson
Seaside, CA
“The Kind of Music I’d Want to Write for My Kids….”
Thank you, Jamie. I discovered you yesterday when I heard your interview on the latest issue of “St. Anne’s Pub”. I’m the father of two boys (3 and 7-months), the oldest of which is an ardent lover of (pretty much any) recorded media. It’s a challenge to find music for him that’s both fun and edifying, but your interview and the song clips in that issue clicked with me immediately. It’s about as close as I’ve found to the kind of music I’d want to write for my kids (if I could write music at all). I also love how the kids on the album (yours?) actually sound like *children*, and not wanna-be mini-divas being prepped for a tour on “American Idol”. I played the clip from “These are They” for my wife (who was a 2nd-grade teacher at a local classical school before being promoted to Mom), and could tell from the immediate gleam in her eye that we’d be purchasing the CD. The 3-yr-old dancing about gleefully trying to sing to a song he’d never heard before only sealed the matter. Now the only question remaining is whether or not we can keep this to ourselves until Christmas (the original plan) or just cave in and hand it over right away. The immediate gratification of having the MP3s doesn’t help matters. 😉
Thanks for writing and recording. I’m sure I’ll be ordering more before long. And I suspect there are other families at our church who will be also.
Ron Hough
Garland, TX
“So Creative, So Biblical.”
Jamie, I heard the interview with you on “St. Anne’s Public House.” I love your music! So creative, so biblical. I imagine that I am going to learn a lot about the bible from listening. We will probably buy more around Christmas time.
Jeff Tell
Charleston, S.C.
“An Instant Hit!”
We received the CD and it was an instant hit! I have four children ages 12, 11, 8 and 6 and we all began singing the chorus from ‘Bad Guys’ after hearing it only once. The next day, my six-year-old son was trying to sing the part about Jezebel being ‘lunch’ to the dogs and it was hilarious. The songs are great! May God continue to bless what you’re doing with the gift of music He’s given to you and your family.
By His grace and for His glory,
Derek Johnson and family
Green Pond, AL
“Our Whole Family Loves the Music….”
Hi There! Just to let you know…the download worked great and I think we have already worn the CD out!! Not really, but our whole family loves the music and thank the Lord for your heart. We have just begun to move in Reformed circles and are thankful we were introduced to your music for children. Thank you so much!!
Marjorie Lober
Billings, MT
Solid and Fun!
Its great to hear Christian Children’s music that is scripturally solid while being fun to listen to!
God Bless,
Nick Morrison
Clifton, N.J.
Downloads a Blessing for Folks in Morocco!
Hello Mr. Soles, You don’t know what a blessing it is for us here in Morocco to be able to download your music from the internet. (We are homeschooling and serving Jesus here in this dry and thirsty land.) While we were stateside over the summer I found your CDs at the Doorposts booth at a conference. Since then we have been listening to the one CD I bought, and I have been lamenting that I didn’t buy more. Yesterday, after listening to The Way My Story Goes with my children for the umptheenth time I decided it was time to get more. When you live in Morocco you get used to things taking time, so I had hoped to get your music by Christmas time. But to our great delight, we downloaded it and listened to it the same day! Thanks so much for your ministry. Lately we use your music as a basis for our morning devotions. We have memorized the names of the kings because of your CD, and are studying the Bible to go along with it.
God bless,
Terri Lander
Morocco
Day-Long Enjoyment
Thanks Jamie,
Our girls rediscovered the Way My Story Goes CD today and have been enjoying it all day. I also heard your interview on St. Annes Public House recently which reminded me to check for your new album. Keep up the great work and may the Lord bless your ministry,
Steve Kellam
Vinton, VA
Blessing for the Family
Hi Jamie, I had fun surprising my family the other night when we listened to the fatherhood CD for family worship. When your name was mentioned on the CD the whole family shouted with glee! We truly receive a blessing from your family’s music ministry. I really enjoy talking to you at family camp and hope you can come again.
Your Friend on the Oregon Coast.
Tim Roach
Garibaldi, OR
Going to Buy Every Album
I just wanted to let you know that I decided to buy every album you have available on CD because of your recent interview on St. Anne’s Public House. God bless you.
Bryan B
Grand Rapids, MI
Kudos from Reviewers
Needs to Be Heard Around the World
“It is a pity that this album is not more widely known, because these lyrics, heavily flavoured as they are with God’s word, need to be heard by people around the world.”
Jason Ewert, on River
Mature Writing, Arrangements, Production and Performance
“[Memorials] is a maturely written, arranged, produced, played and sung work that may well represent a new high point in Jamie’s musical career.”
Tim Gallant, on Memorials
Dan Glover’s Pitch to Music Resellers
A friend of mine has been making quality children’s music (he also produces very good music geared toward adults) from a reformed-covenantal perspective for some years now. His music is very high quality both in respect to its artistry and its scriptural insight and content. My friend’s name is Jamie Soles and he hails from Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada.
Jamie sings a lot about God’s covenant relationship with His people throughout the scope of redemptive history. He does a wonderful job of simultaneously combining humour, gravity, solemnity, triumph, education, joy and praise as he retells many of the best and least known Bible stories from both the Old and New Testaments. Generally, each album progresses from creation to fall to redemption and shows God’s grace to His people throughout the full and continuous story of Scripture, culminating in Jesus Christ.
Something else he does masterfully is to show how Messiah Jesus was foreshadowed throughout the OT in so many of the great yet very human characters we thought we knew as well as the events that God ordained in their history. Jamie is a true artist.
Unlike many musicians (some of whom wrote some of the tunes in the Psalter!!), the tunes he has written for the stories he is singing suit the overall spirit of the story-song. Songs of triumph (the Israelites taking Canaan) can be marched to. Songs of mourning (the exile or the death of Absalom) always make it difficult for me to swallow (and I’m the dad). Songs of redemption make me and my family marvel at our gracious God as we heartily agree with the words and our spirits are raised to worship by the melodies.
Jamie currently has three children’s albums available with the fourth set to come out at the end of April. Jamie’s albums are Good Advice, The Way My Story Goes, and Up From Here [note from the webmaster: the name of the new fourth release is Memorials ]. Frequently, he is joined by his wife (Val) and the older of his [eight] children who all sing beautifully. The children’s voices are not pouty or whiney and Val’s voice is strong and clear without a hint of sensuality, something that is near impossible to avoid in modern music whether Christian or secular. My family and many others I know have also enjoyed his most recent adult offering, Ascending. This album is a faithful rendering (sometimes nearly word for word) of the Psalms of Ascent.
Jamie’s philosophy of children’s music is similar to that of C.S. Lewis’s philosophy of children’s literature: If it can’t be enjoyed by a fifty year old it won’t make for good children’s listening either. I can attest to the fact that this music appeals to adults as well. Much to my family’s chagrin, Dad often snags one of the CDs before anyone else is awake and takes it to work to listen to. I find that I am continually edified by it and that Jamie has included details from the biblical narratives that I had sometimes glossed over before.
