The Maker

SATB, tenor soloist, and piano

The first time I heard The Maker by French-Canadian singer/songwriter Daniel Lanois, I was transfixed. Though often associated with religious themes, the song resists easy definition, blending biblical imagery with universal questions of belief, doubt, and compassion; the former elevating the latter into a sacred space.

Lanois is perhaps best known for his work behind the scenes as a producer for artists such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, and U2, but something about The Maker felt especially personal to me. When conductor—and fellow Minnesotan—Craig Hella Johnson asked me to write a piece for un upcoming guest conducting gig he was doing with the Twin Cities–based National Lutheran Choir, I all but begged him to let me arrange Lanois’s song. Fortunately, he agreed, and later programmed the work with his fine choir, Conspirare, as part of their December concert series.

The piano underpinning in this arrangement takes its inspiration from the pulsating drums and bass of Lanois’s original recording, though listeners may also hear an echo of the river named in the text—a current that carries the speaker from the feeling of being broken towards something more hopeful.  What begins as an intimate song ultimately unfolds as a collective meditation on creation, suffering, and grace.

The Maker was written for Craig Hella Johnson and the National Lutheran Choir, to whom it is dedicated, and received its premiere in October 2013.

The Text

Words & music by Daniel Lanois (b. 1951)

Oh, deep water, black, and cold like the night.
I stand with arms wide open.
I've run a twisted line.
I'm a stranger in the eyes of the Maker

I could not see for fog in my eyes.
I could not feel for the fear in my life.
And from across the great divide, in the distance I saw a light.
Jean Baptiste’s walking to me with the Maker.

My body is bent and broken by long and dangerous sleep.
I can’t work the fields of Abraham and turn my head away.
I’m not a stranger in the eyes of the Maker.

Brother John, have you seen the homeless daughters
Standing there with broken wings?
I have seen the flaming swords
There over east of Eden

Burning in the eyes of the Maker.
Burning in the eyes of the Maker.
Burning in the eyes of the Maker.
Burning in the eyes of the Maker.

Oh, river rise from your sleep.
Oh, river rise from your sleep.

Performed by Conspirare
(Craig Hella Johnson, conductor).