Q&A
Q&A with Lutheran Jazz Singer Erin Bode
This summer, Bode released a new album, Sounds of Mercy, created in partnership with the LCMS.
Erin Bode’s career as a professional jazz singer has taken her many places over the decades. In 2006, at the request of the Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison (then director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care), it took her all the way to South Africa, where she recorded music with boys’ and girls’ choirs at a Christian boarding school. The Themba Girls with the Erin Bode Group album was released in 2007 to raise scholarship funds for the school. This past summer, Bode, a lifelong Lutheran, collaborated with the LCMS again on Sounds of Mercy, a new album of previously unreleased Themba Choirs recordings with commentary on mercy by Harrison. In July, she sang some of these songs at a special evening performance during the LCMS convention.
How did you first get involved with this project back in 2006?
A: I was sitting in our music room in our house in St. Louis, and I got a phone call from Pastor Matt Harrison. … He had just recently been on a trip to South Africa and had met with the Themba School [and] was just absolutely blown away by their music. … He told me that it struck him that if people could hear their music, they would want to help support these students, most of whom needed scholarships to attend the school. So, he thought, how can I get this music to a wider group of people who might be interested in helping? I was very fortunate that he thought of me.
What was it like recording with the students in South Africa?
A: The school is in a very rural area of South Africa, outside a very tiny village. They have a camp there with some houses. And there’s the student housing area and a chapel, and some buildings for classes and things [where we would] set up to record.
We spent two weeks at the Themba School. We brought a few songs to record with them, and we collected many of theirs that they had prepared to share with us. It was just a magical experience.
What impact did this have on you?
A: It completely changed the way that I think about music — how music is such a powerful way to share your faith and to really help people, because it connects people so strongly. And that connection can really build a common faith. It can build hope and encouragement between people.
What did you learn during your time in South Africa?
A: Music is such a huge part of their culture. … We would record with them for eight hours a day. And when we would take a break for lunch, they would sing. It was just constant music. It reprioritized what music meant to me: It should be that widespread over our life. They were constantly praising God [with their music], and it was just such a wonderful example. … It helped me to reprioritize what music means to me within my professional capacity. Music isn’t meant to serve the self as much as maybe we’re encouraged for it to.
Tell me about this new album.
A: The album contains eight songs that were chosen from the collection that we got in South Africa. And these eight pieces have been combined with seven sound bites from an Issues, Etc. podcast that Pastor Harrison did. And they tie together the music and this wonderful subject of mercy work.
What do you hope listeners will take away from the album?
A: I hope that they will be able to take away a little bit of what it was like to be there in South Africa. They’ll get a little taste of the beauty of the faith that we share in common with these kids and the people in South Africa. And I hope they’ll come away with … the hope and joy and comfort that we have in these songs.
Learn More
- Listen to the Sounds of Mercy album
- Learn more and watch a video about the project
Stacey Eising
Staff writer and editor for LCMS Communications.
