The Rabbit Room

It’s no secret that I’m a Swedophile. Not only have I toured there a lot, not only have I made some great lifelong friends there (looking at you, Samuel and Kaj and the Petersons), not only have I tracked down my relatives (looking at you, Sanna and Ingrid), but I’ve consistently been amazed by the quality of the music that fair country has given the world.

Embarrassing as it is to admit, I’ve never listened to ABBA (though I sometimes call God that when I pray). But the piano work of Ola Heden and Ted Hektor (a.k.a. “The Swedish Ben Shive”), the band Folk, which includes Jon and Emma and Linus Peterson, and Erik Tilling (a.k.a. “The Swedish Fernando Ortega”), Erik Ljunggren (who translated Behold the Lamb of God into Swedish), not to mention all the Christian music festivals that happen there every year, all testify to the vibrant music scene in my fatherland.

So when my friend Samuel Åhl sends me a music link, I pay attention. Yesterday he told me about a band called A Treehouse Wait, fronted by singer/songwriter Jenny Wahlström, and I’ve listened to the song “Faith” about nine times today. Her voice is amazing, and the song brought tears to my eyes. “What do we do with your feet on the ground and the sky is asking us to dance?” she asks. “Don’t you have a little faith?” Even if your answer is no, her passion and the joyful music might spark the courage to admit that there’s a spark of it there, waiting to catch fire. It’s a song I didn’t know I needed to hear until I did. One more reason to love Sweden.