Tony Cummings and Martin Purnell report on the recent activities of Celtic music's number one singer, JOANNE HOGG

Joanne Hogg

The last time Cross Rhythms interviewed Joanne Hogg was in 1999 shortly after her solo debut album 'Looking Into Light' was released. As it turned out Alliance Music missed the boat with that release, in part by releasing it under the abbreviated name Joanne, and in part by failing to flag down to potential purchasers that this was the singer, whose sublime vocals had added so much to the Celtic fusion maestros Iona. When absorbed into Authentic Media, Alliance reissued the album in 2006 under the title 'Celtic Hymns' but by then the moment had gone and Joanne didn't get the huge American CCM hit that 'Looking Into Light' with its beautiful Celtic arrangements of traditional hymns deserved and it was lesser talents like Sheila Walsh who jumped on American Christian radio's Celtic music bandwagon. But then this Ballymena-born doctor of medicine and mother of two has never fitted into the insular world of Nashville CCM.

Joanne DID, of course, dent the international Christian music market with the highly successful four volumes of composer Keith Getty's 'New Irish Hymns' (the first volume with Moya Brennan and Margaret Becker, the next three with Becker and Kristyn Getty). And Joanne's wistfully beautiful voice has also been heard on the Sony PlayStation role-playing videogame Xenogears. Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, the ending-theme song "Small Two Of Pieces", along with an extra track "Stars Of Tears" (not featured in the game) were recorded. Mitsuda also invited her to record the vocal themes for the prequel to Xenogears, Xenosaga: Episode One. Two tracks were recorded for this game: the ending-theme "Kokoro", and insert song "Pain". Soundtracks were released for both of these videogames on the Digicube label. The song "Kokoro" was even released as a CD single.

But despite the welcome exposure on videogame and 'New Irish Hymns', it is still felt that most of Joanne's best work has come about when she's sung with Iona. But in recent years that has been somewhat problematic. The current Iona lineup (Dave Bainbridge, lead guitar, keys; Troy Donockley, pipes, whistles; Phil Barker, bass; and Frank Van Essen, drums, percussion, violin) have been in hiatus for most of the last decade meaning there have been long periods where Joanne's wondrous tones have not been heard by Joe Public. Now, thankfully, that season seems to be over. Martin Purnell spoke to Joanne about the Iona hiatus. She said, "In 2007 I felt God was saying, 'I want you to leave Iona.' It didn't kind of feel like this was to be a 'I'm leaving the band, I'm doing other things.' It felt like I was being drawn away from it and God was taking me into a season of seeking him and letting go of a lot of things including Iona. In a way I did kind of disconnect from it emotionally, physically. We weren't doing any gigs, we hadn't planned any gigs, we hadn't planned anything. It was just a void. That began what was a year and a half of an increasing personal hunger and thirst to pursue a deeper knowledge of God, a more intimate relationship. During that time Dave and Frank have been on a similar journey.

"The three of us connected in May last year in Holland at a conference called Heaven On Earth which was a gathering of about 6,000 people. It was a real cutting edge, prophetic, global type of gathering and there were speakers from places of real revival all over the world and breaking into realms of healing, wonders, angelic manifestations. We were invited to play 'When I Survey' on the opening night of that conference. Frank has a worship band in Holland and they've been leading worship conferences for quite a while and Frank had asked Dave and I would we like to come over and participate in this way. Since that Dave and Frank have played at several conferences where they've been involved in leading worship. During this time I think we've been increasingly seeking God's will and are now beginning to pick up again something of the vision for Iona. I've come to a place where if Iona is not about really seeking God in worship and seeking to create music that is just so inspired by the Holy Spirit and has an anointing on it, then I'm not really interested in doing it. It's got to have that kind of vision."

That kind of vision was fulfilled at the May 2009 Heaven On Earth event when Iona played their first concert for one and a half years. And British followers will be able to experience the new prophetic-worship empowered Iona when they play the Grapevine event at the Lincolnshire showground on 31st August.

Joanne spoke about her calling to a new sound in prophetic worship. "This was something that was spoken to me prophetically 10 years ago by an elderly woman who had such an amazingly close relationship with God and incredible revelation and understanding. She shared with me at different times and she talked about this sound that God was preparing, and that God had to release to this generation and that it was a new sound. That's what I'm seeking for. I don't mean necessarily it's a sound in the physical sense, a style of music, it's a sound in the spiritual realm, it's a cry from the heart of God that people will respond to it in their spirit. Iona can search for that sound. What was happening musically in a lot of what we were doing before had a prophetic voice in it and things like the reels: there was a real release in that music, that was real bondage-breaking music for people. We're not going to try and write a different style of music that fits the bill. I'm thinking much more laterally than that - a kind of music that's original and cannot be pigeonholed. It's the anointing that it carries.

"As I've been talking to other musicians in the last six months, and it's a common thread, musicians who've been worship leaders and so on, are really feeling this call to seek God, to go into that secret place and experience intimate worship. It's kind of igniting and releasing a new sound. It used to be that contemporary Christian music had all these different styles and Christian music was the mediocre copy of what secular music was in all the different genres. But now I think Christian music has been getting better and better in terms of its quality and its skill, its musicianship. But God's anointing will only come on those who have gone to that place of really seeking God to release the anointing to them so they can take it back out and bring the glory of God. That all sounds very super spiritual but I hope it makes some kind of sense."

In 2008 Kingsway Music released Joanne's 'Personal' album. She admitted candidly, "I did not set out to write an album. What began to happen in that year and a half of seeking God, for quite a long time I didn't play, I didn't sing. I was reading books about other people's experiences of waiting on God and I was reading Scripture and praying. Then I started to feel that God was drawing me to the piano and saying 'I want you to sing for me.' I just started to sing. Sometimes I would improvise and sing some Scripture and then just play and then I started to write songs. Initially I was writing what to me seemed were songs for corporate worship and a few of them I took to my church and taught them and we sang them. I ended up with a demo of about 15 songs which I thought were songs for corporate worship and I talked to Steve Doherty (executive at Kingsway) about it. He was over in Ireland for another reason and we just got talking about this."

Joanne continued, "I was also completing this project that I'd been working on with Frank for over two years and it was like, do I want to make [another] album? So we decided yes, we'll do it and we'll go to Nashville because at that stage it was financially a lot cheaper to do it out there. Before long it was, 'Oh, I'm going to Nashville in five weeks!' During those five weeks I just carried on with my coming up to the piano, just worshipping God. I continued writing songs. They were coming out so quickly. These were songs that were so personal, from so deep in me. When I write a song I'm so disorganised, I don't have recording equipment set up so when I write a song I just sing it and sing it to get it into my head. And I began to think I really need to be practising these other songs but I couldn't get these new songs out of my head. I began asking God, are these the songs you want on the album? Are these the songs I'm supposed to do? I was a little afraid to do that because these were songs that were so personal. But that became the theme. They were very honest cries-from-the-heart songs. I was, at that stage, identifying a lot with the Psalms, with what David was expressing in some of his bleaker Psalms where he was really crying out to God. I said to Steve Doherty, 'You see all those songs I sent out on the demo? I don't think I'm going to be recording those. I've got these other songs.' And he was like, 'Whatever is on your heart to do, go with it.' Probably eight of the 10 songs were written in the five weeks before. The theme of 'personal' was what seemed to be sticking out so that's why we called the album 'Personal'. They're not songs, I think, we're going to be hearing in church."

One of the most moving songs on 'Personal' is "Waiting". Joanne spoke about the theme of the song. "I think where I've gone with this music and where I'm still going is a kind of musical waiting on God, of helping people to go to a place where they can be still before God and wait on him and listen and hear what the Spirit is saying. Sometimes it works better for people who are letting us minister and sing over them. Some people like to sing along and participate in some way. It's a new thing for me. It's been confirmed as I talk to other musicians that they are experiencing a place where they are waiting on God and there's so much in Scripture about waiting on God and seeking him. My understanding on it now is different than it was. I think it helped when I looked up the words that were used in the original Greek and Hebrew languages. The word that's most used for "waiting" on God is the Hebrew word for the waiting of childbirth. When I read that it put a whole different light on the subject, because the waiting of childbirth is not an easy wait, it's not a sit back and let it all happen. It kind of implies there's a struggle and a battle for it and that there can be a restlessness in it as well. But what keeps you going is this anticipation of what is coming and what will come and what God has promised to those who seek him. 'I will manifest myself. I will be there. I will come. I will answer.' It's something that requires focus and determination in much the same way as the waiting of childbirth does. It's not without pain."

Another album featuring Joanne was released in 2008, the download-only project 'Raphael's Journey' (available from www.raphaelsjourney.com). Joanne spoke about that project. "This album has been a collaboration, mainly with Frank from Iona but all the members of Iona contribute beautiful performances on the album. It's not a concept album but it started out with the idea of recording some lullabies which I had started to write in the early days of becoming a mother. But I soon realised that it was actually the grown ups that needed the lullabies, more than the children. That kind of became the idea of lullabies for grown ups - tender, soothing music. So the album was completed and mixed and mastered around the same time as I'd finished the 'Personal' album. What's significant about the name 'Raphael's Journey' is in the writings of Enoch he refers to an angel called Raphael who was a healing angel among other things. I know the book of Enoch is not part of the canon of Scripture but Enoch was a pretty special man when it came to knowing God so I'm sure what he wrote is worthy of some thought. The name Raphael is derived from Jehovah Rapha - God heals. So this became the title for the album because it was my real prayer that this album would carry that healing anointing for the people who listen to it. That's obviously nothing that I can create, it's in God's hands. We wanted this album to benefit children in extreme poverty and that was my heart for it. So all the proceeds will go directly to three charities working with children in extreme poverty - one in Guatemala, one in Uganda and one in the Amazon. I'd say the underlying theme is the sanctity of life. There is a core on the album, three tracks that are called the 'Song From The Womb', 'Life Is Precious' and 'Dance Of The Unborn'. The theme of it is just the tenderness of God's love towards his children. One of the tracks really is a lullaby that I wrote as a mum."