'I hope my songs resonate with others'

Baptist minister Simon Cragg returned to songwriting this summer – and is now releasing tracks which are engaging with different people, including a local line dance group and a professional football club 

Simon is one of the ministers at Christchurch Baptist Church in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, and has long sensed music to be part of his calling.
 
But after nearly 10 years of not penning his own material, he read songwriter Ben Fold’s book Dream of Lightning Bugs over the summer - and 'felt a desire to use music to tell stories that connected with people’.
 
The result is a couple of singles before Christmas, with more to come in the new year. These songs highlight the role music plays in his life, and its ability to connect with different people.
 
The first is called Not Too Old To Dance, which came out on 10 November. Here Simon partnered with a local dance group which meets in his church building to make a music video with a set dance.

‘We’re hoping this will make some ground on TikTok,’ he says. (For more, on this track, see below)
 
The second is United at Christmas and was released on 1 December in conjunction with Cambridge United, the team Simon has supported since childhood. The League One football club is using it as a Christmas single to raise money for its foundation. The video features current players, as well as Simon's daughter Lucy.
 
Simon will also perform the song at the club’s carol service at the ground on 20 December, to 1400 people.

The song tells the Christmas story through the eyes of a Cambridge fan, ‘and is a gentle way of telling the gospel,’ Simon explains.  


Not Too Old To Dance

This song started with a melody that came about as I was playing guitar, Simon writes. It felt catchy and commercial, and as I started to record the song without any set lyrics, it felt like it should be about dancing - but how to do that authentically as a 40 year old, when other songs on the radio are mostly about clubs, shots, and girls?
 
That’s when the idea came about of writing the song from the perspective of some of the older people at my wedding/party gigs who really do dance like no one is watching, and who don’t see age as a barrier to having fun.
 
When I chatted the song through with the dance group, it seemed they felt were embodiment of the song - smiling and having a great time as they learnt the moves. As the song says ‘youth ain’t all that, it’s your attitude to getting old’.
 
The dance group is called ‘Wan’s people’ after its founder Wangari. Her grandson is the main dancer in the video - Kenyah Sandy.
 
This came out on 10th November and is available from Spotify, Apple, Youtube and other streaming platforms.




United at Christmas
 
This started when I was asked to be a part of the organising group of a carol service on 20 December at the Cambridge United ground (Abbey Stadium), Simon writes. I’ve been a supporter since watching them as a child, and have been more involved in music before the games in the past year or so.

I was delighted to be part of this, and the suggestion that I perform a song as part of the service.
 
I decided it would be powerful to write my own song about the Christmas story from the perspective of a Cambridge fan, and set out writing lyrics, starting with the line ’There once was a time before turnstiles and teams, before programmes and pies, and the beautiful game’.

I love that this song celebrates the gospel, but in a way that feels accessible to a football fan, and the hope of Christmas that ‘hope, joy, and peace will unite us all’.
 
The third verse is basically a CS Lewis quote about the incarnation. It took a couple of hours to then find the right chords and melody to bring the words to life.
 
When it was fully recorded, I sent it to Graham Daniels who is on the club board as well as being Director of Christians in Sport. He and the CEO decided it would be good to release as a Christmas single to raise money for the Club’s Foundation Charity on 1 December.
 

'Music has started to feel like a calling'

'Music has always been an important part of life,' Simon explains. 'I had guitar lessons as a teenager, and started a band with school mates when I was 16, soon writing songs and performing wherever we could.
 
'I’ve used music within ministry for many years - leading worship, setting up youth bands, encouraging younger musicians - but it was only about six years ago when I went busking with a friend that music started to become something I took seriously as a performer and artist, and opened me up to wider audience.
 
'I was soon spotted and asked to play in pubs, before setting up a music business with a wedding/party band setup.


 
'Music also started to feel like a calling - a way of bringing people together, and of being in places with people I wouldn’t usually meet. People would often ask me what I did for a normal job and it becomes a standard gig where you find yourself listening to people’s experience of church and God, and being able to share a little of why I do what I do (before getting ready to perform I'm Gonna Be (500 miles), Don’t Look Back in Anger, and Sweet Caroline!).
 
'Music has also been the means in which people in my own community have got to know me - it opens up conversation so naturally when people find out I sing in my spare time, and it’s easy to ask people about songs that mean something to them.
 
'I’ve also performed songs at some of our church outreach groups, using some of the lyrics to songs such as Stand by Me, What a Wonderful World, All You Need is Love, or Mrs Robinson to be able to talk God and the gospel.
 
'But it was only this summer when a desire to write music returned (after nearly 10 years of not writing at all). I read songwriter Ben Fold’s book Dream of Lightning Bugs, and felt a desire to use music to tell stories that connected with people.
 
'It’s still early days on this little journey, but I’m enjoying the creative process, and am excited about the songs I’ve got ready to record and release over the next few months.'
 
One song Simon will be sharing in the new year is Sunday Morning. 'It comes from a personal experience of burnout in ministry, and the dread involved in having to stand up and hold it all together,' he says. The lyrics include the line: 'Friday I’m whipped into a frenzy/ Saturday’s when the shakes to come/But it’s only Sunday morning'.
 
'I hope songs like that resonate with others, and help them to tell their own stories.'