Cover and Title Page is the second full-length record by singer/songwriter Joe Deegan. It is a collection of songs that tell stories of everyday life dealing with issues such as marriage, fatherhood, hometowns, racial conflict, and even death. Deegan is a resident of Houston, Texas, but draws heavily on his Alabama heritage in this folk Americana album.

Cover and Title Page was produced and recorded by Houston artist Joshua Moore (former keyboardist and producer of the band Caedmon's Call). In this album, Moore calls on a variety of styles to bring the songs to life ranging from the simple acoustic ballads to full band country/bluegrass compositions. The project centers on the theme that every life is a story, and God, our great Author, is weaving together these tales of faith and suffering and joy and sorrow, urging us forward into the story of his great and everlasting love.

Here, Joe shares the heart behind each of the songs from the new project.

Track 1: "Cover and Title Page"
I consider myself a storyteller first and foremost, and this song sets the tone for the rest of the album, namely that every life is a story. The title is taken from the last words of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia: "all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story... in which every chapter is better than the one before." If our lives are stories, then there must be an Author weaving them together. This song urges the listener to look at this world for what it really is--the beginning of something much greater than what is in front of our eyes.   

Track 2: "Singing River"
I'm from a small town in Alabama called Muscle Shoals, a cozy community nestled along the banks of the Tennessee River. The Native Americans who lived there long ago called it the "Singing River" for the beautiful music that seemed to rise out of it at night. I moved to Houston when I graduated college in 2009, but on my first 12-hour drive back to Alabama over Christmas, I was so homesick I felt like I could hear that river singing to me. Over time I've discovered how little I love the grand or elegant things in life; rather, it's the small and simple things that make me feel at home. I believe this is a God-given instinct. I believe it is a foretaste of the dwelling that Christ is preparing for us--warm, personal, comforting, and more like home than anything we've ever experienced here on earth. This song is about my longing for home in more ways than one.    

Track 3: "Two Dollars"
There is a man from my hometown who goes by the name Peanut. Peanut is an elderly, mentally handicapped man who has grown to be a staple of the community and a friend of mine. For all intents and purposes, he is essentially homeless. He wanders the streets day in and day out smiling and waving at people with no clear direction or purpose to his actions. My restless, ambitious, goal-oriented self has the tendency to look at this kind of lifestyle with pity and even condescending until I remember the words of our Lord Jesus: "Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head (Matthew 8:20)." Jesus left his throne to walk the earth as a homeless man so that we who are homeless, aliens and exiles in a foreign land, might one day dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This is Peanut's song.   

Track 4: "I Want More"
This song started off as a cheesy love song for my wife until I remembered rule No. 1 of songwriting--you have to be honest. It just didn't sound like me--the me who struggles with restlessness, who struggles with being content, who struggles with loving God and loving the people who are closest to me without wanting more in life. So, instead of scrapping the song, I decided to keep going. Verse two takes a drastic turn into the reality of my wanting and my desperate need for a Savior.
 
Track 5: "A Heart That Won't Open"
This song is sort of part one to the story of Hosea. Hosea was a prophet in the Old Testament told by God to marry an unfaithful woman named Gomer. Gomer's story is my story--one of unfaithfulness, selfishness, and fear. I think most people would agree that it's hard to love God. I believe it's even harder to be loved by God. It requires a level of trust and vulnerability that is so foreign to us as sinners. We often meet God's love with walls of defiance, daring him to break them down. But praise the Lord, he is patient and tender with us, and his love overcomes our brokenness. 

Track 6: "Hosea"
Part two of Hosea's story comes to light in this song. We, like Gomer, struggle to let God love us and break down these walls that we've so carefully constructed around our hearts. But God, like Hosea, brings down those barriers and loves us at great cost to himself. In Hebrew, the word "mercy" is not a noun; it's a verb. God doesn't have mercy on us; he mercies us. It's an action, a pursuit on his part. In spite of all our sin and unfaithfulness, God desires us so much that he pays the price for our sin, and he brings us into his loving embrace. 

Track 7: "The Monotony of Love"
My second attempt at a love song for my sweet wife and the best word I could think of was "monotony." To be honest, I've found marriage to be quite monotonous at times, but as author G.K. Chesteron points out in his book Orthodoxy, this monotony is something to rejoice in. It cuts to the very heart of God. As Chesterton says, "Children have abounding vitality... therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grown-up does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is...it is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again,' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon." I've learned that marriage is a sequence of monotonous repetitions, and once we learn to embrace it, it can become the most beautiful thing in the world. There's a sweetness to the things that stay the same.

Track 8: "Land of Memory"
I have a three-year-old daughter who is my first born, and already I've found myself repeating the cliché of every parent: "She's growing up too fast!" It's true, and there's no way to stop it. Nearly every day I have moments with my family that I wish could last forever. I want my kids to stay just the way they are (not when they're screaming, of course; just when they're being perfect little angels). But that's not life. Kids grow up and lose their childlike sense of wonder. These precious moments I share with my daughter vanish in the wind, and I can't get them back. But God has promised to redeem this earth, and with it, time. As Tolkien puts it, "Every sad thing will come untrue." Our lives, our relationships, our precious memories, even the time we've wasted in this life will be redeemed in the New Heavens and New Earth if we put our hope in Christ. This song is my confession of the pain of passing time and the hope of redemption. 

Track 9: "Marching on Selma"
It's definitely the darkest song I've ever written. The racial conflict that has become so predominant in our country hits close to home for me, a white man from the South. My parents taught me that everyone is created equal, no matter the color of their skin, so I've grown up with the assumption that I'm not racist. For so long, I've pointed my finger at all the bigots in the world without ever considering the fact that there might be prejudice lurking in my own heart. The truth is, my pride makes me believe that I'm better than everyone else, and that subtle bias makes me believe that the people who look like me and who live like me are also better than everyone else. This song begins with the pride of pointing fingers, believing I am above reproach. Then the gospel comes in shedding light on my own struggles, bringing me to my knees. God, in his mercy, moves toward us when we are on our knees, and he promises to bring justice and light to the brokenness in our hearts and the brokenness in the world around us.   

Track 10: "The Wedding Feast"
Jesus tells a parable of a king who throws a wedding feast for his son and invites all the elites in the village. They don't come. So the king sends his servants into the streets to invite everyone, the poor, the outcast, the beggars, and the slaves. This parable comes to fruition at the end of Revelation when we see God throwing a wedding feast for his Son. The invitation is a refrain from Isaiah 55 that says, "Come and buy without money." We have been invited to feast at the great banquet hall of the Lord, and this banquet has been paid for by the blood of the Lamb. This banquet is for everyone, saints and sinners alike. 

Track 11: "Further Up and Further In"
This final song on the album brings the first song "Cover and Title Page" full circle. If every life is a story, then we can rest assured that in our darkest moments, in our moments of deepest pain and suffering, even at death's doorstep, this story isn't over. That is the great hope of the Resurrection.