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Jon Watts, Pendle Hill resident student and this year's Kenneth L. Carroll Quaker scholarship recipient, released his new CD, The Art of Fully Being, with a show at Pendle Hill on April 19.

The Art of Fully Being was recorded in Pendle Hill's Flower House and is Jon's 6^th recorded project.  The CD is on a new Quaker record label, Bull and Mouth Records.  Most recently, Jon recorded and released A Few Songs Occasioned (2006), a compilation of biographical songs about early Quakers that he wrote and recorded for his senior project in the Quaker Leadership Scholars Program (QLSP) at Guilford College.  Stylistically, The Art of Fully Being returns to Jon's original spoken word/hip hop sound while the subject matter has been strongly influenced by his recent convincement of Quakerism.

In songs like "So Well" and "Instructions for Us(e)", Jon approaches Truth and spirituality intentionally and care-fully, while "Friend Speaks My Mind" and "There's a Spirit in Iraq" tackle subject matter that is clearly and distinctly Quaker.  "Friend Speaks My Mind" is a modern Quaker anthem.  The story of Jon growing up in the unprogrammed tradition of Friends, the song balances blatantly unprogrammed statements of belief ("I’m not a Christian, but I'm a Quaker/I've got Christ's Inner Light but he's not my savior") with QLSP and Pendle Hill-esque theological reflection.  "There's a Spirit in Iraq" centers on the story of Jon's relationship with Tom Fox.  A mentor for Jon growing up in the Baltimore Yearly Meeting Young Friends Program, Tom was abducted and killed in Baghdad last year while working with the Christian Peacemaker Teams.  The song vividly captures the effect of Tom's presence on Young Friend Jon as well as the emotional experience of being a student at Guilford College amidst the common American reaction to news of anti-American violence in Iraq.

Download "Friend Speaks My Mind" here

For more information on The Art of Fully Being please visit www.bullandmouthrecords.com