Interview with Sean Covington

Show open, technical problems, and show rundown

A host opens the show from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper, joking that technical problems didn't happen until guest Sean Covington came in. He lays out the night's rundown: Sean's Christmas song release, a Pope-style preview, a pre-show conversation about Nehemiah and beard-pulling church unity, a possible article on information intake, and Dear LFTP advice.

Pipe-smoking banter

The hosts riff on the refinement of smoking an old-man pipe versus cigarettes. Sean jokes that his wife would kill him and has been dropping hints at Wall Drug; a host says he has been dropping the same hints for three weeks with no success from his own wife.

Rundown continued: Pope-style preview, Nehemiah, and the play-by-play seating

The host continues the rundown: Mike has a Pope-style preview on fear, and a pre-show conversation about Nehemiah, beard pulling, and unity among God's people. He then does a football-style play-by-play of the studio seating from left to right: Sean Covington, Dan Hudson, Nathaniel Carson, Mike Foust, with himself in the middle on the fifty-yard line.

Sean Covington's quit-smoking testimony

Prompted by the pipe talk, Sean tells how he quit smoking after fourteen years: sick with a chest cold, he woke in the night after his fever broke, smoked his regular morning cigarette, got violently ill, and never smoked again. He frames it as grace from God, admits he tried and failed to quit about twelve times before, and notes the guilt of delaying church start times as a worship leader so he could smoke — 'its own form of idolatry.' The hosts reflect on knowing your own weaknesses and freedom in Christ not putting yourself where you don't belong.

Sean's Christmas song "Bells" is played

The hosts introduce Sean's new Christmas release, joke about buying versus streaming it for free, tease him as a bard-style troubadour with snow in his beard, and play the full song. Afterward they note it is available on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Deezer, and Napster.

The story behind "Bells"

Sean explains he actually wrote the song around 2011 while working with a pastor crafting a Christmas message on the symbol of bells, recorded a basic forgotten demo, and revived it this year when friends (Micah Smith of the August Guns and Ali Crummy) warned him a fall release would get clobbered by Christmas carols. He realized the song's story — worry and anxiety interrupted by a familiar church bell — made sense in the context of 2020, COVID, and the assault on truth, so he finished it with lap steel guitar, vocals and drums with a musician named Brian, and keyboards from Brian's wife.

What a bell symbolizes

Sean and the hosts unpack the song's central image: a bell carries either joy or terror — a wedding, a workday ending, a ship returning, or an attack. They reflect on how town life once ran on bells and how the communal sound that everyone hears at once can become deeply personal, ending on the song's hope: a joy that transcends circumstances, presented by Christ.

Who played on "Bells"

Sean lists the personnel: four electric guitars, acoustic guitar, his vocal and bass, Brian Vanderpool on drums, Brian's wife on Rhodes and a genuine B3 organ, and Brian's 'buttery' harmonies. The host summarizes: 'lots of Covington and then And Friends.'

Rewards programs and collector schemes

Nathaniel's Napster use via Coke bottle-cap rewards prompts a long comedy run: collecting lollipop wrappers with stars, Campbell's soup labels for mission equipment, Ronald McDonald House can tabs, punch cards at Jiffy Lube and a Moberly gas station, Mountain Dew bottle caps, Pepsi magic cans, and McDonald's Monopoly. The host reads a Wikipedia-style account of Coca-Cola's 1990 Magic Can promotion, including the foul-tasting water and the 11-year-old in Massachusetts.

Garbage-can directions and sparkling-water rant

Sean's complaint about his garbage can having directions — where to put his hands — turns into a riff on whether people need instructions for obvious things, which becomes a full dunk on sparkling water: 'bubbly' is 'fart water,' LaCroix is 'televangelist water,' a 'soda can dressed in a Halloween costume.' Mike defends LaCroix; Nathaniel admits he only bought it by the case on a $52-a-day travel per diem.

Couponing and cheapness confessions

Nathaniel describes saving Perkins buy-one-get-one coupons, prompting a room-wide cheapness confessional. Mike declares he will not be bullied into buying by coupons — he buys Chips Ahoy and waffle cones with no ice cream — and that his wife doubles the grocery bill because he adds $100 of unplanned items, including a $838 Costco run. Others recall extreme couponers at Walgreens, free Supercuts haircuts, and Harbor Freight's line-side coupons.

Sean on release strategy and identity in music

• Should Sean release singles or a full album next?

Sean says he is finishing another song, 'You See Me,' for a spring release and is weighing singles versus a full album, noting the industry's 'horizontal or lateral release' trickle. He gets serious about not tying his identity to a song's success or others' perception of his credibility — 'those things can become terrible masters' — and about being a responsible steward of the gifts the Lord gave him without letting them master him.

How playlists get made

Sean explains playlist mechanics: influencer-curated lists, Spotify's algorithmic boosts for fast-rising songs, and artists building their own — he made a 15-song Christmas playlist around 'Bells' featuring We Are Messengers, Andrew Peterson, and Mission House's Jess Ray and Taylor Leonhart. The hosts joke about streaming it on every device with the water running all day.

Dear LFTP: the grandma and the gift checks

• How can a grandmother gently stop sending birthday and Christmas checks to her adult nieces and nephews?

A host reads the one advice letter: a grandmother has sent four nieces and nephews birthday and Christmas cards with checks for twenty years; they are adults with jobs and families now, and she wants to stop. The hosts advise simply not putting the check in the card without making a production of it. Secular's answer reads, formally, that she should lovingly propose exchanging cards rather than sending money, since they are adults — which the hosts call silly and agree: just stop sending the money.

Complaint-line outro and sign-off

The host plugs the complaint line — (515) 517-0085, the 'Bob Eisenhower Life From The Path Complaint Line,' with a #thebard hashtag for complaints specifically about Covington — thanks Sean, promises he might sing 'Bells' as 'Pope's style advice' on your lawn if you pound on his door before 9 PM, and signs off with the benediction 'be faithful in the means; God will handle the ends.'