New CDs Offer Cross Section of Christian Musical Sounds

(UNDATED) Three recent releases from Christian contemporary groups offer fans a cross section of sounds from this increasingly diverse musical genre. Hard driving rock, soft ballads, worship-style music and classic gospel comprise three new releases from Third Day, Caedmon’s Call and the Jacksonville, Fla., Youth for Christ Choir. Like the Bible, these CDs shimmer with […]

(UNDATED) Three recent releases from Christian contemporary groups offer fans a cross section of sounds from this increasingly diverse musical genre. Hard driving rock, soft ballads, worship-style music and classic gospel comprise three new releases from Third Day, Caedmon’s Call and the Jacksonville, Fla., Youth for Christ Choir. Like the Bible, these CDs shimmer with word pictures, poems and stories. The singers know God well, seek more intimate conversation with the Divine and would enlist others to do the same. The Grammy and Dove Award-winning rockers of Third Day bring their best to their seventh studio album, “Wire,” on Essential Records/Provident Label Group. The CD’s title song talks of what it’s like to hit the Christian music big time: “Turn on the spotlight, strike up the band/Everyone’s looking my way … I am walking on a wire/I tiptoe through the fire/Never looking down to see that/I am walking on a wire/The pressure’s getting higher.” Indeed, the Atlanta-base group is a leader in its genre, having earned four gold albums, a platinum album, a Grammy and 21 Dove awards. But these guys have no intention of resting on their laurels. Despite a comfortable relationship with their producer, the band brought in a new one for this album, producing a CD that is both energetic and introspective. “This album is a lot more powerful than anything that we’ve done,” says vocalist Mac Powell, adding it’s also universal enough to “reach out to people in many different situations.” “Wire” feeds off the group’s desire for a broader reach with several songs playing off the title image of a circus acrobat performing on the high wire. Stunned by the audience he faces, the acrobat reflects on the uncertainty and unpredictability of his vocation. With this album, so does Third Day. At least three other songs _ “Billy Brown,” “San Angelo” and “RockStar” _ describe the difficulties of living in the performance fast lane. In such a world, musicians face loneliness, risk and struggle. All of Third Day’s members are married and have children. Others among the group’s songs explore members’ efforts to balance between their personal and professional lives. Caedmon’s Call, another winning name on the Christian contemporary circuit, covers every season of the gifted band’s career in “Chronicles,” its spring release from Essential Records. A limited edition, the CD goes far beyond a collection of greatest hits. It includes a selection of live recordings of No. 1 songs such “Hope to Carry On” and “Before There was Time” and a radio remix of the fans’ favorite, “Hands of the Potter.” The group’s thoughtful, acoustic approach has served it well over the years. Other featured hits of this record include “There You Go” and “Only Hope.” The CD truly collects “our most well-known and liked songs,” says Cliff Young, the band’s front man. “It was time to release something retrospective, not only because we’ve been together for a decade but also because we are about to enter a new phase in the way we approach music,” he says. In more than a decade of performing and recording, Caedmon’s Call moved from playing dates at smaller colleges to the band getting deeply involved in relief ministries in Third World nations. Band members’ individual travels to such nations as Bolivia, Haiti and Ecuador fired that enthusiasm so much that the members support Peace Gospel Ministries, Compassion International and Dalit Freedom. The Dalit alliance assists people in India _ especially the so-called “untouchables” _ who are oppressed by the caste system. An enhanced segment of the “Chronicles” CD covers Caedmon’s Call’s outreach into those needy countries and foreshadows the group’s next release. Tentatively titled “Third World Symphony,” that fall release draws upon the band’s familiar acoustic rhythms, blending them with 60 instruments from hand flutes to sitars to African drums. In “Love Comes in All Colors,” the 350 young voices of the Youth for Christ Choir from Jacksonville, Fla., sing in favor of hope and racial harmony. Recorded live before 4,000 at Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, this CD from the Emtro Gospel label blends renditions of such traditional hymns as “Great is Thy Faithfulness” with newer songs including “I Give You Praise” and “Colors” by Troy Sneed, the group’s producer and director. The result is gospel with a classic, upbeat sound, hiphop and contemporary praise. The CD resonates with the joy of youthful voices. On “Colors,” they sing of who they are _ diverse races and denominations unified in music and Christian service. “We forget about our skin color and denominational backgrounds to sing in one accord,” says Sneed, who served for over a decade as assistant minister of music for the Georgia Mass Choir. In 1998, he formed the first Youth for Christ choir of young people aged 8 to 18. Many were relatives of Georgia Mass Choir members. He took out radio ads to form the one in Jacksonville. He’d like to see the choirs become a national movement of song and reconciliation. “Kids don’t carry around the emotional baggage that adults do,” Sneed says, “so their innocence brought a whole new dimension to the project, making it natural and fun.” (Cecile S. Holmes, longtime religion writer, is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of South Carolina. Her e-mail address is [email protected]

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