The latest part of the ongoing series chronicling, in no particular order, the greatest 1001 recordings made by Christian artists
Continued from page 65
881. GUVNA B - WE WANT MORE (FTG REMIDEE), 2014. From the
album 'Scrapbook II', Independent.
The fact that
'Scrapbook II', a blistering 15-track compilation of hip-hop, grime
and afro beat was offered as a free mixtape says much about the
premier British gospel rapper's high creative standards. Where lesser
emcees bang out mixtapes with minimum attention to production
standards or the originality of their flows, the Guvna nimbly avoided
the pitfall with his 'Scrapbook II' release. "We Want More" is, in the
words of the Cross Rhythms reviewer, "an utterly infectious piece of
rip-roaring rap/pop fusion over a drum 'n' bass break featuring
Remidee of LZ7." An urban gem.
Tony Cummings
882. REND COLLECTIVE - IMMEASURABLY MORE, 2014. From the
album 'The Art Of Celebration', Integrity.
First it was
those trio of folk rock delights "Joy", "Burn Like A Star" and "My
Lighthouse" which caught and held our attention. But now it's this
wonderful worship anthem which has circled the globe as it is added to
the worshipping church's armoury. With co-writer Chris Tomlin adding
his songwriting skills "Immeasurably More" is a song which works in
whatever style it is sung while its lyrical summation of God's
all-encompassing greatness has seldom been bettered: "More than all we
ask/Than all we seek/All our hopes and dreams/You are immeasurably
more/Than we can know/Than we can pray/All our words can say/You are
immeasurably more."
Tony Cummings
883. CUTTING EDGE - DID YOU FEEL THE MOUNTAINS
TREMBLE?, 1995. From the EP 'Red Tape 3', Independent.
As countless churchgoers now know before they were called Delirious?
these musos from the sleepy seaside town of Littlehampton were Cutting
Edge. It was Martin Smith's conversation with author Craig Borlase
that best documented the monthly youth events, Cutting Edge, and the
humble cassette releases that grew out of the event. Smith remembered,
"Those four hours each month were so potent and powerful that they
left their fingerprints on the days and weeks that fell in between.
Every month I'd be working on a new song for the event and they'd
nearly always come out of conversations [with the band]. 'Wouldn't it
be great to hear people singing in the streets?' . . . 'We need some
joyful songs, maybe something happy!' It felt as though we walked
through a land that was more alive than any we had ever experienced.
Not only did the songs come with purpose, but the event grew, tapping
into a hunger and thirst for something new. More than any song from
the events, 'Mountains' put into words and music the feelings we all
shared. As we sang it over and over it eventually dawned on us - it
wasn't just a song that a few people in a church were singing; this
was an anthem that was being taken up by a movement.
"I wrote the song in my flat a day after we'd been leading worship at
an event where someone called me out and said, 'Young man, I want to
pray for you.' When he prayed, this man said that he saw me going to
poorer nations, in particular to India. He went on to say that when I
played in those places, the mountains would tremble. I love what he
said - apart from that bit about India, which didn't make that much
sense at the time. I wrote down the words 'mountains tremble' in my
journal, and the next morning the song just came. I remember vividly
the first time we sang 'Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?' We played
it towards the beginning of the evening and 45 minutes later we were
still going. Waves and waves of God's power and Spirit were washing
over us all. It was extraordinary and I think it was the first time
that we'd found a song with a chorus that didn't just make a statement
about who God was or how we felt about him. Instead it was a weird mix
of prophecy, proclamation and some kind of spiritual warfare. When we
sang 'open up the doors and let the music play,' we never felt the
need to add the word 'please' on the end."
Tony Cummings
884. THE McCRARY SISTERS - HUM AND MOAN, 2013. From the album
'All The Way', Independent.
As backing singers
extraordinaire the Nashville-based McCrary's made a name for
themselves adding their delicious gospel harmonies to many of the
biggest names in pop and rock. In 2013 they took time out to record an
album of their own and "Hum And Moan" is a song which thrillingly
recreates the sound and power of Regina McCrary's childhood memories.
She recalled, "When I wrote that I was thinking about the Fairfield
Four and I was thinking about the church we grew up in, St Mark's
Baptist Church. It's over in Germantown. The deacons and the mothers
used to do an old thing called 'Dr Watts'. It was an old hymn. It was
kinda like back in the slavery days when they wanted to get messages
to each other and not let the master know what they were talking
about. There was this woman - she's dead now - Sister Roper. She would
start out doing old 'Dr Watts' and everybody was listening. At that
time, I was so young I thought it was funny, because I was like, 'What
are they sayin'?' Turned out when I got older and life started dealin'
what life deals to you that 'Dr Watts' came [closer] to reality."
Tony Cummings
885. CHRIS McCLARNEY - YOUR LOVE NEVER FAILS, 2008. From the
album 'Love Never Fails', Integrity.
With some irony an
American journalist reported that in 2008 an army of followers of the
Jesus Culture youth movement adopted Chris McClarney's "Your Love
Never Fails" as its theme song and Chris became "an overnight
sensation after leading worship for 15 years." McClarney had spent the
last six of those years as worship leader at the Grace Center church
in Franklin, Tennessee and spoke about how his worship classic came
into being. "I had a friend going through a tough time and I remember
I told him about the passage from Romans 8:28 that says 'all things
work together for good,' and I realised that I needed to hear those
words for myself. I needed to decide if I really believed those words.
That's what led to the writing the song 'Your Love Never Fails'. One
night at church, I began spontaneously singing this line during
worship: 'You make all things work together for my good.' For more
than an hour it continued, not so much because I felt God needed to
hear it repeated, but because I needed to convince myself that no
matter what my circumstances might be right now, however big or small,
and no matter how unresponsive he might seem, God is still in control.
In fact, he will work everything out for my good. There is something
very effective about proclaiming truth out loud until you believe what
you're saying. I couldn't escape the lyric, and eventually I thought
it prudent enough to craft the myriad of connected internal
convictions into an actual song." The worshipping Church is grateful
he did.
Tony Cummings
886. NERESA MAYE - STEP'N UP, 2002. From the EP 'Step'n Up',
Sledge Entertainment UK.
Years before the UK gospel
"supergroup" Divine Divine were winning the Time2Shine talent search
in 2011, one of their numbers, Neresa Maye, was already singing BVs
for such pop R&B luminaries as Boney M, Imagination and Coolio.
Then she and her husband, producer Boomy got saved and this delicious
chunk of gospel garage was one of her first ventures as a new
creation. It got a lot of Cross Rhythms radio play and should have
gone on to break into the mainstream. But then you could say the same
about Divine Divine.
Tony Cummings
887. DAVID CROWDER BAND - EVERYTHING GLORIOUS, 2007. From the
album 'Remedy', sixsteprecords.
This worship gem penned
by the redoubtable Mr Crowder first appeared on the 2006 Passion album
but it's the techno-tinged studio version on the 'Remedy' album which
works best for me and won a Dove Award in 2008 as Rock/Contemporary
Recorded Song Of The Year and was nominated as Worship Song Of The
year. It's a warmly melodic anthem and has some eloquent lyrics ("My
eyes are small but they have seen/The beauty of enormous things/Which
leads me to believe/There's light enough to see"). The best line of
all though comes after the thrice repeated chorus line "You make
everything glorious" followed by the assertion "And I am yours." Then
comes the killer line, "What does that make me?"
Tony
Cummings
888. ALL SAVED FREAK BAND - ODE TO GLENN SHWARTZ,
1976. From the album 'Brainwashed', Independent.
If
you're not up on the history of rock guitar greats you may not know
that Glenn Schwartz showed during his time with The James Gang and
Pacific Gas & Electric that he was a guitar shredding master. And
if you're not up on the history of contemporary Christian music you
may not know that the All Saved Freak Band emanating from a Jesus
people commune in Ohio - and with Schwartz in tow - made some of the
most electrifying rock music from the whole Jesus music era. "Ode To
Glenn Schwartz" features what writer Ken Scott described as a "lean
'n' mean funky swamp groove" and is timeless rock'n'roll indeed.
Tony Cummings
889. APT.CORE - CREED, 2001. From the album 'Rhythms Of
Remembrance', Rocketown.
A version of U2's "40"
featuring a vocal from Ginny Owens gave the distinctly left-field act
Apt.Core emanating from the fertile mind of producer Will Hunt a minor
Christian radio hit Stateside. That small success even persuaded
Michael Smith's Rocketown Records to release a second Apt.Core album.
But it's "Creed" which is the concept's best moment. Hunt takes three
wildly disparate elements - the Apostles' Creed (you know, "I believe
in God the Father, almighty maker of Heaven and earth." read with
appropriate reverence), a Chemical Brothers-style percussion track and
a sitar player who recalls the haunting offerings of Ravi Shankar -
and somehow creates a wonky studio concoction which works. . . and
ministers.
Tony Cummings
890. MIGHTY SAM McCLAIN - JESUS GOT THE BLUES, 2000. From the
album 'Blues For The Soul', Telarc.
As Mighty Sam this
singer recorded 11 superlative soul singles in the '60s. But despite a
magnificent, emotive voice and great Southern soul accompaniments none
of them reached even the lower reaches of the R&B chart. Menial
jobs and substance abuse sadly followed until in the '80s Sam
recommitted his life to Christ, began to play concerts again, mixing
blues and gospel in with his soul ballads and, no doubt to his
amazement, found that his old soul singles had brought him a following
in Japan. Tours of that nation and a string of albums for AudioQuest
Music followed. "Jesus Got The Blues", recorded in 2000, caught the
blues gospel man at his very best. Producer Joe Harly assembled a
magnificent band featuring guitarist Kevin Betz and piano man Bruce
Katz (both teaching at Boston's Berklee College of Music) plus a fine
horn section and they were a perfect foil to McClain's rasping,
testifying vocals. To my ears, never has blues, soul and gospel been
more perfectly woven together than on this seven minutes 45 seconds
epic.
Tony Cummings
891. TWENTY ONE PILOTS - TEAR IN MY HEART, 2015. From the
album 'Blurryface', Fueled By Ramen.
This radio-friendly
gem is about Jenna Black, the wife of Twenty One Pilots' Tyler Joseph
and she was the lady who connected the singer/songwriter to his
emotional side. It's an arresting lyric. The verse goes, "Sometimes
you gotta bleed to know/That you're alive and have a soul/But it takes
someone to come around/To show you how," followed by the chorus,
"She's the tear in my heart". The rise and rise of the Columbus,
Ohio-based duo has rather taken the mainstream pop and rock world by
surprise. No doubt there was more than one music industry exec who'd
once declared that the Pilots were 'Regional At Best' (the title of
the group's 2011 album) who are now eating their words after
'Blurryface' became a number one hit in the US charts. Its dazzling
blend of electro-tinged pop rock and wittily subversive lyrics in an
absolute joy and this track with its biting guitar riff and knowing
vocals shows Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun to be masters of a hard
rock/electropop/alternative hip-hop mashup.
Tony
Cummings
892. LARRY MILLER - TOOK THE BULLET, 2005. From the album
'Fearless', Big Guitar.
Veering away from his beloved
blues, hard-working journeyman Larry adopts a hard rock guise in this
tale of Christ's redemptive sacrifice. Kicking off with some driving
bass followed shortly by thundering drum work, Miller peels off a Rory
Gallagher-like short solo before explaining with directness that he
should have trusted his Saviour from the outset and that he's always
needed his maker - who ultimately "took the bullet" in his place - to
save him from a life of sin. Refreshingly, Miller's approach to life,
faith and music is endearingly unsubtle and he rattles off references
to Jimi Hendrix (in all but name), his treasured Fender guitar and
even "the boys from WWF" in a quest to explain the difference between
his old ways and the new life that Jesus has brought through taking
the singer's place on the cross before Larry takes the song to the
fade in wah wah-festooned fashion, demanding you reach for the repeat
button.
Lins Honeyman
893. DAUGHTERS OF DAVIS - BRITISH SOUL, 2014. From
the album 'British Soul', Resound.
It's taken me 47
years to appreciate this track. No, I'm not claiming that "British
Soul" was recorded in 1968 (though the cut does have the same kind of
delicious, timeless soul-blues groove of the Staple Singers' "Long
Walk To DC" classic of that year). And I'm not making an even more
preposterous claim that the attractive young sisters, Fern and
Adrienne Davis, are actually the same age as this wrinkled old
reviewer. What I'm referring to is that it wasn't 'til my Christian
conversion in 1980 that my peculiar belief that only African Americans
could or should sing blues and soul music finally got laid to rest.
And it took another quarter century or so before I finally found a
record from a white Britisher where UK references in their lyrics
didn't, to my ears, sound stilted and wrong. For me, such is the deep
South ambience conveyed by down home slide guitar and churchy swoops
and growled vocals that using such elements in songs about Britain and
Brits was sure to fail. Then I heard these two travelling troubadours
from Winchester on this song. They use clever imagery to pay tribute
to the sisters' ever growing legion of supporters who have opened
their homes and hearts to the peripatetic duo. So though Fern and
Adrienne sing smokily of a frugal bite to eat it isn't about dipping
their biscuits in gravy it depicts dipping their digestives in tea. In
short, "British Soul" is a classic.
Tony Cummings
again thank you Tony for your efforts greatly appreciated, mind you l go back to the tour of the top twenty at GB 84