Reviewed by Dave Brassington

Different groups of people view Daniel O'Donnell in very different ways. For some, he remains Britain's best known exponent of country music or country-tinged music. For others, he is the epitome of bland, easy listening music. (Ironically in decades past the American country crooner Jim Reeves received similar brick bats.) And for a third group, mostly ladies of a certain age, he is their darling performer of musical nostalgia. Originally released in 2009 and recorded live in Branson, Missouri, this excellent CD/DVD package now gets a fresh release in Britain in an attractive and nicely priced package, comprising two CDs and a DVD of the whole concert. There will certainly be aspects of this release that will surprise many in Britain, as Daniel talks openly of his gratitude for his continuing American popularity which "keeps him coming back to the States," and even has him performing with an excellent children's choir from a local Bible college. Daniel seems to be more relaxed talking about his faith here which probably comes from being in a place where God and religion are taken as part of the normal culture. Of the 25 tracks here, I doubt if there is hardly anything those of us who have followed his career for a long time will not be familiar with. "Why Me Lord" provides an excellent opener, "Morning Has Broken" is beautiful and "Footsteps" never sounded better. His popular singing partner Mary Duff joins him on two fine duets, the beautiful "Whispering Hope" and "Will You Walk With Me", plus doing her own solo on the lovely "Voice Of An Angel". Add in a few other fine songs like "The Greatest Love", "Marriage Of A Lifetime" and the stirring closer "God Be With You", you have an album of live recordings that is very hard to fault if you are an avowed admirer of Daniel's smooth vocal tones and very hard to praise if you find his style positively sleep-inducing.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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