Reviewed by Tony Cummings

You read about it in CR14 and what unexpected news it was! Somehow none of us ever thought that that most intrinsically British of Christendom's institutions, that gravel-voiced bouncing charismatic Ishmael, could ever find a niche in the US of A. But here is Ish doing his rock-praise thing with a bunch of California kids. Sensibly, they recorded the backing tracks in the UK so you've got that raw and rocking rhythm section that can move from heavy metal riffs to Celtic jigs at the flick of Terl Bryant's drumstick. All in all a thoroughly effervescent selection of oldies and newies, my kids' faves being the hard rocking "Lord Help Me" and the nicely silly "I Want To Be A Cowboy For Jesus" though Ish's revival of his oldie "Bartemaeus" doesn't come close to the recent Jonathan Day rendition.

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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