Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

Jeremiah Murphy was born and raised in Washington, DC, a city he still calls home. A pastor's kid, he began singing in church at an early age, took up the piano when he was nine, and wrote his first song at 16. After graduating with a music degree and a Masters in music teaching, he moved to a high school in Maryland as a music teacher and choral director. This 2005 release, his third, features Judah, a seven-voice backing group, along with his school choir, and running time is very impressive, nearly 73 minutes. Not that the whole CD is music, there are several Scripture readings and other spoken bits along the way and a couple of the songs get rather unnecessary reprises, which adds a little to a sense of repetition. All the songs are his own work, but I sometimes find (and this is a case in point) that some gospel recordings lack atmosphere if they're not done live. All the singers try hard (one or two a tad too hard, there's some shrillness and missed notes along the way), but there's some tracks that are not as strong, whether because of the aforementioned vocal problems, or because the songs themselves don't stand up as well as they should. Not the church-wreckin' and testifyin' experience I was expecting, but not bad nonetheless.

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