Reviewed by Matthew Cordle

Kevin describes himself as a music minister and that's most of what we know about him, other than that he is a Germany-based American soul musician. The title of his CD has obvious connotations of Heaven and the 11 self-penned tracks deal mostly with life's journey at one level or another, whether encouragement to open up your heart and "Let His Light Shine" and "Call On Him" or to focus on what's important in life in "Rich Poor Woman". The songs are musically creative in terms of writing, structure and instrumentation, and the style is kind of retro soul, with a couple of the songs falling into reggae territory. Kevin has a quirky, interesting sounding voice that made me think a little of a male Nina Simone in tone. There are some really emotive vocals, such as in the verse of "Message Song" although at times Kevin seems to lack tonal variation/expressiveness and sings on one level too much. Some of his intonation also needs attention as it's not always consistent. Listening to the CD is frustrating, as whilst the songs really appealed to me musically and sonically, much of the execution is seriously flawed. There is just way too much loose timing that completely stops the music from grooving. For example, at the beginning of "Man In The City" the drums drag the whole track and there are many occurrences in that song alone where the timing is just sloppy. This spoils what would otherwise be an excellent record.

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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