Reviewed by Stephen Luff

Northampshire-based Salvationist piano player Phillips follows up his well received 'Inspirations' album with a similar format featuring songs that have been important to him. There are some simply beautiful pieces such as Bowater's "Faithful God" and the self-penned "The Music Of Your Love" (with Andrew Piper on clarinet). Richard's enjoyment of Barry Manilow is reflected in the credible rendition of "I Write The Songs". Richard is clearly very talented but on some pieces his enthusiasm appears to overtake him and, to my ears, fails to take the listener with him. Examples of this include parts of "The Sound Of Music" and "Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells". However, the beautiful "Lord, Show Me What I Need" and "Hallowed Be Your Name" work well.

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‘I lift up mine eyes to the hills, where does my help come from?’ is a familiar question penned by the psalmist many hundreds of years ago. As Christians, our view extends far beyond the beautiful hills and mountains that we see in some countries, and it reaches below the depths of the world’s largest oceans for… ‘our help comes from the Lord’, the maker and architect of this world in which we live.

For many people though, the mountains and hills are a reminder of God’s greatness and inspire us to achieve even greater things than we would otherwise consider. I can vividly recall going to the local Odeon cinema in Rochester when I was only five years old to see a film that was going to inspire me for the rest of my life. Yes… it was The Sound of Music – the tunes, story and the feel-good factor still ring around my mind when I recall those beautiful songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein. At this young age I began to realise that music can affect the way you think, the way you feel, be another strain of inspiration and become further evidence of the existence of a great and powerful God. I therefore had to include some of these songs as the opening track of this CD. I hope you enjoy them too.

Richard Phillips