Reviewed by Doug Holland

Based in Louisville, USA, Ted Sandquist has been writing and performing Scripture-true praise and worship songs for many years and this 15-track, 52-minute collection is representative of his style over this time. The original version of the album was released in 1977; the original recordings were lost or unusable and this re-issue has been constructed from digitalized and cleaned pieces of both tapes and records. Tracks one to seven were recorded live (just Sandquist and his acoustic guitar) and the remainder are studio output with Sandquist supported by a small number of backing vocalists. To remark that Sandquist's voice is adequate without being exceptional and that his guitar playing is unremarkable is not a criticism, because these are not the important issues on this recording. The important things, and the elements of it that generate its effectiveness, are the songs themselves - the varied, interesting, and often lovely melodies and the use of Scripture in the lyrics. The live section of the recording comes across as exactly that, with plenty of background noise between the tracks (some of which are applauded and others of which are not!), and the studio tracks thankfully manage to retain a similar freshness and un-sophisticated character. These apparently straightforward songs belie Sandquist's gifts as a writer and the unpretentious style with which they are delivered acts only to make them more effective. Musical history has seldom sounded better.