Reviewed by Catherine Francis

'One Voice' is a series of albums bringing together some of America's top worship leaders from various denominations and backgrounds, with the aim of not only producing excellent worship resources, but also of building unity in the body of Christ. This second offering of class worship songs is produced by that brilliant blues rocker Chris Lizotte, who is himself an international worship leader. "You Alone Are God" features the songs (and voices) of Vineyard worship leader Eddie Espinosa and former vocalist for the violet burning, Jaime Eichler with half the album devoted to each. The music itself is top quality, which isn't surprising considering the pedigree of some of the musicians used. Bassist Tim Chandler is best known for his work with The Choir, and Prayer Chain's guitarist Andrew D Prickett also makes an appearance. An unusual and extremely useful feature of the album is that the chords of each song are listed alongside the words on the cover - no more struggling to work out awkward chord structures before being able to use them at church...please take note, record companies! In all, 10 songs which make up an excellent and accessible resource for expanding your repertoire of worship material.

Also reviewed in CR46
Those with long memories will remember these two American singer/songwriters as, respectively, one of the pillars of the Vineyard Church in Anaheim and the former lead singer of the much loved indie band Violet Burning. The album is split into two parts, labelled (not surprisingly) "Eddie's Side" and "Jamie's Side", and, to borrow the football cliché, this in indeed an album of two parts; Eddie gives us music in typical Vineyard-style: simple, Scripture-based, straight-ahead praise and worship, whilst Jamie gives us synth-driven mood music that wouldn't be out of place at Cross Rhythms or Soul Survivor. Having moved on from the time when I thought the Vineyard was at the cutting edge of CCM, I prefer the latter; is it my imagination, or has the Vineyard style become a little old-fashioned? A nice touch is the provision of guitar chords on the lyric sheet, so that the songs can be used in a worship setting, although Jamie's songs would take the average congregation a lot more time to learn than Eddie's. A strange inclusion is Randy Wright's old 1986 warhorse "All Consuming Fire": Eddie comments in the sleevenotes that Randy is one of those who have encouraged him in his music, so that's probably why it's there, but it sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. Even so, a nice comfortable album with lots of worshipful moments: useful Hospital Radio material and ideal for personal devotions, especially Jamie's Side.
7
Trevor Kirk

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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