I was thoroughly excited when I heard about this recording and believe there is no songwriter more deserving at this time than Squire Parsons, a name synonymous with Southern Gospel Music. I literally cut my teeth on Squire Parsons’ songs like “Sweet Beulah Land”, “I’ve Got a Reservation”, “Look for me at Jesus’ Feet”, “I’ll Have a New Song”, “The Broken Rose”, “The Master of the Sea”, “He Did Not Fail”, “The Lovely Name of Jesus” (probably my favorite SP song), “That’s When it Will Be Heaven”, “It is the King of Kings”, “These are They”, “Help is on the Way” and so many others. Jim Brady took this effort and made it a labor of love and the dedication shows throughout the entire recording. While I realize there are a lot of constraints with putting together a recording of this magnitude, I was disappointed that many of the songs were previously released by other artists, and not new recordings. For the sake of this review, I will only review the new, previously unreleased songs.
The first “new” recording found here is “I Call it Home”, and is flawlessly executed by Karen Peck, along with Jim and Melissa Brady. I know Squire released this song several years ago, but I’ll bet if this song was singled, it would do well.
“The Broken Rose” is one of my all-time favorite Squire Parsons songs, but I felt Ivan’s rendition was a bit rushed and lacked the emotional connection that makes the song so special. I felt the same way with the Whisnants version of “The Master of the Sea” (another one of my favorite Squire penned tunes), which really seemed to lack the punch the song deserves.
Glenn Dustin, Mark Trammell, Jim Brady and Chris Allman join together for a nice rendition of the classic, “I’ve Got a Reservation”, before the Mark Trammell Quartet sings, “I Sing Because” (which Mark Trammell nails, by the way!)
One of the best renditions of the quintessential “mama” song is Jim Brady’s unwavering performance of, “Hello Mama”. Brady later joins Arthur Rice and Greater Vision for a male quintet rendition of “I Stand Amazed” before the Booth Brothers along with all the artists showcased on this recording along with a few others including the Hoppers, Jeff & Sheri Easter and Karen Peck & New River join for a climactic closing of Squire’s signature song, “Sweet Beulah Land”. The recording fades to a close with the whole choir singing the chorus accepella, which literally leaves the listener breathless and in awe.
My only reason for not giving this a 4 star or higher rating is because there are a lot of previously released material (over 50%), and I would have loved to hear fresh arrangements on all of these songs. But with what we are given, I was impressed overall. I think the song selection was a pretty good representation of the legacy of Squire Parsons, and because a list such as this can be extremely subjective, there are several songs that could be interchangeable with other notable classics. But all in all, this is a pleasing recording and one that SG fans would enjoy having in their collection.
Author: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Written: 02/01/2012
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Category: CD Reviews
Comments: 0
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