SouthernGospelBlog.com

Rating: 3.5 stars (of 5)

Produced By: Wayne Haun.

Song List: On the Way Up; The Grave Can’t Hold Me; The Miracle Man; Out of His Way; Through Every Storm; Our Highest Praise; Because of the Blood; Joy in My Heart; I Still Have it All; The Things That Won’t Be There; That’s When God Steps In; I Don’t Regret.

Available from: HisSong, Vine, Crossroads, Springside, Amazon, Christianbook.com.

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The main adjective that this project brings to mind is “ambitious.” Given a larger-than-average budget and a master producer, what can a second-tier group achieve?

This project gives us a pretty good idea.

It contains mostly new songs, though it includes three covers, a Walt Mills / Tanya Goodman collaboration, “Joy in My Heart,” and two Hemphills covers, “On My Way Up” and “The Miracle Man.” Song selection is good, a decent selection of ballads, mid-tempo numbers, and fast songs, though mid-tempo songs seem to be predominant.

The group has a good vocal blend; probably its most distinctive voice is Adam Elrod’s tenor part. Elrod is a power tenor in the Danny Funderburk tradition.

The album isn’t exactly traditional, but it’s not really fully progressive either. It incorporates elements as diverse as Black Gospel arrangements, orchestral ballads, and a session band with some familiar names in the (small) Southern Gospel session player universe–Gordon Mote, Ricky Free, Craig Nelson, Randy Miller, and others.

No song jumps out as a likely breakout hit for the group. But the project is quite listenable and shows promise of a group that has strong potential to be top-tier material.

Song List: My Name is Lazarus (Greater Vision); I Wish I Could Have Been There (Perrys); For God So Loved (Brian Free & Assurance); If it Had Not Been the Lord (McRaes); The Cross (Crabb Family); There’s a Brighter Day (Old Time Gospel Hour Quartet); Oh What a Savior (Ernie Haase); Climbing Jacob’s Ladder (Ann Downing); He Called Me Out (The Nelons); I Take Him Back (Mike Bowling); We Want America Back (The Steeles); In Time, On Time, Every Time (Gold City); Oasis (New Hinsons); I Found Grace (Legacy Five); Day Three (LordSong); Don’t Let the Sandals Fool Ya (Triumphant Quartet); Safe Thus Far (Hoskins Family); Fight On (Smith, White and Fairchild); Hello in Heaven (Freemans); Hallelujah Heavenly Horn (Cumberland Quartet with the Gospel Brass).

Available From: Daywind, Amazon, Christianbook.com.

Trying to review a two-year-old label compilation is a rather interesting challenge. Though it was just sent to me for review, it has a copyright date of 2006. With the possible exception of two songs that have no copyright date listed, all the songs on the project were released between 1996 and 2005. The compilation covers a decent spectrum of Daywind’s artists, with no artist being featured on more than one song.

Artist comments are included on five of the twenty songs (”If It Had Not Been the Lord,” “For God So Loved,” “I Wish I Coudl Have Been There,” “Don’t Let the Sandals Fool Ya,” and “Safe Thus Far.”)

This is an enjoyable collection of some of the most recognizable songs released on the Daywind label. But in these days of iTunes and ready availabity of individual songs, this radio compilation could be one of the last of its species.