Your Mercies Are New Today

"Contemporary Christian Rock & Praise & Worship since 1982."


A few weeks ago Louis Tata offered some copies of his new CD on Facebook; happily, he sent me one! You can find both CD and individual MP3s on amazon.

• Your Mercies Are New Today compact disc on amazon

The entire CD features a rich, open, resonant, full, acoustic sound that literally could not be better! I hardly can overemphasize the importance of sound quality; I've given away too many CDs where the performances themselves were fine, but the sound didn't measure up―to such an extent I didn't want to listen.

Music, lyrics, and arrangements on Your Mercies Are New Today all are fairly simple "rock & praise & worship," yet in a surprising variety of musical styles. Needless to say, I prefer some tracks; after a few listenings, the slower, more somber songs (2, 6, and 9) still didn't appeal to me as much as the others did. Once the website is live again, you can get chords for all these songs to use in worship.

1. Hungry for Your Love 5/5
Exquisitely beautiful, and a great set opener! "It's Friday night, and I don't know what I'm doing... it's been so long... Hungry for your love; thirsty for your word." I love this mellow, hope-laden rock!

2. Would You Turn Me Away 4/5
"waiting for an open door, to a life that's so much more..." this track is mid-tempo, a little morose.

3. Your Mercies Are New Today 5/5
"Woke up this morning with the sun in my eyes! new day!" CD title track with wonderfully energetic rockabilly!

4. Will You Dance? 5/5
"we bring an offering, his praise do we sing; we serve a mighty king, alpha and omega, first and last..." blues with laid-back energy and an unforgettable, hands in the air, celebration style!

5. Waiting for You 5/5
"Waiting for you; Jesus, here I am! I want to see your glory in my life!" Who would not relate to this? This song moves right along!

6. Here I Am 3/5
"You are holy, Lord, mighty is your name..." Although lyrics are solid, I don't relate much to the somewhat dragging, mournful style of this track.

7. You Are Lord 5/5
"You are life; you are love; you are Lord!" A glowing, easy to follow, basic tempo, worship opener!

8. My All for You 5/5
"I will worship; I will sing to you from the depths of my soul, till the day you call me home! I give you all my life, give my all for you..." I especially love this mellow, gently, rocking song! 6/5

9. You Are the Lord 3/5
This track also has a kind of melancholy sensibility; lyrics and music are ok, but it drags, and comes across as not very hopeful.

10. Only Believe 5/5
"Listen to the Spirit as it breaks through... it's God's perfect love, trying to get you in touch." "Only believe in the Son of God, in the Holy One..." this one's also a winner!

11. You Are Here 5/5
"...in this place, in this place. When I think about it, what I feel for you is not only in my mind, it's from deep within my heart; I always trust in your love to chase away my fears!" A perfect conclusion to an outstanding concert!

CD info: original music and lyrics by Louis Tata; released July 17, 2012 on the CD Baby label.
other credits include: Paul Frederickson – background vocals; Art Leather – harmonica; Keith Tata – rhythm Guitar; Don Spaulding – acoustic guitar; Keri Tata – graphics

When I last checked, Louis' music and production studio web pages were down; here are his Facebook pages:

• Louis Tata Music on Facebook

• on ReverbNation

• my amazon review: Contemporary Christian Rock, Praise, Worship

Santa Fe Trail

• Santa Fe Trail on Amazon

1. The Santa Fe Trail (Theme)

2. Independence Missouri (Trailhead)

3. Human Beings (Osage, Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, Apache)

4. Incident at Council Grove

5. Vengeance on the Plains

6. Sorrow

7. Race Across the Colorado Desert (Timberwolves and Coyotes)

8. Taos

9. Sangre de Cristos

10. Americana Santa Fe (Terminus)

I've been enjoying the Natural Encounters CD series very much; I especially love the historical narrative in the liner notes for this Santa Fe Trail album! Ten instrumentals describe a journey along the Santa Fe trail from Independence, Missouri ("edge of the frontier"), finally into Santa Fe New Mexico ("wilderness of the American West"), appropriately riding the last phase of the trek alongside the Pecos River.

The notes tell us the music celebrates "all that is American Indian, Anglo, Latino" coming together to share the fruit. Musical style and scoring are bright, colorful, reflective, and evocative, without becoming wildly dissonant. You might want to stop for a while to listen, or play Santa Fe Trail in the background as you work through other tasks. This CD is © 1998.

• my amazon review: journey into a wilderness

Aaliyah: I Care 4 U

Aaliyah, I Care 4 U on Amazon

Out of production, issued in 2003, with bonus DVD included in the initial pressings.

Rhythmic, sultry, relaxed, spirited, introspective, stellar—those words and more describe the outstanding performances on this retrospective of the late Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in August 2001, at the age of 22. I'd describe the music's general style as contemporary R&B that she sings with such confidence and musical maturity – yet with a sense of innocence, too – this CD makes me wonder how much further Aaliyah would have progressed artistically by now, let alone a couple of decades from now. To enhance anyone's listening pleasure, audio on the Blackground Records CD hardly could be better. If you're remotely into any of the musical genres this CD represents, or if the track titles intrigue you, you need I Care 4 U in your collection!

tracks:

1. Back & Forth
2. Are You That Somebody
3. One in a Million
4. I Care 4 U
5. More Than a Woman
6. Don't Know What to Tell Ya
7. Try Again
8. All I Need
9. Miss You
10. Don't Worry
11. Come Over
12. Erica Kane
13. At Your Best (You Are Love) – Isley Brothers classic
14. Got to Give It Up

my amazon review: I Care 4 "I Care 4 U"

soul picnic

• Soul Picnic CD on Amazon






Would you believe I bought another CD majorly on sale? And it's another major winner! ... btw, this is news since it's been a few years since I've routinely brought new CDs into my living space. Playlist includes tracks with fun, casual titles:

tracks:

1. Down to It
2. Soul Picnic
3. Made in the Shade
4. Some Like It Hot
5. Wanna Be There
6. Barbeque
7. Cool 'N Easy
8. Sweet Love

"Made in the Shade," "Wanna Be There," and "Sweet Love" all are so very joyful and forever listenable! The music and performances are way far too smooth to describe as funky, but the contained energy and clear recorded sound makes up for that and besides, who says all the music on Soul Picnic needs to be funky even when that's my mood? Highly recommend!

• My Amazon review: forever listenable

7 sacred songs

Some of my favorite Contemporary Christian piano repertoire:

• Lord, I Lift Your Name On High // Rick Founds

• We Bow Down // Twila Paris

• Thy Word Psalm is a lamp unto my feet ... Psalm 119:105 // Amy Grant and Michael W Smith

• Lamb of God // Twila Paris

• Lord, Be Glorified // Bob Kilpatrick

• Glorify Thy Name // Donna Adkins

• He Is Exalted // Twila Paris

Song of the Mississippi

• Song of the Mississippi by "various artists" on Amazon.

I chose this CD (because it was on sale) and because the title included "Mississippi." A song is music a river, a person, or an idea breathes and its surroundings hear; this song collection includes lovely, sometimes lively music with a classic "Americana" sound that easily helps you imagine river scenes, literature, and art along the vast range of the Mighty Mississipp, a river that carries legend, myth, individual stories and family histories along its lengthy course and upon its banks. I was born in the deep South of the USA - in many ways born a child of the river - but left before I started forming memories. However, I clearly recall my first adult encounter with the River Mississippi in front of the hotel where I was staying for a conference in St Paul, Minnesota. I walked across the street, stood beside the river, and wept at its beauty.

The Natural Encounters playlist includes a lot of "Only in America" titles:

1. As the River Runs
2. Slow Water Blues
3. Madame Rosie's Poker Parlour
4. Harmonica Hoe-Down
5. Catfish Tales
6. River Fiddlin'
7. Sweet Prospect
8. Reverend White's Get Right Revival
9. Mighty Like a Rose
10. Piano Jive
11. Riverboat Rag
12. Mississippi Moon
13. Jaw Harp Jam
14. Snag Boat Blues
15. As the River Runs (Reprise)

The sound is open and clear, with enough presence to fill the room. This is the kind of music you can leave playing in the background or stop a while for some careful listening. There are several additional CDs in the Natural Encounters series that I hope to find at an affordable price, trusting they'll be as listenable and re-listenable as "Song of the Mississippi."

• my Amazon review: Song of the Mississippi

CD: Pop Rock Christmas

• Pop Rock Christmas CD on Amazon.



These days I buy very few CDs and even have given away quite a few, but I got this CD after Christmas for a great price and I'm glad I did. "The First Noel" alone is worth far more than the price I paid and well worthy of many, many listenings; "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing" isn't far behind. In 1998 Tom Wanca produced and arranged as well as playing keyboards and organ and singing background vocals for Sheer Panic. With a touch of rock and more than a hint of classic country, the designation "Pop Rock" fits well as the arrangements basically rock the rhythm and skew the harmonizations most people are used to.



Liner notes provide performance and production details and in the interest of accommodating anyone who may have turned off browser images and/or are relying on an app to read the screen to them, here's the playlist that you can see contains non-exotic secular and more sacred songs for Christmas:

1. Angels We Have Heard On High
2. Up On The Housetop
3. Over The River And Through The Woods
4. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
5. The First Noel
6. I Saw Three Ships





7. Jolly Old St. Nicholas / Jingle Bells
8. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
9. Silent Night! Holy Night!
10. What Child Is This?

• my amazon review: country, rock, and pop for Christmas

Chopin Piano Concertos: classically elegant

Chopin: The Piano Concertos—Lang Lang, pianist; Zubin Mehta conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.


Given that Frédéric François Chopin lived during the 1^st half of the 19^th century and generally is considered a romantic compositor, "romantically elegant" might be a better review title, but pianist, orchestra and conductor all perform with more polished reserve and measured restraint then with passionate ardor and fiery abandon, so I'm going with classical.

Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 is my own favorite of the pair, and listening to both in a row is enjoyable, though both performances have a sense of sameness about them that's not necessarily a negative thing at all. Not surprisingly, Lang Lang's keyboard technique approaches perfection, the orchestra plays extremely well and the recording itself has an almost ideal level of brightness and presence. As an aside, to all the non-pianists reading this, despite stereotypes to the contrary, Chopin's music is well-suited to the human hand and not technically difficult in the way Liszt's (for example) is, but it does take many hours of practice to get all but his simplest, shortest pieces to high-end performance-readiness. If you like piano music and if you like Chopin, I'd definitely recommend this released-in-2008 recording.

• my amazon review: classically elegant

clear perfection!

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The four Overtures or Orchestral Suites, BWV 1066-1069, by Johann Sebastian Bach are some of my all-time favorites. I love this recording by Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert, the orchestra he founded and led for thirty years. I frequently find myself amazed at how well some older analog recordings have been digitally remastered and at other times distressed at the poor quality of others. This CD of a recording made in 1979 was released in 2007; the performances approach essence of perfection and the recording sounds clear and bright and rich.


• my amazon review: clear perfection!

Harris & Copland: 3rd Symphonies

Copland, Symphony #3; Harris, Symphony #3

 

With trilingual liner notes in English, German and French along with strikingly bright cover art featuring a DC-2 hovering above a horse-drawn stagecoach, this recording of two classic American symphonic standards is well-prepped for export! For both pieces Neeme Järvi conducts the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. It's fair to say Roy Harris' Symphony No. 3 in one movement and five parts is an icon of 20^th century American music, and especially given that the final, 4^th movement of Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3 is a version of his "Fanfare for the Common Man," his 3^rd symphony isn't far behind in the category of iconic.

Basically I like the orchestra's playing under Maestro Neeme Järvi, who served as DSO Music Director from 1990 through the end of the 2004-2005 season. However, at times the music simply sits there, so in general I'd like to feel a greater sense of the narrative moving along and greater passion in the shapes of the phrases. Not surprisingly, the luminous sound of the Chandos recording is a joy to the ears! Do I recommend this CD? Definitely! It will give you another perspective on a pair of major orchestral works that are among my very favorites, and maybe yours, as well.

my amazon review: solid performances, clear sound

A Christmas Keeper!

• Christmas on the Border on Amazon

...A Spicy Holiday Recipe of Texas Blues, Hot Country, and Mexican Salsa as well as a project and production from the town of Nashville, Tennessee, a place doesn't exactly border Mexico (or Canada, for that matter). "O Holy Night" and "What Child is This" are rocked-up essential classics; I could listen endlessly to a memorably haunting "The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy" or "I Wonder as I Wander." The style of "Joy to the World" and "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentleman," both just enough different from what you're used to that you listen more carefully all make for a CD to play over and over and recommend, too. Except for the definitely secular "Up On the Rooftop" the songs are classic North American (USA and Canada) Christmas worship, church pageant and radio top-40 favorites.

Since I included playlists from my other two Christmas CD reviews, here are the songs on this one:

1. Children Go Where I Send Thee
2. Joy to the World
3. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
4. Go Tell It on the Mountain
5. The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy
6. O Holy Night
7. I Wonder as I Wander
8. What Child Is This?

How apt and how fun this is as an example of contextualizing the Gospel and incarnating Christianity with cross-cultural musical styles, a little of this and a little of that, each still in its original idiom yet woven into the other idiom. It reminds me of the C.S. Lewis Dawn Treader quote on my Facebook page: "...said the Lamb, "For you the door into Aslan's country is from your own world." ... "There is a way into my country from all the worlds," said the Lamb...and he was Aslan himself..."

I have the impression the CD title is supposed to reference Tex-Mex style and culture, but cross-culture border styles of Southern California/ Northern Mexico and Southern Arizona/ Northern Mexico I'm familiar with aren't exactly like this CD. "Christmas on the Border" and chili pepper art both suggest songs sung in Spanish or at least partly so--in these here parts we've been known to have macaronic English/Spanish liturgies and many of us speak passable Spanglish. That's simply a passing comment, though, and I predict you'll enjoy the energy, twang, and harmonic color of Christmas on the Border (the CD).

• my amazon review: A Christmas Keeper!