Dave's Review

Arrangers: Mike Speck and Russell Mauldin
Publisher: Lillenas
Website: www.lillenas.com
Song Titles (in alpha order): "All Hail The Power Of Jesus Name," "Ancient Of Days," "At Calvary," "At The Cross," "Because He Lives," "Because We Believe," "Blessed Be The Lord God Almighty," "Come, Now Is The Time To Worship," "Days Of Elijah," "Great Is The Lord," "He Lives," "He Looked Beyond My Fault," "He Set Me Free," "He's Worthy," "Here I Am To Worship," "Holy, Holy, Holy," "House Of The Lord," "How Great Thou Art," "I Will Say To The Lord," "I Will Sing Of My Redeemer," "I Worship You, Almighty God," "It Is Well With My Soul," "Jesus Is Alive," "Jesus Is Alive And Well," "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms," "Let The Redeemed," "Majesty," "Mighty Is Our God," "My Life Is In You, Lord," "My Savior's Love," "O Come, Let Us Adore Him," "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing," "Praise The Name Of Jesus," "Rise Up And Praise Him," "Shout To The Lord," "Since Jesus Came Into My Heart," "Soon And Very Soon," "Testify," "Thank You, Lord," "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power," "The King Is Coming," "The King Of Who I Am," "The Love Of God," "The Wonderful Cross," "There Is Power In The Blood," " 'Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus," "To God Be The Glory," "To Him Who Sits Upon The Throne," "Victory Chant," "We Have Come Into His House," "We Have Come To Worship Jesus," "What A Day That Will Be," "What The Lord Has Done For Me," "When I Think About The Lord," "When We All Get To Heaven," "Who Can Satisfy My Soul," "You Are My All In All," and "You Are My King"

Everlasting Praise is a 142 page collection of 58 songs arranged in 18 medleys. Most selections are four to six minutes in length. Mike Speck and Russell Mauldin collaborated to create this collection, Speck's debut for Lillenas Publishing. The difficulty level is moderate . . . a few challenging rhythms and unexpected chord progressions, but pitches stay well within ranges that won't kill your tenors and sopranos.

Everlasting Praise unifies the common lyrical elements of gospel songs from past to present. As you can probably tell from the song titles listed above, there's a lot of "blending" going on here. Hymns, worship choruses, and traditional gospel tunes are tapped for source material. Most church music leaders are familiar with blended collections where each medley starts with a praise chorus, transitions to a hymn, then ends with a reprise of the praise chorus. Everlasting Praise doesn't use that type of formulaic approach. These medleys are thematic, including two to four tunes each with interesting transitions in between.

I do have one gripe with how the "Unison" sections are printed on one song. Unison singing is only notated on the treble clef in Everlasting Praise. This means the men must read the treble clef for unison sections and then jump back to the bass clef when the arrangement returns to harmony. Such notation is not normally a cause for concern, because most unison sections are several measures in length. However, it's very annoying on a song like "The King Of Who I Am" where the men have to jump between staves FIVE times in just seven measures. Yes, this gripe is about one page out of 142, but it's worth citing. Music should be printed with the music reader in mind, even if that means changing a notation method on one page when it wouldn't matter on the other 141.

That complaint aside, a great aspect of Everlasting Praise is the flexibility offered. For example, only the third verse of "It Is Well With My Soul" is part of the medley arrangement, but the lyrics for verses one, two, and four are included as options for choirs that use live accompaniment. In addition to the choir member's spiral bound edition, a larger print Soloist/Accompanist book, full orchestrations, and listening and accompaniment recordings are available. Also, the inclusion of 18 very do-able selections is a big mark in favor of Everlasting Praise, considering the norm for most choral collections is 12 to 14.

Everlasting Praise is the best blended choral collection I've ever seen, and I don't make that statement lightly. I reached this conclusion in no small part because the book doesn't call attention to the fact that it's blended. Moving from "Soon And Very Soon" to "Days Of Elijah" and finally to "The King Is Coming" is a natural progression of arrangment and lyrical theme, not a deliberate attempt to attract listeners from more than one camp. One medley may be almost entirely Southern Gospel while another is mostly Praise and Worship. The "Heavenbound" medley consists of "Since Jesus Came Into My Heart," "He Set Me Free," "When We All Get To Heaven," and "What A Day That Will Be," for example, while the "Come To Worship" medley includes "Come, Now Is The Time To Worship," "Here I Am To Worship," and "We Have Come To Worship Jesus."

I don't make endorsements as a general rule in my reviews. I usually prefer to describe the product and let my readers draw their own conclusions about whether it would suit them. However, I feel compelled to let you know that I think Everlasting Praise is an almost perfect choral collection. It suits just about any church setting and covers an excellent variety of songs. Variety in music is something I preach. Too many churches trot out the same songs Sunday after Sunday, or if they change songs, the delivery is muted and stale you couldn't tell the difference. This collection takes songs from vastly differing traditions and combines them in a way that most congregations should appreciate.

So to conclude this review, I'm going to make an exception and tell you that Everlasting Praise is not only a five star product from my more objective perspective of rating quality, it's also a collection I really like and would personally endorse. I'd be proud to use it with the choir at the church where I attend.

Rating: 5 Stars

--- by David Bruce Murray