Love Never Fails - Smith, White and Fairchild
--- David Bruce Murray
Label: Daywind Music Group
Producer: Ricky Skaggs
Song Titles: "Secret Place," "Where Angels Fear To Tread," "Closer To Home," "Fight On," "Ever Near," "Reach For The Scars," "Trouble Me No More," "In Gethsemene," "He's Alive," "Love Never Fails," and "Walking Through The Fire"
Country music stalwarts Connie Smith, Sharon White, and Barbara Fairchild combine their vocal gifts for Love Never Fails. This distinguished trio holds a number of individual accomplishments including White's participation in the O Brother, Where Art Thou? phenomenon, Smith's star status in the 1960s and 70s, and Fairchild's stint with Heirloom.
Producer Ricky Skaggs has put together a basic country sound for this project. The music is very much in the background, with a focus on the vocals. This helps the listener pay attention to the harmony and the lyrics.
"Secret Place" is an easygoing tune with some steel guitar accompaniment. The lyrics ask God to "hide me in your secret place." "Where Angels Fear To Tread" gives the angels' point of view on God's throne room. "Closer To Home" describes the journey of life, and how each day is one more day closer to heaven. "Love Never Fails" has a Singing Cookes 3/4 time feel.
After five rather slow numbers, "Reach For The Scars" steps up to a lukewarm medium pace. Track seven ("Trouble Me No More") finally, at last, picks up the tempo to a level that could be arguably called "fast." Before it's all over "He's Alive" and "Walking Through The Fire" are added to give the project a little bit more excitement. The lyrics are well written and interesting to hear on the slower numbers, but putting five draggy songs at the beginning of a CD tends to put the listener to sleep.
My rating is high for lyric selection and graphic design. Vocal arrangements, performance and production quality range from moderate to high depending on the song. Overall unique elements and difficulty get a moderate to low rating. Pacing gets a solid F. That system averages out to an overall rating of 3 stars for Love Never Fails.
Rating: 3 Stars