Dave's Review

Label: Gaither Music Group
Producers: Bill Gaither and David Phelps
Song Titles: "Low Down The Chariot," "Leave It There/What A Friend We Have In Jesus," "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross," "Delivered From The Hand Of Pharoah," "He Will Carry You," "Jesus! What A Friend For Sinners," "Sing A Song/I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing," "Center Of My Joy," "Heaven's Joy Awaits," "God Bless America," "I Then Shall Live," and "Gentle Shepherd"

Take four fine voices . . . yes, I said four . . . stir in a dash of barbershop tradition, a bit of Glad influence, a couple of feel good pop lyrics, and a spiritual or two. Don't forget the patriotic number or the Gaither classic remake. But wait, let's do something different this time and lock all the session players out of the studio. Yep, the Gaither Vocal Band is putting extra emphasis on the middle word in their name. This is vocal music in its purest, most unforgiving form . . . a cappella.

To really appreciate this CD, you need to sit close enough to your stereo system to hear how the voices are panned in front of you. Most of the time, Bill Gaither and Russ Taff are in the middle of the stereo field with David Phelps to the left and Guy Penrod on the right.

GVB didn't make it easy on themselves by singing simple arrangements. There's some truly remarkable moments on this project. At the end of each chorus on "Delivered From The Hand Of Pharoah," rather than holding out the chord, Bill and Russ slide down in pitch while Guy slides up and David sustains the top note. "Heaven's Joy Awaits" is the closest thing to a novelty arrangement. Before each verse they've inserted a scratchy record effect, but rather than singing words during those intros, each vocalist is doing a cheesy imitation of a brass instrument. Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" gets a pure barbershop arrangement with all the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords a music theory student could ever want to analyze. The "Sing A Song/I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing" medley has too many unison phrases, but the way they nail that A-flat triad with the added sixth near the end makes up for it.

I'd have preferred to see the GVB deliver a more stylistically cohesive effort like Gold City's Acapella (sic) Gold, or the Cathedrals' Worship His Glory, but that's a VERY minor complaint. It's also important to note for those who haven't yet purchased this CD that it focuses more on finesse and complexity than excitement. If you're not the type who pays attention to the fine details, you might go so far as to think of this CD as boring or too draggy. On the other hand, if you enjoy hearing four fine voices moving from one very interesting chord to another, you won't mind the slower pace that most of these songs take.