Breathtaking - Breathtaking pretty much sums up this album. Especially The River. I cry everytime I hear it. If you can listen to that song without crying then you are probably dead.
Mullins best, IMO - Common wisdom has it that A Liturgy, A Legacy & A Ragamuffin Band is Mullins masterpiece, and The World as Best as I Remember It, Vol 1 is a slightly less great album that points to his magnum opus. I disagree. For one thing, an artist is capable of more than one masterpiece (see Dylan, Stones, or, among Christian artists, Larry Norman, Daniel Amos, Mark Heard)... Personally, I prefer this album over A Liturgy (which IMO has a great first half and some weaker songs on side 2). The AMG review states that it would have been better if, instead of releasing 2 volumes, the best songs from each would have been combided into one CD. I strongly disagree, there s not a weak song on Volume 1 (unlike Vol. 2), and holds together very well as a unified album (again, unlike vol 2). There s so much going on here: the beautiful, evocative piano melodies, the restless percussion work, the differing tonal colors of various acoustic instruments, the nice hybrid and melange of differing folk styles (African chorus, Celtic melodies, Appalachian folk, etc.). A beautiful album.
a rich masterpiece - This is what you get when you have brilliant songwriting along with passion and soul.Certainly Richs best work and a contemporary Christian classic.Personal favorite:Calling Out Your NameRich images with lovely hammer dulcimer from Mullins.Not a wasted note on the whole album.Essential stuff.
In the west I see an evening - This veteran s day I listened again to this wonderful disc. I think especially on a day like today we can all learn a lesson and perhaps take a warning from Rich s words.The song The Howling in particular speaks to where we, as Americans have been, are, and continue to go:------------------------------------------I can see the iron horses tracks Pressed in the mud from the weight of all that steam and steel But the wind don t blow where you want it to go No, the wind just goes where it will and you follow I can feel the breath of winter Driving this snow across these newly-whited plains Takes my breath from me and it leaves me falling Then it picks me up again in its own strength And I can hear the wild wind howling And I can feel it in my bones And I know that the howling will take me home I can see some traveller s footprints There s a little bit of blood in every step he made I wonder what kind of burden he s bearing That has cut him so deeply every step along the long, long way In the west I see an evening This scarlet thread stretched beneath the gathering dark Red as the blood on the hands of the Savior And rich as the mercy that flowed from His broken heart And I can hear the wild wind howling And I can feel it in my bones And I know that the howling will take me home These men of violence, they have made this a world full of wars Oh God break Your silence and let Your justice shine forth Show some mercy, Oh Lord Cause I can see a people dispossessed Broken and brave in the face of so much fear Driven from their homes by the greed of a nation Whose treaties were as good as litter Along the trail of their tears I can see the Covenant colors The sun and the rain have woven against the blue of the sky And I know if we live we will live by His promise I know He who made it and I m sure that He would not lie And I can hear the wild wind howling And I can feel it in my bones And I know that the howling will take me home------------------------------------The choice is ours. The rest is silence.
Best Christian CD ever - This is referring to Both volumes 1 and 2. There are other amazing albums but in my opinion these 2 together create the best Christian music has to offer!!!