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Prayers and Lowsongs is being offered as the bonus disc of Adam Again's Live at Cornerstone 2000, as well as sold separately. Until recently Greg Lawless was known merely as Adam Again's exceptionally gifted guitar player. In that role he largely served in the shadow of Gene Eugene's songwriting. In truth, Prayers and Lowsongs (P&L) was recorded back in 1999 before Eugene's untimely passing and Adam Again's subsequent disbandment. Yet its re-release now with the Gene Eugene tribute disc formally indicates in a healthy, if not unconscious, way that the other band members will move on with their musical careers in spite of the tragedy. 

Additionally, it provides Lawless an agreeable opportunity to step into the limelight and show his heretofore unknown skills as a singer-songwriter. In this light, more forthcoming solo efforts from both Riki Michele and Lawless will reassure fans that the legacy started with Adam Again will continue in other forms. 

In many ways Lawless's first solo effort could not be further from the Adam Again sound. Whereas Adam Again seamlessly wove sundry influences such as urban R&B and Seventies funk with a unique, contemporary alternative style, Lawless's debut is utterly folky. Armed only with a guitar over the course of eleven tracks, P&L finds Lawless flexing his own singer-songwriter muscles and baring his poetic soul. Although Lawless's intimate, stripped down musical approach is akin to the after midnight tone of Robert Deeble's work, Deeble appropriates more instruments into the mix. Vocally, Lawless keeps things simple as well, and sounds like a cross between Deeble, Lou Reed, and Crowded House's Neil Finn on Valium. With no over-dubbing or studio  trickery, Lawless recorded all eleven tracks live with nothing but a microphone and an acoustic guitar. This particularly austere formula contributes to the album's only perceptible downside, which comes in the form of a persistent dreariness that settles into the similar musical styles across most of the tracks and leads to monotony. In this case, the quality of the songwriting deserves, and would benefit from, more variety in musical composition. 

Recorded in his home in Cottage Grove, Oregon, P&L conjures images of a place where the skies are often grey and pregnant with rain, but whether the coming storm is a curse or a relief depends largely on your interpretation of the event. The title Prayers and Lowsongs perfectly captures the plaintive mix of desperation and hope that exists when an earthly life longs for heavenly redemption. Lawless attempts to seek the mystery of God by pouring out his heart through song. Accordingly, the lyrics are of the honest, introspective sort that you would expect. Nevertheless, there is a lot more hope and healing within the words than the somber music at first indicates. "Everytime a Child Dreams" celebrates both Lawless's children and God's future plan and provision for them. Similarly, "With God as my Witness" testifies to a promise to be an attentive, compassionate father in the spirit of God the Father himself. The theme of Lawless's love for his family reverberates strongly in many of these songs. 

In "Carousel" Lawless beautifully spins a bittersweet tale of a blissful moment in a burned out town, and in "Seven Fallen Angels" reflects on almost forgotten loved ones separated by time and space. Running throughout most of the album is the reoccurring theme of serving God wholeheartedly even in difficult times when its harder to recognize let alone rejoice in His grace. 

After all this introspection the album ends appropriately on a note of effective and unbridled worship in "You Were Broken:" 

   You were broken, I was healed 
   You were poured out, I was filled 
   I was guilty, you were slain 
   I was guilty, you were slain 
   Hallelujah 

Steven S. Baldwin    5/26/2001