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Artist: Glen Soderholm
Label: Signpost Music
Time: 12 tracks/44:14 minutes
Glen Soderholm provides a worship experience that is a work of art right down to the packaging. It draws the listener in with lesser known hymns and well-written original compositions that provide lyrical depth. The instrumentation and production is full and rich. Soderholm uses a variety of instruments to weave a warm tapestry of sound.
The music is acoustic guitar driven but supplemented by piano, mandolin, violin, tin whistle, recorder and more. Stylistically, there is plenty of variation but the sound is comparable to Steve Bell, who adds harmony vocals on “All is Made Well,” and Michael Card. If either of these two were to write and perform a contemporary worship recording, it might be similar to this. Carolyn Arends also adds harmony vocals on two tracks.
This goes beyond your average praise and worship recording. Soderholm places the songs in an order that “seeks to follow and illustrate an ancient and well established pattern of worship common to Christ’s church.” It opens with “I Will Gather You” written from God’s perspective. There have been a number of songs written about coming before God, but it’s refreshing to hear a song about God gathering us from every hiding place of escape.
This is somewhat liturgical in structure taking us through various expressions of worship: adoration, confession, praise, and petition with an eye towards the kingdom of God and all that it represents. The result is a modern sound with some ancient sensibilities.
One of the bonuses is that “Praise to the Lord the Almighty” is the only hymn that is widely familiar. I always think of it as a plus when we get new interpretations of hymns that are seldom heard. There are six hymns and six original compositions.
“Think on These Things” is a beautiful musical meditation that comes directly from Philippians 4:8, where we are challenged to think on what is good, beautiful and honorable.
The CD is also enhanced for use on computer with plenty of commentary and resources for those who want to use this material in church settings or to enhance their own worship experience.
The packaging features beautiful cover art. It’s evident that a lot of thought and creativity went into every aspect of this project.
Soderholm is part of Steve Bell’s family of artists on the Signpost Music label.
Michael Dalton
November 27, 2006
