Without Restraint/Live Grace
Artist: Raging Grace
URL:  http://www.raginggrace.com
Label: 2007 Raging Grace Records
Time:  Without Restraint:  13 tracks/41:29 min.
         Live Grace:  15 tracks/57:45 min.
 
 
I’m going to be brutally honest.  Raging Grace may be one of the most under-rated, under-acknowledged and unknown Christian blues bands I know.  If you’re a Glenn Kaiser, Darrell Mansfield or Larry Howard blues fan, it’s time to get a fix of Raging Grace.  I mean it. This band rocks.
 
This New England blues trio hails from Brooklyn, CT but joyously jams in the vein of Chicago blues and Texas boogie.  Stephen Bell’s scorching guitar solos and fills make the rockers heat and the ballads soar (and his chest-length beard would make the ZZ Top boys proud).  Meanwhile, the fine musicianship of bassist Dean Shannon and drummer Dave Cheney round out this band of spiritual brothers.  
 
Without Restraint is the band’s fifth release and, frankly, is their best work to date.  This double-disc features a full slate of new material (13 songs) and a live recording of 15 classic favorites, including three hymns (“What A Friend,” “Nothin’ But The Blood,” and “Amazing Grace”) that are clearly ragin’ rockers.  Most live recordings wear thin these days, but Live Grace might be a notable exception.  Every play seems just a bit better.  Once you hear fan favorites like “Where The Sinners Go” and “Ninevah” you’ll be hooked.
 
Raging Grace has its notable musical influences.  If you listen closely you’ll detect the Texas two-step boogie of Stevie Ray Vaughan (“Spare Me,” “Brothers”) and the Memphis blues of B.B. King (“Good Man Young”).  Purists will enjoy the down-home delta blues of “Kind Dog.”  And for the iron horse crowd, Raging Grace delivers a rocker (ala Bob Seger) in the song “Gallon of Gas”--that extols the biker blessings of “good friends, good coffee and a gallon of gas.”  
 
The lyrical content of Raging Grace is “pure gospel.” In fact, their garage blues-rock is “without restraint” and is unashamed in proclaiming faith, hope and love (and probably features their best songwriting to date). Song content ranges from being abundantly blessed (“Overkill”) to life outside of Christ (“Mailbox”) to the soothing and sensitive prayer of “Empty Me.”  The faithful will find the righteous rocker “Glad To Be Here” (fellowship at church) and the finger-snappin’, toe-tappin’ conviction of “Robbery Blues” (tithing) to hit the mark.
 
Raging Grace knows the blues.  They play plenty of prisons, coffee houses and biker events.  They also know Jesus Christ.  It’s no wonder they play “without restraint.”
 
Rick Chromey
March 19, 2008
 

 
Dr. Rick Chromey is an author, professor and music aficionado currently living in Idaho. 
http://web.mac.com/rchromey