Awesome God: a Tribute to Rich Mullins
Artist: Various
Label: Reunion Records
Length: 11 tracks/48.29 minutes
Much has been written of Rich Mullins since the tragic day last year
which took him from this earth. His lasting legacy seems to have been twofold,
with his impact on those around him being as important as his musical output.
That musical output is what is being recognized in this release as some
of his most prominent fans have been pulled together to play a selection
of Mullins's best loved tracks.
Tribute albums can be difficult things to contribute to. The artist
is often uncertain as to whether they should attempt to recreate the original
sound or rebuild the song by engaging with it themselves. This album would
seem to contain a mixture of both approaches. Michael W. Smith brings us
the most upbeat track with an "adult oriented rock" approach to "Awesome
God." The rest of the album moves from the gentle acoustic feel of Carolyn
Arends's interpretation of "Jacob and 2 Women" and Jars of Clay's take
on "If I Stand" to the congregational nature of Caedmon's Call's version
of "Step By Step" to the gentle programming of contributions from Kevin
Max (DC Talk) and Billy Sprague. Kevin Max's vocals show a very Bono-esque
style to them, but unfortunately his track rises to an inappropriate crescendo.
One of the strongest memories that seem to have remained with the people who knew about Rich Mullins was his unassuming nature. This was often reflected in his best music, and that continues here in the fact that the best tracks have an unassuming stripped back quality. Unfortunately, they're not all like that.
Track listing:
Reed Arvin, in a written introduction states perfectly that, “This
recording is not about Rich Mullins: it’s about his songs. I like that.
I don’t want to worship Rich or idolize him or pretend he didn’t have defects.
I just want to hear his music because I love it so much and because that’s
all there is now....”
And that is how this project should be listened to. Unfortunately,
in an attempt to keep from being compared to Mullins, it appears that some
of the musicians went too much out of their way to put their own thing
or style into it and somehow missed the emotion that people associate with
Rich's lyrics.
This star studded record begins with the most ear catching version
of “Awesome God” I may have ever heard, but it goes downhill quickly.
The version that seems to capture the feeling of the lyrics best is Carolyn
Arends's singing of “Jacob and Two Women.” In it, she does an extraordinary
job of capturing the innocence of song. Amy Grant and Chris Rice both do
remarkable jobs of seizing the emotion with their versions of the songs
"Hold Me Jesus" and "Calling Out Your Name," respectively.
Ironically, the two songs which completely fall short of capturing
my emotion are by two of my favorite artists on the project, Kevin Max
and Ashley Cleveland. Each of these songs, "Save Me," and "I See You,"
also have a member of The Ragamuffin Band (Mullins’s band) playing or singing
along.
The final song, "Step By Step," wasn't written by Rich Mullins.
Instead, it is a chorus written by his friend Beaker and recorded by Mullins.
Mullins later wrote verses to go along with the chorus, but they were not
included on this project.
So, in short, if you are looking for something that sounds like
Rich Mullins, do not buy this. You’ll cry for hours about how some of the
songs have been re-done. On the other hand, if you are looking for songs
with his lyric quality and a tad different feel, this could be a project
for you.
By Cathy Courtwright (1/23/99)
