16th March, 2006

JUSTIN MICHAEL   

Artist: Chris Tomlin
Album: Live from Austin Music Hall

Label: Sixsteps/Sparrow, 2006

Enhanced content: No

In A Word: Sing-a-long-able

"Tomlin has that great songwriter ability to make you want to sing his melodies."

When I first heard the name Chris Tomlin a couple of years ago I did not realize how much I would come to respect his music and influence as I uncovered his wide and respected contributions to the congregational music of today.

Chris is the name behind the Michael W. Smith hit Forever, one of the key worship leaders on the Passion worship series that has come out of US universities for the last five years, writer of the modern hymn that should become a classic in How Great Is Our God and the singer of Indescribable. (nb: no, Chris didn’t write it, Laura Story did!)

A live album is always a great way to really ‘hear’ an artist. The studio allows full artistic license to use orchestras, massive choirs and left-field instruments that one couldn’t possibly afford to take on tour. The stage allows the four musicians in this case to hold their own and deliver well known and critically acclaimed songs sans bells and whistles.

Here, Chris and band present eight songs to a packed house (2000 people couldn’t get in on this particular night!) and, while the songs are a little thinner sonically, the audience more than makes up for it. Tomlin has that great songwriter ability to make you want to sing his melodies. The lyrics are always strong and purposeful, and my guess is you’ll find yourself singing them in the supermarket one day without even realizing.

Live from Austin Music Hall opens with a slower and more worshipful rendition of Indescribable than on the studio album, Arriving, then moving into the very cool loop-backing of Forever and through songs like the soul groove of God is on Our Side this is a great live capture disc. There is the guest vocal from perhaps the most original voice in the current praise and worship crop, David Crowder on This Is Our God, and the always moving How Great Is Our God is an instant classic, once again using the form of the song over which to the layer the hymn How Great Thou Art. The album finishes with a statement of exactly why these boys do what they do. It is for the Famous One that they sing.

Stripped-back, loud, passionate and yet still achieving many moments of worshipful intimacy, this is a disc for all Tomlin fans and one that those who still don’t know the name would be well advised to grab.

Justin Michael can be heard weekday mornings on Geelong-based radio station 96.3 - www.rhemafm.org.au.