Awesome God: A Tribute To Rich Mullins

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
One of contemporary Christian music's most beloved songwriters and performers, Rich Mullins left behind an important body of work. His untimely death in late 1997 shocked fans and brought peers to their knees, knowing that while Mullins now resides in a better place, his presence would be profoundly and deeply missed. Awesome God is infused with the emotion and heartbreak felt by his contemporaries as they strive to honor him on this special tribute. Carolyn Arends's direct delivery of "Jacob and Two Women" is wrenching, while Kevin Max turns "Save Me" into an intriguing ambient postrock anthem. Michael W. Smith gives a powerful and uncharacteristically gritty take on Mullins's signature "Awesome God" and Billy Sprague's chunky, distorted loops on "A Place to Stand" recall the production of Daniel Lanois. Younger bands Jars of Clay and Caedman's Call hold forth with acoustic versions of "If I Stand" and "Step by Step," the latter being the closing tribute to a dear friend and mentor. --Paige La Grone

Tracks:

Awesome God - Michael W Smith
Jacob And 2 Women - Carolyn Arends
Verge Of A Miracle - Billy Crockett
Hold Me Jesus - Amy Grant
Calling Out Your Name - Chris Rice
Elijah - Gary Chapman
If I Stand - Jars Of Clay
A Place To Stand - Billy Sprague
Save Me - Kevin Max
I See You - Ashley Cleveland
Step By Step - Caedmon's Call

Amazon.com

One of contemporary Christian music's most beloved songwriters and performers, Rich Mullins left behind an important body of work. His untimely death in late 1997 shocked fans and brought peers to their knees, knowing that while Mullins now resides in a better place, his presence would be profoundly and deeply missed. Awesome God is infused with the emotion and heartbreak felt by his contemporaries as they strive to honor him on this special tribute. Carolyn Arends's direct delivery of "Jacob and Two Women" is wrenching, while Kevin Max turns "Save Me" into an intriguing ambient postrock anthem. Michael W. Smith gives a powerful and uncharacteristically gritty take on Mullins's signature "Awesome God" and Billy Sprague's chunky, distorted loops on "A Place to Stand" recall the production of Daniel Lanois. Younger bands Jars of Clay and Caedman's Call hold forth with acoustic versions of "If I Stand" and "Step by Step," the latter being the closing tribute to a dear friend and mentor. --Paige La Grone

Customer Reviews:

Great songs weakly performed.......2005-01-13

For a tribute album to be good art on its own, it should consist of artists pretending other songs are their own...living and breathing the lyric through their own sensibilities. It should NOT be a carbon-copy of the original artist down to the arrangement, way it's sung, style, etc...otherwise, why not just listen to the original? (Perhaps Reed Arvin, longtime producer for Rich, and producer of this comp says it best: "This recording is not about Rich Mullins; it's about his songs.") Unfortunately, it appears that was lost in the making of this CD.

Michael W. Smith began promisingly, by stripping back "Awesome God" to its piano base and keeping it spare. But he missteps by swelling it to the anthemic "big choir" sound that Mullins has already used. The song would be better served by keeping it "small" musically, and letting the lyrics be the "big" part of the song...

These types of things occur again and again throughout the CD...fairly unimaginative arrangements hewing way too close to Rich's to be interesting. In large part, most of this fails because of the artist's fear or inability to reinterpret Rich's material.

Most successful is Kevin Max, who takes a song I considered one of Mullins' weaker efforts ("Save Me" from his major label debut...) and COMPLETELY reinvents it sonically as a multilayered Bono-esque diatribe against superficiality. It gave me new appreciation for the song.

Gary Chapman recrafts "Elijah" as a country tune and invests passion into his vocals. (And for the reviewer who mentioned the 'rambling' story by Chapman in the liners...it's him saying in a nutshell that the opinions of God, not other frail human beings, are what counts...and that Rich lived his life in a way that showed Gary he understood that...I found his words touching.)

Other nice touches are Carolyn Arends' phrasing on one of Rich's best songs "Jacob and 2 Women"...lending extra weight to the portions told from the women's point of view...I love how this song pastes together the majesty and the mystery in God's Word. Also good are Billy Sprague's arrangement on "A Place to Stand" providing a view of a man beaten down and choosing to hope in spite of it and Ashley Cleveland's "I See You" depicting Moses as resigned to a tough calling leading the Jews to the promised land. But these moments are too few to call this a quality tribute. Sorry, Rich...maybe someone else will do this better.

Uneven Tribute.......2002-02-21

This CD came as a result of the death of one of Christian music's best artists, Rich Mullins. His friends put this together as a tribute. Each artist picked a song that had ministered to them, then covered it, incorporating their own personal touches along the way.

Some of the covers are wonderful. The piano arrangement that starts the CD is a wonderful intro to "Awesome God." Carolyn Arrends does a great job on "Jacob and 2 Women," and Chris Rice is the perfect fit for "Calling Out Your Name." Even Jars of Clay and Caedmon's Call, two bands I'm not a fan of, do a good job on their songs. However, Kevin Max and Ashley Cleveland changed their songs two much. Rich Mullins was not a rock singer, and trying to make his songs sound rock ruins them.

Rich Mullins' fans will enjoy seeing how some of the top CCM artists envisioned these songs. Even with the couple missteps mentioned above, it's the next best thing to having a new album from Rich himself.

evil.......2001-03-29

these album is idolatry towards Rich Mullins whoever came up with idea will find his place in hell!

What kind of tribute did you have in mind?.......2000-12-20

This is a disappointing album in the same way that The Jesus Record was. Ultimately, Rich's own distinctive voice and phrasing said as much about his beliefs and his passion for every word he wrote as the literal meaning of the words themselves. It is amazing how much less impact each song has through another person's interpretation. With The Jesus Record we didn't have much choice: in order to get a quality recording it had to be redone. But what is the point here? Each of these songs already exists in high-quality Mullins recordings. The tribute is the equivalent of saying, "We know that your particular voice and phrasing is not marketable to some of the mass of Christian blandness, but we'll fix it." It is an insult to Rich's artistic direction. A better tribute would have been for these artists to reflect on the themes of Rich's life with orginal works, honoring his distinctive voice with their own artistic visions.

Extremely Moving.......2000-07-02

This cd is absolutely amazing, and if you feel like using a cassette, i'm sure its just as good. Anyways, words cannot describe what these songs do for me. the most amazing song on the cd is "if i stand" that jars of clay sang. an awesome version of the song by rich. if you happen to have napster, go download this tribute, and you will be sold for the whole cd. AWESOME TRIBUTE!

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