Producer: Wesley Pritchard/Beene Family
Label: Crossroads
Website: http://www.thebeenefamily.com
Once in awhile, you come across a recording you just can't wait to tell everyone about.this is one of those times. One thing I love with doing reviews is that it affords me the chance, quite often, to watch and listen to a young group evolve. Such as the case with the Beene Family; and just when I think they may have maxed out their potential, they go right out and surprise me. This is by far, the strongest recording this family has ever released. Don't get me wrong, they've always been a good group, but I found their previous recordings lacking somewhat.but this newest recording completely caught me off guard and pleasantly surprised me.
With an almost majestic feel, "WE'RE ALMOST HOME", an old Rusty Goodman tune (one of my personal favorite Goodman compositions) done up anew, begins the recording. As the song builds in intensity, you can almost feel the emotions contained within the song as the lyrics proclaim, "We're almost home, there's a brand new dawn a' breaking, for the heart that's been aching so long, very soon the Son will rise and dry the tears from our eyes, from the battled scarred I hear the cries, we're almost home!"
Chrysta turns in an excellent performance on the Jeff Ferguson penned, Inspirational sounding tune, "YOU LOVE ME STILL" before the group turns in their own rendition of the classic Stuart Hamblin tune, "THIS OLE HOUSE", which is quite similar to that of Allison Speer's recent cut of the song.
It seems to me that the Beene Family has been listening to the Happy Goodmans' 1979 recording "Better Hurry Up", because "THESE ARE THEY" is the second song they've recorded from that album. Featuring all three vocal members of the group, they present an admirable performance on the song.
Written by Joel Lindsey, Sue Smith and Tony Wood, Brandon sings the upbeat title song, "GIVE THE ANGELS SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT" before Chrysta belts out the soulful tune entitled, "GOD IS GOOD". Shandon then steps up to sing the country (almost Crabb Country) flavored, Patti Hawkins penned tune, "I NEVER DREAMED".
With simple instrumentation, Chrysta sings the emotional, "WISHING YOU WERE THERE" (which includes a chorus of the hymn, "How Beautiful Heaven Must Be") before moving on to the country shuffle of "WHEN GOD SAYS NO", which features Landon Beene (the group's pianist) and penned by Gina Vera and Sue Smith.
The Beene Family seems to shine the brightest on the next two songs. The power ballad, "THE BLOOD HAS BEEN SUPPLIED" features Shandon's best vocal performance ever and the group does a superb job interpreting the lyric of this song. The surprise of the recording was their rendition of the Cathedrals classic, "BOUNDLESS LOVE". Everyone who has recorded this tune has pretty much stuck to the way the Cathedrals did it. The Beene Family managed to take one of the greatest, and most beloved songs in the Southern Gospel repertoire and make it totally their own, all the way down to the little vocal harmony licks on the chorus. This is what great moments on a recording are made of. Then, Brandon, very appropriately, closes things out with a former Gold City recorded tune, "ABOUT THE CROSS".
This recording will definitely give the industry "Something to Talk About". The Beene Family pulled out all the stops on this one, and you can tell they worked extremely hard putting this recording together and a lot of pre-production work went into making this a truly exceptional recording. The tracks are flawless, the song selection is excellent and the vocal work by the family is the best they've ever done, as they managed to tackle some different vocal moves and harmony licks. The cover graphics are good, though I felt the front cover picture was a bit dark, but that may have been the affect they were looking for; all in all though, a most impressive piece of work.
Personal Favs: WE'RE ALMOST HOME; YOU LOVE ME STILL; GIVE THE ANGELS SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT; I NEVER DREAMED; WISHING YOU WERE THERE; THE BLOOD HAS BEEN SUPPLIED; BOUNDLESS LOVE
Author: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Written: 04/15/2007
| 
Category: CD Reviews
Comments: 1
RSS Feed
| (What's an RSS feed?)
|
Ads Sponsored by Southern Spin
I want to thank The Beene family for recording "You Love Me Still". Regi Stone co-wrote this with me and we knew it was special the day we wrote it...you could feel the Presence of the Lord there at the piano in that room. Chrysta and The Beene Family captured that same anointing and power. As a songwriter, I'm so pleased with the recording of this song and I agree with the reviewer, it's the best Beene Family album I've ever heard...I find myself listening to the album over and over again. This is a very powerful recording. Congratulations to The Beene Family, Wesley and Crossroads.
Page 1 of 1 Comment Pages
