Reviewed by Matthew Cordle

In a swamped market, how would this independent release compare? Canford Parish is situated in Dorset and three churches - Bearwood Church, The Parish Church and The Lantern - have combined forces, songwriters and musicians to produce this ambitious 20-song double CD. Most of the songs are covered by CCLI and there is a supporting website giving acetate PDFs and other useful information. As to the music itself, the styles vary from rock and roll to soft meditation. The production is not as polished as the likes of Vineyard and Hillsong, but I found this quite refreshing. Although I enjoy many of those CDs, this is perhaps easier to identify with as the sound could actually be in your church (as long as you're not an only musician like me!). This makes it more useful as a song resource. Some songs stand out, my personal favourite being "Father Of Mine", a quiet song of refuge in Jesus written by Paul Newnham. A couple of things made me smile - as soon as I put the CD in my player I thought "A-ha! This has been mixed by the guitarist". It was indeed, always a dangerous thing! The electric guitar is often too dominant. Also, songwriters shouldn't necessarily sing lead vocals.perhaps a few more vocal takes on a couple of songs would have helped. All in all though, a fairly impressive effort. Let's see more of this sort of CD.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.