Reviewed by John Fisher

John Michael Talbot has been around in contemporary Christian music circles for quite awhile; in fact this is his 30th year working in the industry and with this, his latest release, we get his 48th album. At the first listening I thought that JMT had just plugged in an electric guitar and to him that constituted being rock, considering that the majority of his releases are mostly acoustic and meditative in nature (and often with lush string orchestrations). On 'Monk Rock' we are given what, according to the liner notes, is an album whose title is meant to be "whimsical, half-joking, but also not without some seriousness." I certainly found this the case with the 13 tracks on offer. Musically it has more of a country rock feel about it which isn't surprising considering that back in the '70s JMT was a member of Mason Proffit which was one of the forerunners of country rock. Lyrically we have time honoured topics such as Jesus' faithfulness through hard times "Walk With Jesus", which also features guest guitarist virtuoso Phil Keaggy, and the gospel message "Spread The Good News", which reminded me a little bit of Don Francisco. I was even reminded of early Jethro Tull on the track "Sanctus". And with titles such as "Te Deum", "Credo" and "Kyrie" we are reminded that the monk in the title is not just a good gimmick and that JMT is a real monk and has been a member of the Franciscan Order since 1978.

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.

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