Reviewed by Simon Eden

Josh was born in Concord, New Hampshire in 1979 and moved to Connecticut with his parents as a small child. He started playing bass guitar when he was 13 and began to play in his local church with other musicians. He played bass in a rock band called the Normans during high school when he was 15. During the summer of '98 he travelled to England with the band. He started dating his future wife, Joanne, and married a year later in 1999. He now lives in the UK, works as a paramedic and has two children. This is his debut album. The first track starts with a rhythmic piano riff and builds well through a bass line, guitar crunches and rock drums before Josh's vocals come in. The band members are tight together such as in the introduction to "Someone Loves Me" although the instrumentation is basic. Josh doesn't sound obviously American, but he does sound very evangelical, eg, "Come To Jesus". I have heard ducks sleep with one eye open, and I think Josh writes lyrics with one eye on the Gospel and the other on his listener. As the album is consistently Josh trying to preach the Gospel - it actually felt like I had been Bible bashed all the way through. It may have been better if some of the tracks were more Psalm or worship inspired to balance things out. Other tracks here have a classic American country-influenced style with bluesy guitar. Despite the predictability of the lyric-writing, this has its moments.

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.