Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

On first listen, you could be forgiven for thinking you are in an MTV studio rather than the Vineyard Café in Anaheim, CA.  "Hop On The Bus", the up-beat opening track of Vineyard's latest release, is complete with complementary unplugged-style whoops, hollers and handclaps.  The sleevenotes explain that 'Shelter' captures a "live, unplugged, intimate worship experience in a relaxed café atmosphere".  After the exciting opener, what follow is more thoughtful and ever-so-slightly similar.  'Shelter' consists mainly of songs by worship leaders Andy Park, Scott Underwood and Carl Tuttle, peppered with the odd standard or two.  The stripped down acoustic instrumentation is ideal for the original material (check out the beautiful "Soften My Heart") but tends not to work so well on benchmarks like "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" which lacks the boldness of the lyrics.  'Shelter' is a memento of what has obviously been a sensitively-led and memorable worship session.  As the cliché goes - you really had to be there but an enjoyable and soothing listen nonetheless.

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