Joe Pace & The Colorado Mass Choir - God's Got It!
STYLE: Gospel RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 1534-2051 LABEL: Verity 01241431422 FORMAT: CD Album
Reviewed by Tony Cummings
Not a mass choir of the truly huge variety, but a popular American aggregation. Joe Pace puts them through their (ahem) paces on a set of songs ranging from the ancient Philip Bliss hymn “It is Well” to a number of originals written by producer Paul Wright III. And there’s the rub. Mr. Wright’s songs see, to my ears anyway, unlikely to last a decade, let alone the hundred years of Philip Bliss/Henry Spafford, being simplistic observations that God’s got the remedy (“God’s Got It”) or calls to worship (“We Worship You”). Mostly recorded live at the Living Springs Worship Center, Colorado Springs and with two studio recordings (“You Just Dance” and “Oh Holy Night”) rather clumsily tacked on the end, the appeal of the album rests largely with excellent lead singers Ann McCrary, Jackie Robb and on “We Worship You” the sublime Fred Hammond. But even the most soulful of lead vocalists, and all that call-and-response fervour generated by the ensemble, can’t hide the ordinariness of much of the material.
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