(As published in the Times of Acadiana ... )
Randy Travis
Worship and Faith
(Word/Curb/Warner Bros.)
Two albums after embracing Jesus and already Travis is coasting. Some of these tent-revival chestnuts are so hoary that even Engelbert Humperdinck has gotten around to recording them. Nevertheless, Travis may still end up having inadvertently performed a culturally and spiritually useful function. First, because he sounds good, his versions do too. Second, because they probably sound better to today’s young country audience than the versions by George Beverly Shea, Johnny Cash, B.J. Thomas, or Elvis that their parents were born again to, they might convince a generation enmired in goopy “worship and praise” choruses that there’s gold in them thar hills, a gold well worth mining after the piercings have healed and the tattoos have begun to sag. Rating: Three-and-a-half altar calls out of five.
Randy Travis
Worship and Faith
(Word/Curb/Warner Bros.)
Two albums after embracing Jesus and already Travis is coasting. Some of these tent-revival chestnuts are so hoary that even Engelbert Humperdinck has gotten around to recording them. Nevertheless, Travis may still end up having inadvertently performed a culturally and spiritually useful function. First, because he sounds good, his versions do too. Second, because they probably sound better to today’s young country audience than the versions by George Beverly Shea, Johnny Cash, B.J. Thomas, or Elvis that their parents were born again to, they might convince a generation enmired in goopy “worship and praise” choruses that there’s gold in them thar hills, a gold well worth mining after the piercings have healed and the tattoos have begun to sag. Rating: Three-and-a-half altar calls out of five.
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