CLEVELAND, Ohio – Reba McEntire, in the liner notes for her new double CD “Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope,” said she’d always wanted to make a gospel album.
It’s a good call. Even at 61, she has the perfect voice for it, strong, pure and sincere. I’ve loved McEntire for decades, having seen her in concert probably a dozen times, watched her on a theater stage and even, on occasion, watched what really was a lame television sitcom.
Capitol Nashville
Sadly, there IS a “but.” In this case, it’s that it’s a double album, with traditional gospel songs and hymns on Disc 1 and new music on Disc 2.
Disc 1, I love. Disc 2? Well, Disc 2 actually takes away from the pleasure of Disc 1.
The “good disc” begins with McEntire’s sweet vocals crooning the Dick, Jane and Sally of religious songs, one we all learned about the same time we grew out of swaddling clothes: “Jesus Loves Me.” It’s a wonderful, heartfelt version that instantly took this Catholic boy who was raised Southern Baptist back to his vacation bible school days in East Texas.
“When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder,” “Oh Happy Day” and a bouncy version of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” were the stuff of sweaty tent revivals, where the idea of being “washed in the blood of the lamb” was second only to Little League baseball and earning an extra Dr Pepper by behaving in church when Brother Craig fire-and-brimstoned us to a point of near nirvana (the state of being, not the band).
Mostly, though, I loved her versions of “Amazing Grace,” “In the Garden” and “How Great Thou Art.” Those were always the songs of funerals, and as a kid, I hated funerals – I was so afraid of seeing a dead person. But now, those are the songs that best remind me – and us – of those we’ve lost, and how much we still love them.
Had “Sing It Now” ended with just the 10 songs of Disc 1, I would happily have fallen to my knees, asking my much-missed family how Jesus was treating them.
Yet Disc 2 and its 10 songs of new music, while they didn’t necessarily ruin the mood, certainly didn’t have me wantin’ to testify, y’all!
The first disc was McEntire’s expressive voice, made more beautiful by the accompaniment of a simple piano, a crying acoustic guitar or the occasional robed choir (especially effective on the oohs of “Amazing Grace”), and the message, not the medium, was central.
And hey, isn’t that the point of a gospel album?
Quite frankly, nothing on the overproduced, over-the-top second disc had a prayer o measuring up in depth or effectiveness, including the title track, “Sing It Now.” Everything just sounds like her secular music, only with worship lyrics.
And that’s the gospel truth. Grade: Disc 1, A; Disc 2, C-.
Reba McEntire
Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope
Capitol Nashville
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