Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Alabama are, of course, an American institution and having clocked up over 75 million record sales and seen over 30 of their tracks make number one on the Billboard Country Charts. The trio have in recent years taken it relatively easy and since 2001 have released only three albums all of which have been gospel projects. As all aficionados of country music will tell you, the group's frontman Randy Owen is an excellent singer able to bring drama and pathos to all manner of songs, whether uptempo slabs of steaming Southern rock or slow and mournful ballads and the veteran is in fine voice here. Alabama's previous gospel projects 'Songs Of Inspiration' (2006) and 'Songs Of Inspiration II' (2007) often suffered from having some over lush arrangements but here production is kept stripped down and simple. Predictably the material here is largely country gospel evergreens and hymnody though it has to be said that the group make Brumley's "I'll Fly Away" and Williams' "I Saw The Light" sound revitalized, at least compared with many of the middle of the road renditions the songs have received down the years. By far the best tracks are the original "Lift Me Up" and a beautifully judged version of Gaither's "Because He Lives".

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