Reviewed by Dave Brassington

Here it is, the guaranteed top gospel album in Britain for 1996 (and, absurdly, most Christian bookshops won't have it in stock!). I can remember interviewing Daniel backstage at the Colston Hall in Bristol in 1991 and suggesting he record two albums, a gospel album and a tribute to Jim Reeves, purely based on responses to his live shows and the odd gospel track I used to play on the radio. 20 tracks here with a running time of over an hour, and to my mind 17 are really new. "How Great Thou Art", "Standing Room Only" and "The Old Rugged Cross" have not only appeared on earlier albums by Daniel but they have been performed to rapturous applause the length and breadth of Britain to sell out crowds. The other 17 tracks are a very well thought out mixture of traditional favourites and some very good modern new material. The exception being the Anne Murray song "You Needed Me", which does seem a little out of place. The recent single "Footsteps" and Charlie Landsborough's great song "My Forever Friend" made the UK top 30 putting gospel back in the pop charts for the first time in years. In my opinion there is hardly a great country gospel song that is not included here. Has anybody written anything better than "Why Me Lord?" by Kriss Kristofferson. They are all here, "One Day At A Time", "Amazing Grace", the Hank Williams' classic "I Saw The Light", "It Is No Secret", "What A Friend We Have In Jesus", "The Family Bible", it may have been five years in the making, but it's already selling by the bucketload. The country gospel album of 1996.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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