Reviewed by Dougie Adam 15 recordings which have not been issued before, except on the official Larry Norman website. All the songs are studio recordings. The first 11 are from the 1998 internet party and feature four brand new songs from Larry's pen, a cover of People! 's 1967 hit single "I Love You", and outstanding performances of Curtis May field's classic "People Get Ready" and Bob Dylan's apocalyptic hymn "When He Returns", Byrd's numbers "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "I Am A Pilgrim". At points during this CD I feel this is what 'Home At Last' could have sounded like had it been well recorded and performed. A lot of the new material is personal and mellow sounding with instrumental solos being dominated by flutes, recorders and some gorgeous slide guitars. "Protect My Child" is the only out and out rocker and receives a fine Jaggeristic vocal from Larry. There's a nice blend of sounds and tempos here, lots of pop, a bit of country rock, a little reggae and some stomping gospel. The bonus tracks stem from an internet jam session in 1997 and are a little looser, a lot louder and feature a bit of studio chat left in between the songs which are new fun versions of "A Woman Of God", a funked out "Watch What You'reDoing". "Why Don't You Look Into Jesus" is given a reggae pastiche treatment and there's a new ultra-cool take of "Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music". While it is not an all time classic nor an intellectual tour de force, 'Copper Wires' is still a very enjoyable, pleasant listen. And that's just fine by me, because after having produced umpteen classic albums from 'Upon This Rock' in 1969 to 'Stranded In Babylon' in 1991 Larry Norman has got nothing left to prove to anyone. This fact hasn't stopped him releasing 84 completely new tracks (and remarkably, not available elsewhere!) featuring 11 brand new songs and adding up to five hours 48 minutes and 55 seconds of new music. He ain't dead yet! Due out in the UK bookshops in August through Kingsway.
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Copper Wires comes with 11 tracks plus 4 from Street Level Cafe Internet Party, 1997.
For me it's the first 11 that I enjoy as Larry looks back to People with I Love You and tries his hand at Bob Dylan via Oh Little Sister and When He Returns.
Three songs that I associate with The Byrds are Turn Turn Turn, Oil In My Lamp and I Am A Pilgrim are also included and In The Garden is a excellent song.
However my total standout is Larry's take on Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready.
Brother Charles Norman's suberb guitar playing nearly drown's out Larry vocal, it really is one song that has to be heard!
Hi Jerry, I was the guitar player on People get ready and slide guitar ,and twelve string. I think about 7-8 songs altogether.
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