Reviewed by Tony Cummings

It is now a matter of Christian music history that New Zealand's David and Dale Garratt pioneered the whole praise and worship chorus genre with their Scripture In Song songbooks and albums in the 60s and 70s. It is probably less palatable history to note that those early Scripture In Song albums were dismal, full of feeble singing and Dale's decidedly eccentric pitching. But it was the songs of course which were what was all important and many of those early Scripture In Song compositions were classics of their ilk. But times have changed. Maranatha, Vineyard, Hosanna, even Britain's own Songs Of Fellowship have emerged and taken up, and vastly expanded, much of the sales ground once enjoyed by the first-on-the pitch Scripture In Song. By 1990 and 1991, when these albums were recorded, Scripture In Song had ceased to be a major player in the international praise and worship market. David and Dale Garratt were by then working hard to bring their production standards up to their competitors. They got producer/arranger Joey Holder to cut these four albums at the home of classic R&B in the 60s/70s, Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Who precisely are the lead singers let alone the instrumentalists who perform on these snappy contemporary pop arrangements are stays uncredited though.

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