Reviewed by Chris Tozer

Ever since the days of Keith Green Sparrow Records have had the knack of finding artists with the ability to connect with the listener in a very direct way. On this live recoding twenty something Shawn McDonald wears Green's mantle with consummate ease as he endeavours to communicate the Gospel to the rising generation. With a minimal amount of acoustic guitar and cello for instrumentation, and a total lack of pretentious polemic, he leads an enthusiastic audience into God's presence with "Here I Am," a personal expression of worship and surrender. "Take My Hand" develops the theme with the audience adding some handclap percussion to indicate that they're with him all the way. "All I Need" acknowledges the need for God's grace, whilst "Open Me" recalls the deeply personal music of Tracey Chapman. All these tracks, and indeed most of the songs on this album, were included on McDonald's debut disk 'Simply Nothing' which makes me question the value of re-recording so many tracks so soon. Clearly, there must be a market amongst the 70,000 customers who have bought the aforesaid debut offering and are already awaiting his imminent second studio release. One track here is devoted to McDonald's testimony of drug deliverance before he exhorts his listeners to commit themselves to the call with 'Have You Ever'. I sense that in Shawn McDonald we have an artist who will be ministering for some time to come. See what you think.

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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