Reviewed by Doug Holland

The annual Spring Harvest songbook has been eagerly awaited by church music groups for many years, and the 2009 edition (subtitled Perfect Sacrifice) includes 73 songs new to this series amongst the 122 contained in total; included are the lyrics to all of the songs contained on the Spring Harvest 2009 new songs CD of the same name. The format for the book is well established now - spiral bound with each song presented with a simple melody and accompaniment line, a simple bass line and chord names (with capo suggestions where felt appropriate). Indexing is by song title and (where different) first lines, and additional sorting is presented by categories of Scripture and Thematic indices. A sprinkling of suggestions for spoken worship (indexed at the back of the book) fills in some of the gaps in the pages. There are short articles contributed by Tim Hughes (Without The Spirit), Graham Kendrick (Worship Is A Journey) and others which offer perspectives and guidance on the subject of worship and the leading of it. Three pages of illustrated guitar chords and several blank pages (Musician's Notepad) complete the content. As ever, the songs presented explore a wide variety of themes and subjects and (also as usual) the content includes many of the worship songs currently being sung in church.

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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