Reviewed by Peter Dilley

This may be the debut live recording from St Louis Family Church, but one of the worship leaders is something of a veteran of the local music scene. Back in the '70s Danny Liston and his brother Pat formed Southern rock outfit Mama's Pride, a band which later also toured as Greg Allman's backing group. Opening and closing with different versions of the title track, it soon becomes apparent that subtlety isn't the prime intention of this particular band - a drums and guitar-driven stadium rock sound is quite pervasive. If that's how you like your praise and worship, then the gospel-tinged "God Will Make A Way", complete with bottleneck guitar soloing, is definitely a track to savour. Toning it down seems to present a bit of a problem though - songs such as "Jesus How I Love You" and "At Your Feet" soon shed their gentler, more intimate flavours in pursuit of thunderous final crescendos, and only on three songs do the band hold back on the power right through. The main shortcoming is a lack of variety from the instrumentalists - it's a case of 'that's our sound and style, take it or leave it!', which can easily become quite wearing. I hope that on any subsequent recordings the band can learn to draw from a more diverse stylistic palette.

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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