Personally I am not a big fan of the ‘Christian music’ scene and even less of Christian concerts. I’m not saying that there is de facto anything wrong with them – I’m just not keen – unless you count Bach as Christian music…! However there are some great Christian musicians out there who are using their gifts for the glory of God (not least in the St Petes praise bands!). In Scotland we don’t have a big Christian music scene, so it could hardly be called Big Business! I actually don’t know a great deal about Christian music – Lecrae and Rend Collective are about my limits. But there are exceptions – I love the Simon Kennedy band and their real R ‘n’ B songs and sound. Sons of Korah are to my mind streets ahead of most secular bands. And I really enjoy the New Scottish. Who they? In their own words…
“New Scottish Arts is an arts outreach & education ministry. Our purpose is to serve the Christian community in Scotland by enabling Christians to share their faith through the creative arts, by facilitating vibrant outreach events and projects that will impact on local communities and the whole of Scotland.”
New Scottish Hymns come from that stable. They have already produced an excellent album – from which we in St Peters use several of their songs.
And now they have just given us another one – We Shall all be Changed.
The track listing is:
Wake Up My Soul – Ps 103
Union with Christ –
We shall all be changed –
Faithful to Forgive –
Through the Prophets (Christ is Here) –
Advent Song –
O Saviour of Sinners –
May the God of Peace –
Hail to the Lord’s Anointed –
Of the Father’s Love Begotten –
The songs are clear, biblical, musical and singable. The style is a mix of Scottish folk with a bit of funk and country. The album is well produced and whilst some of the songs stand out more than others (I can think of at least three that we will use in congregational praise), I suspect that some of the others will grow on me. I would highly commend this album and encourage you to encourage this ‘young’ believers by going to one of their launch events. You can get the details here – http://newscottishhymns.com/events/ We are certainly looking forward to having them in St Peters this Friday…
How much did I enjoy the album? I bought it on Itunes – which is about the highest praise I can give any album….now on to the new Bob Dylan!