“My Daddy said when I was just a little boy\/’Lead or be led
\n’cause everybody makes a choice’\/And then I read that the meek are
\ngonna get a crown someday\/I took it in, a little stuck, a little
\nfaded away\/I think about You and I just can’t get You out of my
\nmind\/I’m so deep in Your love people tell me that I’m losing my
\nmind.”<\/p>\n
So begins the new self-titled album by former Grammatrain lead
\nsinger Pete Stewart. Combine those in your face lyrics from “Out Of
\nMy Mind” with the grinding guitars that open and close the song and
\nyou have a powerful first statement. Would that the whole album
\nstood out as much.<\/p>\n
But, oddly enough, the strength of that first song is the
\nweakness of the album. With few exceptions Stewart’s first solo
\neffort sounds like – well there’s no other way to say it – it
\nsounds like dcTalk. Which should not be a huge surprise as two of
\nthe three dcTalkers (Michael Tait and Toby McKeehan) were involved
\nin creating this project with Tait signing on as co-producer with
\nStewart.<\/p>\n
In addition to producing, Tait co-wrote most of the songs, sings
\nbackup vocals throughout and duets on “Uphill Battle”. McKeehan
\nprovided some songwriting assistance and took some photos for the
\nCD booklet.<\/p>\n
Still,
\nPete Stewart<\/i> is much more accessible than Stewart’s earlier
\nwork with Grammatrain. There’s a great alternative-pop sound to the
\ndisc, sort of like — aw heck, there it is again – sort of like
\ndcTalk.<\/p>\n
Stewart shows some promise of his own on two notable tracks
\n“Worship Song” and “Waiting For The Son.” He wrote the words and
\nmusic himself and both are beautiful examples of rock and roll
\nworship music.<\/p>\n
“Worship Song” is a simple vocal and acoustic guitar (with some
\nstrings thrown in) song that could hit it big around campfires at
\nYouth Camps all summer long. It emphasizes depending on God during
\ntimes of struggle.<\/p>\n
“In the storms that blow across my life\/I will call upon Your
\nname\/From the depths of valleys in my mind\/I will call upon Your
\nname\/You lift me up so high where my voice fills the sky\/High above
\nthe heavens\/You fill my soul with peace and deliver me\/And I will
\ncall upon Your name”<\/p>\n
In “Waiting For The Son,” Stewart becomes almost a
\njack-of-all-trades. In addition to lead and background vocals, he
\nhandles the piano, guitar and bass duties as well. Chad Chapin adds
\nthe percussion, while Tait contributes some background and the Love
\nSponge Orchestra adds some tantalizing strings.<\/p>\n
These two songs stand out the most because it seems Stewart
\nisn’t trying so hard to impress – but impress he does.<\/p>\n
“It’s sometimes hard but I believe\/You are the air my soul
\nbreathes\/I sometimes fail but You are there\/In You I lose all my
\ncares\/Underneath the stars and sky I wait for You to come\/Like the
\nmorning waiting for the Son”<\/p>\n
The song is about the utter dependence believers have in Jesus
\nChrist and how sometimes all we can do is wait upon the Lord with
\nour prayers. It’s a beautiful testimony about learning to trust
\nGod.<\/p>\n
This initial solo project will succeed. It’s clearly tailored to
\ndo so. But, to become truly successful, Stewart needs to move
\nforward with finding his own voice. He clearly has the chops,
\nvocally and on guitar, for the work, now all he needs is the
\nvision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":27472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7337],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38844","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pete-stewart","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38844"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}