There have not been many “inspirational” albums (or albums with
\nreligious overtones) that have caught my fancy in my 11 years of
\nreviewing music. Claire Lynch might be the exception to this
\npattern.<\/p>\n
Her latest release,
\nFriends For A Lifetime<\/i>, is billed as a bluegrass album,
\nsomething I would immediately dispute. When I think of bluegrass, I
\nthink of people like David Grisman going completely ballistic on
\nthe mandolin. If Lynch is a proponent of any style, I’d call it
\ncountry Gospel music. Whatever you call it, it does work, even if
\nit’s a bit preachy at times.<\/p>\n
Lynch’s vocals are the catalyst for most of the music contained
\non this disc. Her vocal style is incredibly beautiful, even a tad
\nsoulful at times. But her voice sounds like it would fit in with
\nalmost any musical style, not just country.<\/p>\n
If you’re not in the mood for a musical sermon, then you’re not
\ngoing to like
\nFriends For A Lifetime<\/i>. However, if you’re listening just
\nfor the music (or you can put the religious overtones to the side),
\nyou’re going to be in for a treat. Songs like “There Is A
\nFountain,” “Lead Me On,” “Your Presence Is My Favorite Gift” and
\n“Between The Two Of Them” simply will blow the listener away.
\nEspecially moving is “Between The Two Of Them,” a loving tribute to
\none’s deceased parents and their fond memories of them and the love
\nthey shared for each other. This song tugs at the heartstrings, and
\nits message hits when you least expect it to.<\/p>\n
There are a couple of weak moments on
\nFriends For A Lifetime<\/i>, such as “My Name Is Judas” and the
\ntitle track, songs that, for one reason or another, just don’t
\nclick the way one would think they should. “My Name Is Judas” is an
\nadmirable effort to put the disgraced apostle into a slightly
\nbetter light, portraying him as someone who had a moment of
\nweakness followed by an intense shame for his actions. However,
\nthis time the music and lyrics can’t support the concept.<\/p>\n
However, seeing that Lynch relied more often than not on
\nmaterial from other songwriters, she really can’t be blamed for the
\nweak moments on the album. If anything, I’d like to see her flex
\nher songwriting muscles a little more on the next album.<\/p>\n
And, sure, the preaching does get to be a little much by the end
\nof the album, with references to the “rapture”. (I know some
\n“born-again Christians” that would probably consider this disc to
\nbe a masterpiece.) In fact, the categorization of this disc as
\n“bluegrass” and not “gospel” might cause some eyes to open widely
\nwhen they first drop this into the old CD player.<\/p>\n
\nFriends For A Lifetime<\/i> is the kind of album that, if you’re
\nnot paying close attention, will be somewhat of a religious
\nexperience for you – if only to open your eyes to an incredibly
\ntalented singer\/songwriter whose voice is growing louder by the
\nday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7443],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39080","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-claire-lynch","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39080","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39080"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39080"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}