Review

It's been a long time coming, but Kate Miner has recorded a new album. There are quite a few people who have been waiting for Kate to follow up the seminal release of Live from the Sunset Strip. That album started showing up on top 5 worship albums to have on a desert island type lists. She displayed an ability to capture the essence of life's truths and then sing it back to us in a way we hadn't thought of. Well, the wait is over, and I think Kate has out-done herself with this new collection of songs.

Honestly, I'd plunk my money down just for the liner notes alone. Having read them, and a few other choice words of hers I've picked up here and there, I wish I lived on the same block as she does and could just hang out. Her severe candor, her delightful mingling of confidence and dependence, her vision and wisdom, her haute housewife humor, all these qualities refresh me and slake my thirst for someone to cut through all the hype and sacred cows and just tell it like it is. And I hadn't heard her sing a note.

If you were to read the notes, youd learn that Miner had to have polyps removed from her vocal cords and, as a result, spent many months in silence while she recovered. It was during that time that she developed the concept of this new album, "Prodigal Martha". The title, which brings together two distinct, yet fairly disparate, characters in the Bible, gives some insight into Kate. She has seen the prodigal, returning home after great revelation. She knows Martha all too well, working her way into the heart of Jesus. With forceful honesty she reveals her own epiphanies and sings them for us in a way that assures the listener of the truth and passion behind the songs. Apparently, the polyps operation has been successful!

The very sentiment of the title track is bold, and all too human. After saying she is thankful, that she needs the Lord, etc she then cries out for Him to tell her again that He loves her, that Hes so proud of her and that Hell never leave her again. How real is that? But what father wouldn't expect that from their child? After that she really gets honest by asking, How will I know its You? Will you recognize me? Its been so long since I sat at Your feet. I love that stuff! Its a rant from someone who knows what she's been missing and is desperate to be reclaimed and redeemed.

I read that she considers herself sort of hit and miss as a lyricist. She certainly hits the mark here. Consider "The Cross":

"Jesus changed the color of the cross from the dark of execution to the light of restitution. Jesus changed the tenor of the cross from the sound of cold nails driven to the sound of man forgiven. Jesus changed the symbol of the cross from the language of rejection to a sign of resurrection."

Or, on Beautiful, where she sings:

"Reaching out I touch the place I picture you to be. Just appear this one time and I promise always to sing You are beautiful."

There are many more examples where her she paints a picture with her words that give us an expression that feels right in our gut. It's almost as if we were never aware that a certain nuance existed before, and now, hearing the way she puts it, we cant believe we had ever been without it.

Just about every song would lend itself to a Sunday morning worship service, and certainly to a night of worship type of thing. "Come to the Water" is particularly uplifting as it bids us to drink from the water of Life. "Song in My Heart" is blessed with great electric guitar work, but never overdone. One thing about the production of the album is that, while the backing musicians are excellent, the focus never strays from Kate's words and voice.

"Jesus" is a war cry for absolute versus relative truth. "Hung the Moon" is a song so nice she recorded it twice. First heard on the Sunset Strip album, this song is very appropriate in this collection as it is sung from Gods perspective to us. Its so soothing and its a great lullaby song for my three-year-old daughter.

But my favorite song has to be the incredible "Who Will Cry". This song is a departure from the other worship songs. Here Kate sings about the fringe players in life, the outcasts. She sings of the homeless, the lonely, the adulterer, and the homosexuals.

"I'm a broken man, I search for peace, my lover gave me everything, he even gave me my disease. I'll join him in the grave, and I pray I'll never see
The day the world thinks I've outlived my need for dignity"

What an incredibly compassionate lyric for a segment of society on whom we Christians most often turn our backs and curse and judge. She is equally poignant about the other social lepers. And then she turns to address the Church with the following:

"I'm a hypocrite, I bow my knees in prayer, then I put my blinders on and stick my fingers in my ears. I walk into the world, I say Be warm and filled, and I wonder why God hasnt moved, and I wonder when He will."

Folks, this is an important song, one that could be an anthem for the Church. In a way, this is Marthas song, on of doing. Yet, its Mary's song, as well, one of compassion and love. Its a wake-up call of assessment. I thank the writers (co-written by Judie Lawson) for giving words to the malaise in our church today. May it launch a thousand deeds of kindness to the unlovely and may it revive our callous hearts.

So, Kate Miner has a new album and its on my desert island list. Don't miss this one.

Review by John Ausmus