Review

Joyful, unencumbered and refreshing. These are the thoughts that come to mind as you sit down and worship along with worship leader Carl Tuttle's latest studio CD 'Vineyard Classics'. These are some of the most poignant, worshipful songs you will ever hear. At the core of this album is simplicity and devotion. The songs are accessible in their musical and lyrical arrangements, though the album is very well produced and sonically pleasing. For those who are familiar with the songs that have come out of the Vineyard music stream in the last 25 years, they may be aware of the foundational component that Carl Tuttle and his music have played in forming the Vineyard values and style in its music content and writing.

On this album Carl revisits the best songs he has penned and captures fresh and engaging recordings of these great songs. From the celebrative 'Lift Jesus Higher' and 'Hosanna' to the repentant 'Oh Lord, Have Mercy on Me' to the glorious 'All The Earth Shall Worship', song after song will wash a sense of peace and truth into your heart. It's interesting to me that as I look at these songs, so much of the lyric content is simply capturing the message or direct content of the Psalms, or various other scriptures.

As a worship leader myself, I have a repertoire of songs from across many groups. I use some UK worship songs (Redman, Hughes, Delirious et al), Passion worship (Tomlin, etc), Integrity music (Doerksen, Ten Shekel Shirt), recent Vineyard music (Dwell, David Ruis, Andy Park etc), and a smattering of other sources (from Third Day tunes to old hymns). I mention this because it might help those who have similar song sets in their local churches. Over the last several years, as these songs have grown and expanded into our local churches, the music has become increasingly well produced and more complicated in arrangement. While it gives us fresh music with interesting sounds, in an effort to make each song more interesting, more engaging, more unique, it seems that we may have lost something. This new album from Carl Tuttle, reminded me of the simplicity and power of songs speaking of repentance, humility and simple abandon to falling at the feet of Jesus.

What I try to do, as a worship leader, is to hold in tension two things: following the dynamic direction of God for the moment, and using a collection of well-thought, scripturally-centered songs that present the complete picture of Christ and his works. What I love about this album is that it reminds me of one of the most important themes that can easily disappear from our music selections- the song of repentance. The seeds of revival and renewal have always been prayer and repentance (2 Chron. 7:14). Three songs on this album are powerful in that regard of giving us language to express our human weakness while inviting Christ's redemption to overwhelm us- 'Without Your Love', 'Because of the Lord's Great Love', and my favorite 'Oh Lord, Have Mercy On Me'. I recently reintroduced this last song to our local church during worship and it was very engaging. What I'd like to convey most of all is that this is an album that lyrically encourages you to simply bow down at the feet of Jesus.

Those of you who have long known these songs will be happy to find this CD of excellent songs collected into one release. Those who haven't heard these before, I strongly encourage you to check out this CD and be refreshed. A truly great album!

Review by Kim Gentes