Mark Schultz - Stories & Songs
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Mark SchultzEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Published)
CD Release Date: 2003-10-14
Music Label: Word Entertainment
Soundtracks:
- You Are a Child of Mine
- Everywhere
- Letters from War
- Do You Even Know Me Anymore
- Time That Is Left
- Running Just to Catch Myself
- It's Been a Long Time
- He Will Carry Me
- Just to Know You
- Closer to You
- Time That Is Left (Reprise)
Free Music Notes for Stories & Songs
Free Music Review: A Masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
Mark Shultz has cut an amazing CD, in Stories and Songs. This album is a masterpiece, and I'm surprised there are so few reviews here.
The music is high-energy. The performances are great. The arrangements and mixing, by Brown Bannister, are terrific. They remind me of the old masterpiece, A Tramp Shining, by Richard Harris/Jimmy Webb, with its lyrical quality and fullness of sound.
But the star of the show here is the words. Mark is a rarely gifted songwriter who can bring out the meaning in stories of ordinary life. He devotes himself to three main themes and their interdependency: relationship, identity, and our use of time.
The album starts out with the themes of relationship and identity, in "You Are a Child of Mine". Mark writes that when he's "overcome with loneliness", God's voice reassures him that he is dearly loved. Identity is found in our relationship to God.
The second song, "Everywhere", describes that relationship as both being in the very depths of our being and found everywhere we go.
"Letters From War" is an amazingly powerful song, about relationship and the power of prayer. A widow's only son is captured in war. His letters to her end, but hers to him continue each night, for she is writing letters from the battlefront of her own "war", as she fights for her son's life in prayer: "Bring him home!", she repeatedly entreats. If you've ever had something you went to war for in prayer, this song will move you. (SPOILER ALERT: This song gripped me at first, when for a moment it quite seems that the son is lost.)
"Do You Even Know Me Anymore? Again about relationship, but this time that theme is mixed with the theme of how we use our time. A man has set his own worldly goals, but has neglected his family to the point that he doesn't know them anymore, nor they him. In a poignant turn, the man then discovers that he no longer knows himself. Finally he despairs that God might not even know him. This is powerful stuff.
"Time That Is Left" Our use of time is front and center here. "Will they say that we loved till our final breath?" We are given the key to victory in the repetitive refrain, which consists simply of the universal praise word, Hallelujah. If we devote ourselves to the Lord, we will succeed and our lives will work out.
"Running Just To Catch Myself" - an amazingly creative, frenetic song about life in the rat race. One of the funniest songs I've heard in a long time. Mark is spoofing the pressures this life brings us, and challenging us to live above them.
"It's Been A Long Time" About staying close to the Lord and not wasting our time on things that don't matter. This song had to grow on me a bit, but it is excellent. The arrangement, the instruments and background vocals, reminds me of some Phil Specter's lush work on the Beatles' Let It Be album.
"He Will Carry Me" Along with "Child" and "Letters", a contender for best song of the album. Though most of the songs here use it strongly, this one above the others exploits dynamic contrast. Low, painful brooding is set against a triumphant declaration that whatever we go through the Lord will be there with us. Relationship again.
"Just To Know You" A challenge to live life first of all to know Christ, just as He lived and gave His all to know us. Relationship and use of time again. "I want to finish strong".
"Closer To You" A song of dedication to the Lord. We find not only all our answers in Him, we find who we are.
"Reprise: Time That Is Left" A rockin' jam on the earlier cut. At first I wondered why this was chosen to reprise, but then I saw that the album ends on a challenge to us. What will we do with the time that's left? We have a choice to make. We can strengthen our identity in Christ by feeding our relationship to Him. Or we can go our own way.
Few albums achieve the level of creativity and power of this one. The writing, the arrangements, the performances, the mixing, are all simply world-class. In the sea of mediocrity that is contemporary Christian music, this album shines. I don't think you will regret getting a copy. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to mine. Congrats to Mark and everyone for a work very well done.
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