Producer: Garry Jones
Record Label: Difference Media
Website: www.ivanparker.com
If you have any knowledge of Southern Gospel music at all, you know that Ivan Parker is one of the most well-known soloists in the industry. I’ll just be honest, I grew up in Southern Gospel music, but I have never sat down and listened to a full Ivan Parker CD, until now.
The project starts off with “Dancing In The Rain”, a medium paced song with a really good groove. I love the track on this song. It makes you want to bob your head. There’s a great message in the song. It’s definitely a song of encouragement. I always love when an artist starts their project off with a word of encouragement. The end is my favorite part. The beat goes into a double time, which really adds that extra little something. It is followed up by a slow ballad, “That’s What Love Does.” This is a beautiful song. It talks about the sacrifices that are made through love. The first verse puts you in a scenario of a mother in a hospital room with her dying daughter, praying that God would take her instead. Then, the second verse goes into Jesus dying on the cross for us and how He sacrificed His life for us, because “that’s what love does.” It is such a great message. The pace is picked back up to a medium groove with,“Jesus Plus Nothing,” I think the background vocals are a little overbearing on this one. The music is so busy that the background vocals get a little lost. I like the song, though.
He slows things back down a bit with “There’s Healing.” It’s a nice ballad that presents a message of healing. The next song, “He’ll Do It Again,” has a country feel to it. The steel guitar in this song gives it a nice flavor. “Mama’s Rocking Chair” starts off with another nice steel guitar lead in. It’s very pretty with a slow to medium pace. This song has a really neat concept. It’s written from the perspective of a child, who learned the Bible stories from his mother in her rocking chair. It tells about how the stories came alive to him as she read them to him. Next up is “Jesus Built This Church On Love.” You feel like you’re in church with a choir singing in the background during this song. It’s big orchestration leads you into the next song, “Let Me Take You To The Cross.” The first half of the song makes you think that you’re listening to a patriotic song. However, it changes directions to point to the cross. I really like how the songwriter merged the two.
The intro to the next song, “Walk My Way,” is pretty cool. You’ve got an electric guitar lead with a full orchestra. I like the feel of this song. It’s another head bobber, as I call it. The background vocals on the chorus, again though, are a little overbearing. It’s hard to hear Ivan over the background vocalists. When you have music that is that involved, you don’t need all the extra background vocals on top of it. It makes it sound too busy. The project ends on a lighter note with “A Little More Like You.” I’m not sure if they meant to do this, but you can hear the click track lightly in the background. At first it threw me off, until I realized what it was. I really like the message in this song, though. It says, at the end of the day, are we being less like us and more like Jesus? It’s definitely something we should all ask ourselves daily.
Overall, it was a good project with great songs, though. If you’re an Ivan Parker fan, you’ll love this project!
Track Listing:
Dancing In The Rain
That’s What Love Does
Jesus Plus Nothing
There Is Healing
He’ll Do It Again
Mama’s Rocking Chair (featuring Sandy Parker)
Jesus Built This Church On Love
Let Me Take You To The Cross
Walk My Way (featuring Canton Junction)
A Little More Like You
