Producer: Information Not Provided
Record Label: Gaither Music Group
Website: www.sandipatty.com
Forever Grateful is the final recording from Sandi Patty – the Christian music industry’s most awarded female artist of all time. This is a LIVE recording. The CD starts off with “Anthem Of Praise” and goes into “Praise Medley”. The vocals on “Anthem Of Praise” seem to be in an awkward key for her, right at the break of full voice and falsetto, which makes it sound weak. “Praise Medley” sounds better, however there are still some vocal breaks. Most of the songs in this medley are 90s worship songs. “Love Will Be Our Home” slows things down and adds a male vocalist. She goes into a silly version of “Farther Along”. She tries to sing it with soul, but unfortunately doesn’t come across very well. They speed it up at the end and go into “By And By”. Next up is duet “The Prayer”. You get to hear some Latin in this one. This is a beautiful song. It is very operatic.
Sandi keeps things slow with “Ballad Medley”. This is almost an eight minute song, which makes for a very long song, especially because it’s slow. I think it would have been better to divide it into at least two different songs. The operatic tones have way too much vibrato in them. I was classically trained, so I appreciate good opera singing. However, when you have that much vibrato, it’s hard to tell what key you’re singing in. “The Lord’s Prayer” is another slow tune but is completely sung by other vocalists. I don’t think Sandi sang that song at all. “Love In Any Language” also has guest vocalists. There are pretty harmonies in this song. The message is very good. She leads in to an old black spiritual, “Yes God Is Real”. This is one of my mom’s favorite songs to sing. This style of song doesn’t fit Sandi’s vocals at all.
“Duets Medley” is a compilation of some of her biggest duet hits. This is the best song on the project. “Via Dolorosa” is a more classical song. When she sings in her operatic octave, this is the style song that sounds best. She leads into “The Old Rugged Cross” immediately. After having the audience sing a chorus of it with her, she starts “We Shall Behold Him”. This is an awesome song. The lyrics are so powerful. Last but not least is “Forever Grateful”. I like to hear her sing easy on this song. It flows well.
All of these slow songs back to back made this a really long album. There are guest vocalists throughout the entire album, and a choir is singing along on every song. Sandi’s lower octave is so much better than her higher octave. I know people love to hear her sing in that operatic style, but from a musical perspective, the lower octave is more of her true range. The transition between her lower octave to the higher octave is harsh and not smooth at all. LIVE recordings are tough to do, but she really seemed to struggle through this performance. I give this project 3 stars. It’s good, but I’ve heard her do better.
Track Listing:
Anthem Of Praise
Praise Medley (Make His Praise Glorious/Let There Be Praise/How Majestic Is Your Name/Hosanna)
Love Will Be Our Home
Farther Along
The Prayer
Ballad Medley (Upon This Rock/They Could Not/In The Name Of The Lord/How Great Thou Art)
The Lord’s Prayer (featuring Veritas)
Love In Any Language
Yes God Is Real
Duets Medley (Another Time, Another Place/More Than Wonderful/I’ve Just Seen Jesus)
Via Dolorosa
The Old Rugged Cross
We Shall Behold Him
It Is Well
Forever Grateful
