Music I've Been Enjoying

Every now and again I like to mention some of the albums I’ve been listening to lately—largely because many of these albums are sent to me by people who read this site. This time around I’ve got 4 great albums to recommend to you.

Ordinary Time

Ordinary Time is a band that (largely) sets old hymns to new music. And they do it well through acoustic folk music featuring guitar, piano, mandolin, banjo, dobro and violin. Their most recent album is At the Table and it contains a mix of original songs with older hymns. My favorites are “How Firm a Foundation” (I love their rendition) and “Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners.” Whenever I mention my favorite tracks someone says, “You always choose the worst tracks.” So be it. Those are the ones I find myself listening to again and again. Deal with it!

You can listen to the complete album at their web site [2].

Jamie Barnes / Brooks Ritter

James Barnes and Brooks Ritter may be familiar to you through their work with Sojourn. They have collaborated on a new split EP—each contributes 5 tracks. Barnes’ half is The Mercy Seat while Ritter’s part is The War. Each of the two halves is very different and yet somehow they work well together. The split is obvious, and yet it works. My favorite tracks are “A City No Longer Forsaken” and “Whom Have I In Heaven.”

Once again, you can listen to the whole thing at Bandcamp [3].

Christa Wells

Christa Wells has a new EP set to release in a week or two. I managed to get an early copy of How Emptiness Sings and have enjoyed it a lot. Check out “Panning for Gold” and “Everything Moves But You” for great lyrics set to great music. Christa will be updating her site [4] soon with more information about the album. It should be on sale by mid-March. You’ll just need to be patient.

Jaron & Katherine Kamin

Jaron & Katherine Kamin have a new album of old hymns titled Here Among Us. They record classics such as “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven,” “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus” and “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.” Some are set to traditional melodies while others have new melodies. “Give Praise to the Lord” and “Nothing But the Blood” may be the strongest tracks.

You can listen to the complete album at Bandcamp [5].