CD Review: Ryan Delmore “The Spirit, the Water and the Blood”
March 20, 2009
This album has been out for a few months and I’m glad I’ve waited to review until I was really able to dig into it. I’ve known about Ryan for many years, we were both leading worship in the Vineyard in our youth, Ryan was about an hour north of me in the 5 Cities area on the coast of California. We shared many of the same friends but our paths never crossed until recently when I sat down to interview him upon the release of this album.
His music, voice, songwriting has all matured so much from The Burn days. I can’t tell you how blown away I am by this album. Songs like Jesus Name, Sing Like Mary Sang and The World Can’t Take It Away immediately grab you, you don’t need any more listens than 1 to love it. Then songs like Sacred, True Religion and Love of God grow in your heart on each listen, the depth to these songs deserves and calls for repeated listens.
Ryan has all the sensibility of Tom Waits and Petty with the grit and country hooks of Ryan Adams. The absolute worst thing about much of the Christian contemporary music is the cheap, cheesy melody hooks. You won’t find any of those here. The richness and sincerity of these songs and production can’t help but make you feel like you just wandered into a basement worship session to hear Ryan’s love songs to Jesus.
If you’re wondering how many of these could be done in church, I pretty much plan on doing every one of them, I’ve never said or done that with any other album. This truly is one of the greatest worship albums I’ve heard. Period. If you don’t like alt-country-folk-rock and are looking for another Hillsong album, well move along, but if you love some twang and soul then buy all means this is the album for you. You can and should buy the entire album at Vineyard Music or on iTunes.
Copyright 2009 @ Our Rising Sound
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- There Will Be Blood
- Sara Groves’ “O Holy Night” Review
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Finally an alternative to the Hillsong sound. I like HIllsong but c’mon we need some other sounds as well. If you like WIlco, Delta Spirit, Blitzen Trapper then this will be right up your alley.
I know of worship leaders who have a very similar sound but feel they have to reserve their songwriting for the secular market because it won’t fly in the church setting. It’s good to see people stretching and exploring various styles. It helps keep worship fresh. I have a few of Ryan’s song on my ipod and enjoy them. I’m not a fan of every song but I could say that about every album that comes out.