Robin Mark: East Of The River

[Michael G]

Robin Mark is back with another great release. East Of The River has the typical Robin sound, smooth, easy to sing melodies with that Irish flavor. This is my favorite Robin Mark release to date and has many great songs which can be easily used in a congergation or personal worship setting. The simplicity of his melodies will make it easy for you to learn to play these songs and the catchy lyrics will make it easy for a congergation to learn. You even get a couple Irish jigs to get down to!

The 3 songs that stand out for me are Fortress, a great praise song written with Paul Baloche, Lost And Found, a great personal worship song about the strength and growth found when going through life storms, and At The Dawning, which is based on Habakkuk 3:17,18.

This is a great CD for when you are looking for some nice easy to sing and play songs which have great praise melodies. Robin Mark really comes through on this recording and I give it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. Any Robin Mark fan MUST have this one for their collection!

[blackfbiv]

Hmmm...maybe it's just me but I was not as thrilled with this release as his Revival in Belfast outings.

I found the entire disc to be 'flat' and relatively un-inspired sounding. Yes, Robin Mark is a great song-writer, but his strength lies in the congregational dynamic that was so perfectly captured in the past.

Now in all fairness I just got it on Saturday and have only spun it a couple times. Maybe it'll grow on me.

:confused:

Edited to add: Okay, the song-writing is super-duper here. I fell in love with 'Highly Exalted' last night. We'll be doing it for sure.

I can hear a couple other potential congregational songs and a special or two.

I stand by my initial perception of the production tho'. It isn't quite 'alive' enough for my tastes.
Ymmv

[telecaster55]

I found it somewhat surprising that Robin made a studio recording rather than a live one, but I've greatly enjoyed this CD.

The opening instrumental overture gets a lot of play as the flute makes my spirit soar!

My personal favorite song is "Lost and Found," especially since my family has been through some of that "sacred ground" of life's storms in the past year or so. (On a side note, the bridge of this song doesn't really fit the theme lyrically of the rest of the song, even though it's quite a pretty part.)

There are some other songs that jump at me as well, but I don't have the sleeve in front of me, so I can't pull up the titles at this point.

Definitely worth getting, even for your personal listening pleasure.