"Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, with the lyre celebrate our God." - Psalm 147:7

This is the verse on the back of Gretchen Harris' new CD Sing to the Lord. I have always loved Harris' vocals and CDs, with Sing of Mary being one of my favorites. I pop it in my player quite a bit. Her sixth CD, Sing to the Lord, is a collection of many favorite hymns such as "Holy Holy," "You Are Near," "Breathe," and "Breathe On Me (Breath of God)." Harris also brings life into "As The Deer Longs," a song based on Psalm 42, and "Shepherd Me O God," based on Psalm 23.
One of my favorites from this CD has got to be her crafting of Tom Booth's "Fragrance Prayer." Booth had taken these words used by Blessed Mother Teresa and blended them into a wonderful tune of praise and prayer. With her vocals, Harris has almost turned it into a pop song. You'll find yourself wanting to sing along! The bonuses on Sing to the Lord are the duets that Harris has recorded with other vocalists. She sings "Ever So Gently" with Robert Kochis and "Friend of God" very soulfully with Carl Herrgesell.
(Herrgesell's day job is keyboardist for such musicians as Elton John and Kenny Loggins).
But the gem of this collection is Harris duet with popular Catholic artist Matt Maher. "The Prayer of St. Francis" is a song not to be missed (It is already one of CatholicMusicNetwork.com's most downloaded MP3s). Harris and Maher are a perfect match and it makes Sing to the Lord a must-have CD.

Steve Angrisano very aptly named his new CD Welcome Home. The songs on this collection center around Our Lord, especially His presence in the Mass. Angrisano is a veteran Catholic singer and songwriter who has preformed at many youth conferences and at World Youth Day. He has a sound that matches the current styles of John Michael Talbot and the styles of the late Stevie Ray Vaughn. Angrisano's songwriting is to-the-point and full of love for God. We see this in his song about humility, "When You See Me." When you stand before God contemplating all He has done for you, you can't help but feel humble. Open up and give Him a chance.
On "Welcome Home," Angrisano has found inspiration in many of the Pslams. "Let Us Go Rejoicing" is from Psalm 122, and "Give Thanks to the Lord" is from Psalm 118. As I mentioned before, many of the songs deal with the Mass, including "Taste and See," based on Psalms 34, which I have always seen as an acknowledgement of Christ's presence in the Eucharist, foreshadowed even in the Old Testament. "God Is With Us (Emmanuel)" is a beautiful witness to the Mass, telling us that we are taking part in history with this celebration.
I love how he uses my favorite part of the Mass in this song: "Lord, I am not worthy…Just say the word, we will be healed." I still get goose bumps every time I say it and think of its awesomeness. It is the title track of Welcome Home that will truly touch you with its message about the love that the Father has for us, calling us back to Him, much like the Prodigal Son. Steve Angrisano shows us God loves us and wants us with Him.

In Psalm 126 we read, "Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then they said 'The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad'."

Laughter has been seen as a gift from God, and those who use comedy in a holy way to make us laugh must be blessed by God. Enter Nick Alexander with his new CD I Wanna Be Debated. This is his third CD of parody songs that not only make you laugh, but lift your spirit as well. Alexander is sometimes called the "Catholic Weird Al" because what he does is take modern pop songs and change their lyrics around to make a Catholic song out of it.
You'll never hear his song "Holy Thursday " (a lampoon of the Mamas & the Papas' "Monday Monday") played during a Lenten service (it's not the venue for such music) but it explains what goes on during Mass on that special night. In "Nicene Creed" Alexander takes Abba's "Dancing Queen" and explains why we recite this long declaration of faith every Sunday morning. Wham's "Careless Whisper" is morphed into a song explaining confession called, "Careless Blunder." Being a big Beatles fan myself, I was taken in by his song "Suicide Hotline." It's a parody of "I Am The Walrus" and is a wake-up call to those who have thoughts of ending it all. Alexander gives a plea to call out to friends or help-lines before doing something that will affect everyone around you.
It really took guts to write a song about the priest scandal and then to add it to a comedy CD. Alexander does just that by parodying Five For Fighting's "Superman (It's Not Easy)"--you may know it as the theme to TV's Smallville--and turning it into a song called "Priest." It's a pointed statement about the innocent men of the cloth and all the work they do. It is Christ who called these men and they did what He asked and left it all to follow Him. The media is also a target on this CD as Alexander sings "Internet Bloggers." This satire of Queen's "Radio Ga-Ga" decries the media, in TV, Radio and Newspapers, for telling us what to do, how to think and what their anti-religious opinion is for too long. It praises the new voices of the internet blogs that often are more in line with Catholic thinking. If you ever wanted to know what Nick Alexander sounds like live in concert, he ends the CD with a praise song that is not a parody by any means. "Holy God, We Praise Your Great Name," shows that he is a true Catholic artist. One of the amazing things that you will notice as you listen to the words on "I Wanna Be Debated is that though many comedy CDs may interpret the ridiculous, Nick Alexander interprets Catholic truths and gives them to us as a gift from God - through laughter.
 

--Jeff Burson