Glenn Kaiser

Item: Time Will Tell
Author: Doug Van Pelt

Time Will Tell

(1999)

Reviewed by Doug Van Pelt

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Label Grrr RecordsHM Magazine #78July 1999

acoustic blues classic rock

When I came to this album, the fourth from the last in my stack of 13, I thought to myself, "I could bump this review to the next issue, if it's another acoustic album." But then I put the disc in and started to listen. Glenn endeavors to offer something "to a world glutted with musicians but sorely lacking in human beings." He succeeds in giving us both.

Drenched in slide and acoustic guitar, this material drips with a classy classic rock a la Rod Stewart or Eric Clapton. It's not rockin' enough to be Resurrection Band material (although several of these would probably fit in fine within the context of an album), and it's got too much blues attitude to go on one of his acoustic worship albums. I'd be more inclined to file this with the acoustic blues albums he did with Darrell Mansfield. I'm glad that Glenn had the opportunity to put these songs out, even if they don't neatly fit into one of these convenient labels. I'm glad because the music really does something for me.

The lyrics (I'm not surprised) do something for me as well. Many a musician would do well to ponder his musings in the song "Ya Don't Say Much." Glenn's been around for several years and seen most of the bands in the Christian music industry play at Cornerstone, so his experience bears listening. He's earned the right to comment on what he's seen. Like a gentle father, he doesn't come across thoughtless or calloused. He later drops the same thought as a bomb in "Deliver." Whew! Nobody needs to ask Glenn, "Tell us how you really feel!"

And when you have lyrics like the ones in "Good Hope & New Philadelphia," it makes you wish (no, demand!) that this guy gets on the road with John Mellencamp (or at least VH-1) and spreads some of this wisdom around. Glenn Kaiser is a treasure, folks, and this song right here shows it as well as any.