Joe Stricklin

Item: Blazing Call
Author: Michael Klein

Blazing Call

(1993)

Reviewed by Michael Klein

Discogs YouTube

Label Salt MusicThe LighthouseMay 1994

ccm pop rock rock

The album title usually offers a clue about what the artist would like remembered about an album. Joe Stricklin's choice of "Blazing Call," a song about the urgency he feels to please God, sums up this album. Stricklin clearly feels the pull of God to write and sing songs that convey the urgency that he feels and to help us all feel that necessity as well. Even the song that he included but did not write, Larry Norman's "I Am A Servant," fits his theme wonderfully. The end result is all of the songs on this release are written from either a personal viewpoint or as a challenge to Christians to seek and follow what God requires of them.

Joe Stricklin's voice is reminiscent of Russ Taff's-a strong voice capable of expressing a variety of feelings. He sounds good singing a quiet song, as well as belting out a rock song. There is a light scattering of background vocals well placed in some of the songs.

The majority of the music was assembled by Michael Demus. He wrote the music for all but two of the songs, and contributed work on guitars, keyboards, and drum programming-besides producing, engineering, and mixing the entire album. The fact that the whole project holds together well is a tribute to him. My only complaint about the music is that sometimes the guitar was held back.

My favorite song is "Talking to Ourselves," with a catchy blues/rock sound. It's about feeling comfortable in churches and ignoring the people around us who need to hear the Good News. The chorus contains the lyrics: "We're just talking to ourselves/Never a threat to the gates of hell/The enemy doesn't care what you know/long as you never use it." Like all good lyrics, this encapsulates in a very few words an idea that extends far beyond its boundaries.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes a solid Contemporary Christian Music type of sound that actually does go on the rock side of things, at least occasionally. It certainly is written for a Christian audience, but the one non-Christian who heard this thought that some of the songs sounded "pretty good." I enjoyed it and will enjoy listening to it again.