John Michael Talbot

Item: Troubadour For The Lord
Author: John Moore

Troubadour For The Lord

(1996)

Reviewed by John Moore

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Label Sparrow RecordsThe LighthouseApril 1997

acoustic folk worship

John Michael Talbot is one of the most enduring, and most prolific, Christian musicians that we have with us, still actively writing and recording after 20 years. This album celebrates music going back to Talbot's self-titled debut for Sparrow in 1976. (Good grief! Do you remember bicentennial quarters?)

Troubadour For The Lord is a collection of 19 of Talbot's songs, chosen from 16 of his albums by Sparrow Records' founder (and this project's executive producer), Billy Ray Hearn. Hearn signed John and his brother Terry (then together as the Talbot Brother's Band) in 1976 as one of Sparrow's very first recording artists. Hearn went on to produce many of Talbot's albums over the course of the next 20 years. In fact, just under half the songs in the collection are from records Hearn produced.

In essence, Troubadour For The Lord is a collection of Billy Ray Hearn's favorite John Michael Talbot songs. Some might question the need for another John Michael Talbot compilation album, following so closely on the heels of Sparrow's 2 CD Collection from 1995. In fact, almost half the songs on Troubadour For The Lord can be found on the Collection discs. What makes this compilation unique is Hearn's selection of songs in the other half: songs that are not among Talbot's most popular, perhaps, but which have a special significance for Hearn. How well this album works for you will be largely a function of how much your own musical tastes line up with his.

Compilation albums are different from regular records, in that there is an inevitable loss of continuity between songs on a compilation. While the best albums combine elements to create a complex work that is larger than any of the individual songs, a compilation work is the skimming of the "best" songs from many different albums, from different times and phases in the artist's output. This produces a "highlight film," to be sure, but can strip the songs of their context. This effect can hardly be avoided in an album like Troubadour For The Lord that juxtaposes songs from albums ranging from The Lord's Supper (1979) to Chant From The Hermitage (1995).

Still, one thing that comes across in listening to these songs is how remarkably consistent Talbot has been through the years. He is an artist who keeps working the same mine, year after year, and remarkably, continues to come up with gem after gem. Talbot is not overly concerned about creating streamlined lyrics; the text takes precedence over the melody. If the two don't always match up, at least the message is intact. He takes many of his texts from the Bible or from the creeds of the church, and generally in the classic language of the King James. This, combined with sparse, acoustic-guitar-dominated arrangements and Talbot's careful, precise enunciation gives much of his work a kind of medieval, or perhaps Renaissance, flavor. Indeed, his music seems to come from a different time, a different place-a simpler, less cluttered place. He is not in a hurry-the notes will come, the lyric will be there, the melody will emerge effortlessly at its appointed time. Like many who appreciate his music, I suppose that this is the major attraction that these songs have for me-the sense of peace, the serenity that is almost tangibly communicated. Peace is the connecting thread of the album. It is a characteristic that has been with Talbot from the beginning of his recording career. (Or close to the very beginning, anyway. In his song selection, Hearn ignores Talbot's two earliest albums, which have more of an edge to them than anything found here.)

Stylistically, Talbot's music ranges between solo voice and solo classical guitar songs on the one end, to lavishly orchestrated, full choir productions on the other. The songs in this collection range about evenly between large and small production. One over-generalized generalization that has to be made before we are done: Hearn's selection seems to favor Talbot's mellower stuff. For a guy who starts out pretty mellow anyway, this creates a very mellow collection. Bottom line-this album could serve as a good introduction to those uninitiated with John Michael Talbot's music, or as a nice collection for those already familiar.