New Orleans is familiar to most Americans as home of the nation's biggest annual party, Mardi Gras, but there's a side of the city you're not likely to see during the Fat Tuesday revelries. For New Orleans is also home to the nation's second biggest housing project. Here, amidst streets named "Desire," "Abundance," and "Piety," you'll find guns, drugs, and unwed mothers. But here you'll also find Mo Leverett, working to help the denizens of Desire. On Sacred Desires, Leverett brings Christ's love and his own heart for social work to the rest of us.
Musically, Leverett falls in line with '70s folk icons like Cat Stevens and Gordon Lightfoot with this acoustic offering, which leans sometimes toward country, sometimes towards pop. Leverett himself handles rhythm guitars with a full backing band, which includes Pierce Pettis and highlights, in various songs, slide guitar and a searing fiddle. Soulful backing vocals from Celestine Grantham push several songs in the Black Gospel direction.
Some of the songs, unfortunately, (including the album opener) carry a higher "cheese" quotient than they could have, and Leverett's vocals are fairly unexceptional. But "Deliver Me" and "The Advent of Autumn" stand out with a Don Francisco-like charm. Leverett is at his best in the several ballads drawn from his experiences ministering in Desire. Ironically, the title track refers to Psalm 37:4, not his social work.
Overall, Leverett stands out more for fervency than for originality or raw talent. His lyrics opt for clarity of thought and meaning over deep metaphor, though a touch of the poet in him shines through occasionally. But his message is clear, and he delivers it with sincerity. After lying dormant for 20 years, Christian folk music is again coming into its own, and Leverett deserves at least a small star in that musical constellation.
