Rich Mullins

Item: Here in America
Author: Steve Stockman

Here in America

(2003)

Reviewed by Steve Stockman

Discogs YouTube

Label Reunion RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2003

acoustic rock ccm folk worship

This first trawl through the outtakes and live performances of the late Rich Mullins is a real "is it half full or is it half empty" kind of package. The deal is an audio CD and a DVD of a live TV performance with a lot of Rich chat thrown in. The DVD makes half the glass a very full dose of a very potent brew. The CD on the other hand is a little flat with no ice cubes, yet just enough of the vaguest little trace of why we ordered the drink in the first place to make it even less satisfying!

To the full half! On the DVD Rich is back in your living room, alive and well and on the finest form musically, vocally, humourously and spiritually. I had the privilege of first hearing Rich Mullins not on record but literally in my front room as he tested out a few news songs including "Here In America," "Land of My Sojourn," and "Colour Green." He indeed named an instrumental he played 78 Eaton Wood Green, the address of that very occasion. Well here he is again as best as I remember him -- the hair, the graying stubble, voice that no recording studio could ever do justice to, that smirk that sent out a thousand messages, the tired eyes of a man journeying incessantly in search of home and a woolly jumper that you can be sure he didn't pay much for if he bought it at all!

Recorded just six months before his untimely passing we get a sweep of his musical strengths and a career retrospective. "Calling Out Your Name" and "Creed" get the hammer dulcimer treatment that adds panorama to the geography of the Kansas plains on the former and the faith of the saints in the latter. He does a mandolin duet of Bach's "F Major Invention" with Mitch McVicker that nods to the classical background that is there in all of his work. He plays guitar too but admits as few of his musical standing would that it is not plugged in because he finds it hard to stay in time but needs it to do something with his hands. Good point considering he has two electrics (Jimmy A and Rick Elias) and an acoustic (Mitch) in the band already. His piano playing is another matter and it is actually his solo piano ballads that come across on first watching. "If I Stand," "Elijah" (more poignant than ever!) and "We Are Not Strong" are incredible and Rich is right there with that voice.

His introductions reveal that contrariness of his observation, that turns Christian orthodoxy inside out in the same move as it flips it upside down. "Outrageous!" you cry and then as it seeps in you change your opinion and whisper "thank you" as the absurdity of this goofy unkempt soul leads you closer to God and yourself than anyone else you know. He had an amazing way of exposing the side of the Biblical coin that evangelicals had foolishly discarded but without never letting go of the purity of conviction that was the strength of their side of that same coin. Like when he speaks of the west concentrating on being "born again" while the third world concentrates on "selling all they have and giving it to the poor".

There are far too many quips to note them all, the DVD has an extra seminar type settings worth of Mullinsisms that always caress and clash with the heart and the mind and soul but always in order to move the body to some action. There has to have been a case for releasing the soundtrack of the DVD as a record in itself and for sure it would have been better than the audio CD available here. We all hoped there would be loads of Mullins in the vaults as something of a consolation for having him taken from us far too young. Maybe this album proves just how clear it is that he was taken from us just as he had arrived at the peak of his muse. The songs we lost were all going to be so much superior to his very earliest work and his earliest work is what the audio part of this CD/DVD set is based upon.

Having released the Jesus Album demos which were of a shocking quality but essential listening, there was some precedent to release songs that were not pristine in production. Of course Rich had a suspicion of the glossy surface of things anyway but it is hard to justify this collection of live songs and demos. Certainly as a single CD it would have been an unmitigated disaster. If you see it as coming from with the DVD, then it is an interesting bonus. "Here In America" sadly the only Liturgy or after thing here reminds you of Mullins at his peak in poetry, melody and his ability to make the spiritual extraordinary and then place it in the everyday ordinary. It is a fascinating piece of history to hear him teach "Awesome God." Was there a time when people did not know that song! Yet if you are not careful you get confused as we never hear him sing the song and "Verge of a Miracle" appears out of the blue. In fairness this is one of his better 80s lyrics and stripped of that decade's production foibles makes for more palatable listening.

All in all though I won't have this on the CD player too often but as I see it you don't play bonus CDs too much anyway. The DVD on the other hand, well I'll treasure that for a long time to come.