Rob Mathes

Item: William the Angel
Author: Doug Wesney

William the Angel

(1995)

Reviewed by Doug Wesney

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Label independentThe Phantom Tollbooth1998

adult contemporary gospel pop soul

Let's take a trip inside the mind of singer/songwriter/producer/jack-of-all-trades, Rob Mathes. "William the Angel" really exists.

Although, he's more of an angel in the figurative sense. You see, "William" is actually Willie Pendleton. Willie and I were classmates in high school, along with Rob Mathes's younger brother, Rich. Mathes knew Willie through us, and saw the angelic Willie in action, which not only provided inspiration for Mathes's album, but also his life.

While we were in high school ('83-'85), Will was very overweight, very short, and his family was not well off. He never had pants that fit quite right, and the in-crowd teased him mercilessly. The thing that we always loved about Willie--and the thing that obviously impressed Rob the most--was that our guileless friend returned every insult with blessing, just as Jesus commanded us to do. Willie knew Jesus, and knew how to be like Jesus, even when it would have been far easier to respond with hate and anger. But Willie wasn't like that.

Willie is still an angel--though far lighter than he was in high school, having lost most of his excess weight. Now he's saving lives as an EMT with an ambulance corps in Connecticut. Willie witnessed to Mathes this way, before Mathes really decided to follow Christ. Will reflected that love that can only come to us from God, manifested through broken vessels who make themselves available for His use. Willie was a gigantic influence (no pun intended) on our lives just by simply being who he was in Christ.

William The Angel, indeed.

By the way, his Christmas Concert back-up band includes, Shawn Pelton of the Saturday Night Live Band on drums, and Will Lee, bassist for David Letterman's Band. Last Christmas, Vanessa Williams sang (he produced her award-winning '97 Christmas album and wrote the title track for which she won much acclaim), David Sanborn played sax, and the entire horn section featured the top New York studio artists. It is an unbelievable experience. His live stuff is vastly superior to his studio work simply because of his wonderfully expressive voice and the wealth of talent he brings to the table. If you get a chance to see his show either live or on PBS, do it!

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