Awesome God: A Tribute To Rich Mullins

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 10, 1998)
• Original Release Date: November 10, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Reunion
• ASIN: B00000DFV1
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,176 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #95 in Music > Christian > Compilations > Contemporary Christian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great songs weakly performed, January 13, 2005

By 

Greg Brady "columbusboy" (Capital City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Awesome God: A Tribute To Rich Mullins (Audio CD)

For a tribute album to be good art on its own, it should consist of artists pretending other songs are their own...living and breathing the lyric through their own sensibilities. It should NOT be a carbon-copy of the original artist down to the arrangement, way it's sung, style, etc...otherwise, why not just listen to the original? (Perhaps Reed Arvin, longtime producer for Rich, and producer of this comp says it best: "This recording is not about Rich Mullins; it's about his songs.") Unfortunately, it appears that was lost in the making of this CD.

Michael W. Smith began promisingly, by stripping back "Awesome God" to its piano base and keeping it spare. But he missteps by swelling it to the anthemic "big choir" sound that Mullins has already used. The song would be better served by keeping it "small" musically, and letting the lyrics be the "big" part of the song...

These types of things occur again and again throughout the CD...fairly unimaginative arrangements hewing way too close to Rich's to be interesting. In large part, most of this fails because of the artist's fear or inability to reinterpret Rich's material.

Most successful is Kevin Max, who takes a song I considered one of Mullins' weaker efforts ("Save Me" from his major label debut...) and COMPLETELY reinvents it sonically as a multilayered Bono-esque diatribe against superficiality. It gave me new appreciation for the song.

Gary Chapman recrafts "Elijah" as a country tune and invests passion into his vocals. (And for the reviewer who mentioned the 'rambling' story by Chapman in the liners...it's him saying in a nutshell that the opinions of God, not other frail human beings, are what counts...and that Rich lived his life in a way that showed Gary he understood that...I found his words touching.)

Other nice touches are Carolyn Arends' phrasing on one of Rich's best songs "Jacob and 2 Women"...lending extra weight to the portions told from the women's point of view...I love how this song pastes together the majesty and the mystery in God's Word. Also good are Billy Sprague's arrangement on "A Place to Stand" providing a view of a man beaten down and choosing to hope in spite of it and Ashley Cleveland's "I See You" depicting Moses as resigned to a tough calling leading the Jews to the promised land. But these moments are too few to call this a quality tribute. Sorry, Rich...maybe someone else will do this better.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly an Awesome, Spirit Moving album, August 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Awesome God: A Tribute To Rich Mullins (Audio CD)

This was my 'official' introduction to Rich Mullins. Though I had been in love with the tune 'Awesome God' since discovering the chorus in a songbook and singing it in worship with youth at a Christian work camp several summers ago. 'Hold Me Jesus' really spoke to my heart as well. The entire collection is an incredible tribute to an awesome artist who never let the spotlight be shone on him alone, but gave the credit to GOD. Listening to this CD gets my heart and mind in the right place to do his work and will when I need to. "Awesome God" is a worthy addition to anyone's music library, it is simply beautiful music.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Uneven Tribute, February 20, 2002

By 

Mark Baker (Santa Clarita, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Awesome God: A Tribute To Rich Mullins (Audio CD)

This CD came as a result of the death of one of Christian music's best artists, Rich Mullins. His friends put this together as a tribute. Each artist picked a song that had ministered to them, then covered it, incorporating their own personal touches along the way.

Some of the covers are wonderful. The piano arrangement that starts the CD is a wonderful intro to "Awesome God." Carolyn Arrends does a great job on "Jacob and 2 Women," and Chris Rice is the perfect fit for "Calling Out Your Name." Even Jars of Clay and Caedmon's Call, two bands I'm not a fan of, do a good job on their songs. However, Kevin Max and Ashley Cleveland changed their songs two much. Rich Mullins was not a rock singer, and trying to make his songs sound rock ruins them.

Rich Mullins' fans will enjoy seeing how some of the top CCM artists envisioned these songs. Even with the couple missteps mentioned above, it's the next best thing to having a new album from Rich himself.