God Bless The USA by Bill & Gloria Gaither & Their Homecoming Friends

Reviewed by Dave Brassington

Much as I enjoy the music that Bill and Gloria Gaither have produced over many years, I confess to being out of sync with this release. Basically it is a dozen tracks pulled from a couple of concerts recorded after 9/11 when American patriotism was overflowing with our friends across the pond. Whilst I have much sympathy for what had happened, it grates badly on my ears as an utter muddle between genuine Christianity and patriotism. The opener "This Land Is Your Land" is fine, merely an upbeat version of a famous old American folk song. But then we have "America The Beautiful", soon followed by "God Bless The USA", "A Few Good Men", "I Pledge My Allegiance", etc which are decidedly OTT despite the rapturous applause. There are some gospel classics like a strong rendition of "Amazing Grace" by black gospel's Wintley Phipps (the only track I had not heard before) and it concludes with a decent version of "Rock Of Ages". But there is way too much patriotism masquerading as Christian faith to recommend this particular DVD.