Sacred Journey: An Evening With Graham Kendrick by Graham Kendrick

Reviewed by Brian Edgeley

Recorded live at various cathedrals around the country during Graham’s Cathedral Tour in the spring of 2003, ‘Sacred Journey’ features songs from recent releases as well as classics such as “Meekness And Majesty” and “Shine Jesus Shine”. The album is blessed by the classic reverberation of each cathedral which adds an historic depth to an evening of intimacy with a truly prolific songwriter and how God has used Graham greatly over the years. His ability to interpret the signs-of-the-times and bring a word-in-season to the global Church has created a colourful back catalogue of songs, many of which are masterpieces. I am sure that future generations will look back on this time and say how blessed we were to have him in our midst. Graham has chosen some excellent musicians to play alongside him, most notably are David Fitzgerald (Iona), whose beautiful saxophone brings a haunting melody to the evening. His introduction to “O Lord The Clouds Are Gathering” is masterful and it brings you right into the crowd at the cathedral. Hearing the ladies in the congregation singing the repeat-lines reveals the high quality of the recording, which is timed to be released for the 2004 version of the Cathedral Tour. One song that is truly anointed is “Thorns In The Straw”, which echoes with passion under the high ethereal architecture and the excellent flugel horn of Portugal’s Raul D’Oliviera. This song also reveals the deep resonance of Paul Kimber’s double bass, which adds another dimension to the track. Altogether the mix and overall production are a credit to the team at Make Way Music and to Jon Kensington, the engineer who had the difficult job of recording the evenings of live worship, yet managed to capture the very spirit of the events!