Breathing Room

The release schedule in the music world can be hectic, if predictable, even in the CCM world. Small scale operations like The WENC Night Beat and the Platinum Vinyl Awards will take any respite as a Godsend. This week is one of those weeks we get to catch our breath. The only release scheduled for tomorrow is a band known as Onward To Olympus. Right now Amazon only gives the Audio CD as available, so only time will tell if there will be any audio samples up. Next week will be hectic, with Caedmon's Call (CD Release of Waking Up The Dead), Brenton Brown, newcomer Katelynne Cox, Echoing Angels, Eleventyseven and a whole lot more dropping. I will use the downtime to get this years PVA's finalized and possibly awarded. I would love to finish it before the Doves in April.

Getting back to the Platinum Vinyl Awards will give me an excuse to further ignore the Hysterical Nuclear Apocalyptic Television Soap Opera formerly known as the news. For all the attention you would think something big happened in Japan, like a winner take all battle between Godzilla, MechaGodzilla, Mothra and Gamera on the streets of Tokyo. Come to think of it, I would watch that. Seriously folks, what happened in Japan is a tragedy, and our prayers are with everyone there, but can we tone it down a little. Japan was not destroyed. No nuclear plants have melted down or probably will. Tokyo barely felt the shock, and that is where most of that nations economy is. Our looney news seems to be rooting for another Chernobyl, but they are destined to be greatly disappointed.

Back to the subject of Music. This week was somewhat of a slow week, with only Abandon Kansas and a few worship releases among the entrants. Of the three modern worship entries, the best two were Aaron Gillespie (of The Almost) Anthem Song and Chris Tomlin and Friends (aka Passion) Here For You. Pardon the snarkiness, but when you have a 12 cut album, and 6 of the cuts are from one artist (Tomlin), I think it's justified. The best parts of the CD were the "Friends" with 2 from Kristian Stanfill, 2 from David Crowder Band and 2 From Christy Nockels. Tomlin's cuts sounded like they were mailed in and lacked energy. I give it 4 Emeralds on the strength of the friends, but I am not holding out hope on it being among the final entries in modern worship. There will be better coming down the road.

Possibly among the initial entrants, but also most likely not making the final cut for 2011 is Anthem Song, the solo debut from Almost frontman Aaron Gillespie. He seems tentative in his choice of Modern Worship, and while I liked the cut with Nine O Five, overall the album did not impress. 4 Emeralds for this one as well.

Thanks for the continued following folks. It's great to know you're being checked out in places like Australia, Romania, Denmark, Russia, Canada, the USA, even Vietnam. I know I left out a few nations, but I didn't intend a full list here. I appreciate all of you. Suffice it to say that one day a possible error in the Google analytics said I had a view in Iran. That went away but Vietnam stayed, so that was real. Didn't think I'm a whack a job was reading my blog.