A New Day
Paul Porter
Light Records 2008
http://www.lightrecords.com/

Paul Porter left the Christianaires earlier this year, after three decades with the quartet, to give voice to musical ideas that have been forming in his mind, ideas that did not necessarily fit within the Christianaires’ format.

Porter certainly does experiment with sacred sounds on his new solo project for Light Records, A New Day, but be encouraged, ye quartet enthusiasts: there’s plenty here around which to wrap your arms and fill your ears.

For one thing, two songs — “My Redeemer Lives” and “I Made It Through” were written by musician Joey Woolfalk, who is himself a product of a quartet singing family. “I Made It Through” in particular has hit potential with its easy-like-Sunday-morning feel and catchy melody. Rance Allen joins Porter on “If There’s No Tomorrow.” “What Did You Do” is the churchy quartet “drive” number that is currently climbing the charts. So there’s no paucity of good old fashioned quartet singing on A New Day.

Of the ten tracks on the album, by far the most soul-stirring and poignant is the Paul Porter-Harvey Watkins Jr. joint venture, “He’s There All the Time.” Propelled by a slow rock-a-bye-baby “gospel waltz” tempo, and cast in the likeness of “He Knows How Much You Can Bear,” the song serves as a vehicle for Porter’s personal testimony. It’s truly a remarkable performance, an intimate interplay between two quartet lead singers young enough to still sing with lung-expanding gusto but old enough to have seen and experienced it all on the gospel highway.

Yes, there’s some contemporary synth work and female background singers on some of the songs, and yes, even a little rock steady in the final track, “I Know a Man,” but overall Porter doesn’t stray too far from his quartet roots. It may be A New Day, but a little old-time religion never hurts. Indeed, it gives us a strong foundation from which to gain the courage to venture forth into new territory.

Three of Four Stars