The Alaskan Project: Together We Stand (Norris Garner & Friends)

Norris Garner and Friends
The Alaskan Project: Together We Stand
www.togetherwestand.com

The Alaskan Project: Together We Stand is a live recording of the 2007 Together We Stand Gospel Fest, held in Fairbanks, Alaska, which featured a workshop mass choir and a delegation of gospel guest artists from the lower 48.

Among those who traveled to Alaska to fellowship in song with the dozens of singers in the Together We Stand Gospel Fest Workshop Choir were Minister Norris Garner, John Tillery, Dr. Clarence Eggleston and Isaiah D. Thomas. Together with the choir, the group sang the glory down, and possibly even melted an iceberg or two.

Several uptempo and traditional performances, including the pulse-pounding “Leaning and Depending on Jesus,” featuring Tamara Hornbuckle and Nique Earnest, make this CD a smiling and joyful ball of energy, a “praise party,” to quote Garner’s ministry moniker. Garner himself lends his estimable talents to a number of tracks, most especially on two pieces written in the old-school tradition, “I Want the Lord to Use Me” (with Richard Wiley) and “Holy Spirit” (with John Tillery).

The choir sparkles on a powerful and bone-chilling delivery of “Hold On.” They give the spiritual appropriate gravitas, with dramatic harmonies and solemn intonation.

A snippet of Psalm 113 sung during “Praise the Lord with Me,” asking congregants to praise “from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same,” takes on a whole new meaning when rendered at a latitude where, depending on the time of year, that could be months!

The final track, “Praying,” is a hip-slapping handclapper that benefits from a “choirtet” treatment, complete with quartet-style guitar riffs.

Quick cuts between a number of the tracks, coupled with enthusiastic singing and effervescent responses from the audience, make The Alaskan Project: Together We Stand a fine ambassador of the 2007 session.

Portions from the sale benefit the Fairbanks Rescue Mission.

Four of Four Stars