“It Is Well” – Kergyma Community Choir

“It Is Well”
Kergyma Community Choir
From the Kergyma Music Group album
Choir Life: Deluxe Version (release date: July 15, 2022)

By Robert M. Marovich

The Kergyma Community Choir’s “It Is Well” is inspired by and has the same message as the classic nineteenth-century hymn that begins, “When peace like a river,” but it has an entirely different melody, arrangement, and lyric.

As the beat gallops along, the choir supplies a buffet of singing techniques—from cascading harmonies, full-throated singing, handclapping, and call-and-response to a rigorous vamp. They are truly living the choir life on this one. Ends too soon, though. I wanted the vamp, and that joyous praise break beat, to continue for at least another couple of minutes.