Caedmon's Call

Warner Alliance
PC 9464632
CD, $17.97
CAS, $11.97

Caedmon's Call on cutting edge

According to the members of Caedmon's Call, the band takes its name from a seventh-century poet and herdsman who reluctantly followed God's beckoning for him to sing, only to discover that he had words and melodies within him that no one had ever heard before.

The six musicians of this Texas group must have identified with the poet's surprise upon the release of Caedmon's Call, the band's first album for Warner Alliance. Caedmon's Call sold more than 12,000 copies during its first week after release and debuted atop Billboard magazine's "Heatseekers Chart," a feat unmatched by any other Christian act.

The people who have made Caedmon's Call one of the most popular new acts in Christian music this year have responded in part to the group's densely produced, contemporary folk sound based around the acoustic guitars of Derek Webb and Cliff Young. Often, the band's instruments are supplemented with the likes of cellos and Hammond organ. Webb and Young also share vocal duties with Danielle Glenn, with one of the three taking the lead while the others supply harmonies that make essential contributions to the band's sound.

The group's hit single, "Lead of Love," is a prime example of this approach. Written by Aaron Tate, a founding member of the group who no longer tours or records but still contributes material, the song features Young singing the melody, as first Webb, then Glenn add second lines and then begin to harmonize.

Strip away the arrangements, though, and the songs are still just as compelling. In "Center Aisle," a song of naked helplessness in the wake of suicide, only Webb plays a guitar and sings a harrowing chorus that begins, "What crime have you committed/Demanding such a penance/That couldn't wait for five more minutes and a cry for help."

Just as the Anglo-Saxon poet from whom the band got its name had to rely on God to give him a voice he didn't think he had, so Caedmon's Call's message often has to do with discovering God's faithfulness to faithless followers. When Young and Glenn sing, "This world has nothing for me, and this world has everything," in "This World," they're not comparing the fallen world to the beauty of God's creation, they're singing about the distractions of an earthly life with "all that I could want and nothing that I need." That attitude's prevalent throughout the album, and it's probably a reason so many people who don't usually listen to Christian music find Caedmon's Call so remarkable.

But the group finds its consolation in Rich Mullins' "Hope to Carry On," the one song not written by the band for this album: "Love has come, and it's giving me hope to carry on."

This kind of earnest folk-rock with all its sleeve-worn hearts often gets tiresome after a few songs, but Caedmon's Call keeps things interesting with incisive songwriting, insinuating melodies, and its blend of three vocalists.

The group has come a long way from its first days at Texas Christian University, and it's making good on the promise made when Musician magazine chose it as one of the country's 50 best unsigned bands a while back. If it keeps faithful to that promise, Caedmon's Call will deliver many more songs the likes of which the world has yet to hear.

Brian Mansfield lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and writes when he's not taking care of his two sons.

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