As Larry handed me the CD, he said, "These are the three greatest guitarists in Christian music!" Maybe I'm getting old (no offense, Larry --I think I've got him out-aged by 10 years), but I actually enjoyed the guitar-for-beauty's-sake instrumentals. I usually go for the hard-rockin' stuff, but this got me oozing down in my chair with my headphones on, smiling away as those guys did some exquisite picking on stringed instruments of several kinds. It wasn't light or soft rock, nor was it all jumbled up and grating like a metal guitarist's high-pitched solo. It was precise and totally musical. Maybe my taste is really mellowing. Then again, considering the other artists coming up in this article, maybe not. They opened the CD with rock. Four instrumental tracks really impressed me (5,8,9,10) with the musical qualities. Then they rocked their way through the CD end.
Daniel Amos's lead singer, Terry Taylor, has been making Christian music since at least the beginning of the 1970s. Daniel Amos (DA) dabbled with Country music before settling on a retro/alternative/Americana/country/rock sound. The "retro" part of their musical description might come from Taylor's Tom Petty-like vocal sound. The album on which this assessment is based is Mr. Buechner's Dream. It's a 2-CD album with 33 music tracks, sold for a single-CD price. It's really not head-banger or foot/fist pounding stuff, but it's great for relaxing in the yard on a Saturday afternoon. Lots of the lyrics express a tongue-in-cheek sort of humor. Daniel Amos is a fun listen.
Dear Ephesus is called (with reservations), by the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music an Emo group. Naturally I had to look up Emo. Luckily, the book has a handy glossary of terms. "Emo" is short for emotional shifting music. Dear Ephesus sings a slow, ballad-like verse, then shifts to hard alternative or even hardcore for the chorus. I think I'd call it bipolar music, shifting from one extreme to the other. I like the music, but not in really big doses.
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