A review of Sara Groves' CD: "Add to the beauty"

Sara Groves' "Conversations" CD is one of my all time favorites... I've listened to it 4 million times. And I only discovered it a year ago. With eager anticipation I bought her latest release, Add to the Beauty. It too is a woman singing really really good, memorable, heart stirring, meandering, melancholy songs. Kind of a Christian Joni Mitchell. (To sample all of her CD's go here.)

She is a cutie. Although the picture on the first page when you open the booklet looks like an anorexic ghost. (Like Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.)

Review of tracks...

1. When it was over

Interesting muse on the power of love in a relationship, and how it heals the other person. Musically it is so subtle though. I wish it had more of a punch to it. A little climax never hurt anybody.

Memorable lines...

• Love wash over a multitude of things. Make us whole.
• There is a love that never fails. There is a healing that always prevails. There is a hope that whispers a vow. A promise to wait while we're working it out.

2. Just showed up for my own life

Kinda cool, up beat, some energy. A woman deciding to live fully, freely, feeling, inspired, in the present. Inspired by the book, "Waking the Dead" by John Eldridge. There are a growing number of fans of this song.

Memorable lines...

• I was in love with an idea. Preoccupied with how a life should appear. Spending my time at the surface repairing the holes in the shiny veneer.
• There are so many ways to hide. There are so many ways not to feel. There are so many ways to deny what is real. And I just showed up for my own life.

3. You are the sun

A simple song about how God is the sun and we are the moon, and how we can't shine unless we turn our face toward him. That's it.

Memorable line...

• Without you I'm a cold dark stone.

4. It's gonna be alright

Another very simple song. Telling someone in pain that it will be alright eventually, and they will get stronger from it. (Not very deep.)

Memorable line...

• I did not come here to offer you cliches. I will not pretend to know of all your pain. Just when you cannot, then I will hold our faith, for you.

5. Add to the beauty

Quintessential Sara. Beautiful, haunting, lilting, meaningful. At times melodic tones spill out like a quiet waterfall. And then like a rushing, powerful river.

Memorable lines...

• Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
• I want to shine with the light, that's burning up inside
• This is grace, an invitation to be beautiful. This is grace, an invitation.

6. Rewrite this tragedy

An appeal to stick with the relationship and work it out because we know "there's a better story." Very cool melodic line/rhythm at the beginning of each verse.

Memorable lines...

• Today I forgot a line in the play that you and I have been rehearsing since the day we met.
• It's the place we're going when we can't stay where we are.

7. Something changed

Her personal experience of deep, surprising, break-through healing. Musically stark. Sara at her bare bones basic.

Memorable line...

• And I cannot make it. And I cannot fake it. And I can't afford it. But it's mine.

8. How can I tell?

A fun expression about the frustration of trying to communicate the wonder of redemption in a way that makes the other "get it." This song has a faster pace, more deliberate beat, good change ups. Cool wah wah guitar during the bridge. (Like Bonnie Raitt.)

Memorable lines...

• And I cannot find the words. And sometimes it sounds absurd. And I don't even know myself all the depths the heights the wealth.
• So I'll expand my vocabulary. Spend some time at the local library. Analyze the archetypes. Anything to get this right.
• Cause the train that leaves the station is loaded down with connotation. And what you hear and what I say are night and day.
• Once upon a time, in a very, very far away land. Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a man...

9. To the moon

Very short statement about a church that ups and decides to relocate to the moon, apparently to escape the difficulties of not fitting in here. I think? Not sure.

Memorable line...

• There'll be no one there to tell us we're odd. No one to change our opinions of God. Just lots of rocks and this dusty sod. Here in our church on the moon.

10. Kingdom comes

When we do small acts of kindness and obedience and trust and faith we are helping to build the kingdom of God on earth. Catchy chorus. I almost snapped my fingers!

Memorable line...

• That's a little stone. That's a little mortar. That's a little seed. That's a little water. In the hearts of the sons and daughters. This kingdom's coming.

11. Why it matters

Traditional contemplative Sara.

Memorable line...

• Sit with me and tell me again why it matters... beauty, power, love... in the midst of the ugliness and chaos and confusion.

12. Loving a person

A nice song about loving each other just as we are. I fell asleep before the end though. Can a song really have only 30 beats a minute?

Memorable lines....

• Love and pride can't occupy the same spaces baby.
• Loving a person just the way they are, that's no small thing. It's the whole thing.

13. Track 13 is a medley of several of the songs on the CD. A love theme.

Summary

An A (Conversations is an A+.) It will go down as one of my all-time favorites.