Compassionart: Creating Freedom from Poverty

Israel Houghton is as high energy off stage as his music is on stage; Paul Baloche is a wild man with a big sense of humour, and growing up in Australia hasn’t stopped Darlene Zschech from being able to hold her own in a snowball fight.    That’s the kind of insight into their lives you get into some of your favourite artists and songwriters as Martin Smith (Delirious) brought the top names in worship music to a country estate in Scotland in 2008 for a writing, recording and fundraising project called Compassionart: Creating Freedom from Poverty.

Mac Notebooks are everywhere, seen best as Michael W. Smith moves his nimble fingers easily between both types of keyboards.   Does a song need help with an extra line?   Graham Kendrick (Mr. Lyrics) is called in for re-write suggestions.   Also among the Compassionart dozen are Matt Redman, Andy Park,  Tim Hughes, Steven Curtis Chapman, Stu G, and Chris Tomlin.

The concept:   Top writers co-draft 14 worship songs in five days with all performance and publishing royalties signed over to charity, and then meet up a month latter at famed Abbey Road Studios in London to record the songs in only three days.      Monies raised from the CD/DVD sales and publishing royalties from songs used in churches go to Compassion, four “headline” charities, and twelve charities chosen by each participating artist.  As one observes, “This time we are writing worship songs for money.”

Of the two discs in the package, I enjoyed the 49-minute  DVD much more.    It was great to see the creative processes involved in songwriting, as well as the spirit of cooperation among the artists.   I’d strongly recommend, if you are able, watching the DVD prior to listening to the CD, to get some context as to what you’re listening to.    As for the CD, if this is a review, then my top three would be Highly Favoured, Come to the Water, and Friend of the Poor.

If you’re an online downloader, why not take a retro moment to actually purchase the entire CD/DVD oldschool.    You’ll be striking a blow against poverty both where you live and around the world.