A brief aside for now as I wait for words to properly come to order in reviewing Israel & New Breed's new CD. As expected, the disc was on shelves this weekend. No hometown discount at the bookstore yet - wait'll the concert next week and it may be a different story - but procurement wasn't optional. A few extra bucks to bless the bookstore and the band's royalty check with is a small price to pay for tunes this good.

I had a little opening to spin the disc at the end of Koinonia last night and it seemed to be a hit. One comedic moment to report as I had the Jonny Lang tune cranked, only to have a friend request that I play "the good song." After a lengthy discourse on the numerous "good songs" offered, a tenuous agreement was reached and we settled on another spin of "Say So."

A few pleasant surprises beyond the track that Lang contributes to: "So Come" leads off the project on a slow note, but with rich lyrics that borrow heavily from one of my favorite chapters in the Old Testament: Isaiah 55. "Deeper" is another mellow tune that takes you precisely where the title suggests. And, of course, any tune that Chris Tomlin lends his work to - in this case, "I Know Who I Am" - is rock solid. Add in the tunes that we've already worked out at Lakewood - "Say So", "We Have Overcome", and to a lesser extent "I Will Search" - and you've got plenty of "good songs" to soundtrack your life to.