CD REVIEW: LORI TRUE - There Is Room For Us All: Songs of Justice, Prayers for Peace [G.I.A Publications, 2005]

Lori True first appeared on my radar with the release of the 1997 double live CD ‘Glory Day’ by David Haas. Soloing on the Haas penned ‘I Want To Call You’ [and appearing on many other songs on that recording], one didn’t need to be Einstein to realise that we were listening to a truly prayerful spirit in our presence whose star was rapidly rising.

Lo and behold, 4 years later in 2001, Lori True released her debut ‘A Place at the Table’. A superb recording, it demonstrated True was not only a consummate singer and interpreter of other people’s work – but an outstanding composer in her own right with songs such as ‘Turn To the Living God’ and ‘You Are Our Center/ Eres El Eje’ being of particular note. Musical collaborations with liturgical hymn wordsmiths such as Shirley Erena Murray, Ruth Duck and Brian Wren produced awe inspiring hymns such as ‘God of the Ages’, ‘A Place A t The Table’ and ‘Christ is Alive’. Pure gold.

True surfaced again on the excellent 2004 ‘As Morning Breaks and Evening Sets’ along with Tony Alonso and Michael Mahler, cementing in this blogger’s humble opinion that we were being witness to the development and push of GIA’s new ‘holy trinity’ of liturgical music.

Lori True does not disappoint with ‘There Is Room for Us All’. The production is flawless, the composition excellent and thematically, it is a very timely recording given the tensions we see around our world today.

The recording begins with the pulsing ‘One Lord’. Complete with wonderful antiphonal harmonies that beg to be sung, True establishes very quickly an easy formula of simple and memorable refrains with inspiring verses utilizing the vocal prowess of True and other guest cantors. The instrumentation is simple and uncluttered and would be a perfect choice for a Song of Gathering.

The reflective ‘You Are All I Need’ follows as an adaptation of Psalm 23. New settings of Psalm 23 are always welcomed as the stock-standard ‘Crimmond’ and Brian Boniwell’s ‘The Lord is My Shepherd’ can very quickly become dreary. It’s application as a responsorial psalm at Eucharist or as psalmody as part of Evening Prayer with the line of, ‘You lead me through the darkness of the night’ make it very relevant indeed. Again, a singable piece, it screams out to be used for meaningful and inspiring liturgical practice.

The tempo is pushed up a few notches with the infectious ‘Build Us a Table’. With a wonderful text supplied by the gifted wordsmith Ruth Duck and a dancing tinwhsitle line played by the amazingly talented David Livingstone – make this an obvious choice for Preparation of the Gifts, although application at the Communion sharing could also be a smart choice.

‘What Have We Done for the Poor Ones?’ is a simple piece with overt justice themes. Without a chorus [as such], but a repetitive series of verses with the same melody – this piece would work best with an ensemble comprising of different voices [as displayed on the recording]. Used as a communion piece, hymn of thanksgiving or reflection within a Eucharist would be a logical choice. Additionally, services of reconciliation would be good opportunities to use this particular song.

David Haas makes a happy appearance in the reflective ‘Peace, Be Not Anxious’. Like on 2001’s ‘A Place at the Table’ True shows her amazing vocal abilities on this track, particularly in the last refrain with a haunting counter melody. Reminiscent of the vocal style done in ‘God Is Our Center’ [A Place at the Table]…this is truly beautiful prayer! I could see this having wonderful application as a dismissal hymn at Evening Prayer as members of the assembly are giving each other a sign of peace. Fine work.

Is it just coincidence – or a clever connection to her debut with the following verse in ‘Who Is the Alien?’:

Who is the alien? Who is the outcast?
Who do we cast aside with foolish pride?
We must decide to walk beside.
Let none divide, let all abide
We must provide a place at the table

Regardless of this little mystery, the song is strong in its justice theme. Accentuated with liturgical movement or a powerful PowerPoint slideshow – all kinds of possibilities begin to manifest themselves. Tom Franzak on vocals and Bobby Fisher on guitar are welcome guest musicians harking one’s memory back to the wonderful moments of prayer found on the 1997 masterpiece ‘Glory Day’ by David Haas.

‘One In Body, Heart and Mind’ is a magnificent Fraction Rite/ Communion piece that seamlessly morphs from one to the other. The music is inviting and lilting with a mantra-like refrain that will be very easy for any congregation to pick up and sing along with. Guest vocalists on this particular recording include Michael Mahler and Joe Comacho which make for happy listening.

Fr. Ray East. I love this guy. I have raved about him previously for his work on Marty Haugen’s ‘That You May Have Life’ and also the epic David Haas’ track ‘You Can Make Me Whole’. East has a wonderful timbre to his vocal tone and it naturally leads itself beautifully to gospel style singing. And while ‘I Lift My Soul’ [an adaptation of Psalm 25] starts off as a quiet little number, by the end of the track it is a thumping and galvanizing gospel epic with East singing superbly. True obviously feels similarly to this as she has dedicated and composed the song for East. Clever. Oh so clever! Please, please Ms True – do more work with the good Padre! Amen!

Set to the music of ‘Dona nobis pacem’ the next song ‘Dream a Dream’ features the vocal appearance of Lori True’s own daughter Katherine. True Jr. has a pure, sweet and clear voice which compliments the Christmas theme of the song. The text appears courtesy of Shirley Erena Murray and is reminiscent of ‘Child of Christmas Story’ [which appeared on 2001’s ‘A Place at the Table’ – also penned by Murray – and also featuring the younger Katherine True!!]. There are lots of connections being made in this recording and certainly – lots of positive developments occurring too.

A couple of months back, I wrote on the ministerial function of Vigils. In this article, I raised the issue that I had not heard of a recording devoted entirely to music to be used as a resource for Vigils and that this could be something to be explored. True certainly offers us a possible inroad to this debate with the Vigil themed song ‘We Await With Wakeful Care’. Clearly the result of caring and spending ‘vigil’ with a sick child, ‘We Await with Wakeful Care’ is a revelation moment on the album as to how we implement music in a Vigil setting. There is much work to be done here, but True has certainly contributed in a positive way. Perhaps this will be an area we see Lori True develop in the future as a nice connection to her work done with the Liturgy of the Hours on ‘As Morning Breaks and Evening Sets’. On this front – ‘we await with wakeful care’. [!]

The setting of the Magnificat, has been taken from ‘As Morning Breaks and Evening Sets’ and sits well with this collection. Connections. Connections!

An original musical setting of ‘Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace’ [St Francis of Assisi] is a positive inclusion here and works very well thematically. Melissa Cuddy and Michael Mahler do well to give voicing to this new setting of an age old [and much loved] prayer. The tone and feel is pulsing [not unlike the opening of ‘One Lord’] but perhaps with a more ethereal vibe aided masterfully by the expert sax playing of Kenni Holman.

The bilingual piece ‘On the Mountain of God’ using the language of the indigenous Hawaii people reminds me of the Haas ‘E Na Lima Hana (The Working Hands). Again we are treated to the dulcet tones of Joe Comacho and the sweet singing of Katherine True to reinforce the message of welcome and transformation.

The vocally driven ‘Let It Go’ with its gospel feel lends itself to a hymn of thanksgiving after communion. Never having been one to subscribe to the idea of pre-destination, I am somewhat grated by the refrain:

Oh, let it go, let it go, let it go, oh, let it go
Don’t you know
God’s got a plan and it’s bigger than this

This aside, the harmony work is outstanding and would provide a happy challenge to any choir or vocal ensemble to attempt in a parish setting.

The final track of the album is the simple and stark ‘Quietly, Peacefully’. Musically based on the Antonín Dvořák symphony No. 9, ‘From The New World’ – it rounds the collection off in a very sublime manner. True excels herself again with counter melody vocal lines in the final moments of the track which lift it all to an other-worldly finalé.

‘There Is Room For Us All’ is an excellent offering by Lori True. It acknowledges her previous recordings and boldly breaks new ground and sets a path open for future liturgical exploration. Clearly a master of her craft, Lori True has cemented her position as a liturgical composer of note and along with the likes of Michael Mahler and Tony Alonso, is paving the way for dynamic and inspiring liturgical musical practice in the twenty first century.