Newsboys Take Me To Your Leader CD

Newsboys: John James (vocals); Jody Davis (guitar); Jeff Frankenstein (keyboards); Philip Urry (bass, vocals, whistle); Peter Furler (drums, vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica, kazoo, whistle); Duncan Phillips (percussion).
Additional personnel: Steve Taylor (whistle).
Recorded at The Sanctuary and The Carport, Nashville, Tennessee; Eldorado Recording Studio, Hollywood, California; Steve's Studio, Stillwater, Oklahoma; Walls Have Ears, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album.
This Australian band plays contemporary Christian rock. And, here's a newsflash: listeners unwilling to get past that fact are missing some good music. This is the Newsboys' sixth album, and it shows. The songs are well-executed, energetic and catchy. And the band has a sense of humor, as well as a decided chemistry--both phenomena probably the result of playing together for so long. The Newsboys have honed their sound--kind of a cross between Fishbone and the Dave Matthews Band--into one that produces fine rock ditties like "Let It Go," the boisterous "Cup O' Tea" and "Breathe," which features some fine scratch-funk guitar work by Jody Davis. TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER deserves to reach the ears of many rock fans, religious persuasions aside.
Personnel: Peter Furler (vocals, whistling, guitar, harmonica, kazoo, keyboards, drums, background vocals); Philip Urry (vocals, whistling, background vocals); John James (vocals, background vocals); Steve Taylor (whistling); Jody Davis (guitar); Jeff Frankenstein (keyboards); Duncan Phillips (percussion).
Audio Mixers: Pete Martinez; Juan Rosario; Mauricio Iragorri; Tom Lord-Alge; Cesar Sogbe.
Recording information: Carport; Eldorado Recording Studio, Holl; Nashville, TN; Sanctuary, The, Nashville, TN; Steve's Studio, Stillwater, Okl; The Carport, Nashville, TN; The Sanctuary, Nashville, TN; Walls Have Ears, Milwaukee, WI.
Photographers: Michael Wilson ; Norman Jean Roy.
These Christian rockers, like fellow Jesus freaks DC Talk, absorb a lot of contemporary pop around them, so unless you're searching for the message, it's liable to be lost. Which leaves one with the music, which, unfortunately, has soaked up the blandest and most pedestrian of contemporary pop's devices (like power riffs and muscle anthems). ~ Michael Gallucci