Chris Sligh Running Back To You CD

Personnel: Chris Sligh (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, Wurlitzer organ, synthesizer, programming); Stephen Leiweke (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, synthesizer); William Owsley III (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards); George Cocchini, Jerry McPherson, Paul Moak (electric guitar); David Angel, Pamela Sixfin, David Davidson (violin); Monisa Angell (viola); John Catchings (cello); Love Sponge String Quartet (strings); Jason Walker (piano, Wurlitzer organ); Blair Masters (piano, keyboards); Jack Jezioro (double bass); Dan Needham (drums, programming); Jim Bogios, Will Denton (drums); Eric Darken (percussion).
Audio Mixer: Steve Bishir.
Photographer: David Bean.
The solo debut from AMERICAN IDOL contestant Chris Sligh demonstrates the singer's passion for palatable pop-rock that fits into both alternative CCM and more traditional pop styles. Sligh's soaring tenor is the focus of these 13 tracks, from the high-flown "Arise" and the emotive ballad "Empty Me" to the groove-centered rocker, "Love is Raining Down." Produced by Brown Bannister (who has also worked with Amy Grant and MercyMe), RUNNING BACK TO YOU introduces a voice that promises to bridge CCM with mainstream secular pop tastes.
When he first appeared on American Idol, Chris Sligh seemed like the sixth season's answer to the unconventional appeal of Taylor Hicks, a guy who didn't look like a pop singer at all but had enough off-kilter charm and sense of self to win over the American public. Things didn't quite work out that way, as the Sligh train derailed halfway through the season, ironically enough because he had an inflated sense of self, mouthing back to the judges (especially Simon, as he's the only one anybody cares about) in a way that made him, not them, more arrogant. This helped usher him off the show, but not before he built a following among the audience he had hoped to target: contemporary Christian music fans, who the former Bob Jones University student cultivated through his diligently updated blog during his year of Idol fame. This nicely set up a chance for a career as a CCM recording artist, an opportunity he seized with his 2008 debut, Running Back to You. Sligh's American Idol exposure ensured him top-level CCM talent, coming in the form of producer Brown Bannister, who has worked with such Christian heavyweights as Steven Curtis Chapman and Amy Grant, and producer Stephen Leiweke, who helmed the debut from Jars of Clay. With these two producers, Sligh has run the gamut of CCM, appealing to both the middlebrow mainstream and an element of the alternative side (albeit an aging alternative, as the Jars of Clay angle does not reflect the increasing U2/Coldplay mannerisms of many younger CCM bands). It's a record designed to appeal to everybody within its demographic and it does, without offending anyone, surging on layers of overdubbed guitars and strings and bucketloads of earnest emotion. There's nary a trace of the smack-talking Sligh who set Simon's teeth on edge, and frankly, it could have used a bit of bite, as this does nothing more than fit into CCM conventions, occasionally pushing those boundaries just a little, as when "Loaded Gun" flirts with a chamber string arrangement borrowed from "Eleanor Rigby." It's enough to position Chris Sligh as a viable CCM artist, which it does, and that's all it was meant to do. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine