Published on Aug 20, 2001
Anyone out there who has been reading this site for any time
knows I am not the world’s biggest fan of contemporary Christian
music. It’s not that I’m anti-religion; I pay my taxes, try to be
good to my wife and child, am kind to animals (when they’re not
sending me to the hospital with another asthma attack) and harbor
my own beliefs about God. If certain people want to become
enraptured with the spirit, fine with me. Just don’t keep hitting
me over the head with messages about Jesus and the Bible, and how
I’m going to Hell if I’m not born again. (To steal from Dennis
Miller, pardon me if I got it right the first time.)
Denver And The Mile High Orchestra is somewhat different. Their
debut album
Act The Scat has all the usual Bible-thumping messages…
but they dare to show some
restraint at times, not letting the message get in the way
of the music. In my book, that’s the cardinal sin that many CCM
bands commit. Lead vocalist/trumpeter Denver Bierman shows
surprising maturity for someone who’s barely in his mid-twenties,
and he’s assembled a pretty solid collection of musicians for this
project.
The group bills themselves as a Christian swing band, though
their repertoire goes past swing at times. “Confrontations” is
hardly a scat song, and while it’s a decent enough effort, I’d have
put it somewhere in the middle of the disc to provide a break from
the jazziness. A one-song oasis is fine, just don’t provide it as
the second track on the disc.
There is only one other pitfall I’m going to point out, then
I’ll lay off the criticism. Three words: “Jesus Loogie Boogie”.
Yeah,
there’s
a way to attract people to God: warn them they’re a step away
from being spit out of Jesus’s mouth. In over 15 years of
critically listening to music, I think this is the first song I’ve
ever heard whose theme was about saliva… and after spending a
weekend coughing up stuff that would scare Linda Blair, the last
thing I needed to hear was a song even referring to phlegm.
Needless to say, any well-intended message is, uh, expectorated. (I
can see some people running for the dictionary.)
In all fairness,
Act The Scat isn’t a bad album otherwise. Bierman and his
group do work up a good head of steam in the swing department, with
tracks like the title cut, “Take You Away” (which has more of an
old-style jazz feel than swing) and “This Side Of Town” filling the
bill. But Bierman’s definition of “swing” is much more
far-reaching, as songs like “Spend My Life” and “Chasing The Wind”
covering more territory than one might expect.
Bierman and crew even dare to do something I haven’t seen many
CCM artists do – take on a song with absolutely no religious
messages… that is, none which is blatant. “Corduroy Blues” is a
track which, simply put, kicks out the jams and allows even the
most skeptical listener a chance to let their guard down and simply
enjoy the music without worrying about being overpowered by any
message. Bierman and crew take a chance by doing this – and it’s
one which works well.
Act The Scat is a surprisingly enjoyable collection of songs
from an artist who, while still having to polish up one or two
things, should make a mark on his genre with this one. Oh, I still
don’t like listening to CCM music… but Bierman and crew
definitely make it easier for me to approach the subject
matter.