Published on Oct 29, 1998
In 1997 when contemporary Christian music artist Rich Mullins
was killed in an automobile accident, the genre lost one of its
best and brightest. Mullins’s premature death stunned many in the
industry and saddened scores of fans.
But, there is an odd satisfaction in listening to
The Jesus Record, Mullins’ final album. This is the perfect
album to cap his career because it so beautifully and simply points
his listeners to Mullins’ own source of strength: Jesus Christ.
While raw and unfinished (like Mullins himself many would argue)
the first disc of this two-disc collection contains Mullins’ demo
versions of what would be his last record. Recorded on a boom box
with nothing more than simple piano or guitar accompaniment, the
nine unadorned songs allow the simplicity of his lyrics to
shine.
For example, from “Hard to Get” where Mullins is “talking” with
Jesus: “Do you remember when you lived down here where we all
scrape/To find the faith to ask for daily bread?/ Did you forget
about us after you had flown away?/Well I memorized every word you
said/Still I’m so scared I’m holding my breath/While you’re up
there just playing hard to get.”
Mullins had a talent for making God understandable to mere
mortals. He often contemplated what Jesus was like when he lived
here on earth (see his song “Boy Like Me/Man Like You”) – and would
then make the comparison to us regular humans.
But, the demo disc is only half of the package of
The Jesus Record. On the second disc, Mullins’ band, the
Ragamuffins (Jimmy Abegg, Rick Elias, Mark Robertson, Aaron Smith)
flesh out the tunes into fully produced pieces – as they might have
appeared on the album when it was finished. To these ears, the demo
versions, while lower in recording quality, are the superior
versions of the songs because they seem “truer” to the spirit of
the songs.
On the second disc, the Ragamuffins asked some additional
singers from among Mullins’ friends (Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith,
Phil Keaggy, Ashley Cleveland) to share in the lead vocal duties.
Grant’s performance on “Nothing Is Beyond You” is superbly
understated – the best thing she’s recorded in quite a while, while
Cleveland’s reading of “Jesus” is awe-inspiring. She touches the
soul with her inflections on lines such as: “Jesus – they say You
spoke and calmed an angry wave/That was tossed across a stormy
sea/Please teach me how to listen, how to obey/’Cause there’s a
storm inside of me”.
Still, it’s Elias’ version of “My Deliverer” that defines the
second disc of the project. With the Ragamuffins, he tears into
Mullins’ song about the reliability of Christ and his promised
return convincing the listener of the truth in the song by the
sheer intensity of his performance.
If you never heard another of Mullins’ albums,
The Jesus Record would tell you everything he would want you
to know. From the projects’ last song, “That Where I Am, There You
. . . ” come these lines: “One command I leave you – love as I have
loved/That where I am there you may also be.”