I have a confession to make. When I received Isaac Shepard’s CD of solo piano entitled The Renewing, I opened it up and saw a bible verse on the inlay cover and let out a deflated, “Oh God…(no pun intended).” I’m not against religion nor am I against religious music. It is very popular amongst the people who listen to it and every so often one of the artists breaks big and grabs some time on commercial radio, but for the most part Contemporary Christian music is played only on the stations that share the same religious views. I, myself, am not a religious man therefore Contemporary Christian music is a bull I have never ridden. I was raised on a steady diet of Thrash metal by the likes of Slayer and Megadeth. The closest I’ve come to Contemporary Christian music is possibly driving past another car that was playing it. I tell you this in hopes of keeping you from making the same mistake that I did in judging a CD by its cover or in this case, inlay cover.
Isaac Shepard is an amazing piano player. The songs are just a solo piano. No voice, nothing else. After listening to The Renewing, I realize that solo piano songs are a lot like abstract art. I explain it like this; “Doors of Life”, the fourth song on the CD begins as a slow moving thing of beauty before turning into a cascading stream of music that rains down lightly upon your ears. If I handed you a CD with no cover and no writing and asked you to listen to it and tell me what you felt, I’d be willing to bet it wouldn’t be the same thing I feel. The same goes for an abstract painting. 10 people can look at it and have ten different feelings about it. If I told you that Isaac was inspired by the beauty of a well cut lawn and that’s what you felt listening to the song than you would agree that yes, “Doors of Life” sounds like a fresh cut lawn. But, if I told you that he was thinking his favorite aunt that had passed away, you might be able to “feel” that more and thus would be willing to accept that as the topic of the song. My point is that this music, like an abstract painting is about how you feel when you listen to it not the labels or perceptions’ one might have of it. Music is, after all, better when you feel something, a connection that holds certain songs dear to you. Just like certain abstract paintings, all who look at them do not interpret them in the same way. It doesn’t matter what or how you feel to it, just that you feel something.
The Renewing is a beautiful album that will be in my rotation for some time to come. All ten songs are wonderfully original and amazingly clean sounding and beg you to feel something. Isaac has an elephant sized ear for building a melody that leaves its imprint on you long after the song has ended. His compositions are wonderfully relaxing and are perfect for, as the album title suggests, renewing ones self. They’re music box texture wrap themselves around you like a warm blanket on a cool summer evening and ease you like arms of your mother. There is something about the way his fingers touch the keys and cascade up and down that makes it seem like this is what he was born to do and I am thankful for him doing it. Thank you Isaac; lesson learned.
Key Tracks-Doors to Life, Slow Down, Let Me Sleep
Doug Morrissey- Muzikreviews.com Staff
