Guest Review

Artist: Kindling
Album Title: Spark the fire
Rating: **
Genre: Folk
Styles: Contemporary Folk, Gospel, & Sadcore
Time: 57:01

For the dedicated Kindling fans (I guess I should call them Match Heads, since they follow this group like Dead Heads follow the Greatful Dead), it has been a long wait for their sophomore production "Spark the Fire". Get the clever title? Do you remember when Andy and Terry Murray stopped singing about Grandma's feather bed, and started singing songs that were nothing more than sermons put to Guitar? That is the feeling that this latest album has left me with.

Some think that Kindling is the Brethren answer to the Weavers. Good old fashion folk music with a message. Where the Weavers got black listed for having communist friends, Kindling is banned from Brethren gatherings. Like NYC - Right Shawn? This album has the prettiest music for the most depressing topics. Songs about discrimination, Auschwitz, Columbine, the killing of Mathew Shepard, middle age angst, Apartheid, and death. Throw in a couple of songs based on the writings of some dead Saints and you have a real party album for 2002.

Oh how I long for the anthems of their first album that would get the whole crowd singing. I guess you can't go home (or to Cincinnati) again.

Tracks
1. Where Everything is Music 5:31
2. Wade On In 6:27
3. Separate Rooms 5:03
4. Kaddish 3:04
5. Rain Come Down 4:43
6. Chains of Hate 4:55
7. New Ways to Praise 4:47
8. Living in the Between 4:36
9. Hand of the Artist 4:00
10. Child of God 4:20
11. Christ Has No Body But Yours 3:10
12. All That Remains is the Love 6:35

Credits
Steve Kinzie vocals, banjo, guitar
Shawn Kirchner: vocals, piano, melodica
Lee Krahenbuhl: vocals, guitar, bouzouki
Peg Lehman: vocals, mountain dulcimer

Contact peglehman@foxvalley.net to order your copy.