Worship set to pop/rock/inspirational styles

10 MP3 Songs
SPIRITUAL: Contemporary Gospel, SPIRITUAL: Inspirational

Details:
How can I be silent?

So asks Paul Turner, worship leader and songwriter, from his native Barrie, Ontario. So, too, ask the throngs of people who stand at his feet each week and sing with him in chorus to one of the many songs he has written. Paulâs music has an urgency to it, though it nests in a cradle of mid-tempo arrangements that seem to dance upon the edges of rock and pop.

Paulâs musical vocabulary is big. On his debut record, Patterns of Mercy, he displays a breathy, almost R&B quality with beautiful songs like, âTellihim,â while he suggests the
indolent murmur of Colin Hay with the songs, âLike Water to Rain,â and especially, âHow can I be Silent?â

And how can one be silent upon hearing these songs? The melodies drive their hooks in you and stay in your head long after Paul has finished playing the last note on his guitar. These songs beg to be sung aloud, and sung often.

Paul has had time to sharpen his craft. A while ago He moved to Nashville where his talent was nurtured under such top-40 songwriters as Tony Elenburg and Marty Funderburk. Then, skills in tow, Paul moved back to Canada to press his music into service. And he has served his countrymen well: his skills are ever more in demand, and so there should be.

Thereâs also a dark edge to the music; an acknowledgement of the sinister world around us; of universal truths and the private campaigns we wage everyday. Paul sings, âWe are at war, you are our peace, when we hunger and thirst, you are our feastâ¦â suggesting both the physical state of war we face abroad, and an intimate spiritual battle within us. But this is more than a political statement for Paul.

He has collected traces of mercy and catalogued them here in ten songs; an ambassador of gratitude; an eyewitness to the mercy of God. He knows his job has been to stir the music in and around him, and he has done so. He has explored the borders of mercy, only to find more mercy still. He has sewn his gratitude and the acknowledgement of this mercy into his every song, and set apart the patterns of mercy and laid them out before us in a succession of melodies and powerful arrangements.

How can I be silent? Well

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