Hope’s Call

Live to Love
Daywind Records

As I prepared to write this review, I stopped to think about all of the groups in southern gospel music. We are blessed to have a bunch of great ones. Then I started to think about the number of groups where every vocal member could be a successful solo artist. That was a pretty slim list.

Hope’s Call (Donna Beauvais, Donna’s daughter Jessica and her husband, Eddie Harrison) can be counted as one of the few. Any of the three could give vocal clinics. And Donna does — she has been a vocal instructor for years and works with several southern gospel artists.

“Live to Love” contains 13 songs and touches every color in the Christian music rainbow. It has something for everybody.

Hard-driving acoustic guitars and power chord electric guitars carry the lion’s share of the musical mood of “Live to Love.”

Looking at some of the songs found on this CD, “He Lives to Love,” “Good News Bad” and “So Glad It Rained” pick up where The Martins left off. My favorite song is “In Jesus’ Name.” What a message. Jessica breathes life into this very meaty song. It should be the anthem for not only those actively involved in any form of Christian work but lay Christians as well.

Hope’s Call did a wonderful cover of the Dottie Rambo classic “We Shall Behold Him,” and it also recorded an acoustic version of its previous hit, “You Are Loved.” For those who like a country feel in their southern gospel music, check out “He Still Does.”

On a final note, I do wish Hope’s Call would have included an a cappella song on this recording. If there’s anyone in Christian music that can sing a cappella better than Hope’s Call, I don’t know about them.