Faithful Still...Down East Boys

        You may not have heard of the Down East Boys, but it’s my honor to tell you about and possibly introduce this storied group to you. My experience goes back nearly 30 years to 1992, someone gave me a cassette tape with various artists and the Down East Boys sang a song called “The Singing News Song”. A comical song about the Singing News magazine. A year or two later I was able to see them in person at a church in my hometown of Palatka, Florida. It was there that I bought my first Down East Boys album entitled, Newborn. 

Fast forward 26 years, the Down East Boys are now in their 37^th year, and going strong according to the Southern Gospel industry, proven by awards for group of the year, multiple Top 40 songs, and 3 #1 songs. Their last album “Faithful Still” will hit the streets on May 15, 2020, and it is one that you’ll want to add to your collection. This album with eleven songs is both memorable and uplifting. 

Opening the album is “Amazing Amounts of Amazing Grace”. A mid-tempo, modern sound that proclaims that the grace of God is in every part of our lives, whether in the valley, a trial, on a mountain or a new day. “What Love” is next and gives an audible picture of what we once were without Christ but crying out “what Love could love me”. 

“John Saw and Wrote About” is a traditional quartet song that’s a pleasant listen. The music is subdued, and the lyric is clear, it reminds me of quartet music from the 90s without all of the orchestrations and synthesizing. A fun, upbeat song on the list is led by the bass singer Zac Barham. With your faith and God’s victory, those walls in your life will “Fall like Jericho”.

A haunting tune is up next in “I Hear”, pleasing to the ear and gripping to the heart as we are transported back to ancient times in the last days and hours of Christ. Just as hopelessness sets in, the tune brightens, and the lyrics proclaim that the shackles of death haven been broken, and the Savior has risen. A choir backs up these golden voices to declare we are redeemed.

Much could be said about the remaining tracks on the album, but I’ll leave that to the imagination. “Those Hands” led by Ricky Carden, “God Will, Yes He Will”, “Bottom of the Basket”, “A Story that Began at the Cross”, and “Sweet Journey” round this album out as one of the best albums released in Southern Gospel this year, but that’s just my Southern Gospel Point of View. 

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