From Richard Lindsay's review of "...until all are fed" project on poptheology.com
"In 2003 Bryan began a new phase of his ministry – as a professional singer-songwriter.
Bryan's current recording project is called Until All Are Fed, and brings together his music and his work as Hunger Action Advocate for the Presbytery of Salem, North Carolina. I got to talk with Bryan in preparation for this review, and he was kind enough to let me listen to advance tracks as the project took shape.
Bryan says this album is “mashup of ‘We Are the World’ and ‘O Brother Where Art Thou,’” and I buy his description. The music on this album has a rootsy, Celtic, world-music, spiritual feel. It reminds me of the music of Mumford & Sons, not so much for its subject but for its striving idealism. The folky sound and passionate lyrics about relieving hunger for food and hunger for God make this music unabashedly uncool—as if it’s time to let go of coolness and stand for something.
The project had a fascinating genesis. Realizing that “I couldn’t just bitch and moan about the lack of contemporary music that speaks the faith and not do anything about it,” Bryan started raising funds for the album through the Web site Pledgemusic.com. The site lets listeners support independent artists by pledging the price of the album to production costs before the album is released. At the same time, artists can designate a portion of production costs and profits to a charity. Ten percent of production costs and twenty percent of profits from Until All Are Fed will go to the Presbyterian Hunger Program.
“This project just reared its head saying ‘Do me! Do me!’” Bryan says. “I wondered when I was going to do an album of hymns and sacred songs. Because of the charitable aspect, this seemed to make sense.” Bryan says the response has been moving. “I can’t believe in this economy in 3 months we raised 107% of production costs for a project people didn’t know about.”
Some Presbyterians might call the intersection of talent, charity, and technology that went into making this album, “providential.”
With the cash in hand, he was able to work with some of the best session musicians in Nashville, including instrumentalists that have recorded and toured with Garth Brooks, the Mandrell Sisters, The Chieftans, John Michael Talbot, and Michael W. Smith. We listeners can thank Bryan and his producer Shawn Conley for putting the infusion of talent to good use. When you put fiddle, piano, bass, tin whistle, and uilleann pipes with Bryan’s deft guitar playing and burly tenor voice, you get a stirring sound.
He’s calling the band “Jacob’s Join,” which is another name for a potluck supper. It’s fitting, because this is an album where everyone brings something to the table and no one goes away hungry.
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