CD Review: Barry Rowland & Deliverance – It Is Time

by | Mar 23, 2017 | CD Reviews, Reviews

Producer: Danny Crawford
Label: Horizon Records
Songs: Delivered Again; He Can’t Follow Me Home; Hold Your Ground; The Ark; God Will Take Care Of It All; It Is Time; Redemption Draweth Nigh; How Long; Help Me Make It; There Rose A Lamb
Rating: 3 1/2 Stars

Barry Rowland & Deliverance is a trio consisting of Barry & Tammy Rowland plus Matthew Burgess. Rowland’s mother Kyla Rowland seven of the songs on It Is Time. The collection is completed with a cover of Gordon Jensen’s classic “Redemption Draweth Nigh,” Johnny Minick’s “How Long,” and Vonda Easley’s “Help Me Make It.”

It Is Time kicks off with “Delivered Again,” a song recorded by Triumphant Quartet ten years ago. This version trades Triumphant’s easy-listening intro for more basic launching measures and doesn’t have the orchestration. The two versions are very similar otherwise. “He Can’t Follow Me Home” slips into a milder bluegrass setting and features Tammy. This song was recorded by the Perrys in the early 1990s. “Hold Your Ground” has not been recorded by the Perrys, but sounds like one they should record. It is a more dramatic affair than most of the cuts on this CD.

“The Ark” is the one and only up-tempo song on It Is Time. I like the way the ends of the first and third lines of each verse and the third line of the chorus is echoed. The song ends somewhat abruptly, though, as if it’s going to repeat the chorus again. “God Will Take Care Of It All” is a soothing song of comfort; nothing fancy, but effective. The title track is the sixth song on It Is Time, and by now it is evident that most of the selections on this recording are probably going to be slow.

Surprisingly, “Redemption Draweth Nigh” has a bit of a lilt to it. It’s far from fast, but not the ponderous anthem I expected. “How Long” is a mid-tempo track in 6/8 meter. David Johnson’s fiddle and resonator guitar fills make this arrangement stand out. “Help Me Make It” slows the tempo way down again. It Is Time concludes with a cover of Gold City’s classic hit “There Rose A Lamb.”

I criticized the 2016 release, The Light, by Barry Rowland & Deliverance for not including any up-tempo songs. 2017’s It Is Time similarly offers a collection of well-written, well-recorded, well-arranged, and well-sung songs, but it’s like getting stuck in a line of traffic behind your Grandpa who only tops 35 mph if he’s going down a long hill. At least they included “The Ark” this time around. Perhaps by 2018, they’ll work their way up to two fast songs per CD. If they do, it will surely be reflected in my rating. For It Is Time, I’m sticking with 3 1/2 Stars.

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David Bruce Murray

David Bruce Murray

David Bruce Murray is a church music director in Ellenboro, NC. He is the author of Murray's Encyclopedia Of Southern Gospel Music and the owner of both SGHistory.com and MusicScribe.com.

5 Comments

  1. Stephen

    I agree on the song selection for “The Light”. I was very disappointed in that CD as far as tempo goes. I was hoping this one would contain more variety :(

    Reply
    • David Bruce Murray

      It does have more variety; just not a lot more variety. :)

      Reply
  2. darrell

    I don’t own any CD’s by this group. But I know for myself that if there are too many slow songs on an album it loses its appeal for me. I take you back almost 16 years to the debut album from the Old Time Gospel Hour Quartet. Out of the 13 songs, including the novelty song, The Dream, which was 5:26 minutes in length, 9 were what I would consider slow. The song It Has Always Been The Soldier was an excruciating 6:14 minutes. The entire album clocked in at over 53 minutes, which is over four minutes per song. Way too slow for my liking. So I was pleasantly surprised with their follow up album, The Return. Out of the 12 songs, 7 were on the upbeat side. And the album clocked in at a reasonable time of 44 1/2 minutes. So I guess I’m just not a fan of ballads. The words can be wonderful, but they get lost in the slowness of the tempo.

    Reply
  3. Old Fashioned Christian

    I love this new CD by Barry Rowland and Deliverance. The songs are very encouraging and are a blessing ! They really speak to my heart and are sung in the

    I’d like to ask you a question. What ever happened to songs that spoke in that “still small voice of the Holy Spirit?” That is missing in so many songs that groups choose to sing today!

    It seems groups today have gotten very Politically Correct and are afraid they will offend someone if they sing about sin, repentance, etc. They mostly sing fast tempo, stuff and you can’t even hear the words, or understand them and so loud it hurts my ears.

    Then they think they are there to put on some “stand up comedy act” rather than proclaim the name of Jesus and try to point the lost to the cross. Well that kind of stuff turns me off and I would rather stay at home than listen to that. I find that very sad but I realize lots of people have fallen away after false gods as foretold in the Holy Bible. Truly wish we had more groups that were like Barry Rowland and Deliverance!

    Reply
    • David Bruce Murray

      I was wondering how long it would take before someone hiding behind a fake name would declare me to be a godless heathen, simply for observing that a CD lacks variety of a musical nature.

      Reply

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