Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: faith

  • A Heritage of Faith

    A Heritage of Faith

    From the first note of the lovely In the Garden , the soul immediately returned to the days of youth, Sunday School and Church where the music was always traditional pieces, often played in a sombre style on the small church organ, or at Sunday School, on an even smaller peddle organ, but sometimes, when someone different was standing in, on the piano, with soul and life.

    So many of the traditional pieces on this lovely, reflective collection from Cathy Oakes have been dusted off, given fresh appeal, which has been enhanced with the skilful addition of orchestration added by Doug Hammer, presenting to a new audience the beauty of the old hymns created as a gift of love and faith.

    Several of the pieces are medleys; Amazing Grace, that beloved of hymns has been linked with Grace Greater Than Our Sin, making this a lovely melodic interpretation. The words to I Am Thine, Oh Lord, were written by Fanny Crosby, a prolific American Hymn writer and although blind, penned the words to the gentle melody composed by William Howard Doone after having a sunset described to her. A gentle and lovely piece.

    Old favourites Near The Cross and The Old Rugged Cross have been segued in a soft, elegant treatment, which certainly will begin a journey down memory lane for many.

    I have to admit to selecting a number of my personal favourites to feature, notwithstanding the absolutely glorious Blessed Assurance, which has certainly been overhauled with the inspired playing of Cathy Oakes with orchestration, adding a grandeur to the simple and yet evergreen piece.

    What A Friend We Have in Jesus was often sung in a rollicky manner, but under the skilful hands of Cathy Oakes the true beauty and sentiment of the piece is revealed. Written by Joseph M. Scriven in 1855 as a poem to comfort his mother living in Ireland, the melody was created in 1868 by Charles Crozart Converse. A true evergreen.

    An improv piece is Hymn of Thanks completes, with elegance and style, a walk down memory lane, created as a tribute to Oakes beloved grandmother Lucy Shingleton Conner, who would rock her gently as a small child singing the hymns of her youth to her beloved granddaughter.

    Regardless of what your faith is, this collection of old favourites will charm, relax and offer a rare and special comfort to all who enjoy beautiful, simple and inspirational music.

  • Magic

    Magic

    At a young age Jan Golembiewski set off on what he told everyone was to be a typical year of traveling the world, a gap year, where he explored foreign parts and grew up a little. He did intend to travel, but just not in the way his family expected. He had decided he would set out on a very personal journey, to discover if Magic was still truly able to be found. He took himself to Africa!

     This journey which was to last for more than a year took him to places that were absolutely unexpected, found him in dangerous and almost deadly situations time and time again, before returning to his home country of Australia, a changed and far wiser man. 

    Set in the times before airline regulation became so strict, tickets could be sold on the open market, changed at will for other flights, and Golembieski made the most of this to find his a way about the world. Becoming mixed up in the dangerous world of drugs he meets a wide and florid range of people, some who helped and some who were after what they could take.

    He never, ever lost sight of the fact that he was after the “Magic”; his drug induced psychosis enlarged this belief to the point where he began to consider he was a Prophet and Africa was his spiritual homeland; a belief that was to see him place his faith in God; that God would provide, an aspect that was to once again see him in serious issue in the world of Islam.

    His absolute conviction that he was doing the right thing presented him with a challenge he must accomplish: to cross the Sahara barefooted with nothing other than faith to provide. His argument was that the Sahara has boarders to other countries and he was challenging the right to travel freely throughout the country, no boarders, no restrictions; a situation which saw him in serious trouble time and time again.

    As the pages turn the slow and convoluted journey of a man finding pure faith, miracles that add up to Magic and learning to find love and kindness in the most unexpected of places, offset by cruelty and victimisation in others makes a riveting and challenging read.

    Confrontational, deep, raw and dark in parts, the work will make you reassess everything that you think you knew and understood about life, religion, faith and belief. It hits the nerve we all call arrogance when we firmly believe what we know and believe is the only way and the only aspect of life and living.