CD Review//Graeme Clark//Firsthand

Review by Chris Haldane

Many will know Graeme Clarke as one of the worship leaders at Grapevine’s “Glory” venue – he is, however, also a talented songwriter and recording artist, as his latest album, “Firsthand” shows.

In this, his second full length album, Clark draws upon life experiences, as well as a strong desire to worship God to produce a CD packed full of songs that both encourage and inspire one to look towards God both in worship and when times are hard. The included bonus CD features a “behind the scenes” documentary that is a good insight into the meaning behind many of the songs - Clark talks about his battle with cancer last year, how God healed him, and helped him around that time. The video also offers a good look into the production process and the amount of work that went into making the album.

The songs are varied in style, from the coldplay-esque “At your feet”, to more rocky songs such as “never forget”, and on to “You are high”, sounding very much like a Keane song. The title track, “firsthand”, is a moving ballad-like song, featuring simple piano parts and moving string melodies, and is a great testimony of how Graeme was healed and recovered from his illness.  The real string section is a big feature of many of the songs, and adds a touch of added class to the production.

The album was produced by Howard Williams at dB studios, and the high production quality and attention to detail, as well as the level of musicianship of the band, show the ever increasing quality of music coming out of the Lincoln studio. Although occasionally the vocals can seem slightly wooden – though on tracks such as firsthand one can really empathise with the lyrics and meaning behind it - this is more than made up for by the writing and production.  This album is worth listening to, and having seen him at Grapevine, is well worth going to see live.

Copies of the album “Firsthand” can be ordered by printing the order from Graeme’s website and posting it to the address given at www.graemeclark.com