February 21st, 2006
Why I love Sara Groves
She is a poet. She is simply honest; strikingly transparent.
But there is something else that makes her stand out. I hadn’t ever crystalized the thought, but I think I always knew it. I got the following from iTunes - it’s part of an album review of her newest CD, Add To The Beauty, by an unnamed writer for All Music Guide.
It is hard to put a description of her music into words. I liked the review because it succinctly expressed what her music is not. I edited out a tiny bit and added the paragraph breaks for easier reading.
> “Some Christian pop music subordinates music to message, taking cookie-cutter chord progressions and cheap emotional gimmicks and pressing them into pastoral service. It’s music that has much more to do with preaching than with communicating, and that is intended strictly for an audience of the already-converted.”
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> “Then there is the Christian pop music that seems embarrassed by its doctrinal content, hiding it in double-talk about love that could as easily be physical as spiritual.”
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> “… Much more satisfying is the music that neither apologizes for its witness nor underestimates the importance of the tunes and arrangements and grooves. That kind of music is much rarer, and it’s the kind that [Sara Groves][1] has become adept at producing.”
[1]: http://www.saragroves.com/