Author: Richard Smith
Published: November 30, 2005
Tool: [ email ]
There aren’t that many times that the writers of timeless lyrics are allowed to step out from behind them and keep forging their own identity. You don’t have to be an ethno musicologist to recognize `You Are My Sunshine` or `Gentle On My Mind` but how many people actually know who wrote either of them? Surely the songs came from somewhere? Similarly, you would be hard pressed to find a church in the western hemisphere where the majority of the congregation didn’t know the song `In My Life Lord, Be Glorified`. For those of you who were wondering, Jimmy Davis wrote `You Are My Sunshine`, John Hartford wrote `Gentle On My Mind` and Bob Kilpatrick wrote `In My Life Lord, Be Glorified`.
Unlike Davis, Kilpatrick was not the head one of the confederate states (Davis served as the governor of Louisiana), he also never was a riverboat captain in the mid south (Hartford was doing just that before he played his final shows as the MC of the first `Down From The Mountain` tour) But he has been one of the most consistent voices on the Christian music scene since it’s comeback in the 1970’s. His first musical incarnation was with his wife Cindy, though unlike a number of husband and wife folk duos of the 1970’s they’re still very much married. The 1980’s saw some under appreciated but consistent releases and a lot of touring (these included such landmark songs as `The Long March`, `Won By One` and `I Will Not Be Ashamed`) and the 1990’s saw him rise to the level of one of the scene’s pre-eminent producers. Much like Larry Norman’s Street Level Records in the 1970’s, Kilpatrick’s Fair Oaks Music seem to have the corner on every relevant musician who is operating within the Christian music scene. Interestingly enough, Randy Stonehill plays as big a part for the Fair Oaks roster as he did for Street Level Records back in the day – but more on that later.
Now in 2005 he’s shuffled the deck once more and dealt one of the most interesting albums of a number of years. In much the same way as the late Rich Mullins had an ear for telling an interesting and broad story, Larry Norman never said in one album what he could spread over three, `This Changes Everything` is easily Kilpatrick’s most diverse and courageous musical journeys. Much like Hank Williams Jr., Bob Kilpatrick is an artist whose best work has been overshadowed by the relationship he had with his father. By all accounts, Augie Kilpatrick could have given Hank Senior a run for his money (he served in WW2, was a USAF chaplain in Saigon before the Vietnam conflict got in full swing and spent his final years as an itinerant preacher in the south) and he was elegantly eulogized in the song `One Of These Days`. This is where this new musical odyssey begins.
