Search - Rich Mullins :: Liturgy Legacy & A Ragamuffin Band

A Masterpiece...

NotATameLion | 04/05/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rich Mullin's "A liturgy, a legacy, and a ragamuffin band" is an incredible piece of work. Many diverse musical styles and themes run through the album, always challenging the listener. The first song, "Here in America", is carried by a lovely melody and lyrics that remind us that "the holy King of Isreal loves me here in America". The album's centerpiece and, in my opinion, the best song Rich has ever done, is called "The Color Green". The song is beautiful. It takes you off to another place while listening to it. It's like standing in the middle of a vast field, looking every which way and seeing the magnificent hand of God on all his creation. I've never heard a song like it. Rich also does a Mark Heard cover ("How to Grow up Big and Strong"), a prime example of a gifted songwriter honouring another. Every track on this album is indispensible. It has depth, humanity, vulnerability, and emotion, and deserves to be ranked among the best albums ever made. It is without a doubt a masterpiece."

3 great themes...1 great album!

Gerald Lamb | Gainesville, Florida USA | 06/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album, which introduces the Ragamuffin Band that was to become yet another of Rich Mullins' great legacies, is one of Rich's best albums. Only The Jesus Record and the Songs anthology CD are better, in my opinion. Fittingly enough, the album begins with Rick Elias making the disclaimer that he isn't ready to start recording but that they should begin anyway. With that statement, Elias has captured the Ragamuffin spirit by putting the matter in God's hands and letting Him lead the way. The album itself is arranged so that the opening track (the beautiful ballad "Here In America") is followed by "The Liturgy," 5 songs that express the themes of proclamation, praise, confession of sin, affirmation of faith, and celebration of grace. The songs "The Color Green" (praise) and "Creed" (affirmation of faith) are two of Rich's most popular songs, and deservedly so. "The Liturgy" is followed by "The Legacy," 6 songs that speak of how our beliefs and ideals play out in a secular society. The songs within "The Legacy" all describe normal scenes from our lives, such as children dragging their parents out of bed on Christmas morning ("You Gotta Get Up"); and they also remind us that our stay here on Earth is only temporary ("Land Of My Sojourn") and that something better awaits us. It's ironic that the Ragamuffins (the word refers to anything that is disorderly or ragged) would be introduced in an album that is so beautifully structured and organized. What I like the most about this CD, however (as with all of Rich's other albums), is the humility and down-to-earth tones that these songs carry. I think the spirit of this album - and the message that Rich most wanted to convey to us - can be found in the refrain from "Creed" - "...I believe that what I believe is what makes me what I am. I did not make it, no it is making me. It is the very Truth of God and not the invention of any man..." - This one is definitely a must-have for any Rich Mullins fan."

If Not Rich's Best Work, Certainly His Most Ambitious and Po

Chip Webb | Fairfax Station, VA | 09/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Common opinion holds this album to be the best of Rich's superlative body of work. I have to disagree, although it comes close; I'll give The World as Best as I Remember It Volume 1 higher marks and argue that Canticle of the Plains nips on this album's heels. Nonetheless, no other album in his collection shows Rich to be more of a ... well, a modern troubador. No other album except for Canticle of the Plains shows Rich to be so haunted with questions of worship and liturgy; the question of whether to become Roman Catholic, which he had been wrestling with for some time and would continue to play out internally up to his death, seemingly is bubbling under the surface here. And, best of all, no other album contains so many works of sheer poetic genius: "The Color Green," "Peace," and "Land of My Sojourn" are his most poetic works.



Rich's high ambition this time around is for the album to look at life through two prisms: liturgy and legacy. After an introduction ("Here in America") that arguably could have been transported to the legacy section, we move into the liturgy for tracks 2 through 6. Tracks 7 through 12 then constitute the legacy section of the album.



For my money, it's the liturgy section where the album really shines. Rich patterned this section after a liturgical worship service, with proclamation ("52:10"), praise ("The Color Green"), confession ("Hold Me Jesus"), creed ("Creed"), and communion/Eucharistic invitation ("Peace"). The order of service follows the order of a Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox/Anglican mass with one exception: the creed should come before the confession rather than the other way around. For this absentminded change, we have to thank Reunion Records, who switched the order of "Creed" and "Hold Me Jesus" without Rich's knowledge and against his wishes. (If the order had been as Rich planned, we would have had the wonderful touch of "Hold Me Jesus'" last line, "Won't you be my prince of peace," leading directly into a song about the peace that Christ gives through the Eucharist. Memo to Reunion Records: Is there any way you can go back and correct your mistake?)



And the liturgy itself produces a plethora of emotions in the listener. "52:10" loudly proclaims God's holiness; it leaves you awestruck and even fearful. "The Color Green," one of the most wonderful pieces of poetry ever put to music, leaves you lost in awe and wonder at your creator and all that he has made. "Hold Me Jesus" invites you to lay down all of your pretensions and to see yourself as the ragamuffin you really are. (And, as others have noted, the ragamuffin analogy in the band's title refers to Brennan Manning's book The Ragamuffin Gospel. Manning's message of grace pervades this album from start to finish.) "Creed" is a joyful proclamation of belief, or better yet, a joyful proclamation of an experience of God received through belief. In this song, Rich demonstrates clearly that theology is not antithetical to experience, nor vice versa. Finally, "Peace" is an incredibly moving poem of reconciliation and forgiveness as offered by Christ as his children prepare to take communion.



The legacy section never reaches the heights of the liturgy section, to my mind, but to be fair, it's not supposed to do so. If the dominant theme of tracks two through six is worship, the dominant theme of the remaining tracks is the difficulty of being caught between two worlds, earth and heaven. After a brief instrumental devoted to a childhood locale ("78 Eatonwood Green"), Rich gets directly to his main point with "Hard." This song has a curious mixture of straighforward confession and irony; you can read the speaker as either being humble or self-deceptive and proud. Most likely, Rich intends us to see the speaker as a combination of both. The need for strength continues as a theme in "I'll Carry On," which has a speaker on the edge of adulthood. A complete contrast is given to us in "You Gotta Get Up," which looks at Christmas from a child's perspective. We once more shift back to the opposite tack in the heavily ironic and even prophetic "How to Grow Up Big and Strong," a Mark Heard tune about the false American ideals of what it means to be described with those two adjectives.



The closing song, "Land of My Sojourn," is the most complicated piece of poetry that Rich ever wrote and very Bruce Springsteen-esque. It serves as both the closing track for the legacy section of the album and, as it hearkens back to some of the themes from "Here in America" (the album's opening track), the entire album. It gives us an America of highway construction workers, lonely singles, oppressed immigrants, praying monks, and a conflicted narrator, all in one four-minute tune. It presents an America that hurts its citizens as much as it helps them, but despite that, it's still a country that the speaker calls home. At the same time, he realizes that America is not his ultimate home and wishes that he could take her with him to the far country of heaven. In the verses, difficulties and unfulfilled yearnings are contrasted with beauties and ideals. The center of the song, at least as it relates to the album as a whole, can be found in its contrast of immigrants impoverished in a nation that rewards greed with praying monks who've taken a vow of poverty. In this juxtaposition, liturgy meets legacy.



Musically, this was Rich's first album with his Ragamuffin Band and his last one with producer Reed Arvin (although Arvin produced the new songs on Mullins' later greatest hits collection). The album is lush and beautiful; unlike on The World as Best as I Remember It Volume 2, Arvin hits just the right note with the strings this time. They always complement the songs and never are overdone. About the Ragamuffin Band -- well, what can you say? They are arguably the most overlooked band in contemporary Christian music, full of talent and great accompaniment to Rich. Supposedly, their version of the album before the strings were added was incredible in its own right. Still, I can't imagine the album without the strings.



The reason why I can't conclude this album to be Rich's best is because the legacy section still seems greatly inferior to the liturgy section, in my opinion. Nonetheless, Rich is just about at the top of his game here. A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band is a classic album period (not just of contemporary Christian music). Anyone who appreciates excellent artistry should love it."