This Southern gospel trio's press materials are enough to make you despair -- the group apparently equates Christian belief with support for President Bush, and considers its every professional act a manifestation of God's will and intention -- so one might be forgiven (as it were) for expecting the group's third album to be a schmaltzy, overproduced, doctrinally overweening mess. In fact, it's a stylistically varied, consistently impressive collection of modern gospel compositions that only occasionally gives way to bathos or the ostentatious, self-important humility that mars so many gospel recordings of this type.
Stand Your Ground starts out powerfully, with the Memphis soul strut of "Cooling Water," and maintains the momentum with a jazzy and up-tempo number called "Let Faith Answer the Door," and the country-inflected "I'm Running Up the Hill." On all of these songs the trio's gutsy voices and preternaturally tight harmonies are supported by solid, expert accompaniment and tasteful arrangements. Thing bog down on the oppressively moist "King of Hearts," and a couple of other similarly overwrought songs, but overall this is an album that does a good job of inspiring musically as well as offering testimony lyrically. Recommended. ~ Rick Anderson