Contemporary Celtic and gospel music come together on this album from prolific author, singer, speaker, and worship leader
Sheila Walsh. While each lilting and deeply melodic cut is awash in an impeccably played sea of pedal steel guitars, keyboards, Uillean pipes, and string and choral arrangements that complement
Walsh's rich alto, the 11 tracks that make up
You Raise Me Up break little new ground for the CCM genre, as they are primarily by-the-book modern songs of praise & worship in an Irish wrapper. One wishes that
Walsh would have chosen at least one of the thousands of faith-based ballads and airs that have populated Celtic tradition for centuries instead of relying on the same recycled assembly-line reverence that makes albums like these so impossible to tell apart from one another.