Kate Campbell And Spooner Oldham – For The Living Of These Days

Accompanied by veteran Muscle Shoals keyboardist Spooner Oldham, singer-songwriter Kate Campbell offers up a bare-bones collection of hymns, both contemporary and traditional, distinguished by themes of unity and emphasizing the aspect of Christ’s teachings known as the Social Gospel. Campbell’s yearning soprano and Oldham’s eloquent accompaniment are perfect vehicles for this material. After kicking off with Woody Guthrie’s “Jesus Christ”, the album settles into a gospel-ballad song-cycle that injects new vigor into the old bromides of peace, love, and understanding. Along the way, Campbell invokes Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi (Kris Kristofferson’s “They Killed Him”), the Civil Rights Movement (Greg McPherson’s “Faces In The Water”), and the Holocaust (“Terrible Mercy”, an original penned with Mark Narmore). That Campbell never succumbs to proselytizing is a testament to the strength of her artistry.