Released 25 years ago this past Friday, this is an album of four songwriters performing their own versions of the songs they wrote, many of which were popular songs by other artists. Most well-known by a wide audience is the album closer, "Change The World", which Gordon Kennedy wrote with Wayne Kirkpatrick and Tommy Sims and was a big hit for both Wynonna and Eric Clapton. Wayne Kirkpatrick gets to perform his own version of "Place In This World" which was a hit single by Michael W. Smith. Phil Madeira is a songwriter who wrote "Everywhere I Look" made popular by Phil Keaggy and "Hunger And Thirst" recorded by Susan Ashton. And Billy Sprague and Wayne Kirkpatrick wrote "Man After You Own Heart" which was recorded by Gary Chapman, and Sprague also co-wrote "Via Dolorosa" for Sandi Patty. They also recorded one new, original song, "Coming From Somewhere Else", written by all four together. While most of these were '80s and '90s Christian pop radio singles, here they find much more of a Nashville folk-country, somewhat jazz-y vibe with more acoustic guitars and the vocals of the songwriters themselves, which is cool to hear. Recording their own versions of these hits is not always something these songwriters get to do, and it's fun to give it a listen especially if you are familiar with the original recordings of some of these songs. The album cover says "Rocketown Writers Series" on it, but unfortunately, I don't believe that Rocketown Records ever released another album in this so-called series, though I certainly would have given it a listen had they done so.

Release Year: 2000
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