Review of "Fading Grass" by Chad Lewis

Review: Fading Grass

Chad Lewis, the voice behind the Sojourn Community’s latest record, has proven to be a pastoral singer-songwriter not only in the sense of “relating to spiritual care or guidance,” but in the literary sense “of or relating to the countryside.” Lewis is a storyteller, and God’s creation is his backdrop.

Lewis, with bandmates Mike Cosper, Eddy Morris and Nate Mitchell, documents his journey from brokenness and uncertainty to trust in a sovereign God through the lyrics of ten original songs full of creation imagery. It’s a world brimming with word-pictures of rivers and fields, peach trees and dusty roads, hardened clay ground and fertile shore lines, dark places where storm winds blow, night skies full of shooting stars, distant seas, crossroads, dwindling fires that yield cold, smoldered embers, a barren land. And interwoven among these images is the clear picture of the hand of Providence that leads the traveler home. Mythological symbols from Camelot to Icarus’ wings of wax turn up in these lyrics, only to prove illusory, leaving the narrator still in need of a truth and grace that will always save the day, though it does so under God’s terms and for His glory:

“And this cup, this cup of grief, You helped me drink it to the dregs
And this thorn in my soul is Your story to be told” -- Suffering Song

Lewis occasionally surprises us by turning a cliché on its head, as in “can’t see the forest for the needs” (“Could It Be”), and through ironic images like “Then I long for silence to rescue me / So I can dance in Your sweet embrace” (“Sweet Release”). His use of visual, pastoral imagery, a strong sense of place, and linear storytelling put him in the tradition of Guthrie and Seeger.

Produced by Cosper and engineered by Morris, the music is raw, unbridled Americana -- heartland, blue-collar folk rock, gritty and clean at the same time, like the hands of a working man, washed for supper but undeniably calloused. Musical textures inspired by artists like Mark Knopfler and Bruce Springsteen resonate throughout. The band plays it loose but never sloppy, and, though recorded digitally, they made no use of computer editing. The music rocks hard on cuts like “Remind Me” and “Mire,” and provides gentle restraint on songs like “Oklahoma Fields” and “My Psalm.” Lewis’ rich, powerful baritone is front-and-center, leading us through lament, introspection, acceptance, and peaceful assurance.