Search - Susie Luchsinger :: Count It All Joy

Luchsinger's "Joy" Lives Up to Its Title

Timothy Yap | Sydney, NSW, Australia | 07/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Prime Cuts: The Bridge, There's Still Hope, Sittin' at the Red Light



"Count It All Joy" is a masterpiece of arresting gravitas. Luchsinger shares more than just the same bloodlines as superstar sister Reba McEntire. Like her chart topping sibling, Luchsinger has an acumen for story songs that engages the heart and pricks the fancy of the ears. In fact, what really makes this Oklahoma native excel is that Luchsinger possesses a strong ownership of these 11 gems here: she not only understands the shafts of emotions inherent in these well crafted paeans, but she transposes them with such depth and dimensions as though she has lived through each and every syllable. Though this is marketed as a country-gospel CD, these songs are by no means bellicose or incendiary. Conversely, these songs are snapshots of life narrated with a diary-like frankness; they are songs that tells stories of a twenty year-old boy wrestling with his drug addictions, a lonely mother facing her empty nest, a woman contemplating the meaning of life and a guilt laden damsel finding forgiveness at the feet of Jesus. In short, these are songs that tell the story of you and me struggling to make sense of life, love and God. And they are told in passionate seriatim embellished with a bright disposition.



Hope seems to be the perennial theme running through the album with the most obvious being the Adam Wheeler-penned "There's Still Home." A gorgeous and well-written ballad, "There's Still Hope" tells of a drug addict, a child of a divorced family and friends separated because of war not giving up because "there's still hope... /another day another chance/The strength to change the circumstance/Is still alive when one heart holds on/There's still hope." Against the backdrop of some dexterous sounding steel guitars and fiddling, hope has never been more aurorally presented. Similar thematically to Brad Paisley's "He Didn't Have to," "What We Have Been Praying For" is a Cinderella tale of a single mother finding a second chance at love. While the late John Gaither's (to which the album is dedicated to) "Parable of the Windmill" is loosely based on the story Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman---a powerful encounter of forgiveness and salvation.



Few songs can take one's breath away as the piano dominated ballad "The Bridge." Written again by Adam Wheeler and Nashville hit writer Tony Haselden, "The Bridge" beautifully encapsulates Christ's reconciling work over a gorgeous heartfelt tune. "Sitting at the Red Light" and "Slow Dance More," on the other hand, pick up the tempo as Luchsinger makes an excursion to the more country-pop territory. In fact, "Sitting at the Red Light," a homily about making the most of our time, bubbles with hit potential, something in the stream of Reba's hit single "I'm a Survivor." "Slow Dance More," previously cut by Linda Davis, is ironically a perky number with some wonderful fiddling courtesy of Stuart Duncan.



Each of these 11 tracks finds Luchsinger pouring her heart and soul, without an ounce of clandestine, to Jesus and relationships that matter. Sonically, the landscape is country to the core awash with plenty of that rustic magic such as steel, fiddles and mandolin. Like her sister Reba, Luchsinger's has a way of getting behind the each song, steps into the shoes of her characters and voice their concerns before God in a way that brings comfort, joy and peace. This is music that touches the soul, count it all joy!"

Susie Luchsinger's Count It All Joy

Leigh | New Orleans, Louisiana, USA | 08/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Count It All Joy" is a good title for this CD. You feel a lot of joy when listening to this CD. Susie's voice is amazing! You won't be disappointed."