Louder Than The Music

CompassionArt is a charity that joins the dots between art and poverty. It raises money to help breathe life into the poorest communities, restoring hope and igniting justice. Compassionart got together 19 genre-defining songwriters/guest vocalists and created an album that featured a 14-song album, CompassionArt: Creating Freedom From Poverty. They include: (Songwriters) Paul Baloche, Steven Curtis Chapman, Stu G, Israel Houghton, Tim Hughes, Graham Kendrick, Andy Park, Matt Redman, Martin Smith, Michael W. Smith, Chris Tomlin and Darlene Zschech; and (Guest Vocalists) Kirk Franklin, Amy Grant, Joel Houston, Leeland Mooring, Christy Nockels, tobyMac and CeCe Winans. Together, they combine for: 101 million albums sold, 103 No. 1 songs, 32 GRAMMY Awards and 9 GRAMMY nominations last month alone, 202 Dove Awards, 18 Stellar Awards, 3 American Music Awards, and 116 CCLI Top 500 songs sung by millions in churches around the world.

I got the CD the day they released everything to do with Compassionart and loved it, and still love it now. But at the time thought why do I need a book written by the singers and songwriters about the whole project? Nearly a year later while I was browsing the local book shop I saw Compassionart the book so decided to have a read. (For all who were worried that I read the whole book in the shop to then write this review, you will be pleased to know I bought it.) Firstly knowing that all the money from the sale of the book is going towards the charity is in itself a great reason to buy it.

Each chapter is written (or part written with Craig Borlase) by the songwriters themselves, this worried me as I thought we might end up with the same old story being repeated in each chapter, at how great this project is, a sort of pat on the back story or even a 'how great we are for being involved in this'. Thankfully none of this happens and you really get a sense from each chapter that each songwriter cares about injustice and that Compassionart is a project they wanted to get involved with from day one. You also get a sense of what they have personally seen in today's world that made them want to change it.

This is a very inspiring book and made me want to do my part in changing the world. The book as a whole is much better than I though it might be. The one chapter that was an amazing read and stood out from the rest was the diary entries by Martin & Anna Smith, which started from the first day Martin Smith thought about creating Compassionart. It deals with the issues of what to do, how they can do it, was it taking Martin away from family, could this project make a difference, it all came out from different views of a Husband and Wife a very interesting read but also nice to read that you could sense a real family struggle to do God's Will.

If you want to be inspired to change the world this book is a good read, also knowing that when you buy the book and read it, it is changing someone's life, is an inspiring thing to do.

To buy the Compassionart Album click here

Review by Jono Davies