WOW! What a fantastic album with exquisite harmonies from three of the finest vocalists out there. I cant believe the reviewer only gave this album three stars while giving 5 stars to cookie-cutter groups such as the Booth Brothers, The Crabb Family, and Gold City. The majority of the tracks are slower songs, but that is only so that the harmonies can be featured. The harmonies are often lost with uptempo numbers. I was shocked to see that Ann Downing was a co-writer on "Secret Place", that song would have definately been a plus on Ann's CD, but Im sure she could not compare to the Trio version presented here. Standout tracks for me are Secret Place, Closer To Home, Fight On, In Gethsemene, and Love Never Fails. This CD is 5 stars and whole lot more! Lets hope these three ladies give us a follow-up album!

It would also be nice if Chris would get his facts straight. I didn't give the Crabb Family 5 stars. I gave them 3 stars on the review I wrote of _#1 Hits Live_. I put a comment under the review of _The Walk_ saying that I would give it 4 1/2 stars if I were writing the review, but I didn't write that review. I haven't written any Gold City reviews lately.

I broke this down in the review, but didn't go into great detail . . .

Lyrics - As interesting and inspiring as any lyrics you'll hear.
Graphic design - Very nice cover. It never hurts when there's attractive women in a photo.
Vocal arrangements - Most of the vocal arrangements were very straightforward. Nothing wrong with that, but some key changes, different chords, etc. would have made it a bit more interesting on some songs.
Vocal Performance - All three of these ladies sing very well, but on one hand, they weren't really pushing themselves like Vestal or Jessy Dixon, and on the other hand, they weren't making it sound oh so easy like, say, Anne Murray or Lily Fern Weatherford. That's why I went with "moderate to high" rather than high.
Production Quality - Now come on. You can't honestly tell me that this CD has the polish or complexity of Gold City's _Walk The Talk_ or the Booth Brothers self titled release. Ricky Skaggs is a great musician, and I own quite a few of his CDs with Kentucky Thunder, but he's no Lari Goss, Michael Sykes, or Wayne Haun in the studio. These guys do it all the time. That's why their stuff sounds so slick. You seem to prefer your music with a more "raw" quality, nothing wrong with that . . . but Skaggs' own _Soldier Of The Cross_ or _Big Mon_ or anything else he's done recently has had more attention to detail in the studio than this CD.
Unique Elements - There's nothing that really sets this CD apart. It's basically good quality, but there's not much I could point to and say it's different or unique. I wouldn't go so far as to use your term of "cookie cutter" to describe this CD.
Difficulty - Frankly, you could go to just about any moderate sized country church and find a trio that could sing this music. I'm not saying they'd do it as well as Smith, White, and Fairchild by any stretch, but they could sing it. A couple of songs are exceptions, but by and large, that's how I rated the difficulty level of this CD.
Pacing - I love slow songs and I love fast songs. If I were putting this CD together using the same songs, I'd have put them on the CD in a different order. That's all. You simply don't put your five slowest songs first if you want to retain most listeners. You could have tossed a dice or drawn straws to put these song on this CD in random order and you'd have had much better pacing than they offer.

Seems like you sir have a large amount of prejudice against country artists. Could it be because they are making gospel recording superior to those by primarily Southern Gospel artists and they are scaring you?

WOW! Tension is in the room. As I said I think a better song selection would have made this a stronger CD. I do think the harmonies are incredible. I don't think Chris means any harm...I think he was just stating his oppinion. And it seems that both sides are taking offense at each other over taste. Chris comes to a lot of Dottie Rambo's concerts and is a super nice guy. I think he enjoys southern gospel just holds it to a higher standard maybe. I do have to say that as a producer I think Ricky Skaggs is incredible...maybe this isn't his best production but he has produced some great albums.