Following the success of their last album, “No You No Me,”  Ceili Rain let’s us know that With The  Change In Your Pocket You Could Change The World.  (The long title is shortened to “Change In Your Pocket,” for the sake of space on the side of the CD and the sake of sanity for your reviewer.)The CD has an upbeat and flamboyant, Celtic-Irish flavored, pop-rock feel to it. The first song on the CD has lead singer Bob Halligan Jr. welcoming you to join him and his mates on a wonder train journey to Ceili Rain-land. Halligan is more exciting than Mister Rogers and his Magic Kingdom is more of a Heavenly Kingdom. The song is called “Like A Train,” it compares the Lord’s love to a train – a big train—ninety miles high. You can see His love "a comin’ for you." Being an instrument that God can use is the idea behind the song “Pencil In Your Hand.”  We should give into God’s will and live His Love. Halligan’s vocals really shine in this song, as almost a cross between U2’s Bono and Billy Joel. “Stomp” tells us to throw our worries to the ground and kick them till they're dust, and it wouldn’t hurt to let God in while we are feeling so good. “All I need in the finest hour is my faith, your power…” are the lyrics to “My Faith, Your Power.  ” It lets us know that we have lost something if we don’t have Jesus. We're like a bat and glove with no ball, a tenor without a tune or a dish of Häagen-Dazs without a spoon. Jesus was born in a poor, backward time and hung around tax collectors, fishermen, prostitutes and lepers instead of the royalty or world leaders He could have been around. He hung around the place and people who had no hope. Jesus gave them hope. He still does so today and it is highlighted wonderfully in the song “I’ll Stick With My Own.”  Ceili Rain should know about those who are down and out since they help out with Mercy Corps. Mercy Corps is a not-for-profit organization that exists to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. You get the message of helping out those in need in the title track, "Change in Your Pocket."  Halligan sings about the poor, the hungry, the sick and dying. The change you spend on the expensive cup of coffee at the mall could help feed these people.  Is it not our Catholic duty to help these people? Are we not called to love these people?  Halligan understands that we all have bills to pay as he sings about them in “Dead Presidents on Parade.”  He also has car insurance, life insurance, health insurance, house insurance… but there has to be a better way. We have staving children around the world – there has got to be a better system to care for us all. Even with it’s deep messages, Change In Your Pocket is still a very upbeat and insanely uplifting CD that will get you grooving, as well as thinking.   

Standing proud and shouting out loud of Jesus’ amazing Grace is Canadian Catholic singer Lorraine Hartsook with her new CD Be Real.  Last year, “Be Real” was nominated for Album of the Year and awarded Best Country Gospel Album of the Year by the Saskatchewan Country Music Association. Hartsook was named  Entertainer, Female Vocalist and Songwriter of the Year in 1998 by the Country Gospel Music Association for the Northwest U.S.  What is really amazing is Hartsook’s testimony that centers on her faith journey from needing to seek the approval of others to a realization that she needed to accept God’s faithful and unconditional approval.  That is also the idea behind the title track “Be Real.“  Hartsook says, “True love cannot be found in external relationships, but in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  He is the one who died out of love for you.  It is through Jesus that you will find your self-worth.  It is through Jesus that you will find the freedom to rejoice and be real!”  The song is really a prayer for healing, healing one's soul through Jesus’ love. “You give me strength you give me hope, you’re the reason I survive…” are the words to “You Promised.”  This is a wonderful country song of praise for Jesus’ complete love for us. Getting over one's petty views of others and turning it into the Great commandment (Love One Another) is the idea behind “Help Love Stand.” Deciding right from wrong is the focus of “Good Days, Bad Days.” One of the songs that will touch your heart and that really stands out on this CD is “Angel Of Mercy.”  It's sung from the point of view of a woman who has lost her children by early death or miscarriage (part of Hartsook's own testimony).  She sings to the Angel of Mercy to protect them and wonders if they have their father's or their mother’s looks and what they sound like. She knows one day, she will see them in Heaven. This is an excellent song of hope for someone who may have had a miscarriage and is comforted in knowing others speculate the same thoughts about their lost children. On the lighter side is “Heavenly Hoe-Down,” a funny song about angels wearing cowboy hats around a barbaque grill and giving praise to God.  It is with good reason that Be Real was nominated Album of the Year.

 Remembering what it was like to be chosen as an adopted child, Lynn Cooper set out to celebrate three of the most important people that make that exchange of life possible. She did this with her new EP called Songs From The Rocking Chair. Cooper tells us in song the joys each person involved should share in an adoption. First is the Adoptive Mother, whose pains and delight together with her husband's while awaiting this new child in their lives are highlighted in the song, “You Will Be Here.”  “...You will be here, beloved by another’s love, given unselfishly, grace giving life..”  The other person is, of course, the Birth Mother. It is a significant and life changing choice that this woman must make. Cooper sings about this in “Dance.”  Instead of regret, the birth mother thinks about the wonder life the adoptive mother can give her child that she herself can not. This song is the gem of the EP, with not only wonderful vocals by Cooper, but a stunning arrangement by Craig Willoughby. His guitar is awesome. Lastly we have the child. This is emphasized in the song “Just Imagine,” as Cooper’s daughter, Lauren Cooper, shares vocals with her mother. The song not only encourages us to see what the child’s future has, but for us to see ourselves as children. Songs From The Rocking Chair teaches us we are all children of God.

  Let’s face it--one of the most talked about movies for a long time is The Passion Of The Christ. Mel Gibson has made a masterpiece. It is not just a film, but an experience. It must be seen on the big screen. I was fortunate enough to see it in a theatre that had a wonderful sound system. Since the film does not have much dialogue it relies heavily on the wonderful acting of the cast, as well as the beautiful soundtrack that sets the mood. It was composed by John Debney.  A life-long Catholic, Debney has composed the soundtrack for such films as Elf, Welcome To Moooseport, My Favorite Martian, Doctor Who (TV), Cats & Dogs, The Princess Diaries,  I Know What you Did Last Summer, as well as Snow Dogs, Inspector Gadget, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and the first two Spy Kids movies. "The Passion Of The Christ" is one of those scores that affects you in a personal way. It's got a nice fusion of tribal ethnicity combined with a traditional epic religious film score. It works well as a modern film score and it also works completely independently from the film. Debney also had help in producing this soundtrack by the film’s director, Mel Gibson.  “The soundtrack has a very Middle Eastern flavor to it," says Debney, but from the beginning his intention was to compose a World Music score, with “instruments from all parts of the world and all time periods and just, you know, have some fun with it.  And that's sort of what we did. We experimented a lot with different instruments...Then on the other hand, you do have some traditional moments where it's more about orchestra and choir.”  The soundtrack will bring you back to images in the film with music from “The Olive Garden,”  “The Flagellation,” and up to the “Crucifixion.”  This soundtrack has reached the number one spot not only at CatholicMusicNetwork.com, but throughout the world and even reaching the pop charts in sales. If you want to be touched again by the film experience, the soundtrack to “The Passion Of The Christ” is for you.