Studio Edwards

As you listen to this record you should be left with little doubt as to its ability to compete admirably in the pop/rock music market. But this artist has a bit more in mind than just making pop music. This should come as no surprise, since the album appears on a label which is usually associated with more traditional forms of Christian-oriented music and expression (Myrrh Records/Produced by Pure Joy Productions).

This is no accident. As it turns out, David Edwards has more in common with that “tradition” than you might think. And he quite candidly expresses that connection: “My music is an attempt to express my humanness according to God’s order—in terms of my experience of knowing Christ. Also, l am expressing what chords go well with other chords, or how to tell a joke with a saxophone, and things like that. But really, those things aren’t worth much unless I ultimately point to something with lasting value.”

“An expression of Christian humanness” is a good way to describe songs like Best Friend, Nagging Optimism and Song of Wholeness. But that humanness clearly takes on a more assured, almost evangelistic stance when the writer responds to the pseudo-enlightenment and false optimism of the Sixties in Don’t Ever Say. Hollywood High carries a warning that false value systems are a dead-end and The Getaway offers determined resistance to their deceptive gloss.

In the remake of the Sixties hit Kicks, Edwards looks at the emptiness of drugs/escapism. Ironically, at issue in Commercial Suicide is the double standard that allows a songwriter to use pop music to express all kinds of personal opinions except any which show alignment with traditional Christianity.

Raised in the church, David got serious about being a practicing Christian during his second year of high school. A year later, increasingly disappointed by the values of his peers, he started writing songs that reflected some of the basic values of Christianity.

After a few of his songs appeared on albums by other artists, after a year-long stint with a traveling Christian rock band, and two years working with computers at world Vision International, David finally stumbled on to producer Buddy King, who, always willing to try something a little different, agreed to produce an album of David’s songs. Hence, this collection of portraits of the Christian experience.