CD Review: Amazing Grace--Celtic Hymns & Blessings

I love hymns and I love Celtic music; therefore, I was so excited to be given the opportunity to review Amazing Grace: Celtic Hymns & Blessings CD, produced by David Huntsinger for Discovery House Music.  The songs in this CD include:

• Amazing Grace
• Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (instrumental only)
• Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (instrumental only)
• Circle Me, O Lord
• Joy in the Kingdom (instrumental only)
• Londonderry Prayer
• The Sheltering/O God, Our Help in Ages Past (instrumental only)
• What a Blessed Gift/The Gathering of the Saints
• Showers of Blessing (instrumental only)
• Dwell in the Shadow (Selah)
• What a Blessed Gift/Simple Gifts (instrumental only)
• We're Marching to Zion
• Lord of All Mercy/Be Thou My Vision (acappella)
• Amazing Grace (instrumental only)

My husband and I enjoyed listening to this CD. He'd prefer them all to be instrumental only, while I like both instrumental and songs with lyrics. As you can see from the list above, half are instrumental and the other half are songs with lyrics. Good balance, I think :). Some of these songs have been my favorite hymns: Be Thou My Vision, Amazing Grace, and Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. The fun, fast-tempo tunes of Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah and Joy in the Kingdom just made me want to dance (actually, I did dance :)). The voices are pleasantly beautiful and soothing. The music is fantastic; I especially love the sounds of mountain dulcimer, Irish whistles, and highland bagpipes. The lyrics are all wonderful (I only wish the lyrics were included in the leaflet). I was surprisingly pleased with the added verses to Be Thou My Vision by Janet McMahan and David Huntsinger. Each song has a tidbit or a Bible verse that goes with it in the leaflet. This CD will help you relax and ponder God's amazing grace, abundant blessings, and awesome power/ protection. This is the kind of CD I can listen to over and over again.

Visit Discovery House Music's website at http://www.dhp.org/music/ .

~ I received a free copy of the Amazing Grace--Celtic Hymns and Blessings CD from Discovery House for an exchange of my honest review. The opinions are my own.