Share the Well

by

Caedmon's Call

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Caedmon's Call promised us something different with their song "A New Day" on this year's retrospective Chronicles, and with Share the Well, they don't disappoint. This CD is unlike anything they have ever done: part travelogue, part call to action, part multimedia experience, and part trial-by-fire for its resident songwriters.

The Concept: Long interested in charity abroad, the band decided to visit the lands they have tried to help. The band traveled to Ecuador, Brazil, and India to meet with Christians and musicians in these countries to raise awareness of how life there is different from here in the U.S.--and to encourage listeners to lend a hand.

Travelogue: Local musicians played with the band, and their work permeates the album extensively either as prefaces or integral parts of Caedmon's Call songs. Local stories gave birth to several songs: "All I Need (I Did Not Catch Her Name)," "Volcanoland," and "The Roses." The net result is not a world music-influenced album like Long Line of Leavers but a folk music anthology. Caedmon's Call is a true world folk band here, and the musicianship of drummer Todd Bragg, percussionist Garett Buell, musical polymath Joshua Moore, and eclectic Andrew Osenga legitimize the band's collaboration with the very capable local talent. The album is very much Caedmon's Call and very much something organically new.

The Songs: Although doctrine and belief motivates much in this album, the songs are primarily portraits: of individuals and families that the band met and the bandmembers' responses to what they experienced. In some cases, especially the beautiful "Wings of the Morning" and somewhat martial "Dalit Hymn," the band's reactions were so strong that the resulting songs became something quite new for a Caedmon's album: political.

Beside's the band's resident composers Joshua Moore and Andrew Osenga, they took with them Randall Goodgame and Aaron Sensemen. More often than not a collaborative effort, the songs were principally written or co-written by Goodgame (7), Osenga (6), and Moore (5). Goodgame's catchy "Share the Well" kicks off the CD and provides the theme for the album; inspired by an incident in India, it encourages sharing both material and spiritual blessings. Goodgame and Osenga's "Mother India" is a moving and majestic hymn beautifully sung by Danielle Young. Moore's "Volcanoland" is a hoot--accompanied by the very family band it's about!--with a fine vocal by Cliff Young. Osenga and Miller's(!) "The Roses" is a simple and simply beautiful meditation on simple living. Moore and Goodgame's "Dalit Hymn" concludes the CD with a gutsy plea for abolition of the caste system that brings torment to the Dalit people in India: "caste is a lie". When the songs aren't snapshots of local life, they are portraits of the inner lives of bandmembers and how they reacted to what they saw: Osenga's "Bombay Rain" and the first hidden track, especially, do this best. Enjoying an album like this almost makes one forget the culture shock the band must have repeatedly experienced.

Multimedia: The album is enhanced with video from the band's travels and messages from Dalit Freedom Network and Compassion International. The Dalit Freedom Network video was very interesting. The band's videos show some of the local musicians who participated in this project, but images of them interacting with the band are fleeting. The second hidden track makes up for this with an extended, exciting performance by some local group.

Overall: As a folk album, Share the Well is very entertaining. As evidence of a band alive and kicking, the CD succeeds. In many ways, the band had something to prove, for it had lost its lead guitarist and talented songwriter, Derek Webb, to a solo career and replaced him with Andrew Osenga. This is the first album where Osenga has been a major player in songwriting, and he doesn't disappoint. He seems to have found his niche in the band. Although his vocals will take some getting used to, he has an interesting voice that can take some surprising turns, as seen in "Bombay Rain". As a call to action, I think the CD speaks very eloquently of how the artists have matured and moved increasingly outward from the cozy world of Christian circles to the world's unforgiving stage. They want to make a difference, and they invite us to join them. Whether we accept or not, they seem determined to move forward.