Louder Than The Music

Sammy Ward - Hymns Anew

Artist:

Sammy Ward

Title:

Hymns Anew

Type:

Album

Released:

31 Jan 2020

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Review

Following a lengthy hiatus, veteran singer/songwriter Sammy Ward returns with a highly anticipated new recording, Hymns Anew. Produced by Nathan Nockels (Chris Tomlin, Keith & Kristyn Getty), the Vibraslap Records release features fresh takes on six beloved hymns, as well as the original title-track written by Ward.

North Georgia-native Sammy Ward first landed in the Christian music spotlight nearly two decades ago with his critically-acclaimed 40Records/Gotee debut, My Passion. After a season of full-time music ministry, Ward launched an entrepreneurial career, founding and managing a variety of tech startups. Despite this vocational shift, which Ward calls a “wild God-sized epiphany,” songwriting...
Read More Following a lengthy hiatus, veteran singer/songwriter Sammy Ward returns with a highly anticipated new recording, Hymns Anew. Produced by Nathan Nockels (Chris Tomlin, Keith & Kristyn Getty), the Vibraslap Records release features fresh takes on six beloved hymns, as well as the original title-track written by Ward.

North Georgia-native Sammy Ward first landed in the Christian music spotlight nearly two decades ago with his critically-acclaimed 40Records/Gotee debut, My Passion. After a season of full-time music ministry, Ward launched an entrepreneurial career, founding and managing a variety of tech startups. Despite this vocational shift, which Ward calls a “wild God-sized epiphany,” songwriting and worship leading have continued to be a priority for him through the years. Ward and his wife, Angela, live in the Nashville area with their two daughters.

It’s always been a popular thing for artists to re-record hymns, what happens is usually the artist would add their own spin on a hymn and try to make them more ‘modern’ but in all honesty they never really end up being different to the original. What usually happens is that the new version ends up being an acoustic versions of the song. What we have here with this release though is something very different.

Sammy has really flipped everything upside down. The songs on this album don't actually feel like Hymns at all, some don’t feel like the originals. Now I know some will say how can you change an original so much, and I kind of get that, I really do, music is so important to people and there are many reasons why you fall in love with a song, so when someone takes it and changes it you can sometimes not feel right about it. But isn’t it also great to have someone take a great song and using the creative gift God has given them to turn it into something fresh and a new form to worship God?

Sammy does this perfectly, I have to applaud his work here. 'Make Me Whole (Nothing But The Blood)' to me sounds like it would if Coldplay were given reigns to cover this hymn. The song 'Perfect Plea' is beautiful and the song 'Blessedness' is a great track and maybe it’s just me but I wouldn’t even say it was a hymn, it has a brilliant pop feel and is probably the most un-hymn like song on the album.

This isn’t just a guy who has smashed together great hymns and dance beats, Sammy has been much more clever than that. He has really tried to make them his own. Some people will really not be happy with that but I am. As a record I am really impressed, for me just forget they are hymns and look at these songs as new songs and you will fall in love with these new versions as much as I have done.

Review by Jono Davies

LTTM Rating 4.5 Out of 5 Stars
Standout Tracks
Make Me Whole Again
Perfect Plea
Blessedness

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Singer/Songwriter Sammy Ward Returns With 'Hymns Anew'

Following a lengthy hiatus, veteran singer/songwriter Sammy Ward returns January 31 with a highly anticipated new recording, Hymns Anew. Produced by Nathan Nockels (Chris Tomlin, Keith & Kristyn Getty), the Vibraslap Records…

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