Whether It's New Or Old, Rich Mullins Music Still Stands and Delivers
Grand Rapids, MI June 28, 1990
by Tery DeBoer
The Grand Rapids Press June 29, 1990
He had plenty of new music, but it was the same old Rich Mullins who came to Kentwood Thursday.
The Contemporary Christian musician performed to well over 700 at Kentwood's Fine Arts Auditorium. Yes, Mullins' new album, "Never Picture Perfect," did get a fair shake.
"I Will Sing," and "Hope To Carry On," kicked off his set with the Kansas-based band Avenue G. Mullins is not a rocker, and at the start he seemed out of place with a band that can put a rock accent on just about anything. Fortunately, most of the concert was not rock 'n' roll. It was a little of everything else. The evening opened with an unadvertised appearance by Steve Grace. The Austrailan native has just released an album in the United States, "Children of the Western World." His acoustic guitar and harmonica as well as vocal style remind one of Neil Young's mellower days. But the evening really pointed to Rich Mullins.
Barefoot and pony-tailed, in jeans and a T-shirt, the 34 year-old Mullins has the look of a throwback to the counterculture of the '60s. And his extremely laid-back manner and constant philosophical and doctrinal discourses make him high-intellect rather than high-energy. Mullins settled in early behind the hammered dulcimer, pounding out "My One Thing" from his latest album, using the audience for some singing help. And following a version of the Sunday School standard, "Jesus Loves Me," he stayed at the instrument for "Such a Thing As Glory."
But an evening with Rich Mullins is more than just listening to music. There's direct involvement with the audience in sing-alongs and participation events. Mullins has this material down well. And since it keeps working so well, he keeps using it. He leads the audience in singing rounds. He divides up the crowd for a rainstorm sound effect demonstration. He teaches everyone a song (which is sung again later in the evening).
And in his soft-spoken manner, he talks about a variety of serious subjects. Last night, he ventured that some of things Christians do in church seem foolish, yet he quoted the Bible to say that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men.
And yet again, he and his cohorts went through the plastic cup-percussion routine on the song, "Screen Door." It's one of those events that is difficult to describe, yet never fails to please.
Avenue G's own four-song set was no different than it performed here last year. Lead singer Nikki Lundgren's vocals were to piercing on "Gonna Love," but she displayed real feeling on "A Prayer," with lyrics sounding like they came right from the biblical psalms.
Mullins was at his keyboards for two of his newest songs, "The Love of God," and "Alrightokuhuhamen," the latter done with some added spunk to nice effect.
But his current hit, "While the Nations Rage," was a disappointment. The convert version lost the delicacy of the lyric with nothing extra to show for it, leaving an uninspired feeling.
"Pictures In The Sky," however, did carry a snappier sound, including a tight a capella ending.
Drummer Kyle Stevens, a Kentwood native, was back on his old high-scbool stage showing his drum skills have never been better.
Also in Mullins' entourage, vocalist Jeff Sack, statuesque guitarist Tracy Criman, synthesizer man Lee Lundgren, and a sometime-guitarist and friend named Beaker.
Nearing the evening's end, Mullins breezed through, "Sing Your Praise to the Lord," the Amy Grant hit he wrote. And with the audience standing, the singer jumped into his own best-known hit, "Awesome God."
And he even played the Doxology, concluding a full night of music without an encore. An evening with Rich Mullins may contain some old stand-byes, but they still stand and deliver.
