Bruce Von Stiers
There is a newcomer on the Contemporary Christian Music scene that will soon have people taking notice. His name is Derrick Harris. His debut release is titled I’m Not Leaving. The album is being released by Silent Planet Records.
This album has 11 songs on it and is about 47 minutes long. It is being released on a single CD disc. It was produced by Rob Burrell who has worked with Phi Keaggy, Montgomery Gentry and Michael W. Smith.
The first song is G.M.O.L. This stands for the Glorious Message Of Love. It is a great song that speaks of the love of God for us and how we can receive it if we only listen. The song has a good rock music beat to it.
Cup of Life is a slower song that is about how the worldly things we have in life won’t satisfy us for long. It is only when you take yourself to God that “when you taste it for real, then He will quench it away.”
And There Were Three is a song about Nebuchadnezzer and his encounter with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He finds out that the words of the three men are revealed to be true as he watches a fourth man in the furnace with the others.
Facing # 2 is the fourth song on the album. It is about facing hard decisions in a person’s life. How do leave someone you love behind and strike out for new horizons? It is a kind of sad song, but shows how things happen in our lives that change us.
I’m Not Leaving deals with trying to witness God’s word to others close to you. They might not want to hear what you have to say and try to push you away. This song is about dealing with the situation and still trying to bring others closer to God.
As I was beginning to listen to the next song, It’s Your Move, my son said “hillbilly music!” He wasn’t too far off. This song has a definite rockabilly flavor to it. It’s about messing up a relationship and trying to figure out how to fix it.
Multitude has some good guitar backgrounds. It has to do with what people could be like if they only could find the love of Christ in their hearts.
The next song, Ignorance, is a rock song that is about helping the homeless and the downtrodden around us. The song was a result of the homeless people that Derrick saw in the parks on his lunch hour. He even got so that he would share his lunch with some of these folks, calling this ritual his “power lunches.”
Pigeon Song starts out about 60 miles an hour. It is a fast paced song that once again speaks of the grace of God’s love for us.
King of Hypocrisy slows it back down again. It is about the hypocrisy that the singer feels and how he wants to change things.
Canopy is the last song on the album. It has a lot of great acoustic guitar in it. In the description for this song, Derrick said that Canopy was a parallel metaphor. It is about him waiting on things to be with his wife. It also about how we have been chosen by God to receive his love.
Once you’ve heard I’m Not Leaving, you will agree with my statement earlier about people taking notice of this new singer. Derrick Harris should be one of the major forces of Contemporary Christian Music in the near future.
For other information about the album, or Derrick, visit his web site at www.derrickharris.com. You might also want to check out the Silent Planet Records web site at www.silentplanetrecords.com.