Providence With The Wrights

Providence With The Wrights

Bruce Von Stiers

Terry and Melissa Wright are friends with the pastor of the church I'm a member of. The couple, along with their children Taylor, Brett and Baylor, have a gospel group aptly named The Wrights. They have performed at the church numerous times. I have really enjoyed them each time I've seen them in concert.

Not only do The Wrights perform at churches and other venues, they also have recorded several albums. Their latest album is titled Providence Road. The songs on the album have mostly a Southern Gospel appeal.

The album has ten songs and a play time of thirty-six minutes. Of those songs, one was written by Terry and another was written by Melissa.

For this album, the group recruited some very talented people to help out. Jeff Collins is on keyboards and piano. Besides his own work, Jeff has appeared on albums from the McKameys and Mark Bishop among others. Jeremy Medkiff has also recorded with Mark Bishop and noted artists such as The Dysart Family. He provides electric and bass guitar music on this album. Yet another Mark Bishop alum is David Johnson. For this album, David plays acoustic guitar, steel guitar, banjo, dobro / resonator, harmonica and mandolin. Besides doing drums and percussion on this album, Tony Creasman has also performed on albums by Willie Nelson and Linda Ronstadt. Gerald Wolfe played the B3 organ on one song. He is a founding member of the group Greater Vision. Milton Smith provided the orchestration for one of the songs. He is noted for his work with The Kingsman and the Dove Brothers. Chris Allman does backing vocals on the album. He is also a member of Greater Vision.

The album was produced by Jeff Collins and Chris Allman. It was recorded at Crossroads Studios in Arden, North Carolina. Van Atkins, whose previous work includes Mark Bishop and The Grascals, was in charge of recording, engineering, post-production and mastering for this album.

There Is Hope is the first song. It is about the love that Jesus has for us and how he can lift us up from the shackles of our lives. It is a melodic song that reminded me a bit of the Oakridge Boys.

The title track, Providence Road is up next. This is the song that Melissa wrote. It is a subtle song that has nice lead vocals by Terry and terrific harmonizing him and Melissa. It is about God leading us to a better place in our lives if we let him.

Show Him The Love begins with an almost rollicking Country gospel sound. Melissa takes the lead for the first half of this one. She brings a solid performance to the song. Then Terry compliments Melissa's vocals with his own. The two of them bring in a duet for the close of the song that is really good.

Melissa has great vocals on This Ship Was Built. The others bring forth terrific harmonizing behind Melissa's lead. The song is about how our lives aren't perfect but with God's love we will survive.

At Home has a bit of Country. Taylor gets to showcase her vocal talents on the song as does her brother Brett. For this song Taylor has a lighter tone than her mother, and Brett is a bit mellower than his dad. It is nice that the two teens were allowed to do the lead vocals for the song.

That's Why He Died has an almost pop intro. Then the tone changes as Terry digs down into almost aching vocals. It is about how Jesus died for the sins and transgressions of everyone.

Sailing Away features Melissa and is about moving on from an earthly home to a heavenly one.

The Wrights have performed Written In Red at each of their performances I've been to. It is a song that Terry wrote. It is a terrific Country gospel song that is about how we are loved because of the words that Jesus spoke as stated in the Bible.

God Came Down is a soft and gentle song.

The album concludes with When I See His Face. The intro has a sort of orchestral sound. Then Melissa brings forth wonderfully subtle vocals and then the group has terrific harmonizing.

Providence Road is a great Southern Gospel album. The musicians who played on it provided terrific background music for each song. And the vocals, both individually and collectively, were excellent.

You can get a copy of Providence Road through amazon.com, iTunes or Spotify. You can also get a copy through the group's official web site. That site is www.thewrightsministries.com/ They also have a page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thewrightsministries

Check out Providence Road and if you get the chance, check out The Wrights in concert.

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