Joseph Habedank “Take Time to be Holy” Album Review

Prime Cuts:  Take Time to be Holy, It is Well (with Lindsay Habedank), When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Hymns albums are tricky.  What can an artist do to augment or make vigilant these hymns again when they have been around for hundreds of years?  What audacity can we impose upon these sonic antiques and presume that we know how to interpret these tunes better than our forebearers who have had paid to sing these tunes with their lives?  Joseph Habedank has taken a more humbling approach when it comes to the crafting of "Take Time to be Holy."  Rather than trying to re-invent the wheel or rock the apple cart, Habedank has approached these hymns reverentially.   

Adopting a minimalistic template where most of the tracks are only skimpily accompanied by just piano and vocals, Habedank's strategy is just to sing them in his most passionate and expressive best. And in this regard, Habedank succeeds. Known as the "Battle Hymn of the Reformation," "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" was the hymn that was on Martin Luther's lips when he marched into the Diet of Worms.  With the same audacity and vulnerability that come from a humble obeisance to the Spirit, Habedank completely nails the spirit of this hymn.  With his ability to feel the nuances of the songs, Habedank captures judiciously the frailty of human abilities and the sovereignty of God's triumphant ways. 

While "Fortress" may have been a favorite among the Lutherans, Methodists, on the other hand, would have their hearts strangely warmed with Habedank's cover of William Dunn Longstaff's "Take Time to be Holy."  In our world of constant buzz, this hymn is so sobering when Habedank sings: "Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord; abide in him always,add feed on his word." Taking "My Jesus I Love Thee" at a slightly accelerated tempo with some augmented percussions, Habedank certainly adds more "life" relative to other covers of this hymn.  And the gorgeous piano playing that undergirds "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" is pure sublime, bringing out a prayerful dimension to this reflective paean.

Though some may fault this album on the grounds that Habedank has taken the safe route of recording the (over) familiar hymn, but when it comes to hymns album (over) familiarity need not be a vice.  This is especially true if you want to sing along with Habedank.  You would certainly like to do that when Habedank sings a delightful version of "It is Well" with his wife Lindsay.  And you you can't help but tap along to the jubilant "What a Day That Will Be."  "Take Time to be Holy," in sum, may not reinvent the wheel, but it definitely gives the wheel a familiar, worshipful and contemplative spin. 

 

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