{"id":19828,"date":"2012-05-02T04:57:04","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T09:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=19828"},"modified":"2013-07-23T10:06:42","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T15:06:42","slug":"john-schlitt-the-greater-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/john-schlitt-the-greater-cause\/","title":{"rendered":"John Schlitt | The Greater Cause<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen<\/span>
\nStaff Writer —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"So great is the voice of Christian rock legend John Schlitt that he could sing a manual on how to recycle used toilet paper and make it sound good. When GospelMusicChannel.com named him the best rock singer in gospel music history, they exhibited the sagacity of Solomon. He cut his musical teeth with the mainstream band Head East but succumbed to the devils of drug and alcohol addiction<\/a> before devoting himself to Christ. Born again in spirit but still burning with the need to rock and roll, Schlitt soon found himself fronting the band Petra who, with Schlitt as their singer, became the biggest name in Christian rock during the late \u201880s\/early \u201890s.<\/p>\n

Between Petra projects, Schlitt released two solo albums: Shake<\/em> in \u201895, which resembled the melodic, arena-rock style of Petra and was well-received, and Unfit for Swine<\/em> in \u201896, a darker, edgier effort that many fans thought was aptly titled. Following Petra\u2019s disbandment in 2005, Schlitt released another solo effort, 2008\u2019s The Grafting<\/em>, which was fairly mellow, leading fans to wonder if the man whose voice had once commanded the Christian rock scene still knew how to rock it up.<\/p>\n

Well, consider that question answered with an emphatic, \u201cHeck, yeah!\u201d The Greater Cause<\/em> is most definitely a rock album, as if Schlitt wanted to satisfy his fans, silence his critics, and have a spirited\u2014or would that be Holy Spirited?\u2014good time doing so. The album sports that classic John Schlitt feel, the kind of not-too-hard-not-too-soft-rock the man has been serving up for three decades and while the sound is too retro to win him any new fans, the ones already in his camp should be plenty pleased.<\/p>\n

Time\u2019s inexorable crawl has been kind to Schlitt; despite qualifying for senior citizen discount at Denny\u2019s, his voice shows little sign of wear. Maybe he doesn\u2019t wail as high as he once did, but the soulful grit and attitude is still there. The production caters to this strength, the engineering warm and organic and rightfully focused on Schlitt\u2019s vocals. Same goes for the musicians hired to bring this album to life; all are competent and skilled, but they understand they are playing second fiddle to the star of the show. This album belongs to John Schlitt and whether it\u2019s an unqualified success or a crash and burn debacle rests solely on his shoulders.<\/p>\n

Luckily, The Greater Cause<\/em> succeeds more than it stumbles. As has always been the case with Schlitt, his voice is best suited to rockers and he slams out a number of them. \u201cLive It Loud\u201d kicks things off raucously, with just a hint of modernism in the chorus counter-vocals, which come at you like staccato bullets. \u201cOne of These Days\u201d is delicious ear candy, a mid-tempo tune that evolves into a full-throttle rocker loaded with urgent energy and sharp hooks. And then there is \u201cHope That Saves the World,\u201d which is exactly the kind of song you hope to hear when picking up a John Schlitt album, featuring a catchy start-stop rhythm, melodic guitar leads, and a soaring chorus. Less impressive are the ballads, but those have never been Schlitt\u2019s strength. That said, most of them are tolerable\u2014\u201cWhere I Wanna Be\u201d even manages to be good\u2014but \u201cThe Gift\u201d is anything but, coated with so much cloying, cringe-inducing sweetness that you risk going into diabetic shock if you listen to it more than once. It\u2019s a nice love letter to his wife, but she\u2019s the only one who should have heard it.<\/p>\n

This is a good, solid \u201ccomeback\u201d from Schlitt. No, it doesn\u2019t top his glory days with Petra, but did anyone actually expect it to? That would be like visiting the zoo and expecting to see a Wooly Mammoth\u2014ain\u2019t gonna happen. But this is definitely the best of Schlitt\u2019s solo albums, meaning Christian rock fans have great cause to be excited.<\/p>\n

Genre: Christian Rock<\/p>\n

Musicians:
\nJohn Schlitt (vocals)
\nJerry McPherson (guitars)
\nAndrew Ramsey (guitars)
\nChris Rodriguez (guitars)
\nGary Burnette (guitars)
\nTony Lucido (bass)
\nMatt Campbell (bass)
\nMatt Pierson (bass)
\nJoeie Canaday (bass)
\nTim Acres (Hammond B3 organ)
\nPeter King (keys)
\nDan Needham (drums, percussion, keys)
\nMatt Butler (cello)
\nJohn Catchings (cello)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1. Live It Loud
\n2. Take Me Home
\n3. Love Won\u2019t Leave Me Alone
\n4. One of These Days
\n5. Faith & Freedom
\n6. End of Fear
\n7. Where I Wanna Be
\n8. Hope That Saves the World
\n9. Run
\n10. The Gift
\n11. The Cross Remains<\/p>\n

Webpage: www.johnschlitt.net<\/a><\/p>\n

Label: 4K Records<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 7.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen Staff Writer — So great is the voice of Christian rock legend John Schlitt that he could sing a manual on how to recycle used toilet paper and make it sound good. […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6772],"tags":[5176,5177,5178],"class_list":{"0":"post-19828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2012","7":"tag-christian-rock","8":"tag-john-schlitt","9":"tag-the-greater-cause"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}