 Bedtime Prayers, Lullabies and Peaceful Worship
Twila Paris (Sparrow)
by Russ Breimeier
 
Click here to visit Twila Paris's artist page!
Ah, God and his perfect timing. For fifteen years, Twila Paris and her husband have struggled to become parents. With the likelihood of birth becoming less likely over time, Twila decided to go ahead and record the children's songs she'd been saving over the years. Not long into the production of this album late last summer, Twila discovered she was pregnant.
The concept of Bedtime Prayers was to create a very basic worship album for those who could barely grasp such concepts - a sort of introduction to worship. Twila's gentle voice is perfect for worship and lullabies, as are her inspirational songwriting skills. This is a natural marriage of genres for her. It's hard to be at all critical of Bedtime Prayers because this album has a specific goal, a functional purpose. Musically it clearly accomplishes it, thanks to the help of such major talent as Chris Rodriguez and Phil Keaggy (who lend their guitar skills), as well as Phil Madeira's organ work and Chris Eaton's vocals. It's all gentle inspirational pop, but very well arranged and recorded. This could have been a very simplistic recording, but instead there's some effective and subtle musicianship underneath Twila's words.
The lyrics are simple and obvious, yet beautiful and true. It's stuff you would expect from a Christian lullaby, but you can tell Twila put a lot of thought into the songs. "Your Whole Life Long" is a simple prayer and blessing for a child to always remain close to God. "God Is All Around Us" illustrates through nature that God is in control and loves us very much. "There Is Only One" explains that God demonstrates his love for us by making us each special and unique. "See You Tomorrow" is meant to inspire worship by thanking the Lord for a new day every morning. You get the idea - simple words, but timeless truths for all of us. The album closes with "Blessing," which sounds very lullaby like, but was actually written for her younger brother's recent wedding. It only goes to show that many of these songs will work in regular worship contexts too.
Bedtime Prayers is a success because it accomplishes what it was created to do—it soothes and it offers worship. It would make a great gift for any new mother. Allow me this parting thought … would it be a negative review of this album if I said it put me to sleep?
[Reference: http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/reviews/2001/bedtimeprayers.html ] | 
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