Living Water is a milestone recording in John Michael’s career – not only because it’s his 50th recording, but because it reunited John Michael with Sparrow Records founder Billy Ray Hearn as producer, and John Michael’s longtime friend and orchestrator Phil Perkins to deliver to you a truly spectacular recording.

You will find Living Water to be a return to the meditative style that made John Michael the most recognized artist in Catholic music. But it is also a step forward in the richness of the string and brass arrangements provided by Nashville orchestrator Jim Gray.

This is my 50th original recording. I can’t believe it! It seemed like yesterday that I was working on my most popular albums in the 1970s and 80s. I do not personally keep track of them. I just keep composing and performing. I will make recordings as long as God gives me the music, and people still enjoy listening to me. It’s kind of like walking. You just put one small step after the other. After a while you realize that you have walked a long distance. The same is true of a recording artist’s life. You just keep recording, and pretty soon you reach one milestone or the other. I am very grateful to God and all those who have helped me through the years. I would never have thought that I would actually record this many projects in my music ministry.

Through the years I have recorded many styles of music ranging from contemporary to choral to folk/classical sacred music. I enjoy them all. However, my best received recordings have been those of sacred music in an acoustic folk/classical style. On this record we return to that style, yet with a fresh approach. Recently I heard a strong word: “Do well what you do well.” This was a powerful word for me. The word was not to “do well what you do,” or “do what you do well.” It was to “Do well what you do well.” This is a great word of challenge and focus. On this recording I attempted to stay very true to that word.

To help me to that end I asked my dear friends, Billy Ray Hearn and Phil Perkins to join me in the capacities they filled on some of my most successful past recordings. Billy Ray joined me as Executive Producer. Phil joined me as Co-Producer and orchestrator. Billy Ray wanted to bring in some new great arrangers to complement Phil’s sound that is so familiar to my long time listeners. So we brought in Jim Gray for the larger orchestra and Kristin Wilkinson for the smaller chamber pieces. These three arrangers outdid themselves! Phil did some gorgeous and lush arrangements. Jim brought us some majestic and powerful arrangements. And Kristin caught the unusual tonal pieces with wonderful sensitivity and skill. I am stunned by their wonderful arrangements. Billy Ray also suggested keeping some of the tracks very intimate by not using any orchestra at all, but leaving them with guitar and vocals only. It was a risk, but it worked very well.

The material ranges from my traditional meditative songs to more expansive and challenging material that has a more sophisticated feel. They all retain my traditional sound, but I am very pleased with the more challenging material. Chronologically, I wrote some of the songs in the late 1980s while still living at the old Franciscan Alverna Retreat Center in Indianapolis. Others are more recent, like the Gloria I wrote at the Hermitage a couple of weeks before we laid down the orchestra tracks. I especially enjoy Lord Send Forth Your Spirit; we have used it as the responsorial psalm for our Easter Vigil at Little Portion Hermitage since the mid 1990s. The remaining Mass parts are part of a Requiem I am still composing. I felt that they worked better here.

All the songs have a story. The Mass parts are familiar to most all historically based Christians, as are the Psalms and New Testament Canticles used in the Liturgy. They follow a progression similar to a standard western liturgy. We begin with a song of praise from the Easter Vigil, Send Forth Your Spirit, move to a Kyrie as a time of repentance, followed directly by a Gloria celebrating the forgiveness God gives us in Christ. After that comes some basic scripture and challenge regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ, followed by a reflection on the immensity of the Spirit of God. This leads us into the awe and wonder of the Sanctus, and deep gratitude for Jesus as our Lamb of God in the Agnus Dei, usually sung before receiving the Lord in Communion. After Communion are songs calling us to really receive Jesus into our lives. We conclude the album with Come Home Little Children. This song is especially dear to my heart as one who has wandered wide on occasion, and have experienced the love of the Father through Jesus when I come back to my spiritual home.

So listen and enjoy. This recording is special for me, and I hope that it will be for you as well. I know that we had a great time creating it.

John Michael Talbot