There are some people who share a sort of unspoken belief about worship music. They believe there's no room for extremely proficient musicians playing skillful solos on their instruments. The usual reason given is that it's too distracting from the intent of the worship service, and too confusing for the congregation since they don't know what to do during those solos.
It's my hope that Tommy Walker's latest CD, Never Gonna Stop, will prove the contrary. If you've not familiar with the name, Tommy Walker is an extremely talented worship leader from Southern California, responsible for such popular praise songs as "These Things Are True of You," "There's No Greater Love Than Jesus," and "Mourning Into Dancing." He also has a great gift for merging classic traditional hymns with contemporary sounds and praise choruses (check out his little nod to "Angels We Have Heard On High" in "Give Us the Sounds"). Besides his obvious songwriting and vocal skills, Tommy is also an extremely gifted guitarist specializing in fusion rock/jazz/latin. Furthermore, he's been blessed with a very talented band from the Southern California area: percussion, keyboards, bass, saxophone, drums are all incredible on this recording. These solos never distract from the worship. Instead, I found myself elated by the musicianship, more excited about giving praise. It may be a CD, but you'll want to clap along.
Never Gonna Stop features some of Tommy's finest music to date, beginning with some irresistibly energetic music and gradually easing into some lighter, more worshipful sounds. Musically, he's not quite modern, but he's not nearly as adult contemporary as many other worship projects—there's a certain edge to his songs. His lyrics are simple and very worshipful, fresh and different yet simple to sing along to. You can't help but be drawn into a worshipful mood from this music. Everyone has their own tastes in worship music, but for me Tommy Walker epitomizes a joyful noise.