Excellent Album of Christian Hymns!

This is one of the best music albums I've found! About 2/3 of the songs on this CD are sung with simple organ or piano accompaniment, and the choir members sing the songs well too. This CD has been a blessing to my family, friends, and myself. About 1/3 of the songs though, do have a more modern beat and I don't like them (that why it gets only 4 stars), but there's still about 65 songs on the CD that are great. If you enjoy singing hymns at church from your hymnal, like I do, then you'll probably really like this CD.

Great for those of us who want to teach our kids!

I am a homeschooler and really wanted my kids to know the old standards that they are not likely to be exposed to otherwise. This was SUCH a blessing. I was not raised in a church (I did not trust in Christ until I was 28), so when other Christians would rattle off wonderful, edifying lines of the old faithfuls, all I could do was a line or two of Amazing Grace. Also, I can't carry a tune or read music well, so just having a hymnal didn't really help. This is great. The kids and I can listen to it, get the tune, follow along/sing along with our hymnals, and eventually we can each have it in our hearts. I do agree with the reviewer who said that all the songs sound basically alike, but I found that a help rather than a detraction. I am not an efficianado of any sort, I just wanted the basic tune, the words sung clearly, and no added modernizations or flourishes. And this is the best I've found for my basic needs. How wonderful to have my little ones singing "Higher Ground" around the house while they play! Five stars!

I've been lead astray!!!

I decided to buy this collection based on the other reviews posted here - I was (and am still) looking for a fairly comprehensive collection of hymns that are enjoyable to listen to. I have to disagree with the other reviewers on many points. To me, this is not the "traditional" church music that I grew up with. As I listened to the CDs, I was irritated to find that EVERY SONG SOUNDS IDENTICAL. Have you ever been to a church where they use "canned music" (everything is played from a CD instead of with live instruments, like an actual piano) - that is what this CD sounds like to me. The beat of the music appears to be made with a keyboard's drum machine - it is just so . . .canned - that's the best way I can describe it. I found that I had to make it a real point to listen to the lyrics to disseminate one song from the next - they just all kind of run together because the key is the same, the beat is the same, the voices are the same, the lead singers are usually the same, etc.

Also - one other point - if you like to sing along with the music (females), you will want to have a high soprano voice - all of these songs are way out of my alto vocal range. At times, the choir sounds fairly shrill because all of the music is performed is such a high range.

Don't be drawn in simply because this set is so large. I was really excited to see how many songs this collection contained - truly, all of my favorites that I grew up singing, and still sing in church. Don't be taken in, simply because there are a lot of songs to be had here - I would much rather have half the songs, but some quality to go along with them. Alas, I am going to keep looking for a good collection - this definitely isn't it.