Rich Mullins: The World As Best As I Remember It, Vol. 2 (1992)

 Tracks:

1. Hello Old Friends
2. Sometimes By Step
3. Everyman
4. The Just Shall Live
5. Waiting
6. To Tell Them
7. The Maker of Noses
8. What Susan Said
9. Growing Young
10. All the Way My Savior Leads Me
11. Sometimes By Step (Reprise)

A year after its first installment, the second volume of The World was released, and it's tempting to try to compare them side by side and determine which brother is the bigger one.  The obvious connection is "Sometimes By Step," the fully-developed version of the "Step By Step" chorus, and like the early version, bookends the album.  "Sometimes" is the definitive completion, much more driving and "radio-ready" than the Vol. 1 version, led by the now-standard hammer dulcimer chimes.  It's a classic example of Mullins' songcraft, once again drawing on nighttime imagery and connecting the biblical story of Abraham with personal reflections on a life of hard choices made in faith.  But it's the emotional power of the melody, punctuated by doleful horns and the ever-sympathetic choir, that draws the listener--and the worshiper--into the song's majesty and wonder.  

If there is a theme to Vol. 2, it's of the pilgrim's journey in God's grace, expressed in "Waiting," a song about patience and trust in God's timing.  There's also "What Susan Said," an autobiographical account of Rich and Beeker's evangelistic journeys, featuring the apt description of their relationship as "Abbott and Costello meet Paul and Silas."  The journey is tied up nicely in a folky rendition of the Fannie Jane Crosby hymn "All the Way My Savior Leads Me," gently plucked on an acoustic guitar, which is featured prominently throughout the album.

Other highlights include "Everyman," Mullins' character sketch featuring a cast of unnamed but well-known bible heroes and heroines; "The Maker of Noses," a neat rebuttal of the worldly wisdom of "Follow your heart/nose/dreams" vs. the heavenly hope of trusting God's unfailing truth; and "Growing Young," which Mullins claims was one of the easiest and fastest of his Beeker collaborations, drawing on the time-worn adage, "Big boys don't cry," but using it to describe the prodigal's broken and penitent return to his loving Father.  

We even get yet another appearance of Soul Brother Rich, only this time, he manages to pull off a believable version of white urban gospel.  "The Just Shall Live" is a straight-up sanctified church revival, complete with choir, Hammond organ, and soulful shouting.  Somehow, there's an earthiness to the proceedings--probably because the lyrics read like a sermon right out of Habakkuk chapter 2 (and quoted several times by Paul in his letters).  This keeps the awkwardness and congestion that marred his previous attempts at bay, and lets the listener enjoy the man having church.  Kevin Max makes yet another guest appearance on "To Tell Them," a piano-driven soul stirrer that feels a little weirder than "The Just," but the call-and-response singing makes it enjoyable enough. 

Generally, while the production and arrangements hearken back to Never Picture Perfect in spots, the organic spirit of Vol. 1  is still strong throughout the record.  On these two collections, Rich Mullins has become a true artist: a singer-songwriter who can get cozy with a guitar or dulcimer, be worshipful and poignant with a keyboard, or raise the roof with powerful and almost dignified anthems with choirs and full bands.  And yet, even with this grand project under his belt, his greatest work was yet to come.