Talented, highly-respected music industry educators and arrangers Kirby Shaw, Randy Crenshaw, Kirk Marcy and Vijay Singh were asked by a dear friend, the minister of music at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salem, OR, if Just 4 Kicks would perform at an upcoming concert and service at St. Paul's. His parameters were simple: 'It needs to be all sacred music, but it needs to be Just 4 Kicks!' The group decided to accept the opportunity as a chance for rejuvenation that it needed, and immediately the creative juices started flowing within the quartet. The event was a huge success, and soon the group found itself in the studio, recording a fresh new book of tunes. We can see from the song list, there's a lot of diversity in these 11 tunes, from the jazzy 'Sermonette,' scattish 'Jesus Loves the Little Children' and 'Come Sunday,' to a Reggae-flavored, manic 'Jesus Loves Me;' to a couple of Bob Dylan tunes, the bluesy 'Gotta Serve Somebody' and the Reggae-arranged 'Man Gave Names To All The Animals,' there's lots of fun stuff here. Other favorites are a hip, finger-popping 'Daniel in the Lion's Den,' bluenote 'A Child is Born,' a foot-tapping Bluegrass take on 'Walk On' and a hauntingly harmonic 'A Quiet Place.' We've always loved Just 4 Kicks, and we love this album-it's a great new direction for these talented men, and we look forward to hearing more inspirational, upbeat material like 'Joyful Noise' from them!

Listen to Jesus Loves Me in RealAudio.