Salvation in Lights

1	Sit Down Servant 3:54
2	Streets of Galilee 3:00
3	Oh Mary Don't You Weep 4:45
4	Precious Lord, Take My Hand 3:53
5	Change Is Gonna Come 3:08
6	Devil Don't Sleep 4:31
7	Can't No Grave Hold My Body Down 4:31
8	Selah! Selah! 3:31
9	Take Me (I'll Take You There) 4:45
10	The Lonely Road 4:47
11	I'm Gonna Get There 4:35

Barnes & Noble

Most guys slog it out in a rock band, develop some bad road-associated habits, clean up, find God, and go on to produce the worst music of their careers. Not Mike Farris. The scandalously underrated singer and guitarist with the Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies is resurrected on Salvation in Lights and the greasy rock-a-roll belter is reborn a sanctified soul shouter that could cream the American Idol competition if he wanted to. Fortunately, Farris has higher goals. Hooking up with only the finest gospel and spirituals and some originals that could have been cut from the same soul-stirring cloth, Farris mines the deep, humid grooves of New Orleans gospel -- a Cosimo Matassa-styled horn section, rippling piano, gospel choir, buzzing and moaning guitars. Fans of '50s and '60s gospel (anyone who bought Joel Dorn and Lee Friedlander's Gospel Music collection, for example), will swoon over what Farris has done here. If he's unafraid of tackling Sam Cooke on his own turf ("A Change Is Gonna Come"!), maybe it's because Farris was feeling this music long before he felt God in his life, and now, well, he's near unstoppable. Salvation In Lights is nothing short of a homecoming -- home sweet home, indeed. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

Mike Farris' second album of gospel-inspired blues-rock drew a surprising amount of buzz from both Christian and secular media, considering its lack of commercial appeal. This was due to a tantalizing combination of old-school soul and newfound gospel influences, which came as a breath of fresh New Orleans-style air. The 36-year-old Farris had fronted the '90s jam band the Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies before backing into a lead spot with Double Trouble (any blues-rock follower is familiar with the rhythm section that lived on well after Stevie Ray Vaughan). Having heard little from him since his roots rock solo debut, Goodnight Sun, in 2002, Farris' fan base could not have predicted the warm reception given Salvation in Lights. The album was a combination of gospel standard covers and brassy originals that swept Southern influences from uptown Dixieland to the Memphis blues. What put the album in a league of its own -- besides Farris' brawny, rugged voice -- was superb rock production by Matt Martone (3 Doors Down, Skillet). The "salvation" penned in the album title referred to a moment at a relative's funeral in which Farris decided to overcome a personal battle with alcohol that had gone on and off for over a decade. One critic dubbed this "the album you wish Taylor Hicks had made," for the amount of enjoyable blues-rock that folks had been waiting to hear. Jared Johnson