Silent Serenade

Description

Silent Serenade is an instrumental album by the American guitarist and songwriter Paul Carrol Binkley, released on Sha La Vah Records ‎in 1986, distributed by The Benson Company. (Sha La Vah Records was The Benson Company’s entry into the “contemplative praise music” marketplace, launched by Benson in late 1986 through two sampler albums.) The album was digitally recorded and mixed by Joe Wilson at the Master’s Touch in Nashville, Tennessee; with Lari Goss producing.

Paul Carrol Binkley uses steel-string guitar to convey a variety of moods, and most of his music contains folk and country underpinnings as opposed to, say, John Talbot‘s more classical leanings. Several of the cuts are structured much like typical worship music, but when Binkley invokes some “Travis”-style country picking as on «Heartdance» and «A Song of You», he displays an original touch. The orchestral backing, while never obtrusive, doesn’t add much either. Aside from the subdued percussion and synth support on «One Thousand Miles», I’d much rather have heard Binkley with a small jazz or country combo. [Bruce A. Brown, CCM, February 1987]

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Remembrance” – 4:19
A2. “Searching For The Son” – 4:40
A3. “Dawn” – 6:03
A4. “Heartdance” – 2:45

Side Two
B1. “One Thousand Miles” – 6:29
B2. “A Song Of Home” – 5:16
B3. “A Song For You” – 1:54
B4. “Remembrance Revisited” – 2:14

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette, 12-inch vinyl LP, and CD by Sha La Vah Records. The vinyl edition comes with a Devotional Booklet and a sticker on the front that says “ShaLaVah – Custom Pressed on KEYSOR E 342 DYE Pure Virgin Vinyl“.