Description
Songs from Bright Avenue is the fourth studio album by the American singer and songwriter Bob Bennett, released on Urgent Records in 1991, distributed in the US by Benson Music Group. The album was produced, recorded and mixed by Jonathan David Brown. Featuring background vocals by David Wilcox, Kelly Willard, Lisa Glasgow, Michael Card, and Phil Keaggy.
I was ‘foolish’ enough to make a record about my divorce. The normal procedure in Christian music is that if you go through a divorce, you simply go underground for a year and show up with a new spouse, and no one’s the wiser. When Songs From Bright Avenue came out, I realized that this was not going to be the ‘Hey-let’s-buy-a-big-bag-of-Fritos-and-invite-the-gang-over’ type of record. I’ve had people tell me that it was just too painful to listen to. I say, ‘I understand that, but go back and listen and see if you can find some hope there because I certainly tried to convey that.’ [Excerpt from an interview with Bob Bennett featured in CCM Magazine, 1996]
It takes a decade knee deep in ‘D’ words – divorce, dysfunctional, delusion, desperation, and denial come immediately to mind – to bring an album like ‘Songs From Bright Avenue’ from one of Christian music’s consummate songwriters, Bob Bennett. And it takes a reflective, masterful lyricist to take the experience of all of the above and create songs filled with forgiveness, grace, and honest hope in times as dangerous as these to lovers of every kind.
«Singing for My Life» find Bennett accepting the role of the artist in culture, admitting few big answers but offering himself up the way creative individuals can, to bring insight, perception and understanding to that in life which is perplexing and frightening. As an individual who has survived the experience of divorce, I can say that it is a great comfort to hear the affirmation that we are not alone in the pain of separation. While there is great comfort and understanding to be found in ‘Songs From Bright Avenue’, Bennett accepts his part in the failure of the relationships around him. His songs suggest one who is seeking forgiveness, emotional health and wholeness, by grappling with reality on its own terms. There is strength and daring in his willingness to expose this tender, personal situation, and it pays off in a ministry to the hurts he shares with others.
«No Such Thing as Divorce» affirms head-on the relationship a divorced father has with his children. With statistics continuing to show a 50% divorce rate (in the church the numbers mirror that reality), we need songs like these for our kids, as much as for ourselves. «Angels Around Your Bed», part prayer and part reassurance, will resonate for anyone with distant loved ones, but it is especially poignant to the child experiencing separation from one or more parents. «The Doing of the Thing» attacks our culture’s suggestion that saying something is the same as being and doing, offering a judgment of any who are willing to admit their own double-mindedness.
The title track, and songs like «The Place I Am Bound» and «I’m Still Alive Tonight» rise from the pain of Bennett’s new situation and a desire to find some meaning out of which to rebuild. However, Bennett does not succumb into bluesy melancholia or self-righteous nay-saying. ‘Songs From Bright Avenue’ contains 12 songs filled to the brim with the forthright struggle of one singer/songwriter to find the healing presence of God in a life that appears to have come apart at the seams. As he sings in «My Secret Heart»: “I am longing for peace and the will to forgive.”
The album’s one comic effort – «Our Codependent Love» – digs into the psycho-babble jargon that explains why it is that marriages and relationships of meaning are so rare in this culture, where we shoot our wounded and eat our young. The words may provide the categories, but as the Bill Murray/Randy Stonehill lounge lizard setting suggests, for some, naming the reason for the pain is enough to excuse us from dealing with it and getting better. And the real theme here is that of accepting reality for what it is, being true to ourselves, and seeking a future in God’s grace that is greater than our past mistakes.
Bob Bennett didn’t have to write another song to win accolades. For fans of great songs, witness ‘Lord of the Past: A Compilation‘ (1989, Urgent). And Bob Bennett didn’t have to write songs about the personal ache and loss of divorce, and the redemption that only a loving God can bring to the lives of broken individuals. But he did, and I celebrate his courage, his high art, and the ministry that will come to hundreds and thousands who tonight will feel alone in their situation, but will find someone who understands in these ‘Songs From Bright Avenue’. [Brian Q. Newcomb, CCM, February 1992]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/songs-from-bright-avenue/1785749376)
CD tracklist:
01. Here On Bright Avenue – 4:49
02. No Such Thing As Divorce – 4:13
03. Angels Around Your Bed – 3:15
04. The Doing Of The Thing – 5:12
05. Our Codependent Love – 5:21
06. My Secret Heart – 5:25
07. Save Me – 4:08
08. Unto The Least Of These – 4:38
09. Hope Like A Stranger – 3:56
10. The Place I Am Bound – 4:26
11. Singing For My Life – 3:29
12. I’m Still Alive Tonight – 2:23
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Urgent Records. Remastered and re-issued on CD by Signpost Music in 2002 featuring bonus interview tracks: “Some Of The Songs From Bright Avenue” (12:54) and “The Gospel Of Cool / St. T-Bone’s Pretty Great Commisson” (2:31). Available at https://bobbennett.com/
An advertisement for Bob Bennett’s Songs From Bright Avenue was featured in the December 1991 issue of CCM Magazine.
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