Chris Rice – Run the Earth…Watch the Sky
Rocketown Records
Release date: March 4, 2003
Listening to the latest release from Chris Rice, Run the Earth…Watch the Sky (Rocketown Records), is like sitting on the porch
on a warm summer evening, fireflies twinkling in the dark, icy sweat rolling down cold glasses of lemonade, rocking in the porch
swing with your head tilted back and eyes closed, listening to Chris muse about everything from worship in a cathedral of trees to
junior high.
I don’t know how he manages to do it, but Chris has once again compiled 11 thought-provoking yet lighthearted songs that are a
breath of fresh air in a market that’s often filled with tired, cliché songs. With almost no effort, he’s able to bring faith to its most
basic elements, and make you want to experience it with him.
In “Nonny Nonny”, Chris evokes warm images of innocent childhood (“Popsicle red on my chin/bikes and plastic army men/and
no sign of September”) as he talks about the Biographer of Life, and I love how he captures the adventurous heart of adolescence
with a reference to The Chronicles of Narnia: “My adolescent 70’s/reads just like the Pevensies Adventures/’Cause every perfect
now and then/I caught a glimpse of Aslan’s mane/and I longed for His treasure”.
While I’ve always imagined that the angels stand around heaven with their hands politely folded, singing solemn hymns, in “Circle
Up” Chris suggests that, amidst the thunder of unfolding wings, the angels and saints have grabbed hands and are twirling with
delight around the throne in worship. What an awesome picture!
His humility shines through on “The Other Side of the Radio” (currently receiving radio airplay), when he asks: “Here I am on
the other side of the radio/wondering why I’m here and why anybody cares what I say”. He turns the tables on listeners as he
imagines what we’re doing while we listen to him sing (“I imagine you on the other side of the radio/doing your homework, or
driving with the windows down on the freeway”), and offers the thought that maybe there are millions of other people singing
along with us. Cool – crank up the volume and sing out loud!
And while not as quirky as Smell the Color Nine, Chris still manages to make us smile with warmhearted memories of junior high
in “8th Grade”: late for class; missing the question in geometry because he’s flustered with puppy love; corndogs in the cafeteria;
and hey, wasn’t life grand then?
Like his earlier releases, Run the Earth…Watch the Sky once again couples Chris’s humility with his deep spiritual longing to
know God and experience all that He has to offer. Pull up a chair, and join Chris as he ponders his favorite things: life, love, laughter
and Jesus. Run the Earth…Watch the Sky hits stores March 4, 2003.
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