Jamie Grace “Ready to Fly” Album Review

"And ooh there's something about the way Your sun shines on my face/ It's a love so true, I could never get enough of You/This feeling can't be wrong, I'm about to get my worship o/ Take me away, It's a beautiful day!" In listening to Jamie Grace singing these words, you can feel the zest of sunshine pinching at your face. You can definitely feel a bounce in each step as you skip out of the house.  Frankly, this is the type of song that can lift you up from any nocturnal depth to face the bright disposition a brand new day brings bursting forth with endless opportunities of serving God and others. "Ready to Fly" is the much anticipated follow-up to Grace's debut "One Song at a Time." Just as her debut yielded 4 Top 40 CCM with "Hold Me (Featuring TobyMac)" making all the way into top 5, "Ready to Fly" has already charted in the same territory with "Beautiful Day."  And just like her debut, "Ready to Fly" is a preppy sunny record filled with lots hopeful songs deeply grounded in who God is as found in Scripture. 

Talk about talents galore, Jamie Grace is the poster girl.  She has dappled in acting and on the music front, she has had been a rapper, singer, songwriter and a multi-instrumentalist (being gifted on the piano, guitar, drums and ukulele).  Grace started out by recording cover songs and posting them on youtube.  Shortly after her videos were picked up by TobyMac where she was later offered a recording contract under Gotee Records.  Kicking off the proceedings is the prelude of "So Amazing" which functions as Grace's statement of purpose of why she sings and writes her songs.  And giving her affirmation for her glorious agenda of wanting to sing about our amazing God is the sounds of some 80s sounding scratchy record songs. "Beautiful Day," the lead single, has already lighted up our airwaves with lots of the song's perky truisms and its peppy summer time grooves.     

Being 22 years-old, Grace is in a place where she has the privilege position of addressing teens without sounding like an uncool nagging auntie. Utilized in most dating scenes as a courteous kiss off, "let's just be friends" is often viewed as abject rejection as one of the most demeaning kind.   However, Grace on "Just a Friend" turns it around by assuring her teenage fans that sometimes the person God has prepared for us is better than the person who just turned us down.  More Godly dating advice comes with the country tingled "White Boots."  A paean to chastity, "White Boots" cranks up the western doe-se-doe twang on what is an irresistible country dance that you wish would never end.   While teenagers ready to leave home for college would find much to savor with the title cut "Ready to Fly."  Stripped down with just the gentle strums of the acoustic guitar, the folky "Ready to Fly" is a big boost to the heart.    

But not all is frothy and teen-centered, "Fighter" chronicles Grace's bout with Tourette's syndrome in 2003.   And for anyone has allow the worries associated with a sickness rent into the tired fabric of our lives, the various characters who have preserved in "Fighter" are a great company to keep.  "The Waiting" tailors well as a follow-up where every stanza is teardrop territory as Grace deals with the questions and the confusion that often come with waiting on God.  Here the lyrics are freight with sheer heartfelt honesty: "All of the questions, secret confessions/Lord You'll make sense of it all/And I know you'll show up/So I'm letting go of these thoughts that are taking control."   With an album not governed by the weather of circumstances, no wonder Jamie Grace can fly into the sun with such an irresistible charm. 

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