Winds of Change

EDITORIAL REVIEWS 10 songs .COM Russ Taff tries to duplicate Amy Grant's feat of crossing over from Christian music stardom to pop stardom, but he's going about it in an entirely different way. Just as Grant's pop records reflected the middle-of-the-road soft rock sound of her Christian releases, Taff's first secular album, Winds of Change, echoes the rootsiness of his religious music. Winds of Change may be a pop country album but it leans in the progressive direction of Rodney Crowell, the Mavericks and Brother Phelps. Despite the lyrics' shift from faith in divine love to faith in true love, Taff's songs are as upbeat and cheerful as ever. What makes this such an exciting album, however, is Taff's nose for juicy melodic hooks which he belts out with a fervor that betrays his lifelong enthusiasm for African-American gospel music. --Geoffrey Himes

Winds Of Change