Generally speaking, faith-based songwriting tends to be an either-or proposition in the work of Sandra McCracken. When not offering introspective folk music about the human condition and everyday life, she’s typically dabbling with hymns, as heard on her 2006 project The Builder and the Architect and her contributions to Caedmon’s Call, City on a Hill, and other worshipful projects.

 

Is McCracken unable to blend together the sacred and secular? I wish she would develop a more introspective exploration of faith reminiscent of Rich Mullins, Amy Grant, Mark Heard, or Sara Groves to name a few. In some ways, McCracken’s 2008 release Red Balloon demonstrated this integration, which might be why I felt it was her strongest album to date.