Local Catholic musicians stick to Psalms text in new album

By Rebecca Bostic, The Catholic Sun
October 19, 2006

Responsorial Psalms are familiar to nearly every Catholic. A Sunday Mass does not happen without singing a psalm, usually lead by a cantor before the second reading.

 Yet in many parishes throughout the country the responsorial Psalm is sung as a chant without great enthusiasm. Craig and Kristen Colson, Catholic musicians in the Diocese of Phoenix, are trying to change that.

The Colson’s released their third album “Fill Us With Your Love” — a collection of psalms sung verbatim in the praise and worship style — Oct. 2.

“This project really came out of need,” said Craig, the associate music director at St. Bernadette Parish in Scottsdale. “For the most part the only Psalm responses that use the actual text the Church gives us each week for the liturgy are chanted versions. Chanting is great, but it only expresses one style of music.”

The Colson’s product is a quality recording of 16 psalms that follow the exact text the provided by the Church. Many musicians have written songs that follow the structure and messages of the Psalms, but “Fill Us With Your Love” is the first album to remain true to the exact wording of each Psalm in every song.

“There are hardly any psalms published that are true to the actual text where the composer hasn’t paraphrased,” Craig said. “It’s the Word of God and, although it’s sometimes difficult to set to music, we took it on as a challenge.”

Kristen believes the verbatim nature of the psalms featured on “Fill Us With Your Love” is what sets this album apart from other renditions of the Psalms.

“The special part is that it offers a new resource that the Church hasn’t had before,” she said. “Verbatim psalms that are both contemporary and in the style of praise and worship and can be adapted to fit many different music groups” will prove a huge resource for Catholic musicians.

“Fill Us With Your Love” is well sung and recorded. Some of the melodies lack originality, but the album as a whole has the potential to be a favorite for any fan of the Psalms or Catholic music in general.

The title track, “Fill Us With Your Love, O Lord,” taken from Psalm 90, is one of the strongest on the album along with “I Will Sing” taken from Psalm 71. The songs are sung in the tradition of the Psalms, singing verses broken up by a repeated chorus between each verse.

The main focus of the album is praise and worship,  according to Craig. The Colsons hope it will be used in the Catholic liturgy.

“David wrote the Psalms as songs of praise and worship to God. We do the same each Sunday at Mass,” Craig said. “The Psalms are meant to be sung joyfully, respecting the dignity of the Liturgy by not adding our own words or phrases to them.”

The Colsons believe there are plenty of other places to add words and interpretation in the liturgy. “The Psalm is a reading and we would never paraphrase another reading at Mass, so why the Psalms?” Craig asked.

For their part, the Colsons sing out the exact reading of the psalms on “Fill Us With Your Love” and hope others will join with them in praise.