Brian Sauvé has slowly but surely become one of my favorite musical artists, and his newest album is a treasure. It’s rare for me to listen to every song on an album and even more rare for me to love every one, but this album has managed to check both boxes for me.
While I’ve come to love Brian’s renditions of the Psalms, this album is special in a different way. If I may echo a sentiment first put forth by C. S. Lewis: What we want is not more music about Christianity, but more music by Christians on other subjects—with their Christianity latent. Brian’s Christianity here is most certainly latent as he sings songs about his wife and children, family and home, as well as the sorrows and joys of ordinary life; all the while, the Christian ideals of truth, goodness, and beauty underly every lyric and every chord. I hear a song which on the surface seems to be all about Daphne or Winnie, for instance, yet as I listen I can’t help but hear a song of praise to the God who gave them—this is latent Christianity. And this is Christianity in perhaps its purest sense, when it is not a thing that need always be expressly proclaimed because it is already a necessary given which naturally spills forth in our every work.
I encourage you to give Brian’s new album, Hearth Songs, a listen. Your soul will thank you.