B Collision (CD - 2006)

David Crowder: David Crowder Band (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, programming); Jason Solley (vocals, electric guitar); Jack Parker (electric guitar, banjo, keyboards); Hogan (violin); Mike D (bass guitar, programming); B-Wack (drums, programming).

Additional personnel: Robbie Seay, Shane & Shane.

Playing on the title of 2005's A COLLISION, its companion piece, B COLLISION, features the David Crowder Band offering up acoustic, bluegrass-tinged versions of the faith-based songs on the former album (hence the banjo on the cover of this disc). Although the new arrangements of Crowder's tunes are impressive, the EP's standout track is a fast-paced live rendition of country icon Hank Williams's "I Saw the Light," a song that perfectly captures the ensemble's buoyant spiritual outlook.

The pickins are sweet on B Collision, the David Crowder Band's extension of mega-hit A Collision (2005). While its predecessor sliced up bits of bluegrass and spread them among modern rock and electronic tracks, B Collision stuck almost exclusively with the hoedown fare. Most tracks were re-recordings from A Collision, this time served up with new instrumentation. Jack Parker's banjo and Mike Hogan's electric violin took center stage, creating a truly dazzling diversion for a band that built its fan base with groove-laden college rock. It's not your typical remix album, and while the worship experience is very different than that of its forerunner, it is nonetheless gratifying. By this point in the band's career, their fans had grown accustomed to hearing multiple treatments of their hits between full-length albums (Sunsets & Sushi, for instance, retooled 2003's gold-certified Illuminate to the sheer ecstasy of some and the drudgery of others). The last thing Crowder and crew would ever design for themselves is to be predictable, and this satisfying collection proved that there were few (if any) musical roads the boys from Baylor were unwilling to travel. ~ Jared Johnson minimize