(Photo :Nathan Tasker's "The Bell Tower" )

Australian singer-songwriter Nathan Tasker's latest album title "the Bell Tower" is rifle with significance.  "The Bell Tower" to which the album takes its name refers to is the old bell tower of St Philip's Church in York Street, Sydney, Australia.  The Gospel first made its appearance in the land Down Under in the year 1788 when eleven British ships brought in 1,400 people, 786 of which were convicts.  On 3 February, 1788 at this newly constituted penal colony the first hymn was sung.  Under the leadership of the Rev. Richard Johnson, a wattle and daub church was built; later, it was replaced by a stone building named St. Philip's church in 1810.  St. Philip Church became Australia's first ever church. Today if you visit Sydney, not only is the church still in existence, it still resounds with hymns of praise every Sunday morning.  Incidentally by the side of the church is a tower that host ten peals of bells, eight of which were donated by the Hon. John Campbell in 1872, a ninth bell was added in 1888 to commemorate the centenary of the founding of the Colony of NSW. The tenth being installed 1898 in remembrance of Charles Moore.

So, what is so important about this bell tower?  St Philip's Church went through some strenuous times over the course of its history:  there was the gold rush, the depression of the 1890s, the Boer War, and then followed by two world wars.  The Parish saw her sons march off to war in 1914 and again in 1939.  She buried her parishioners during the great influenza pandemic that followed the First World War. Though those were arduous times, it did not stop the bells from chiming every Sunday.  Every Lord's Day, the bells would ring calling its parishioners to worship.  In salient ways, the bell tower is an object lesson.  Throughout our lives we will be bereaved or be the cause of bereavement but God never abandons us.  Like the bells that still peal through the darkest times, God still calls us to worship Him in our strife.  And through worship, our lives are changed; they are renewed.  

"The Bell Tower," is essentially Taker's fifth record consisting only of 8 songs proper with the ninth "Bells" lasting only for less than a minute.  With hymns making a resurgence these days, it is wonderful to find Tasker taken the words of the ancient hymns of the church and crafting new melodies to go with them.  This TRAA's 2012 Australian Artist of the Year has taken liberties with many of these hymns that they sound like newly composed tunes altogether.  The only hymn where Tasker has kept to its original tune is "All Creatures of Our God and King."  Staccato guitar rock riffs and organ flourishes are made to match make on "How Firm Foundation" where Tasker masterfully welds together the sounds of the old and the new. The sounds of clipped drums and a neo-folk acoustic guitar strums appropriately bring out the somberness of Christ's death on the Cross on "Man of Sorrows."

"The Bell Tower" was recorded during some very trying times in Nathan's life.  Thus, the gentle sweeping feel of "Safe in the Arms" finds Tasker at his tender best as you can sense he means every syllable of this comforting paean.  "Take My Life," popularized as Billy Graham's altar call song, has been re-imagined as a smooth ballad. Yet, Tasker by no means pilfers the song of its prayerful resolve.   After all these years, while many churches have either been turned into a museum or torn down, St. Philip's is still packed each Sunday.  After 141 years, the bells of St. Philip's still chime calling Australians to worship each Sunday.   And after all these years Christ still uses these hymns to beckon us to his feet thanks to Nathan Tasker.