Fernando Ortega

Great rhythms, great words. As mentioned above excellent addition of other instruments. This is Fernando giving himself!

Ortega's music and arrangments are extremely well thought out and very unique in their construction. While he tends to stay on more of the acoustic side of things he still has an arsenal of tones at his disposal! As complex and impressive as some of his arrangements are, he still continues to mantain a simplistic and tasteful approach that anyone musical or non-musical can enjoy.

Long time Fernando fan here and finally just bought this album. One listen through and my initial impression is that this may be his best album ever. Such an artist.

One of the many problems with Christian music is that listeners who like good music are a bit skeptical of anything that comes out of that market. So when the occasional great piece of work is able to get released, it can go by unnoticed by those who would care. It gets washed out in the mass of tediously mediocre product that's thrown at consumers. Mr. Ortega took a risk with this record and I'm glad he did. Maybe someday the Church will once again be a breeding ground for great art but until then we'll have to wade through the mire to find the rare gems.

The evolution of Fernando Ortega's music is evident if you take the time to listen to his work. I'm not talking about his musical skills, as his piano work has always been tremendous, but rather the usage of other instruments to support his work. The early albums were almost all piano, strings and drums were added soon thereafter, additional percussion work, dobro, more intense acoustic guitar work on the "Storm" album, and now we find the next level on the self-titled album where a more alternative country feel is presented through the chosen instrumentation (most evident on "Dragonfly" and "When the Coyote Comes"). What hasn't changed is the prevalence of the piano, the wonderful original lyrics by Fernando and co-writers, and that sedate but beautiful voice. If you listen to CCM radio, you will be familiar with "Take Heart, My Friend" and "Sleepless Night", but this album is about so much more than the obligatory radio-friendly tunes. This album also continues a common theme throughout Fernando's discography; nature. Fernando is obviously hyper-aware of the natural surroundings as much of his songwriting deals with seeing God in nature, but not nature as a god. In addition, "Mildred Madalyn Johnson" and "California Town" take ordinary people and places and weave (something that is dear to the Ortega family :-) a story of the importance of relationships in life. If you buy this album, you will find yourself listening to it time and again and each time finding a lyric that jumps out at you and an appreciation a bit of the music that you hadn't heard even though you may have "heard" it a dozen times.