Ragamuffin Soul Album Review

In 2006, I went to the Saddleback Worship Conference. I was looking to get podcasting going for our church, so I went to a workshop called “Podcasting/Blogging” by Carlos Whittaker. I was disappointed, because all this guy talked about was blogging. What I didn’t know was that his blog Ragamuffinsoul.com was becoming a phenomenon, and now has a worldwide following of more than 20,000 people and was ranked “Best Ministry/Theology Blog” by COLLIDE magazine readers. It also inspired me to start my own blog, and I’ve been blogging ever since. I’m now grateful that I went to that class, because now I’m in the blogging world, connected to all kinds of people. Carlos, or @loswhit, for us on twitter, really influenced me in that.

Now, Ragamuffin Soul has a soundtrack. In the spirit of transparency, I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting much. Not because I don’t think Carlos is a talent, but because he hadn’t really put out any songs of notoriety, so there wasn’t really that much anticipation from me on that end. After listening to the album, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.

Ragmuffin Soul has some great songs for the church, which really excites me. There’s a lot of worship albums that get released, but not a lot of realistic songs for the church to sing, and I think this is a credit to Carlos and the Integrity family.

“Rain it Down” is a great song to kick off the album. It has a very infectious melody line to it. “God of Second Chances” and “We Will Worship You” should connect in congregational worship very well. I really like the last track, “We Will Dance”. It’s a great up-tempo contribution to the church. I can see a lot of worship services pumping with that one.

My main critique of the album is probably minor. I really think the songs “Because of You” & “In Your Presence” could have been cut. Not because they’re bad songs, but because they really don’t measure up to the rest of the album. In other words, I feel this should have been a 10 track album, instead of a 12 track album. It would have really made this a more power packed CD.

All in all, though, this is a great contribution to the local church. Worship bands will have no problem bringing these tunes to their congregations. As a worship leader, I really appreciate that. Great job, Carlos & Integrity!!