Bob Bennett: Everlasting Day

a Kirkwood review of new music by Bob -- our humble Jesus Music servant (and legend.)

Artist: Bob Bennett
Album: Everlasting Day
Genre: Singer/Songwriter, Adult Contemporary
(or Folk, with fine production and a Celtic lilt.)
Release Date: September 4, 2025

FIVE STONES:
1) Madrigal 2) Transparent 3) Flinching 4) Communal 5) Imbued with glory and weight.

I have been waiting on this album for a long, long time. In part, because I, and a community of friends, have been listening to Bob play portions of this album over the last year -- with the concluding song having been part of our group dynamic for a number of years! Before I explain all that, let me back up a notch.

For the less acquainted:
Bob Bennett (recently turned 70) is a Christian singer/songwriter and guitar playing troubadour with albums spanning five decades. If his total output is modest, it is only because so much fine work goes into each release. He is known for his beautiful baritone, stunning guitar work, and honest song craft. Make that emotional vulnerability, warmth, and storytelling flair. Stylistically, I put him in sound and league with the likes of James Taylor, Tracy Chapman, Neil Young, Marc Cohn, and Pierce Pettis. Yes, he is that good!

I personally regard his 1982 album Matters of the Heart as one of the top ten albums in the HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE! Beyond that, you can bless everyone at my funeral by playing Bob’s rendition of “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.”

For the last several years, and in the wake of Covid, Bob has hosted a weekly program in which he treats a dedicated following to an hour or two of song and banter. (Find him on Facebook or on Youtube at “The Upper Room Presents Bob Bennett.”) While his songs are a clear draw, the reason we come back again and again is Bob’s merry style and loving community. The whole affair is interactive, playful, nostalgic, and bathed in grace. Bob closes each micro-concert in prayer and a final group song (as we, across time zones, space, and denominations) gather to sing the Lorica, an “Irish” benediction built around the Breastplate of Saint Patrick. And now, you can sing it too, as the closing song of Everlasting Day!

As for the rest of the album. It is “typical” Bob, twining vertical and horizontal strands. Everlasting Day features a couple songs fit for Sunday morning -- with others fit for the coffee house. I hear a song to his first childhood crush, mixed with ardor for his last -- a song to his “baby” daughter, and a song to his eldest son about camping. Then there are the several songs anchored in the stuff of the final lap.

I don't say much about the music here. In short, because the “chamber-folk” production work by Roy Salmond, fits my ear to perfection: gentle, organic, beautiful, and understated. The music (much played by Roy or a small ensemble) is as skillful as can be without announcing itself. Unlike some of Bob’s mid-life recordings in which the instrumentation was upfront, center, and jazzy, the instrumentation here serves like a ring mount, holding the jewel. I did hear the stunning guitar work in “Living plan B” and the heart-achingly gorgeous orchestral work in “The Whole Life of My Heart” -- but compared to most stuff on the radio, this is wildly understated. And glorious.

Links, with Long Play to follow
Spotify:

YouTube:

Qobuz:
https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/everlasting-day-bob-bennett/u4op1u58sizta

LONG PLAY
I begin with a simple observation: Bob Bennett is no Spring Chicken. Though I do not know the whole story, I know that Bob struggles -- and has struggled with sundry health issues. By God's grace he will be with us many more years, but I sometimes wonder---Might this be Bob's last formal offering to the world?

Bob is most aware of this. A quick listen to Everlasting Day, and you know that Bob feels the decay in his bones. Themes of aging and final stretch weave throughout the recording, starting with the upbeat opening track.

Through no goodness of my own
Someday my buried bones
Will rise to an everlasting day
In the company of all
Redeemed from the fall
I will rise to an everlasting day
Some day my very bones will rise to an everlasting day.

From there, the impending end of days (and eternal hope) come in waves. And moods.
Forgive the jumble, I just grabbed these lines as I heard them

I'm an old man
Well past my prime
It’s clear that I
Can never outrun time

---

For I’m weary now…
Of my Earthbound quest
And I long for the promise of rest…

---

At the end of my days
If I am not alone
And Jesus leads the Way
To carry me home
If He knows my soul by name
And someday I will fly
I hope He can forgive me
”Cause I’m still afraid to die

And so it goes, Bob is chasing end-of-day themes. While I might hope this album would work for people of all ages, I expect it will really resonate for those of us with fading eyes. But more…This album should resonate with anyone is who tired in soul.

Bunny trail:
It so happens that I discovered Bob in my early twenties. He, and many of the people I then listened to were usually a few years, to a decade older than myself. And now these same people are entering their seventies and eighties. We are collectively in our autumnal stretch.

I consider some of the voices that have followed across the decades: Randy Stonehill, Mo Leverett, Cynthia Clawson, Nancy Honeytree, Terry Scott Taylor, Jeff Johnsonn, Bill Mallonee.

One of my favorites, Paul Clark, seems to have dropped an octave, maybe two. Phil Keaggy sounds ever young, whereas Russ Taft, with his very recent old-man release, sounds all tight and jaggedy, like flint and gristle.

As for Bob -- he’s lost a little lung power and upper register. I hear some chipping and flake, but his voice remains surprisingly supple.

I sometimes wonder how a twenty year old living today hears these same works? Does a young person just hear old men (or women) moaning? Are the artists of my era even on his or her radar? Have we put you to sleep?

I hope not. There is wisdom, even urgency in these latter day voices.

I made an observation about the aging Johnny Cash. With one foot in the grave, and the other in the world to come, Johnny abandoned all remaining filters. Perhaps, when an artist knows that he is nearing the end of his tour, he lets go of pretension. And speed. Even the need for clarity and or answers.

That does not mean letting go of faith—often the opposite—but last-lap expressions seem to come with a touch of humility and that infernal need to please. While I figure that Bob hasn't been a mainstay on Christian radio for some years, there are songs here that just wouldn't play there … because they are too real. They don't fit the formula. And so you have a man of known faith, expressing shades of disquiet and uncertainty.

He begins with something of theological question (paraphrase): Does life anew begin at death or at some future date, given to group bodily resurrection?

Then Bob moves to the inward glance:
Oh me of little Faith
I guess that's who I am
Good in name only
Like a stolen identity
Sheep and goats together
Someday separated
I'd like to think I hear You
But I've been wrong before

The only thing that's clear to me
Is nothing's clear at all

Or….
I hope somehow You will understand
Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief
Lord, have mercy, I believe
But oh, can you help my unbelief?

Or…
You never dream that your dream will end
It's so very hard to face that truth
You find yourself on a different road
You never saw in the fever of youth
But sometimes the best lesson learned
Waits around the unexpected turn
Doing your best
Alongside the rest of humanity
Living Plan B

The “Plan B” song hits with a certain force. When I was a kid, I envisioned myself taking on the world in the spirit of Saint Francis. Where other people had compromised with the world system, I would stand apart, unsullied by material concerns… pure of mind and imagination. Now I fight all manner of garden variety sins. My life is spiritually unspectacular. I know what it is like to be tired of myself.

Bob too, hints at a life that missed his vision for himself. Divorce. Bad-body health. Possible struggles with purpose, identity, or doubt. Those of us who’ve hung around religious circles sometimes hear of something called “deconstruction” in which a person, once strong of faith, goes through a period of examination, sometimes culminating in a fractured faith -- or its absence.

Is such a thing going on here?
I think not.

At least not any more than David showing us his perplexed soul, or John the Baptist asking, “Are you the one for whom we are waiting?” What I see instead, is a man who is looking at his final chapter square in the face. He may be unsteady on his feet. He may even feel unworthy of the grace he has known, but the overarching attitude that pushes through Everlasting Day is one of living hope, despite blurred vision.

That hope comes home full circle near the end of the album, when Bob sings:
Surely I see in the heavenlies
A blanket of stars for my bed …
For I’m weary now of my earthbound place
Yet I harbor a hope so strong
To live forever
In the warm embrace
In a house of saving grace
A place where I belong

Conclusion:
For those of us who are descending the downward hill, Everlasting Day extends an invitation to look at the grand abyss, pause, ask some questions, then … with joined hands, walk through the veil together, and into the amazing glory of our waiting Father, Brother, and Guide.

---
Should you ask me for my favorite song from Everlasting Day, it is -- the last three, plus a few more:)

That triad begins with the afore-quoted “A Place Where I Belong” then walks us into a glorious liturgical hymn, “Gloria in Excelsis”, then closes with “The Lorica” to be sung in group. Thank you Gayle Salmond for providing the words and tune to OUR song.

THE LORICA
Words and music by Gayle Salmond
(Based on St. Patrick’s Breastplate)

I bind unto myself today
The gift to call on the Trinity
The saving faith where I can say
Come Three in One, oh One in Three

Be above me
As high as the noonday sun
Be below me
The Rock I set my feet upon
Be beside me
The wind on my left and right
Be behind me
Oh circle me with Your truth and light

I bind unto myself today
The love of Angels and Seraphim
The prayers and prophecies of Saints
The words and deeds of righteous men
Be above me
As high as the noonday sun
Be below me
The Rock I set my feet upon
Be beside me
The wind on my left and right
Be behind me
Oh circle me with Your truth and light

God’s ear to hear me
God’s hand to guide me
God’s might to uphold me
God’s shield to hide me

Against all powers deceiving
Against my own unbelieving
Whether near or far
I bind unto myself today
The hope to rise from the dust of earth
The songs of nature giving praise

To Father, Spirit, Living Word
Be above me
As high as the noonday sun
Be below me
The Rock I set my feet upon
Be beside me
The wind on my left and right
Be behind me
Oh circle me with Your truth and light

-------------------------

Yes LORD
Hear our prayer.