According to author/theologian Brian Walsh, Steve’s 23rd album is,
” …from glad surprise to glad surprise, a masterpiece. Bell reaches out and grabs the heart, the imagination, the despair, the longing, the pathos and eros of the soul.. all in the first song.”
The new album comes with a 130-page booklet that guides the listener through Steve’s writing process and showcases the depth and breadth of his thinking.
The listener will be delighted to hear collaborations with English poet Malcolm Guite, and a signature cover of Bruce Cockburn’s evergreen, “Lovers in a Dangerous Time.”
There is both challenge and medicine in these songs. The Glad Surprise is the consequence of an artist who has stayed in the game over a lifetime and who’s gifts and insights have aged well.
“Such is the glad surprise… it is the announcement that life cannot ultimately be conquered by death… that there is strength added when the labors increase, that multiplied peace matches multiplied trials, that life is bottomed by the glad surprise.”
—Howard Thurman | Meditations of the Heart
