Precious Memories (2006)

Tough finding good material on Music Row these days. Martina McBride went back to Harlan Howard and Kristofferson for her latest album; Alan Jackson goes farther back still, to Fanny Crosby and George Bernard — 19th- and early-20th-century hymnists, in case you've bypassed the credits in your church bulletin, for Precious Memories. The delivery of these old church songs is solemn, the accompaniment sparse, and the historical value real, in an age when even Baptist services resemble Christian rock concerts.