Every lyric is praise, worship, and a reflection of Christian life.


Keep Me
Artist: Sarah Baquet
Label:  Independent
Release Date: August 3, 2011
Duration:  14 tracks, 48:46


The vast ocean of new artists and the ease with which to produce and distribute music often creates heart-felt masterpieces seldom reaching the masses but thankfully finding a home in the heart of those in need. Such is the case with Sarah Baquet’s freshman release Keep Me.

Baquet is a gifted songwriter, musician, mission worker, teacher, wife, mother, and friend to all who have been lucky enough to cross her path. Few artists are so gifted as to seamlessly craft multiple languages in their songs. Nearly a decade in the making, Keep Me combines these qualities with a faith as strong as I have witnessed to produce a collection of personal songs with the intent of sharing an artist’s truths.

Every lyric is praise, worship, and a reflection of Christian life. Every song acoustic, strong, and full of life. Every melody carries faith. Simple and true, listening to Keep Me reminds the listener of Judee Sill’s work long ago, but with a message much more pure and direct.

Some of Baquet’s earliest writing clearly portrays the depth of her faith. "Till My Last Day” shines with strong voice giving light to powerful lyrics and ”Hail Holy Queen”, with lyrics adapted from Catholic prayer, portrays a faith strong. Excerpt from "Till My Last Day”:

            Just a little while left they told me, and then I looked ahead.
            The path of Your servant is long, for to gain your life You said,
            You have to lose it.
            O, Father, is there any other way,
            But to choose that Christ increase in me…Till my last day

Both “Comply”, with good breaks and great melody, and “Keep Me”, display Baquet’s wide vocal range. One of three Spanish lyric offerings samples the depth of her talents (the artist’s notes are included to provide background)”:

          “Desde Mi Castillo Blanco”  (“From My Whit Castle” – this is NOT an allusion
           to the White House or to our government, rather, white is a symbol of the
           clean, pristine, comfortable an dperfect world we long for, and that which
           the ugly poverty of our brothers and sisters ‘dirties’.)

           From my white castle in comfort and in warmth I see my brother suffering,
           beneath the rain and the cold is killing him.  What am I going to do? 

           Chorus: Let us begin brothers, because up until now little or nothing have
           we done! (A quote from St. Francis of Assissi, the actual quote is “Let us begin,
           brothers, to serve the Lord our God for up to now we have made little or no
           progress.)

           Since my childhood everything that I have needed, everything that I have
           wanted was given to me, and you since your childhood have looked, amidst
           tears for a future that only perhaps will exist.

           Bridge: The Church is falling down. What am I doing? My brother is suffering.
           What am I doing? Jesus is dying. What am I doing? What am I going to do?
           “Pa”  (the Spanish onomatopoeia for a heart beat) pa….my heart; pa….your
           heart, I never realized that; .pa….my heart  beats and pa…..your heart is the
           same.

“Gentle Man” provides a bouncing melody adding color to the story of a man who wants to believe. A personal, poignant story concludes the collection with “Daddy’s Girl”, a heartfelt sharing of a youthful memory.

While a few songs are raw, (such is often the norm for independently produced albums), most shine in their simplicity and truth giving proof of a great ability to write a truly good song. As I again listen to Keep Me, I agree with Baquet’s summation of her song collection – ‘honest’.  Sarah Baquet’s liner note to fans:

    After searching for a word to describe this project we finally settled on the word
    ‘honest.’ I hope that in its honesty this album will bring you to a place of honesty
    before the Lord who seeks us not as we wish to be,but as we are.  It is in this
    place of honesty that He reaches down His tender and merciful hand to touch us.
    It is in this place that He beckons us to sanctity. My hope is that those who
    listen will be inspired to seek Him and His will with reckless abandon and in
    finding it will pursue it with the courage of the Saints. Please join your prayer
    with mine in asking the Lord that NOTHING ‘keeps me,’ (keeps us) from Him!

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sarahbaquet
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Scott S Mertens

 

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