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Artists’ Names: Dale & Cheryl Golden
Website: www.daleandcherylgolden.com
Album Title: “Summer In My Soul”
Song Titles:

1. Marching Into Canaanland
2. Music To Your Ears
3. Same Great God
4. For My Father’s Eyes
5. I Will Answer His Call
6. Sunshine Smiles
7. I Will Fight On
8. Summer In My Soul
9. He’ll Make The Wine
10. Everything I’m Not
11. Without My Dad
12. Come Home My Trembling Child

Dale and Cheryl Golden are a husband-wife duet based out of the state of Texas.  They have been in music ministry since February of 1995, and together they have more than 25 years of ministry experience.

“Summer In My Soul” is the Goldens’ latest album.  The cover, designed by Dale himself, features a close-up shot of the couple with the album title at the bottom.  Production credits can be found on the back of the cover, and personal words and thanks from the couple are on the inside.  While the lyrics are not included in the cover, they can be found on the couple’s website.  The album itself is a collection of 12 original songs.

Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: THE SONGS!

The first song is the up-tempo “Marching Into Canaanland”.  Dale takes the lead on this song, and he has a baritone-range voice with a solid tone.  Cheryl sings harmony here, but Dale’s voice is much more prominent in the mix.  The vocals sound like a trio, as if Cheryl had recorded both upper and lower harmony parts.  Cheryl takes the lead on Song #2, a slower ballad called “Music To Your Ears”.  She has a nice second soprano voice that is very pleasant to listen to.  Dale has the harmony here, and his voice is very much in the background compared to Cheryl’s.  Also, I’m sure of it now- there’s more than one harmony part, even though they’re a duet.  The tempo speeds back up as Dale takes the lead on “Same Great God”.  This is a toe-tapper that listeners will enjoy.  The fourth song is a medium-tempo number called “For My Father’s Eyes”.  Here we get a glimpse of the higher end of Cheryl’s range.

The tempo stays the same for the fifth song, “I Will Answer His Call”.  The tempo then slows down some more as Cheryl takes the lead on “Sunshine Smiles”.  This is a smooth, relaxing song that helps the listener stop and reflect on things.  Next up is another ballad-style song called “I Will Fight On”.  Song #8, “Summer In My Soul”, is the album’s title track.  This is another slow-to-medium-tempo song that features Cheryl.  In fact, it’s the third song in a row where she has had the lead.   

The ninth song picks the tempo back up as Dale takes the lead on “He’ll Make The Wine”.  This is followed by another slow song called “Everything I’m Not”, featuring Cheryl.  Song #11 keeps the tempo the same as Cheryl sings “Without My Dad”.  While the liner notes mention that this song was inspired by Dale’s father, Roy Golden, they also mention that the words ring true for Cheryl’s father, O.Z. Walton, as well.  This is another song that causes listeners to stop and reflect on the special people in their lives.  The album ends with Dale being featured on another slower song, “Come Home My Trembling Child”.

Dale and Cheryl Golden have a very traditional sound.  The vocals are well-done and pleasant to hear, and the arrangements are a nice complement to them.  I do, however, have a few dislikes.  First of all, on every song, the lead vocal is much more prominent than the harmony vocals.  I would like for them to be a bit more even across the board.  Secondly, the album seemed to drag a bit with the number of slower songs it contains.  Perhaps a couple more faster songs would make things flow a bit better.  Finally, I would have liked to have heard a couple of songs with just the two vocals instead of the 3 parts that I heard in every song.  Admittedly, this is a complaint that I have with most every duet album that I hear- they all think they need to add a third vocal to the mix.  This isn’t a bad thing, but I would have loved to have heard a true duet vocal on this album.  Still, the album was not bad by any stretch of the imagination, and I know that listeners will get a blessing from the Goldens’ music.  Overall, I would give this album a rating of 7.5 out of 10 microphones!

Favorites: “Marching Into Canaanland”, “Same Great God”, and “For My Father’s Eyes”