When I was blessed with the privilege of listening to and reviewing veteran guitarist John Gregorius’ exquisite Full of Life album in April 2020, it was so much more than a soothing balm during the frightening early days of the pandemic.
A reflection of his new life in Tucson after years in Southern California, it was an artful, soulful and inviting reminder of some early 90s Southwestern themed projects that were the soundtrack to my life back then. Gregorius’ relocation not long after he married his wife Catherine gave rise to a joyful time and a unique creative renaissance in the musicians’ life that, I wrote, “infuses Full of Life with caressing melodies, gentle wide-space reflections, invigorating (and grooving) exploratory road trips and a reverence for native lands.”
Continuing those lilting and gentle yet powerfully expressed new vibes on his subsequent projects In Awe and his Wayfarer Records debut Emergence, Gregorius now arrives at a place of sacred Communion, drawing inspiration from his unique Christian based but now more expansive understanding and embrace of and mystical connection to the divine.
From his sonically exploratory, ambience-caressed meditative and hypnotic lines on the opening title track through a soft spoken, atmospheric and dream-like prayer of and for “Intimate Grace,” Gregorius – over the course of nine mesmerizing tracks and 33 sacred-vibing minutes takes us on a highly personal yet profoundly universal journey of faith. Discovering his deeper musical purpose in new age and ambient music, the onetime Christian rocker and longtime former worship leader generously shares the beauty of his Communion with what he calls the “loving Source of all things.”
“With Full of Life,” Gregorius says, “a positive, hopeful sound came out naturally and I believe that has grown into Communion. I feel that ultimately, we are all seeking communion or deep connection in some way. I think this is where my early faith started me in the right direction, because it encouraged a personal relationship with God through Christ. Grace, mercy, love and giving of oneself brought about a greater purpose.
“Yet that was only the beginning of this journey,” he adds. “I’m finding many different faiths and those with none all have something to offer in regard to our connection to the Great Mystery. So I took the image of a natural communion and blended it with the ritual of communion or the Eucharist. This is not to discount either, but to celebrate them together. The cover of Communion is a more indigenous view of faith, the dipping hands in water as a way of communion with the Creator. Ultimately, I loved this image of bringing together these two images as being really the same thing…communion.”
How could anyone explain divine inspiration more beautifully? Gregorius transfers those compelling, introspective thoughts into the magical experience of Communion, which follows the opening title track with his shimmering guitar on a thoughtful easy grooving and richly melodic “Exaltation” that he says “could be singing at church or easily looking at the evening clouds in wonder.” It’s a piece of profound gratitude that reminds us that while God is the object of worship in building, the divine is omnipresent in the wonder we feel for many things in life. Full of profound awe, we can commune with God anywhere there is wonder and love.
While sometimes recordings in this genre feature generic afterthought titles, Gregorius matches the thought and heart provoking name of each tune with the energy his melodies, guitar lines and ambiences emit. The percussive grounding of “Fertile Soul” shows that while our bodies are earthbound in this life, our souls can transcend trappings of culture, religion, time and space and grow and expand heavenward, “watered” by life experience and fresh revelations. One of Gregorius’ most heartfelt pieces is “Sow Beauty,” which feels like the musical version of a deep tissue massage or soul bath, a soft nudge to create beautiful things in the life we’re given. The title came from the Laudato Si, a long writing Pope Francis did connecting care of nature with faith. “I love this simple yet profound image,” says Gregorius.
The titles of the next four songs – truly the emotional core of Communion – touch upon those ever-present natural inspirations from his day-to-day experiences living in the Southwest. In the guitarist’s view, the soothing, breezy flow of “Homily of Water and Stone” strikes an image of a stream or creek speaking a sermon. Nature as a manifestation of God can sometimes speak louder to our hearts and spirits than the voice of a human preacher. That’s worth a few shouts of “Amen!”
Continuing on the theme of equating nature with the Divine, he follows this with the reverent and introspective “Sacrament of Earth and Sky” and brings a dual meaning to the floating ever higher, trance-inducing “Restored By Wilderness.” It has the initial message of the healing side of nature but, as Gregorius says, “Wilderness can also mean unknowing, trial or a period of seeking, which gives this composition a deeper and more personal meaning to me.” Continuing both the literal concept and the metaphor, he inhales new life (physical and spiritual) thanks to the emphatic, soaring ambiences and snappy guitarisma of “Blessed Breath of Wind.”
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