Artist: Josh Caterer
Album: Why Me
Label: Independent
Tracks: 5
Length: 18:11
Review by: Phil Nichols (philN)

A few years ago everything seemed to be going great for Josh Caterer, former front man of the Chicago based pop-punk band, the Smoking Popes. The band had just signed to Capitol Records; they were opening for mainstream rock acts like the Foo Fighters and the Violent Femmes; and they were quickly becoming some of the most talented musicians in the Chicago punk scene. Yes, on the outside things were going great for Josh Caterer, but on the inside Caterer had reached a low-point and was fighting a losing battle to drugs and alcohol. In his distress he began seeking God and eventually became a Christian after reading the C.S. Lewis classic Mere Christianity. After some failed attempts to use the Popes as a means of expressing his new-found faith, Caterer called it quits and began to look for other musical outlets. It was at this time that Caterer released his Why Me EP, just months before going on to start his new pop-punk band, Duvall.

The Why Me EP is essentially an acoustic album consisting of five covers of praise songs and hymns. The album kicks off with the title track featuring an acoustic guitar and the crooning vibrato vocals that attracted so many people to the Smoking Popes. The song also has a brief guitar solo by Josh's brother Eli, who was also a member of the Popes and is currently playing with Duvall. The main focus of the EP is the lyrical content, so unlike Caterer's other musical endeavors, the guitar is more in the background rather than a driving force in the music, which I feel was a good decision on Josh's part. I was impressed with the tight vocal harmonies of 'Green Pastures', which features a duet between Caterer and Karen Tierney. The EP closes with a very passionate rendition of the hymn, Great Is Thy Faithfulness. I really feel that the vocals are what separates Why Me from other acoustic worship albums. Every word that Caterer speaks is full of so much emotion that you can feel how genuine everything he says is; he truly means everything he sings. When he cries out to Jesus it is not a pretentious cry, but a real, heartfelt plea. There are very few worship albums that come off that way.

I was very impressed with this EP. While I am not usually a big fan of acoustic worship albums, I really enjoyed this. I respect Josh as a musician because he chose to focus on the lyrics rather than fancy guitar work, and it just helps to show that his heart is in the right place. It is a moving EP when you think about where Josh had been struggling a few years ago, but it is obvious that God is working through Caterer and it will be exciting to see what the future holds for his new band Duvall. I would recommend this album to fans of other acoustic praise albums. While this EP does not sound like Duvall or the Popes, fans of either of Caterer's other bands might want to give this a try - I'm glad I did.