POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Chapman Takes Safe Path at the Greek

“What’s going on tonight is more than a concert,” said Steven Curtis Chapman, wrapping up his show Saturday at the Greek Theatre. “It’s something of eternal value.”

Virtually every pop musician has thought this, of course; Chapman, however, being a Christian music star, was heralding not his own termless virtues but rather directing the spiritually needy to the prayer team counselors waiting at the exit.

If anyone was unclear on why secular Liberty Records mogul Jimmy Bowen bought up Sparrow, the Christian label for which Chapman records, the answer was clear at the Greek, which was near-capacity for a performer who has heretofore had no mainstream airplay.

And Chapman’s affable, boy-next-door-as-youth-pastor personableness carried the show, though his slick, middle-of-the-road pop-rock was generic in a Bryan Adams/Kenny Loggins/ Garth Brooks amalgamative way that worked better on the simple, inspirational ballads than on the more cloying, up-tempo numbers.

Support act Bryan Duncan--responsible for many of the more appealing Christian pop tunes of recent years and a potential crosser-over himself--had a lot more soul in his winning vocals, full of Stevie Wonder and Daryl Hall influences, and in his bottom-heavy group, funky enough to pass for a successful R&B; bar band.