As an eight-year-old girl growing up in Sweden, Ida Sand heard the iconic gospel vocalist Mahalia Jackson singing ‘How Great Thou Art’ and was completely transfixed by the immense power of her music. Sand’s third album for the ACT label pays homage to the huge influence that both gospel and soul music have played in forming her own musical make-up. Alongside a sublime duet with singer and guitarist Raul Midón, a cover of Bobby Scott’s ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’, other highlights include Sam Cooke’s majestic ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ (featuring special guests Steve Gadd and Joe Sample), Sand’s irrevocably catchy ‘It Is To Know’, plus a surprisingly effective cover of Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer’. Appearing on a quartet of tracks, the celestial harmonies of a fabulous sextet of backing singers – the ACT Jubilee Singers (including Sand herself) – provide the tasty icing on this particular confection. Signing off with ‘God Only Knows’, one of three tracks featuring the evocative sound of Ola Gustafsson’s lapsteel guitar, Sand’s pitch-perfect delivery really hits the bull’s eye.