Born and bred in the heart of Australia’s country music capital, Tamworth, Gavin Gardner was all about the music ever since he received his first electric guitar at 15 from his dad.

Gardner’s faith was shaken and tested when he took to the abusive habits of drugs and alcohol. Set on a path that led to pain and suffering, God revealed to him his glory and kindness in what Gardner describes as a profound spiritual experience. Now Gardner uses his gifts to proclaim the very gospel that pulled him from his destructive life.

Gardner’s music basks in warm, pop-folk familiarity that invites many to easy listening.

The pleasant acoustic riffs and cool, blue voice would strike up comparisons with say, Pete Murray or Jason Mraz.

But while the catchy melodic hooks and skilful guitar work are worth credit in their own right, Gardner has quietly and calmly entered the music scene with his debut EP Time. Gardner has opted for the modest road with non-profit label Small House Records and embarks on his publishing career without bells or whistles or shouts of praise, but with a quiet lamentation over his own sinfulness. This is where Gardner distinguishes himself as a talented, honest musician with a story to tell, and his unabashedly earnest lyrics are what make him worth listening to more than anything else.

Gardner doesn’t try to hide his past in his music. In being consistent with the soul-revealing folk genre and a God who wants nothing but honesty from us, Gardner writes songs that, in his words, ‘aren’t sugar coated but are raw and real just like King David’s stuff. Honest with people… honest with God’. He seems to have found a voice that we can all identify with and appreciate as fellow sinners, but more importantly as fellow recipients of God’s grace.

In his opening song, title track ‘Time’ (this reviewer’s favourite on the EP) Gardner sings ‘I’ve got the tele gone wild, I’ve got the radio on fire, I just can’t seem to sit still’. To this reviewer, his lyrics express a world saturated with electronic distractions that leave us restless and unwilling to sit still and connect with our maker, a world that many (myself included) are swept up in. But then he sings the chorus: ‘I’m gonna take a step, gonna lose my grip on this world and all that it has’. It reminded me that the time given to us from God needs to be used wisely, and our hearts need to be set on things beyond this world.

It’s this pattern of self-awareness (of how small and sinful we really are) followed by the edifying realisation that life isn’t actually about us that seems to prevail in Gardner’s songs. It’s a message that has profoundly changed Gardner’s life and one that perhaps we need to take on board as well.