Review: Kari Jobe Carnes and Cody Carnes at Kennedy Center
Great music with many imbalances.
Being married to someone that was raised Christian and myself being raised Jewish I never thought that Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) would be something that I would ever enjoy. Over our fifteen plus years of marriage (so far) my wife has introduced me to the likes and talents of such artists in the genre as Nichole Nordeman, Ellie Holcomb, Natalie Grant, and of course Michael W. Smith who popularized CCM music. I fully enjoy listening to these artists.
Another artist I was introduced to a few years ago was Kari Jobe (now Carnes). Her angelic voice is truly of a higher power. I was not familiar with her husband Cody Carnes prior to this concert.
Going into the Concert Hall at Kennedy Center, I was prepared for a fine evening of music with a good size orchestra, choir, and the Carnes’. While there was plenty of good music in their concert, certain other things made this experience less than optimal.
As you might or might not know, the Carnes’ are both worship leaders, so this concert was really half that and half church service. While I was not expecting this – as True North Presents usually features CCM artists in a more traditional concert format – I remembered this aspect from the last time I saw Kari Jobe Carnes perform a few years ago. I knew the performance was going to be a combo deal.
My favorite song of the evening was Ms. Carnes’ “First Love.” If the whole evening was as high-end as that one song, I would have been very happy. Her vocal was just that good. It was so pure, innocent, and truly angelic. I also very much enjoyed her rendition of “I Am Not Alone.”
Cody Carnes has a nice enough voice and plays the guitar well. However, at least for me, he was average as a performer compared to some of his other male counterparts in the CCM industry. His solo turns on such songs as “Nothing Else” and “He Who Is To Come” were just missing something for me. I felt that he just sang the songs rather than embodied them. I also need to say that because Cody had more solo turns than Kari, it made the evening feel a little imbalanced.
That was not the only imbalance in the evening. I will preface this by saying that I was seated maybe 12 rows back from the stage in the center. The Carnes’ were backed by a 42-piece orchestra made up of strings and percussion and an 85-member choir under the direction of conductor Jeff Bumgardner. You would think with two large ensembles onstage there would be a heavenly wall of sound backing the Carnes’. Unfortunately, the choir and the orchestra were drowned out most of the time by the Carnes’ own rhythm section, which was grossly over amplified. It made the orchestrations by Kelvin Reed, Billy Bob Dempsey, Bernie Herms, and Tom Grassi impossible to hear. The only times the chorus and orchestra were truly audible was when the rhythm section wasn’t playing. Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall has wonderful acoustics and did not need the “help” that someone thought was a good idea.
Having said that, this isn’t the fault of the Carnes’ musicians. Jessica Stropko (Keys), Austin Davis (Drums), Dan Alber (Bass), and Bobby Strand and Cory Pierce (Guitars) sounded fantastic. Their musicianship is excellent.
Photo by Nick Starichenko.
If there were more musical highlights like the Carnes’ hit duet “The Blessing” and just more of Kari Jobe Carnes in general, this concert would have been more enjoyable for me. As much as I understand why half of the concert was really a church service, it just made the show feel very disjointed and, I imagine, maybe even a little off putting for the unfamiliar.
Running Time: Two hours and five minutes with no intermission.
Kari Jobe Carnes and Cody Carnes was a one-night-only engagement in the Concert Hall at Kennedy Center on March 15th, 2026.
Lead photo credit- Kari Jobe Carnes, Cody Carnes at center with the True North Orchestra and Worship Choir. Photo by Nick Starichenko.
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