The Night Beat HOF: The Founders Class

The Founders Class of The Night Beat Hall of Fame technically would consist of any artist prior to 2021. Considering that our starting point is Larry Norman's Upon This Rock in 1969 that's 52 years. That's unworkable. So the founders class will be the First decade 1969-1979. It also coincides with the Jesus Music Era and would encompass, according to HOF rules, the Classes of 1994-2004.

While not a Comprehensive list, this would include:

Larry Norman, Daniel Amos, Servant, Petra, The Archer's, Randy Stonehill, Phil Keaggy, The Second Chapter of Acts, Keith Green, Resurrection Band, Sweet Comfort Band, DeGarmo and Key, Denny Correll, Love Song, Chuck Girard, Evie, Barry McGuire, Reba Rambo, Dallas Holm, Kansas, Don Francisco, Darrell Mansfield, Andrus Blackwood and Company, Glad, Truth, Andrea Crouch, Phil Driscoll, Amy Grant, Michael Omartian.

I invite you to make your own suggestions, as I think this is far from complete, but I think this is a good start. Next up is the CCM era 1980-1989, when things started to become a coherent industry, which in my opinion was a very good thing. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

A Classic Replay: Flashback Friday - Swimming In A Human Ocean

We come to the end of our Journey through the Jungle Music Skit to the point where it all began, with the authors themselves. Servant. Servant, also known inexplicably as The Servant to Amazon, was born out of a commune, more specifically the Highway Missionary Society of Grants Pass, Oregon, which was later renamed The Servant Community.

Servant was a Rock Pioneer in so many ways. A Female Lead (Sandie Brock), multiple costume changes and skits, Laser Lights, Rock opera, smoke and flash. They were the bands of the early eighties. Petra was their opening act, not as you would expect, the other way around.

We would be amiss if we did not begin with the well used "Jungle Music" skit, a pioneer of its own in name dropping. At the conclusion of the skit, Stanley is completely frustrated with Livingstone at his misunderstanding his recitation of the Rock and Roll tapes that he brought with him. He tries one more time.

S: No, No, Doctor, you've got it all wrong. Oh well. Now then, I've also brought you some Servant.

L: Oh, what a stroke of luck, why two of my servants ran away last week, Larry and Normany. They ran into the shallow water and the crocks got them. Oh well. I suppose they're in another land now.

Last time we covered the reference to Larry Norman in this short bit. This week we go to the self reference. The band referenced, of course, is Servant, the song's author. The album referenced was Shallow Water (1979), the band's debut album. Of course by this time they were on their third release, with Rockin Revival (1981) and World of Sand (1982) filling out the schedule. I was privileged to see them three times, during their Rockin Revival, World of Sand and Swimming In A Human Ocean (1985) tours. They also had two other albums: Caught In The Act of Loving Him (1983) and Light Maneuvers (1984). The band remained mostly intact during its run, with the exception of Tim Spransy taking over Lead guitar on founding member Bruce Wright's death in 1985. Another member of the Spransy family, Matt Spransy, had joined the band on Keyboards back in 1981 when they added synths. Other than that the changes were fairly minor, with Eric Odell taking second lead from Bob Hardy in 1984 and Sam Evans on drums in 1985.

Partly due to their commune lifestyle, the Prosperity Message of the Word of Faith Churches were a frequent target for the band. Not surprisingly, the lyrics to those songs showed a profound ignorance of the message of prosperity. They though it was simply about me, me, me. If you give up everything and become poor, you can not help the poor. You need help yourself. Fortunately for those who believed that way, there was plenty more to enjoy from the band, and we weren't offended by the attacks.

I have a few YouTube audio clips for you. First up is Holy Roller Blues from Shallow Water. Now I don't know who did the lead on the album, but if it was the same as the live concert, it would have been Bruce Wright.

Next up was Rockin Revival. We have an audio clip from the album, and it's ad man. It is a pretty humorous song, though quite anti-commercial. We do have a treat with World of Sand, however. This is the full album. The album is awesome, though I will point out two in particular. The Jungle Music song begins at the 11:20 point, and the Sudden Death/Come Jesus Come Rock Opera goes from 28:55 to 40:35. Both are not to be missed.

Caught in the Act of Loving Him was up next in their career. One of my favorite songs from this album was about Forgiveness. It was called Heart to Heart.

Light Maneuvers gave the band another CCM Top 40 release in We are The Light.

It all came to an end much too soon with the release of Swimming In a Human Ocean. Of course the band was totally transformed by then.Only Owen and Sandie Brock and Rob Martens on Bass went pole to pole. We have an audio of Look Through His Eyes to close things out.

That closes out the first round of Flashback Friday. We are still technically caught in the seventies. I am trying to do things by the first release for dating a band. There is still much more for the decade. Still to come is Phil Keaggy, Randy Stonehill, Keith Green, Amy Grant, and The 2nd Chapter of Acts, and I'm not even done with the seventies again. Stay with me, this is a never ending column every Friday. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

A Classic Replay: Flashback Friday - Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?

(We continue our Friday Replays of Classic Flashback Friday. It gives me a chance to update new readers on the origins of Modern Christian Music. And a chance to update some broken links.)

Welcome to the latest edition of Flashback Friday. By way of introduction to my new readers, Flashback Friday is where I introduce my readers to the pioneers of Contemporary Christian Music, beginning with the Jesus Music Era of the Late 1960's and the 1970's. As we progress each week we shall move into the Seventies, and Eighties and perhaps beyond. Not exactly sure where I should end a flashback. Maybe with the year 1999/2000.

If any one person could be labeled the "First Father" or "Adam" of Christian Rock, that person would be, by almost unanimous choice (dare I say consensus), Larry David Norman (April 8, 1947 -February 24, 2008). He certainly was recognized by Servant.

S: No, No, Doctor, you've got it all wrong. Oh Well. Now then, I've also brought you some Servant.

L: Oh, what a stroke of luck, why two of my servants ran away last week, Larry and Normany. They ran into the shallow water and the crocks got them. I suppose they're in another land now.

That was the closing line of the Jungle Music Skit, and two artists were referenced here, Larry Norman and Servant. We shall get to Servant next week, and we will get to still more bands as we move into the eighties, which is known as Christian Music's Golden Age. If you didn't get the reference, Livingstone had two servants Larry and Normany (Larry Norman). Referenced also was In Another Land (1976), which was Normans sixth release as a Christian artist. He had actually been in the music industry since 1965 with the bands Back Country Seven (1964-65) and People (1965-68). He had a hit single "I Love You", with People, which reached #14 on Billboard's Hot 100. After a brief musical hiatus he returned to lead the nascent Christian Rock scene with Upon This Rock (1969).

With the rise of Christian Rock as a major force, a reactionary movement arose among the mainstream Christian community. A reaction in itself wasn't surprising, in fact Newton's Third Law of Motion required it (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction). What was always surprising was where the reaction came from. It would be easy to slough off an attack from "the world". It really hurt when the bullets were fired by your fellow brothers and sisters. Christianity has always been plagued with friendly fire casualties.

1 Corinthians 9:19-22 lays out the principle of "All things to all men" or "every available method" to getting out the Gospel. Paul would have been on TV, Radio, the Internet, etc. (He would have also booked passage on The Titanic, but that's another story). Organized Christianity (aka Christen-dumb) has opposed just about every major technological innovation of the 20th Century as being of "the devil", with the result that, with a few rare exceptions, the Christian Church has always been seen as a bunch of Luddites.

Norman struck back with one of the most well known "defense songs" ever released entitled Why should the devil have all the good music. Even though a live video of this exists, the quality is poor. Here is an audio only version for your enjoyment.

One of the best things about this song is it's biting sarcasm, with the parts like "I grew it out long to make room for my brain". Boldness like this was a rarity, and paved the way for CCM's Caustic Clone Prince Steve Taylor, but we shall deal with him at another time.

Six Degrees of Larry Norman

Larry Norman isn't only one of the most influential and respected people in CCM History, his is also one of the most "well-connected" people in CCM history. His Street Level Artists Agency represented legends such as Randy Stonehill, Daniel Amos and Mark Heard, but the connections go much further, and include artists as diverse as DC Talk, Switchfoot and Rebecca St. James. Even more surprising, he is also one of the founders of a Protestant Denomination of sorts. Not surprising, they don't have a problem with Rock and Roll. For more information on these connections, check out my Six Degrees Page.

That concludes this edition of Flashback Friday. We shall return next Friday with Servant, the last band listed in the Jungle Music Skit. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

p.s. - Check out the Larry Norman page to purchase music on Amazon and support The Night Beat at the same time. Thanks.

A Classic Replay: Flashback Friday - A Glass of Sweet Comfort

This weeks Flashback Friday Replay is a little more than Just a Replay. It is also a reunion. The original post can be found here, and it is complete as far as it went at the time. 

Sweet Comfort Band that is. Despite the adult beverage sounding name, which was shortened to SCB, they were actually a Jesus Music Era Christian Rock Band with tinges of R&B at the first. That's not to say they didn't play up the name. Again, we refer to the classic skit at the end of Servant's Jungle Music.

S: Steady on. Steady on old boy. What you need is a glass of sweet comfort
L: Blast you Stanley, why I drink it all the time. Hold On Tight, you get the glasses and I'll be breakin the Ice.

Never mind two-fers. This was a three-fer. Referenced in this short two lines were the bands first three albums: Sweet Comfort (1977), Breakin The Ice (1979) and Hold On Tight (1980). The band would release three additional albums: Hearts of Fire (1980), Cutting Edge (1981) and Perfect Timing (1982). A note on the last two albums. As I would listen to them I would note that as each album flowed, the songs seemed to be arranged on a theme, and flowed in a linear fashion. Even more so, though the albums were released a year apart, it was obvious that each one fit with the other, like part 1 and 2. For a time I had even toyed with the idea of turning the two albums into a musical. I'm sure prof Rhonda Winderl at ENC would have loved it.

The final lineup was Bryan Duncan on Keyboard and Lead Vocal, Kevin Thomson on Bass Guitar, his brother Rick Thomson on Drums and Vocals, and Randy Thomas on Guitar and Vocals. The band is rumored to be coming out with a new album with a new Bass Guitarist (Kevin Thomson passed away in 2010). After the band broke up Bryan Duncanwent on to have a successful solo career and Randy Thomas went on to found the Band Allies. From the archives (sort of), I give you a classic SCB song I Love You With My Life, done at the Kevin Thompson Memorial in 2010, which included CCM Legend Darryl Mansfield in the lineup.

Rumors floated for a many years that the band would reunite. We thought it was all a pipe dream  when Kevin Thompson went on to Glory. But You Know What? The rumors turned out to be true. The appropriately titled The Waiting is Over (2013) was indeed a Refreshing Beverage for fans of Christian Music. Kevin Thomson's son took over on Bass, and the other original members resumed their roles. 

I will Leave You with The Audio for Something Else is Going On Here from The Waiting Is Over. Until Next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply

A Classic Replay: Flashback Friday - Sightseeing at Night

Welcome back to Flashback Friday, the time when we reach back into CCM's storied archive and bring the recent arrivals up on the history. We have been using the Jungle Music skit as our jumping off point, and this week we get into a bit of a spat with Stanley and Livingstone.

S: I Say, Do You Fancy Fireworks
L: Why they're strictly forbidden. It Shatters the Darkness. One Shot and the animals go quite crackers. The rocket's red glare and all that.

And with that we move on. The Band of the week is Fireworks, also known as Marty McCall and Fireworks. Originally a Trio consisting of Marty McCall, Garry Pigg and Cindy Lipford, their eponymous debut in 1977 was mostly adult contemporary in nature. They soon ditched that sound, (and Lipford and Pigg) and went rock with McCall, Lanny Avery on Drums, Jerry Gaston on Guitars and Chris Harris and Bob Sincovic on Bass. During this time they released three more albums Shatter The Darkness (1979), Live Fireworks (1980), Up (1981), and Sightseeing at Night (1982). Then they disbanded, and McCall went on to form the AC/Country First Call, and I lost interest. In their heyday they were backup to groups like Servant and Petra, but never reached the rarefied air that those two bands would attain.

Since they fizzled out before the advent of the Music Video, there are none. However, that doesn't mean that YouTube couldn't help out with audio. I've got a few to share.

Here's the extremely acoustic Like Children (just McCall on Keys) from Shatter The Darkness.

And Shatter the Darkness itself.

One of my favorites, Incognito, from Sightseeing at Night (though Marty tries too hard to rhyme Incognito. A presidential Veto?)

And let's finish by rocking out. This is I Got News for You, one of their hardest tunes.


Good thing this isn't music video Monday. This band never got the following it deserved, and that is a shame. Until next Flashback Friday, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

In Praise of the Megasong

Nobody writes long songs anymore, at least not from my experience. Oh sure, there are pockets out there, but it usually is just the Modern Worship or Gospel Genres. At least they write songs that clock in over 5 minutes. That doesn't have to be the case. Since I go to churches that are big on the Modern Worship/Hillsong style, I have found it amazing that Churches have not capitalized on their ability to distort the time-space continuum. Seriously, how is it possible that you can take a four line chorus and make it last for a half hour while at the same time making it seem like twelve hours. It's the sanctified version of the song that does not end. (The sanctified Song That Does Not End would have to be Psalm 119. At 176 Verses long, a comfortable paced read takes approximately 30 minutes. Singing it as intended, even with modern music, probably longer.

That's not the type of song I'm talking about. The songs I'm talking about are over six minutes long, some are twice that, but the experience is such that you would think it's only two or three minutes in length. The six minute bar is intentional, for it surpasses the 5:55 run time of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Of course, nothing against Queen, but I prefer my Bohemian Rhapsody to come from high class sources. Bohemian Rhapsody is the bar. My first list of songs not only exceed that bar, they smash it. In reverse order of length.

• #10 - Sudden Death, Servant, World of Sand, 1981 (8:18) - Doing a top ten list, this one winds up the shortest. It stands as a megasong on its own, though it is also part of a two song "rock opera"
• #9 - Trilogy, Iona, Iona, 1991 (8:34) - This is where it all begins. This Progressive Rock/Celtic band from the UK almost can't make a song under 5 minutes. This is from their eponymous debut, though not their longest or best.
• #8 - Songs of Ascent Pt. 2, Iona, Open Sky, 2000 (9:06)
• #7 - Bird of Heaven, Iona, Beyond These Shores, 1993 (9:09)
• #6 - Castlerigg, Iona, Open Sky, 2000 (9:25)
• #5 - Woven Cord, Iona, Open Sky, 2000 (9:28)
• #4 - Boomerang feat Tracy Truells, Cloud 2 Ground, The Gate, 2000 (11:18) - Wow, a song not by Iona made the list. This Trance/Techno band by Chad Petree and Jeremy Dawson is great.
• #3 - Encircling, Iona, Journey Into the Morn, 1995 (11:38)

• #2 - Matthew-The Man, Iona, The Book of Kells, 1992 (11:54)
• #1 - Sodom, Jerusalem, Warrior, 1981 (12:33)

I have praised Sodom many many times before, so I wont say anything this time. If you take away the Iona songs, not only is the list only three songs long, but two of the songs are written in 1981. See what I mean, nobody does it anymore.

I'm going to do a cheat here. In the era of mp3 files, there are certain songs that would be megasongs if they were not split into two. The songs may have been intentionally recorded as two songs, but they either, because of theme or the fact that they have barely a millisecond of space between them. Here are three two part megasongs.

• #3 - Destroy/Savior, Worth Dying For, Love Riot (6:31)
• #2 - Tourniquet/Imaginary, Evanescence, Fallen (8:55)
• #1 - Sudden Death/Come Jesus Come, Servant, World of Sand (11:55) Sudden Death and its companion song Come Jesus Come were billed as a two song "rock opera". It was written in honor of a death by auto accident of members of the Servant Community.

This has been a special edition of Flashback Friday. If you know of a mega song that you love, please share it with me by commenting. As always, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Flashback Friday: Swimming In A Human Ocean

We come to the end of our Journey through the Jungle Music Skit to the point where it all began, with the authors themselves. Servant. Servant, also known inexplicably as The Servant to Amazon, was born out of a commune, more specifically the Highway Missionary Society of Grants Pass, Oregon, which was later renamed The Servant Community.

Servant was a Rock Pioneer in so many ways. A Female Lead (Sandie Brock), multiple costume changes and skits, Laser Lights, Rock opera, smoke and flash. They were the bands of the early eighties. Petra was their opening act, not as you would expect, the other way around.

We would be amiss if we did not begin with the well used "Jungle Music" skit, a pioneer of its own in name dropping. At the conclusion of the skit, Stanley is completely frustrated with Livingstone at his misunderstanding his recitation of the Rock and Roll tapes that he brought with him. He tries one more time.

S: No, No, Doctor, you've got it all wrong. Oh well. Now then, I've also brought you some Servant.

L: Oh, what a stroke of luck, why two of my servants ran away last week, Larry and Normany. They ran into the shallow water and the crocks got them. Oh well. I suppose they're in another land now.

Last time we covered the reference to Larry Norman in this short bit. This week we go to the self reference. The band referenced, of course, is Servant, the song's author. The album referenced was Shallow Water (1979), the band's debut album. Of course by this time they were on their third release, with Rockin Revival (1981) and World of Sand (1982) filling out the schedule. I was privileged to see them three times, during their Rockin Revival, World of Sand and Swimming In A Human Ocean (1985) tours. They also had two other albums: Caught In The Act of Loving Him (1983) and Light Maneuvers (1984). The band remained mostly intact during its run, with the exception of Tim Spransy taking over Lead guitar on founding member Bruce Wright's death in 1985. Another member of the Spransy family, Matt Spransy, had joined the band on Keyboards back in 1981 when they added synths. Other than that the changes were fairly minor, with Eric Odell taking second lead from Bob Hardy in 1984 and Sam Evans on drums in 1985.

Partly due to their commune lifestyle, the Prosperity Message of the Word of Faith Churches were a frequent target for the band. Not surprisingly, the lyrics to those songs showed a profound ignorance of the message of prosperity. They though it was simply about me, me, me. If you give up everything and become poor, you can not help the poor. You need help yourself. Fortunately for those who believed that way, there was plenty more to enjoy from the band, and we weren't offended by the attacks.

I have a few YouTube audio clips for you. First up is Holy Roller Blues from Shallow Water. Now I don't know who did the lead on the album, but if it was the same as the live concert, it would have been Bruce Wright.

Next up was Rockin Revival. Unfortunately we don't have any audio clips from this album. We do have a treat with World of Sand, however. This is the full album. The album is awesome, though I will point out two in particular. The Jungle Music song begins at the 11:20 point, and the Sudden Death/Come Jesus Come Rock Opera goes from 28:55 to 40:35. Both are not to be missed.

Caught in the Act of Loving Him was up next in their career. One of my favorite songs from this album was about Forgiveness. It was called Heart to Heart.

Light Maneuvers gave the band another CCM Top 40 release in We are The Light.

It all came to an end much too soon with the release of Swimming In a Human Ocean. Of course the band was totally transformed by then.Only Owen and Sandie Brock and Rob Martens on Bass went pole to pole. We have an audio of Look Through His Eyes to close things out.

That closes out the first round of Flashback Friday. We are still technically caught in the seventies. I am trying to do things by the first release for dating a band. There is still much more for the decade. Still to come is Phil Keaggy, Randy Stonehill, Keith Green, Amy Grant, and The 2nd Chapter of Acts, and I'm not even done with the seventies again. Stay with me, this is a never ending column every Friday. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Flashback Friday: Sightseeing at Night Is Alright When You Shatter The Darkness

Welcome back to Flashback Friday, the time when we reach back into CCM's storied archive and bring the recent arrivals up on the history. We have been using the Jungle Music skit as our jumping off point, and this week we get into a bit of a spat with Stanley and Livingstone.

S: I Say, Do You Fancy Fireworks
L: Why they're strictly forbidden. It Shatters the Darkness. One Shot and the animals go quite crackers. The rocket's red glare and all that.

And with that we move on. The Band of the week is Fireworks, also known as Marty McCall and Fireworks. Originally a Trio consisting of Marty McCall, Garry Pigg and Cindy Lipford, their eponymous debut in 1977 was mostly adult contemporary in nature. They soon ditched that sound, (and Lipford and Pigg) and went rock with McCall, Lanny Avery on Drums, Jerry Gaston on Guitars and Chris Harris and Bob Sincovic on Bass. During this time they released three more albums Shatter The Darkness (1979), Live Fireworks (1980), Up (1981), and Sightseeing at Night (1982). Then they disbanded, and McCall went on to form the AC/Country First Call, and I lost interest. In their heyday they were backup to groups like Servant and Petra, but never reached the rarefied air that those two bands would attain.

Since they fizzled out before the advent of the Music Video, there are none. However, that doesn't mean that YouTube couldn't help out with audio. I've got a few to share.

Here's the extremely acoustic Like Children (just McCall on Keys) from Shatter The Darkness.

And Shatter the Darkness itself.

One of my favorites, Incognito, from Sightseeing at Night (though Marty tries too hard to rhyme Incognito. A presidential Veto?)

And let's finish by rocking out. This is I've Got News for You, one of their hardest tunes.


Good thing this isn't music video Monday. This band never got the following it deserved, and that is a shame. Until next Flashback Friday, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

I Love The 80's: Firing Up the Night Beat Time Machine

Now that the Christmas Season is over, the cleanup begins. Now for most people that simply means ditching the tree and lights and usually putting the Christmas Music back in storage for another year. Now for me, though I have some Christmas CD's, I have a bigger selection on mp3, and, since I have an ancient and honorable iBook at home, it is time to purge the Christmas Music from the iTunes library (I've got it all on Flash Drives) and put on the regular tunes.

Some of those mp3's are from the "Classic Rock" era, and, despite what some may think, I think the music of that era holds up well over time. Now due to improvements in technology and the like "rock" supergroups of the time now sound like pop groups of today. Trust me though, these guys rocked.

The 80's gave us the pioneers of the Modern CCM industry. Petra, though born in the 70's, didn't come into its own until the 80's, and acts like the FFR pioneer bands Servant and Resurrection Band took the slings and arrows of their fellow Christians so that groups like Eowyn, Fireflight, Flyleaf, Paramore, Evolett and Evanescence would have the success that they have.

Then there was the Coffeehouse scene. I doubt the coffee was great (I hadn't started drinking coffee yet, so I don't know, but it was a long way from Starbucks. Shoutout to my friend Coffee Lovin Mom here. I don't know why, but I thought this would make an excellent name for a bad country song. I repeat myself, I know). There were small acts focused here, and it opened up a whole new method of promotions. This was usually an excellent way to get bootleg music. Bring in the old cassette machine, put it right on the table, nobody cared. I guess the RIAA didn't exist back then.

Heavy Metal was also born in the 80's, and while it bears little resemblance to the Thrash-Metal of the 21st Century, this screaming guitar metal could hold their own against any of them, Even TDWP. One of the best metal acts of the decade was the Swedish metal act Jerusalem. This was the band responsible for the mega metal composition Sodom, which clocks in at over Twelve Minutes Long, OVER HALF of which is instrumental. I dare any of today's bands to try something like that. The labels would be screaming. The only band to come close today is IONA.

I guess it's obvious that I love the eighties. And you know, it works in the mainstream as well. Not just politically (It was the Reagan Revolution) but TV and Music in general just sounded better. This rant is brought to you by the Night Beat. I invite you to visit the website and vote on the poll in the sidebar. What was your favorite musical decade? With all honors to REZ, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Reunion Summer

This year is turning out to be quite interesting if, like me, you kind of miss some of the "old" bands or artists. I'm speaking figuratively guys, you're only as old as you think.

First Came The Legends. This Year the Cornerstone Festival had a Jesus Rally. Present were the Legends of Rock. I have usually never wished that I was in Illinois in the Summer. This year was different

Jesus Music Rally

Thursday June 30, 2011

3:00 PM - Servant

3:50 PM - Barry McGuire

4:55 PM - Daniel Amos

5:50 PM - Randy Stonehill

6:50 PM - E Band

8:00 PM - Resurrection Band (REZ)

9:15 PM - Phil Keaggy

10:15 PM - Classic Petra

To a lot of Christian Music enthusiasts, this was a dream matchup. I mean what was there to complain about. O.K. "Hey, How come REZ got the most time of all of them (technically it's their festival), but apart from that. Of course shortly before news of this rally we heard that Petra was reorganizing under it's classic lineup, and things have gotten better since then. Sweet Comfort Band is getting reconstituted and recording again. Grammatrain, a band which announced they were breaking up the first (and Only) time I saw them in concert, recorded a new album, which you can hear on their site. According to Jesusfreakhideout.com Time and Space the first release from Miss Angie in a dozen years. (Triumphantine dropped back in 1999) will release next Tuesday. I am psyched.

The track listing:

1. Time and Space (feat. The Identity Crisis)
2. Letting Go (to your love)
3. Great is Your Salvation
4. I Dare Myself
5. Intermission (make the connect)
6. Lovestealer
7. Oh Daddy
8. Wanting My Heart
9. Hear My Prayer
10. Not Enough
11. Not Enough (Remix by Paradoxx)

You can listen to Time and Space, as well as Great is Your Salvation, I Dare Myself, Lovestealer, and Wanting My Heart, in their entirety on her official site. That's half the album folks. I would love to be able to get my hands on a full copy so I can make a review, but based on the five songs available, Fans of the first two albums will not be disappointed. There is just enough "space-pop" to satisfy, and it is combined with a now much matured voice. This is her best work yet, and I will give it a preliminary 4.5 Emeralds. Welcome back Miss Angie.

Finally, we have Burlap to Cashmere, which released their last Album Anybody Out There? back in 1998. Their self-titled release which came out this past Tuesday, is available to listen to in its entirety though hearitfirst.com. After listening, I would hope you would return to the site and support the night beat by buying through this site. I hope to have a full review up on the site soon.

That will do it for now. As Always, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Grooveyard of Grace: Night Beat Classic Edition

In a previous post I briefly discussed the recent trend of retired bands getting back together for reunions. Sometimes it is on a permanent basis, and other times it is a one time deal during the Summer Festival season, which I also discussed in one of my first blog posts. This summer a mass reunion of sorts will occur at the Cornerstone Festival, one of the largest festivals, organized by Jesus People USA and operating every summer around the 4th of July since 1984. To mark the 40th Anniversary since Jesus made the Cover of Time Magazine, some of the "Fathers" of Christian Music will be appearing at the Festival for what is billed as a Jesus Rally. It will be a once in a lifetime event, as some of the bands that are scheduled to appear have not performed for decades, and probably will resume their retirement after the festival. I would hope the powers that be at JPUSA will be recording the event. I think DVDs of the rally would be a hot seller.

Though the rally is of great interest to us at the Night Beat, Illinois is a long way from the Northeast, and I don't know if I'll be able to attend. We have our own Summer Festival up here, Soulfest in New Hampshire, held since '98. To my knowledge only Classic Petra is coming this way. I hope that changes.

My introduction to Christian Music came in the decade of the 1980's, which in my opinion was the Golden Age of Christian Music. Jesus Music bands such as Servant and Petra were coming into their own, though Petra was considered an opening act at the time for an established band like Servant. Most bands used synthesizers to great effect, something that has been lost recently except in the Techno arena, with the exception of groups like Skillet. The Super-groups of the era were Petra, Servant, Fireworks and DeGarmo and Key. Resurrection Band or REZ, as they are known to their legions of fans, is generally regarded as Father of Christian Heavy Metal, just as Petra is regarded as the Father of Christian Rock. Both Sandie Brock (Servant) and Wendy Kaiser (REZ) were pioneers in the field of Female Fronted Rock. Without them taking the heat at first, I think it highly unlikely that three decades later we would be blessed with awesome FFR bands as The Letter Black (Sarah Anthony), Fireflight (Dawn Michele), Flyleaf (Lacey Sturm), Paramore (Hayley Williams), and Evolett (Haden Brightwell). That would be quite a loss.

The only sad thing about the Rally is who will not be there. I would like to see Fireworks again, but I'm not sure if anybody could be rounded up. However there is one band that can't reunite, and that is D&K. With the death of Dana Key in 2010 it would be very awkward at least to have a band with the name of DeGarmo & Key reunite. Another loss.

For those interested in learning about the Roots of Christian Rock, I would recommend you immerse yourself in these bands. Servant made six albums: Shallow Water (1979), Rockin Revival (1981), World of Sand (1982), Caught in the Act of Loving Him (1983), Light Maneuvers (1984) and Swimming in a Human Ocean (1985). Must have songs are innumerable with this band. But two not to miss are Sudden Death and Come Jesus Come from World of Sand, which together form their Rock Opera.

Fireworks music is almost non-existent right now in the market. I would suggest this workaround at the moment. Petra is one of the most prolific bands out there, so you shouldn't have any problem finding stuff from them. To narrow down your hunt, I would recommend a few must haves. Start your journey with Never Say Die (1981), the album which began Petra's transformation from Pop to Rock, and the second with Greg X. Volz, the "voice" of Petra. More Power To Ya (1982) completed the transition, and by the time Not of this World (1983) the reputation of the band as one of the Premier rock bands of our time was chiseled in stone.

DeGarmo and Key released thirteen albums between 1978 and 1994, and while it is almost impossible to pick a favorite here, I would start with Communication (1984) which has the iconic songs Six, Six, Six; Are You Ready, and Alleluia Christ is Coming. Also Commander Sozo and the Charge of the Light Brigade (1985) with the hits Casual Christian, Apathy Alert, and Competition.

Finally, REZ has many albums, but it is best to start at the beginning. I would suggest Awaiting Your Reply as the ideal starting point.

I will return to the grooveyard from time to time, and may eventually spin it off into a blog of its own. The links lead to the mp3  download section of Amazon, though Light Maneuvers and Swimming in a Human Ocean are only available on Vinyl. Please use the links to shop and help support the Night Beat. We will return to the music of the 21st Century with our next post.

We at the Night Beat would like to offer our thoughts and prayers to the people of Japan as they recover from todays 8.9 Magnitude Earthquake and resulting Tsunami. Be assured that help is on the way.