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miko2I attended Salem Academy, a non-denominational Christian High School from 7th grade until I graduated in 1982. In my Sophomore year I discovered Christian rock. At the time there were only a handful of bands that could be considered Christian rock bands, but I followed the genre throughout high school and college as it grew and flourished. There are a lot of bands that I used to listen to that I would be embarassed to play for my friends now. In some cases the musicianship just wasn't very good. In many more cases, even if the musicianship was good, the songwriting was not. Either the themes were simplistic, or the execution of the writing was lacking.
But the first real Christian rock band that I ever heard back in 1979 is a band that I still listen to and am quite satisfied with. There is no "cringe" factor involved, because the Ressurection Band was not only a very talented band musically, but also wrote intelligently and creatively and would tackle themes and subjects that were certainly not the usual fare for a Christian band. For example, on that first tape of theirs that I heard was the song "Afrikaans" which was about the evil of Apartheid in South Africa. This was 1979, and the song was written in 1978 or 1977. There weren't a whole lot of rock bands writing about Apartheid back then, let alone any Christian bands. But the Rez Band liked to write about social injustice as much as they did spiritual topics. They wrote about poverty, child abuse, drug addiction, the way we treat the crippled, depression, you name it.
In other words, not the kind of themes that, say, the Imperials EVER sang about.
I remember my friend Chuck having a real problem with the Ressurection Band because they played hard rock music. Chuck was one of those people like, say, Dubya and all of his followers, who see what's in front of them and doesn't see what lies below the surface. To him, rock and roll was, if not evil, then at least "of the world", and he told me that he didn't agree with a band like the Ressurection Band because they obviously were more interested in money and fame and appealing to the world, and had their priorities wrong.
At the time I didn't know how to respond to him. In retrospect, it's easy to see that the way to fame and fortune in the Christian music scene was to play it safe and give the people what they wanted. A band like the Imperials that played safe Christian music to thousands certainly made more money than a band that was too radical for most Christians but too Christian for everyone else. The people in the Ressurection Band were part of Jesus People USA, which lived in inner-city Chicago, and ran outreach programs like a soup kitchen, a roofing company that helped employ those in the inner city, a magazine that delved into complicated questions of faith in relation to the modern world (which they frequently gave away for free -- I still get copies sent to me once or twice a year, and I haven't subscribed in more than a dozen years). The first time I saw the Ressurection Band live, it was in a small school gymnasium with a crowd of a few hundred, and the tickets sold for $3 each. So no, they weren't making a mint by doing what they did. Just the opposite, in fact.
Anyway, I followed the Ressurection Band/Rez Band for many years. They were a great hard rock band, but they were best when they played blues or blues rock. They had two lead singers and two guitar players, but it was Glen Keiser's guitar and his raspy, soulful voice that gave them their bluesy edge, and he was the one who wrote most if not all of their bluesy numbers.
Sometime in the late eighties Glen Keiser started making pure blues albumns. At first he did a couple of cds with another Christian bluesman, Darrell Mansfield, then he started doing solo cds. The early cds were all acoustic blues, and at the time I wasn't yet a big fan of accoustic blues, so I never actually picked up those cds. And eventually the Ressurection Band itself went on haitus and stopped releasing music, and years went by with nothing new from them.
More recently, I've been picking up cds of music that I still like from what I listened to a long time ago, and this Spring the last two albumns by a metal band called Barnabas were released as a single cd. Barnabas is another band that I can listen to (for the most part) without cringing, because they wrote exceptionally well. But the outfit that was selling their cd had a minimum order of $25.00, and when I visited their site a few months ago I didn't know what else I would want to order from them, so I passed.
And then two weeks ago it occured to me that, if anything, I should try to pick up a couple of Glen Keiser's blues cds. So I went back to this site and ordered my Barnabas cd, plus two of Glen Keiser's cds.
(I also ordered another blues cd -- "Something New Under the Son" by Larry Norman -- which is probably the first blues music of any kind that I ever listened to. But mostly I would classify this as music that has some nostalgia for me, but has more of a "cringe" factor. They lyrics are extremely simple, and simplistic.)
Anyway, the Glen Keiser cds were very, very good. I was inspired to visit grrr records, the music label for JPUSA, and order something more. As it turned out, there are a LOT of cds that he's released in the last ten years. They had a "buy 4, get 1 free" deal, and since most of the cds were around $11 that was a pretty tempting offer.
I was able to determine that some of the cds were "worship" cds, Glen on accoustic guitar playing original music meant for worship. Those I avoided. I'm sure they're more interesting than your typical worship cd, but not really what I was looking for.
Other cds were of Glen Keiser playing accoustic blues, and a few others were of Glen Keiser playing with others (including a double cd of the two discs he did with Darrell Mansfield -- which I couldn't include in the 5 for 4 deal so I decided to pick them up later).
Several were by the "Glen Keiser Band". These were blues rock -- and I made sure to include all of those in my order. My order arrived today before I left for work, so I was able to listen to some of it on the way to and from work.
And wow. I mean, good blues rock is some of my favorite music, and the stuff Glen Keiser is doing with his Glen Keiser Band is better than anything else I've ever heard him do, and that's saying a lot because he's always been good. He's got such a great voice for this kind of music, and he's such a good guitarist, and he writes so well. It all comes together. Keiser is not just a good bluesman, but a riveting preacher -- I've seen him preach before, short, sharp messages at the ends of concerts. He consciously follows in the footsteps of Preacher Bluesmen Blind Willie Johnson and Reverend Gary Davis. He even does a very good cover of "Nobody's Fault But Mine".
Add in the fact that I ordered yet another of his cds from Amazon (one that I realized was out of print and I couldn't get from Grrr Records if I wanted to), and I now have 8 cds of Glen Keiser playing the blues, where I had none just a week ago. And there are still a few more that I have yet to pick up, but that ought to keep me busy for a good long while. ^_^
But the first real Christian rock band that I ever heard back in 1979 is a band that I still listen to and am quite satisfied with. There is no "cringe" factor involved, because the Ressurection Band was not only a very talented band musically, but also wrote intelligently and creatively and would tackle themes and subjects that were certainly not the usual fare for a Christian band. For example, on that first tape of theirs that I heard was the song "Afrikaans" which was about the evil of Apartheid in South Africa. This was 1979, and the song was written in 1978 or 1977. There weren't a whole lot of rock bands writing about Apartheid back then, let alone any Christian bands. But the Rez Band liked to write about social injustice as much as they did spiritual topics. They wrote about poverty, child abuse, drug addiction, the way we treat the crippled, depression, you name it.
In other words, not the kind of themes that, say, the Imperials EVER sang about.
I remember my friend Chuck having a real problem with the Ressurection Band because they played hard rock music. Chuck was one of those people like, say, Dubya and all of his followers, who see what's in front of them and doesn't see what lies below the surface. To him, rock and roll was, if not evil, then at least "of the world", and he told me that he didn't agree with a band like the Ressurection Band because they obviously were more interested in money and fame and appealing to the world, and had their priorities wrong.
At the time I didn't know how to respond to him. In retrospect, it's easy to see that the way to fame and fortune in the Christian music scene was to play it safe and give the people what they wanted. A band like the Imperials that played safe Christian music to thousands certainly made more money than a band that was too radical for most Christians but too Christian for everyone else. The people in the Ressurection Band were part of Jesus People USA, which lived in inner-city Chicago, and ran outreach programs like a soup kitchen, a roofing company that helped employ those in the inner city, a magazine that delved into complicated questions of faith in relation to the modern world (which they frequently gave away for free -- I still get copies sent to me once or twice a year, and I haven't subscribed in more than a dozen years). The first time I saw the Ressurection Band live, it was in a small school gymnasium with a crowd of a few hundred, and the tickets sold for $3 each. So no, they weren't making a mint by doing what they did. Just the opposite, in fact.
Anyway, I followed the Ressurection Band/Rez Band for many years. They were a great hard rock band, but they were best when they played blues or blues rock. They had two lead singers and two guitar players, but it was Glen Keiser's guitar and his raspy, soulful voice that gave them their bluesy edge, and he was the one who wrote most if not all of their bluesy numbers.
Sometime in the late eighties Glen Keiser started making pure blues albumns. At first he did a couple of cds with another Christian bluesman, Darrell Mansfield, then he started doing solo cds. The early cds were all acoustic blues, and at the time I wasn't yet a big fan of accoustic blues, so I never actually picked up those cds. And eventually the Ressurection Band itself went on haitus and stopped releasing music, and years went by with nothing new from them.
More recently, I've been picking up cds of music that I still like from what I listened to a long time ago, and this Spring the last two albumns by a metal band called Barnabas were released as a single cd. Barnabas is another band that I can listen to (for the most part) without cringing, because they wrote exceptionally well. But the outfit that was selling their cd had a minimum order of $25.00, and when I visited their site a few months ago I didn't know what else I would want to order from them, so I passed.
And then two weeks ago it occured to me that, if anything, I should try to pick up a couple of Glen Keiser's blues cds. So I went back to this site and ordered my Barnabas cd, plus two of Glen Keiser's cds.
(I also ordered another blues cd -- "Something New Under the Son" by Larry Norman -- which is probably the first blues music of any kind that I ever listened to. But mostly I would classify this as music that has some nostalgia for me, but has more of a "cringe" factor. They lyrics are extremely simple, and simplistic.)
Anyway, the Glen Keiser cds were very, very good. I was inspired to visit grrr records, the music label for JPUSA, and order something more. As it turned out, there are a LOT of cds that he's released in the last ten years. They had a "buy 4, get 1 free" deal, and since most of the cds were around $11 that was a pretty tempting offer.
I was able to determine that some of the cds were "worship" cds, Glen on accoustic guitar playing original music meant for worship. Those I avoided. I'm sure they're more interesting than your typical worship cd, but not really what I was looking for.
Other cds were of Glen Keiser playing accoustic blues, and a few others were of Glen Keiser playing with others (including a double cd of the two discs he did with Darrell Mansfield -- which I couldn't include in the 5 for 4 deal so I decided to pick them up later).
Several were by the "Glen Keiser Band". These were blues rock -- and I made sure to include all of those in my order. My order arrived today before I left for work, so I was able to listen to some of it on the way to and from work.
And wow. I mean, good blues rock is some of my favorite music, and the stuff Glen Keiser is doing with his Glen Keiser Band is better than anything else I've ever heard him do, and that's saying a lot because he's always been good. He's got such a great voice for this kind of music, and he's such a good guitarist, and he writes so well. It all comes together. Keiser is not just a good bluesman, but a riveting preacher -- I've seen him preach before, short, sharp messages at the ends of concerts. He consciously follows in the footsteps of Preacher Bluesmen Blind Willie Johnson and Reverend Gary Davis. He even does a very good cover of "Nobody's Fault But Mine".
Add in the fact that I ordered yet another of his cds from Amazon (one that I realized was out of print and I couldn't get from Grrr Records if I wanted to), and I now have 8 cds of Glen Keiser playing the blues, where I had none just a week ago. And there are still a few more that I have yet to pick up, but that ought to keep me busy for a good long while. ^_^
