Who Burst the A Cappella Bubble?
I still love a cappella music. Just not for the reasons I heard growing up.
Not because scripture demands it. Not because God prefers it. Not because of gopher wood.
But I still love it, and I believe the tradition of a cappella singing is a wonderful gift Churches of Christ (and other denominations) make to the fellowship of believers.
However . . .
A friend of mine just told me about the first time someone put a Christian music cassette in his hands. It blew apart his only-a-cappella-for-these-compelling-reasons world. For him, it was John Michael Talbot’s “The Painter.”
I got to remembering. I think for me it was Amy Grant, Sandi Patty (or is it Sandy Patti — I can’t ever remember), and Steve Green.
Now my “Christian music playlist” is filled with Chris Tomlin, Bebo Norman, and Shawn McDonald.
How about you? Who was the first Christian recording artist you remember? Who are you listening to now?
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We’ve been planning our next Zoe conferences (Nashville in October; Fresno in January; and Lubbock in March). The theme is “Fearless.” Randy Gill and Brandon Scott Thomas were telling me about the songs that are being recorded. Can’t wait.
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I’m sitting here having lunch at Panera while pecking away on my Mac. In the last ten minutes, two guys have attempted to walk through a full-length window.
Now THOSE are some clean windows, my friends.
Amy Grant and
of all people, BJ Thomas.
It will always be Michael Card who did it for me, first heard at a concert at Oak Hills C of C (is that a grand piano on the stage???). I never miss his concerts within 200 miles of home. Sarah Groves is also one of the best singer/songwriters of this decade.
Jesus Freak by DC talk is my all time Jam. My wife wants it played at her funeral. She says that she wants her life to mean something enough to play it loud. Here is the other thing. CCM puts Christian ideas in the contemporary vernacular. All the old Acapella albums were stuck in the same 50′s arranging new tunes to old hymns. I listen to CCM becuase pound for pound it goes deeper than anything Acapella or AVB or Soul or any other acapella group ever did. DC talk’s song “In mind eyes” is about confession and the road to healing. “Voice of truth” by Casting Crowns is about over coming fear in our contemporary culture by listening to God. I could go on, but most of the lyrcis are not as repititious and always go deep about real issues of fatih. That is why I can’t stop listening to it. “Shine” by the News boys is also a great song about what it means to let your light shine before all men.
My grandfather grew up a Methodist and he started going to the Church of Christ when he married my grandmother. When he was in his 60s, he learned how to play the organ. On Sunday mornings, he would play while we were getting ready to go to worship. I didn’t realize it then, but my granddaddy was engaging in the most pure worship there is…using his God-given talents to praise the Lord and sharing it with others. Some of his favorites were “How Great Thou Art”, “Angry Words”, “I Come to the Garden Alone”, and “Beyond the Sunset”. I didn’t start listing to CCM until 2001–Mercy Me just rocked my world along with a little praise band at a youth rally in Albany, Texas, (I was there as an adult leader) singing “Holy Spirit Come”. I have never been the same. I love acappella music as well…Zoe is wonderful to use to learn the new songs and the parts.
Ha ha! The window thing is funny! Can you get the name of their window cleaner for me please?
I worked at a Christian bookstore in high school (mid-80s) when Amy Grant released her Unguarded album. I remember a teenager’s mom bringing it back because she was so offended! Ha!
What I love about Christian music is that if there is something you are going through, there’s a song for that. I love Third Day, Jeremy Camp, Casting Crowns, Mercy Me…….
Scripture demands it? Must have missed that part.
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The Pat Metheny Group makes me thank God and worship Him. No words, just music.
I wonder if anyone’s instrumental “bubble” has been burst?
The Blackwood Brothers — my grandparents (papa was an elder…) listened on Sunday mornings before church. It had harmony and instruments!
The Gaithers — same nana & papa gave me the Gaithers sing with kids album (maybe 1973?)…
Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Godspell…
But it wasn’t until college that I discovered the world of CCM because my roommate played Amy Grant (Age to Age – song that spoke to me most was ‘Raining On The Inside’ & Michael W. Smith (Friends – title song). I also discovered David Meece at that time (We Are The Reason), and First Call – especially “The Reason We Sing”
He has brought us together
Each of us a different gift we bring
We’ll serve Him forever
Even if the cost is everything
For He has called us to be faithful
So with one heart we give this offering
CHORUS
The reason we sing
The reason we lift our voice
Is more than just making harmony
The reason we sing
Is to praise the One who gave His Son to be
The reason we sing
More than just an emotion
His Spirit gives us joy that we can’t hide
We will not be silent
We’ve got to let the world hear what’s inside
And as we praise Him with our music
Jesus is the One we glorify
The words and harmonies really touched me.
Currently I’ve discovered Dave Barnes, and like the more folky-alternative contemporary (contemplative) sound, but have Hallal and Zoe Group on my ipod as I’m ellipticalling…!!
And to be able to support oneself and family by sharing one’s gift/talent with others… I cannot think that God is not pleased by following a dream that He created in us. We all cry out for encouragement, and to know that we aren’t the only ones who feel [fill in the blank with the emotion of your choice], and that music [so many different kinds of music for so many different hearts] touches us in ways we don’t even understand completely… Just as Christian writers make a living writing, and ministers have a full-time job preaching, why do musicians (artists) get relegated to hobbyists? We all have gifts to share, what a blessing to be able to make your gift your livelihood.
My a’cappella bubble bursts each Lord’s day at JESUS Community Center in Miami. Even though I am 68 years old (five generations “Church of Christ” deacon, elder, preacher and all of that stuff) my heart now bursts forth with unexpressible bilingual (English and Spanish) praise as I and the congregation are led by a youthful worship leader and praise band.
This past Sunday, a fifteen year old young man, Christian just one year, came to the assembly to offer a hymn of praise to the Lord as his spiritual birthday gift to the Lord. He is an Hispanic boy and prepared a rap song of “Thank you, Jesus!” which brought tears to our eyes and all of us to our feet praising the Lord. One of the shepherds had prepared a powerful instrumental sound track of the beat he needed to share his song.
At the same service, a former drug addict (also an electrician out of work) along with his girlfriend dropped by the assembly of saints out of curiostity because he noticed a church was meeting in his neighborhood at a private school for mentally challenged adults. He just happened to be the lead base player and percussionist for a very famous Latin band. He was so moved by the worship (praise, prayers and message) that he made a bold profession of faith and is preparing for his baptism this week. He asked if he could bring his bongo drums and base guitar next Sunday to offer his special gifts and help lead the congregation in worship to the Lord.
Whether a’cappella or insturmental, there is so much more creativity we can and must employ in praising the Lord and edifying the believers!
Reflecting on the novice teen with his rap song of praise and the way his praise touched a professional musician to give his life to the Lord reminds me of what the Christian gathering on the Lord’s Day should really be like as pictured for us in the First Corinthian Letter. We were part of all this dynamic worship last Lord’s Day which was so very touching and sent us all out into our mission field knowing that the Lord is real, alive and very present with his people when their hearts burst out of rigid forms and touch the living Lord.
If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played… What then, brethrn? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, etc… Let all be done for edification… If an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secretrs of his heart are disclosed; and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you!” (1 Corinthians 14:7, 24-26, RSV)
Kieth Mitchell, one of the shepherds
JESUS Community Miami
Kieth – I love those stories! If I’m ever in Miami, I want to visit JCC.
Steve Sr.
I know as father to one of the band members, you wondered why nobody cited Homer Hiccolm and the Rocketboys for their all-instrumental “This is My Father’s World!”
As uncle to the same band member, I wonder the same thing!
Kieth Mitchell
Joe, that was as offensive as some of the old guard pamphlets. “Pound for Pound” CCM is bloated with wannabees and pretenders (ironic that I listed Stryper who many feel that way about) as much as it is truly inspirational artists, to an extent that a capella artists will never reach… You are correct that there are some very touching and moving lyrics in CCM, but to claim that nothing done a capella in the last 50 years has a correlating depth to it is as flawed as quoting Ephesians 5 and building a ecclesiology on what is not mentioned…
Dallas Holmes, Keith Green, John Michael Talbot (acoustic rocks!), the Carter Family (Mr. Carter was one of my teachers in HS)
Mr. Carter was more known for his group, The Chuck Wagon Gang.
sKen:
Let me clarify. The question of this Blog was “who burst the acapella bubble? I was answering why I think that so many have identified with CCM after only listening to Acapella for years. My family was one of Acapella and Keith Lancaster’s big supporters for decades. I can sing most of the Acapella songs from the 80s and 90s from memory; “Now were singing for the Lord and feeling mighty good, making music with our voices like we know all Christian should”. Wow it has been a long time since I heard that one. While our world was falling apart from the highest rates of abortion and divorce this is what Acapella was singing about.
This is what I said. Very few songs they sang were related to Christianity in the world in which we lived and live in now. Most of them were remakes of old hymns or other songs that sang the same old thing the same old way. I don’t believe that CCM has captured so many hearts that use to be Acapella only because they bang a drum and strum a guitar. I truly believe that much of CCM gives people greater meaning because it relates serious Christianity very specifically to culture in which we live. In the Songs of Faith and praise by Alton Howard most the new songs arranged in four part harmony were written and published by CCM artists first. I know many of the new songs from Zoe that are now arranged four part harmony; they are mostly originated with CCM artist also.
Please do not take offense. I was trying answer Mike’s question. I don’t know of anything truly acapella or Acapella written and produced in the last 50 years that has had a great impact on me, or our greater culture. Yes CCM has some fakes.
David: I am a huge fan of both the Carter Family and the Chuck Wagon Gang, and find it interesting that “Mr Carter” was one of your teachers. Are you referring to A.P Carter of the orgininal Carter Family? A.P died in 1960 at age 70. Perhaps your teacher was Dave Carter of the Chuck Wagon Gang. Dave died in 1963. If so, according to the following information from the CWG’s official website, Dave was not related to members of the orginal Carter family.
“Seventy-two years in any business is a long time, particularly in a musical group of any genre. Today, the Chuck Wagon Gang holds the distinction of being the oldest recording mixed gospel group still performing with ties to the original founding. By trade, the Carters were farmers, who migrated from place to place to pick cotton. The singing group came from humble beginnings in 1935, as the Carters found themselves in Lubbock, Texas, without enough money to buy medicine for a sick child, Effie. Dave Carter and two of his children, Lola and Ernest of his Carter Quartet (no relation to the Carter Family of Bristol, VA) arrived at radio station KFYO in Lubbock seeking live singing employment on radio in order to buy medicine for Effie. They landed the job, Effie soon re-joined them, and the Carter Quartet remained at the station for about a year.”
I love the music of both groups and am impressed that you “touched history” as a student of a true music pioneer. Blessings, Steve
Man, I’m late to the picnic, but this is a subject close to mrincredible’s heart. It was 1973 at a church camp in the mountains of Virginia. I had just finished 8th grade, and my camp counselor kept playing this tape over and over again. It infected my soul and planted seeds of institutional rebellion. I’ve spent the rest of my life trying to find or create what this song talks about. It has gotten me in so much trouble, but it still stirs me to the depths of my redeemed soul. The lyrics read:
Little country church on the edge of town,
Do do do do do do do (original, ain’t it?).
People coming everyday from miles around
For meetings and for Sunday school.
And it’s very plain to see
It’s not the way it used to be.
Preacher ain’t talkin’ ’bout religion no more
He just wants to praise the Lord.
People ain’t as stuffy as they were before
They just want to praise the Lord.
And it’s very plain to see
It’s not the way it used to be.
They’re talkin’ ’bout revival and the need for love,
That little church has come alive.
Workin’ with each other for the common good,
Puttin’ all the past aside.
Long hair, short hair, some coats and ties,
People finally coming around.
Looking past the hair straight into the eyes,
People finally coming around.
And it’s very plain to see
It’s not the way it used to be.
Of course, the song is “Little Country Church” by LoveSong, one of the original groups of the Jesus Movement. Chuck Girard wrote it in 1971, if you can believe it. The reality expressed in these lyrics is still needed today! Maybe more than ever! I just want to praise the Lord, too! My tribe still has issues with that!
I have so enjoyed reading through this!
I remember my first exposure to Acappella in about ’86 or ’87 at a Lipscomb event (middle or high school.) I bought their tape “More Than Conquerors”. That tape was my only exposure to Christian music except songbooks/hymnals/school choral music until 1990 — Stryper. Not for me; sorry, rockers.
In 1991 I went to college; the first week there I sang with the UCSC’s singers, mostly Acappella songs. Rob Cox did the rhythm bass, and while I initially didn’t see the point of that, I got over it. (Little did I know I would marry Rob before I turned 20 — and get to work with Keith Lancaster down the road.) Summer of ’92 my college roommate listened to Amy Grant all the time (the horrors!!) and it began to grow on me. “The Collection” was the CD she played all the time — the song that got me said “all I ever have to be is what you made me.”
It was all downhill from there!
I too grew up in with singing totally a capella music in church. I even went thru a period of feeling that I could not even go around a group of people who were singing with an instument, because I could not keep my heart from singing with them, even though my lips never moved, and I thought that was sinful. Thank you, Lord, for helping me to see that you want sincere, heart-felt worship, and the means is not so important. I still love a cappella music, and AVB’s “Roll That Stone Away” will have me out of my chair and clapping my hands in not time. But, while I am not of an age to enjoy christian”rock” music, there is still a lot of christian music that I can sing along with and be perfectly comfortable.
If you ever get a chance to listen to The Statler Brothers recording of “Amazing Grace” (now I’m really showing my age), listen thru to the end. There is an instumental ending that will give you chill bumps, as beautiful as anything you will hear on this earth.
Lest we deviate and forget, the only person to be pleased or satisfied in worship is God. Not me, not the person across the isle and not anyone else. As human beings made by God, He has given us his word to live by. To sing acapella just because the teachings God’s word says so, is obviously wrong (If you love me, keep my commands – paraphrased from the book of John) however no where does the scripture teach that only the intent of the heart is what matters to God. Our actions, out of love for him, are just as important as the intent of our hearts. We should all step back and make doubly sure that the evidence of our love (our actions and our love for each other) is shown in the keeping of his word.
hi, andar here, i just read your post. i like very much. agree to you, sir.
I always liked “The Lord’s Prayer” by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Sung backwards, even better.
Handel’s Messiah. I remember seeing my acapella singing Dad listening to the Messiah with tears streaming down his face. . .