Rock Redemption!

I have been listening to and collecting music since the early ‘60s, starting with “45s” as they were called back then, which were small vinyl records with a single song on each side. Side A was the hit song from the radio and side B was another song offering. I then began collecting full size vinyl records or albums, which were around 12” in diameter containing 5 or 6 songs on each side, I managed to accumulate about 300 before moving on to cassettes and now CDs are my fancy. I never got into 8track tapes though; since I didn’t own a car when they were popular and they came and went so quickly. When I finally got my own car I had a cassette player put in. At one point I even owned a reel to reel tape recorder which I ended up using to record my friend’s band and later on I bought a cassette deck that I also used for recording the band.

I’ve been attracted to all types of music over the years and all types of music groups. Even when I got married and started having kids, I still collected music. But after awhile, I realized that as I was listening to the radio or a cassette in a car full of kids, something didn’t seem right. These kids were listening to the music too and sometimes the words that were being used in the songs were not what I would want to hear coming out of the mouths of my children!

Around this time I had decided that I needed to get back to church, I had been brought up going to church every Sunday and for some reason I felt I had to give my children the same in their upbringing.  Although all of my kids went to public school, all but one of my six kids went to a Christian preschool, basically because my sister-in-law had sent her kids there so I just trusted her judgment.  My son had ADHD and went to a special Ed preschool run by the public school system.

Anyway, through my sister-in-law and another friend, I found the bible Chapel I now attend. The more time I spent there the more I learned and soon it all seemed to make sense! The music being sung was of a current contemporary kind and I began to like it! Pretty soon I preferred to listen to it over some of my old fare because of the kids; there was even a new local Christian radio station I could listen to in the car!

Now, the music I listen to most is music that is not necessarily all about God or even what’s known as “Christian”, but is more God friendly than that of the past. One thing I have noticed a lot recently is that many of the people I listened to in the past keep popping up in the strangest places! Guys like Alice Cooper, Lou Gramm, Richie Furay, John Michael Talbot, Bob Dylan and even Charlie Daniels have shown up in Gospel and Christian Contemporary music.

Actually there are many genres of “Christian” music, Hip-Hop, Pop, Ska, Rock, Alternative, Punk, Punk Rock, Metal and I’ve even heard of Rastafarian!  Whatever kind of music genre you can name there is a version of it with a Christian theme. I like mostly Christian Rock or Hard Rock, bands like Blindside, 12 Stones, Thousand Foot Kutch, We As Human, Kutless, Spoken, Project 86, Stryper, Seventh Day Slumber, Demon Hunter, etc., the list goes on forever!

So imagine my surprise when I’m listening to internet stations like Broken FM, Reign Radio, Static Radio and URrock Radio and all of a sudden I hear “Salvation” by Alice Cooper or when I’m at a Christian festival in my state and one of the groups playing is The Lou Gramm Band, whose front man just happens to be the former lead singer of the band Foreigner! Or when I find out that one of the founding members of a band I listened to as a teen back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Mason Proffit, has gone rogue and joined a Catholic Brotherhood as did John Michael Talbot and is writing worship songs about God. We have heard over the years about Bob Dylan finding faith and the songs he has written professing it, along with Johnny Cash. I even found some Charlie Daniels albums in my local Christian book and gift store!

Then I found out that Richie Furay of the bands, Buffalo Springfield, Poco and the Souther Hillman Furay Band was pouring out music with a new theme and that he has become a Pastor of a Calvary Chapel in Colorado! Or when I find out crazy stuff like, Michael Sweet of Stryper was the co-lead vocalist and guitarist for the well known group Boston, from 2007 – 2011, it just blows my mind!

My latest find has me reeling as well; I was listening to a mainstream rock radio station in my car that I’ve listened to for years that plays what’s known as Classic Rock. They played the song “Never Been Any Reason” by a group I had only vaguely heard of before, Head East. Over the years I think I’ve only heard that name once or twice, but the song sparked my interest and I had to find out more about the group! So the second I got home I googled it (thank goodness for modern technology!) and what I found out freaked me to no end, turns out that the lead vocalist was none other than John Schlitt of Petra fame! I also found out that John Elefante of the band Mastedon was once frontman for the band Kansas from ’81 – ’84! Wonders never cease! You never know who has turned their life over to the Lord!

Over the years I have come across many groups with songs that hit a spiritual cord, like Blindfaith’s “Presence of the Lord”, Eric Clapton’s “Tears In Heaven”, Bruce Cockburn’s “Lord of the Starfields”, The Hooters’ “All You Zombies”, Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky”, the Rolling Stones had “Prodigal Son”, Rush’s “Peaceable Kingdom” or Collective Soul’s “You”, along with tons of others as well. The first time I heard the album "Far From Home" by Steve Winwood and Traffic with the songs “Here Comes a Man”, “Holy Ground” and “State of Grace, I couldn’t help but notice the spiritual message ingrained throughout. Not all of these people were devout believers; many were just searching for something to fill the void in their lives at one time or another, others were just trying to spark more interest in their music, but some actually found God!

So it does my heart good to learn that many of the people in the mainstream music world have turned to the Lord. It’s actually a good thing when bands don’t flaunt their “Christian-ism”, because people can be drawn in by the message in the music and not scared away by the thought of listening to Christian music! Bands like Emery, actively look for venues that are “outside the box” to play at, bars, clubs and mainstream music festivals like Vans Warped Tour, just as Jesus reached out to those around him, tax collectors, lepers, drunks, the demon possessed and harlots, anyone in need!

So it just goes to show, you can’t always judge a rocker by their appearance or the type of music they play! They might just be ROCKIN’ FOR The Lord!