At last, a truly wonderful Christian rap track.
Posted by Andrew Harrison on 17 May 2008 - 1:03pm.
It is, of course, an homage to Sir Mix-A-Lot's legendary Baby Got Back. Anyone else know any genuinely good recordings from the much-maligned genres of Christian rock and pop? Post away!
(Hat tip: Matt.)
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Bryn Haworth
Has done a lot of stuff with a distinctly Christian bent. There are a couple of nice mid seventies albums, "Let The Days Go By" and "Sunny Side Of The Street", that showcase his excellent slide guitar work, and he also cornered the market in the use of a little harp thingamajig called a Harpoleck.
There's a lot of gentle God-bothering going on, but if that doesn't put you off, the net result is pretty good.
yes but is there any good stuff
by anyone anyones heard of... bryn howarth?! :)
Apart from them all being church going types, Christian rock is more popular in american because you can't drink until you are 21 so if the kids want to rock they end up at god botherers gigs which are deliberately held in drink licence free stadia etc. Apart from Bach good art never comes from good behaviour
Andrew's query says nothing about being well known.
But in any case anyone old enough to shave should be able to Google to find out about Mr Haworth's pedigree.
You'll have to spell his name correctly, of course, or even Google won't help.
Anyone with any knowledge of Island releases in the 70's would have heard of him, especially anyone with an interest in slide players.
Good art?
So the Sistine Chapel is not up to much then? Or the collected works of, say, the Blind Boys of Alabama? Or The King James Bible?
so let's see
we have a obscure 70's session player and a long lasting vocal group both of whom have lived blameless lives. But when it comes to bad behaviour the sistine chapel was paid for by countless wars , dirty deals and awful lot of vanity and as for the king james bible only got written after we'd burnt alot of people in the streets. so on the whole bad behaviour is best for good art.
Hmmmm... "anyone anyone's heard of..."
Here's a little selection from Bryn's biography...
'Lancashire born, acclaimed slide guitarist, Bryn Haworth, is also a singer songwriter and a top performer who has been delighting audiences with his own unique brand of rock, country and gospel blues for over 30 years.
Bryn came to London from Lancashire in the late sixties and joined "Les Fleur de Lys" a motown/soul band which became house band for Atlantic Records in England. He left the band in '69 and travelled to California; from there he toured extensively in the US in various American bands and was a founder member of Wolfgang, a band put together and managed by the legendary Bill Graham, appearing on bills with such artists as Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, Taj Mahal and others. 1973 he returned to England and was signed to Island Records where he made his first LP "Let The Days Go By".
He has recorded as a session guitar player with top musicians including Chris de Burgh, Joan Armatrading, Cliff Richard and Gerry Rafferty. Bryn also writes his own songs, and has had several of his own compositions recorded by other artists including Lulu, Sandy Denny, and Mary Black.
Bryn recorded a further album for Island, ("Sunny Side Of The Street"), and then continued his career as a solo recording artist with A&M Records where he recorded "Grand Arrival" and "Keep The Ball Rolling". During this period he made numerous radio and TV appearances, including sessions for John Peel and appearances on BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test, as well as touring extensively in England and Europe supporting such artists as Traffic, Bad Company, Gallagher & Lyle and Fairport Convention.'
Fantastic slide player and has contributed tasteful guitar fo many a British 70s album, notably some of Gerry Rafferty's. File alongside Jerry Donahue!
Of course there is
Over the Rhine, who were featured just recently on the Word CD are Christians.
And Bruce Cockburn
the really very good Canadian singer
Oh, and of course Johnny Cash
and most of the Carter-Cash clan
I nearly forgot Elvis Presley
Nobody would argue that his gospel albums were his best, but who doesn't love a bit of 'American Trilogy'
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
His Truth is Marching On.
Which reminds me of one of my favourite ISIHAC moments; Graham Garden singing the words of 'Blame it on the Boogie' to the tune of 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'.
Interesting distinction
between rock made by christians and christian rock, I mean Sufjan Stevens is apparently a "man of faith" and alludes to religious stuff tangentially (alongside serial killers and cancer of the bone etc) but his CDs aren't marketed specifically as "for" christians only.
I read an interesting article about this recently and the conclusion is pretty spot on. The christian oriented stuff is all in the image of something in the mainstream and why would you want to settle for ersatz rock/hip hop thrills when you could have the real thing?
Judee Sill
She may not have had an orthodox view of Christianity, but the vast majority of her songs are steeped in her feelings about Jesus and salvation. I'm not a Christian but I love Judee.
I give you Sister Wynona Carr...
...and her trenchant observation that "Life Is A Ballgame", which she later followed with "15 Rounds For Jesus".
Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
and it ain't bad behaviour no more, no sir.
What about T-Bone Burnett?
What about T-Bone Burnett? Allegedly he was the one who helped Bob see the light. After the Rolling Thunder Revue ground to a halt he was also in a prety much Christian rock band the Alpha Band and his Mrs Sam (originally Leslie) Phillips was a sort of Christian pop star before going mainstream.
Oh,and I'll second Bruce Cockburn.
Then there's a UK prog-influenced celtic folk band called Iona who have produced some great records and we're originally promoted through a Christian label.
I'm also rather fond of a singer-songwriter called Cathy Burton who writes beautiful song, has a great voice and was also one third of a group called Hummingbird.
Stryper!!!
Heavy metal Christian rock band Stryper must get a mention, don't know if they're any good (suspect they're shite) but I suppose its very alternative of them to be making Christian music in that genre.
Stryper stands for Salvation Through Redemption Yielding Peace, Encouragement and Righteousness. The Isaiah 53:5 under their logo is the bible verse that states "by His stripes we are healed".
Learn something every day........
Funny,
By and large, christian rock is berated, arguably because it is largely tosh, yet Words most lauded anglo-scot maintains his religion up front and on his sleeve, without (much) comment. Rather than making smart remarks about fashionable religions, cos Islam is actually receiving less than fulsome praise from all these days, I suspect it is because there are very few openly Christian artists around, or if there are, they don't evangelise in song, which is the problem, as far as I see it, with bringing any creed into music. Bono, for all his proselytising (spelling?) offstage, is at least sufficiently oblique, lyrically, to allow the power of the music to grab the attention. (Whether you like it or not, they have had a fair degree of success over the years, despite, I would suggest, rather than because of their faith.
Bruce Cockburn succeeds because he is a shit hot guitarist and singer/songwriter. In fact, I would go as far as to say he is the canadian Richard Thompson, the lauded one alluded to above.
Keep religion (and politics) out of music unless you are very very very good (at either), with perhaps Steve Earle being the only able and unembarrassing exponent of political music. Neil Young is, IMHO, entitled to his views, which I probably share, and whilst he can undoubtedly write a good tune for his words, the words are still a tad embarrassing......
Have to agree...
...that a lot of what passes as Christian rock and pop is tedious in the extreme, derivative, and down-right dishonest at times.
That said, there are gems out there if you dig. Yes, they may be a bit obscure at times, but that doesn't usually seem to be a bad thing in these quarters.
I'd second the previous votes for Bruce Cockburn and Over The Rhine - both full of integrity, talent and originality.
Other personal faves include the wonderful welsh singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph, who has gone from being a big part of the UK christian scene to lurking on the edges (and all the better for it)...
...and Brian Houston, similarly-styled Irish troubador...
...but my personal favourite is probably Scotland's Lies Damned Lies, a gentle combination of Blue Nile, CS&N and John Martyn influences. Truly sublime.
If you're looking for something more mainstream, then there's recently been a lot of God-bothering going on in...
- Sinead O'Connor's fabulous "Theology" album
- Joni Mitchell's somewhat off-the-wall "Sermon on Exposition Boulevard"
- The Hold Steady's "Separation Sunday"
- Mavis Staple's "We'll Never Turn Back"
And that's before you start thinking about the likes of Nick Cave, Van Morrison, and of course U2, all of whom have a somewhat interesting take on their Christian heritage.
Bryn's best and some alternative crusaders
For unbelievable God-garage, do check out The Knights of The New Crusade.
'There Ain't No Monkeys In My Family Tree' is here.