I enjoyed the Wickham song, Michael! The Contemporary Christian Music (or CCM) lane was always, for me, a challenging field. I grew up in the church, and even got my BA in pro church work (Director of Christian Education) in the mid-'80s, so I was intimately familiar with that genre, along with all the secular music I also grew up with! I didn't have many faves, but I did enjoy what Michael W. Smith was putting out, and the occasional Amy Grant song.
My wife (of 6 months in the early '90s) even worked for an L.A.-based Christian record and bookstore (Lighthouse), so she introduced me to a lot of new music (and the artists who played it, too)! In fact, Amy was to attend our wedding, but scheduling conflicts arose (looking back, I wish I coulda used that excuse)!
She also introduced me to DC Talk, a rap trio, and I got to audition (a listening party), in-studio, the debut Liaison album, which had what I thought a lot of CCM music lacked....good songwriting! Here's their self-titled debut, released around '89 or '90: https://open.spotify.com/album/10VMoYOggLCNL2jyiswGir?si=665c5abde8d7491e Kinda hard, but with catchy melodies, harmonies galore, and heavy on dynamics!
Thanks, Brad!! I’ll include more, especially the ones I played back in the day - still have them all in a 3 ring binder. Most were reasonably interesting and challenging (sometimes too challenging - fake it till ya make it!) for me then but I was learning. Best part was playing with the band. No doubt the experience got much better for the congregation after the church was able to spring for professional instrumentalists. The experience was great, but lockdowns created a difficult time for churches everywhere. The contemporary service at my church didn’t survive - I think a lot of churches had to make tough choices.
I enjoyed the Wickham song, Michael! The Contemporary Christian Music (or CCM) lane was always, for me, a challenging field. I grew up in the church, and even got my BA in pro church work (Director of Christian Education) in the mid-'80s, so I was intimately familiar with that genre, along with all the secular music I also grew up with! I didn't have many faves, but I did enjoy what Michael W. Smith was putting out, and the occasional Amy Grant song.
My wife (of 6 months in the early '90s) even worked for an L.A.-based Christian record and bookstore (Lighthouse), so she introduced me to a lot of new music (and the artists who played it, too)! In fact, Amy was to attend our wedding, but scheduling conflicts arose (looking back, I wish I coulda used that excuse)!
She also introduced me to DC Talk, a rap trio, and I got to audition (a listening party), in-studio, the debut Liaison album, which had what I thought a lot of CCM music lacked....good songwriting! Here's their self-titled debut, released around '89 or '90: https://open.spotify.com/album/10VMoYOggLCNL2jyiswGir?si=665c5abde8d7491e Kinda hard, but with catchy melodies, harmonies galore, and heavy on dynamics!
Thanks, Brad!! I’ll include more, especially the ones I played back in the day - still have them all in a 3 ring binder. Most were reasonably interesting and challenging (sometimes too challenging - fake it till ya make it!) for me then but I was learning. Best part was playing with the band. No doubt the experience got much better for the congregation after the church was able to spring for professional instrumentalists. The experience was great, but lockdowns created a difficult time for churches everywhere. The contemporary service at my church didn’t survive - I think a lot of churches had to make tough choices.