It Was 1987 ( #BOTB Results )

       The Christmas countdown has begun!  I'm not counting the days though.  The days are just coming and passing by.  I'm California cold and not going anywhere much at all.  It's California after all.  Nowhere I care to go and wear a mask to do it...

Battle of the Bands Results

         In my most recent Battle I had Christian artist Matthew Ward up against Leslie Phillips with two very different sounding songs that were praising God.  This was in honor of the Christmas season as well as to remember songs that I'd enjoyed many years ago while working on the road.

        Since several hours a day were usually spent riding in our van as we travelled from town to town, we tended to listen to a lot of music on cassette recordings.  Consequently, in order to keep a flow of new music playing, we bought many many cassette tapes during those years.  I tried to keep a wide range of different types of music on hand in our library.  One genre that began to dominate in the collection was contemporary Christian music.  I scoured record stores across the country trying to acquire interesting finds new and old.

       One record store that stands out in my memory was in the mall at the Christian theme resort run by Jim and Tammy Faye Baker--Heritage USA.  Since our company was based in nearby Charlotte NC we made a number of visits to the park.  During one of those visits I spent some time perusing the cassettes at the Heritage record store.  It was spring of 1987.

        Among the tapes I purchased were Michael W Smith's The Big Picture and the then newly released Second Chapter of Acts Faraway Places, which was being heavily promoted at that time. I had heard of Second Chapter of Acts for quite some time, but had never purchased any of their albums.  They struck me as some kind of weird Jesus Freak group that sung songs that wouldn't interest me that much.  However I knew they had quite a reputation and I guess I succumbed to the store advertising and my own curiosity.

          Their music was pleasant enough--better than what I was expecting--but one song by the brother member of the group, Matthew Ward, somewhat perplexed me.  I never paid the song much mind until in about September of that year.  We had stayed in Sedalia MO on a Saturday night so we could be in town for a Sunday matinee show.  In no hurry to make a jump to another town, I was taking my time in the motel room getting ready.  I happened to have the Faraway Places cassette playing in the room.

          When the song "You Are All in All" came on I became transfixed by it.   I began to play it repeatedly as I focused ever more closely upon it.  The original perplexed feeling came over me. What was it about this song?  It somehow made me imagine that the music had been read upside down or backwards or something that I couldn't quite figure out.

           I now think "You Are All in All" is an incredibly beautiful and unique song.  The group Second Chapter of Acts was an amazing group.  I probably have most of their albums in my collection.  I can't say where my original perception of them came from, but not for the first time I was wrong about something.  Again.

          In this contest you probably would guess correctly that my vote went to Matthew Ward and his sisters in the group Second Chapter of Acts.  And really the outcome wasn't all that shabby...

Final Vote Tally

Matthew Ward         8 votes

Leslie Phillips           10 votes           

Next Battle of the Bands...

      Might be on December 15th but ultimately whenever I please.   If you don't see me on that day then it's probably because of something that kept me from doing it.  But you probably know that.