#100 DANIEL AMOS by Daniel Amos (1976)

DANIEL AMOS/Daniel Amos (1976)
Maranatha! Music  HS-777-24

My one and only live experience with Daniel Amos came at the Cornerstone Festival in 1990. Randy Stonehill opened for DA and then Uncle Rand joined the Swirling Eddies (also featuring Gene Eugene on the organ). Wow. What a night. I Love You #19…Walls of Doubt…Darn Floor, Big Bite…Sanctuary…Dance Stop…and many more (the setlists are preserved in digital form at danielamos.com). The Eddies treated us to Let’s Spin, Arthur Fhardy’s Yodel Party, Hide the Beer The Pastor’s Here, I Am Woman Hear Me Roar, and several other favorites. The craziness ended all too soon. However, the next day my bandmates and I took mass transit into Chicago to see the sites. We took our seats on the train and looked up to discover that we were sharing the ride with several members of Daniel Amos. Nice.

Rapid Transit with DA
L-R: Sharon McCall, Greg Flesch, Tim Chandler, Dennis Grimaud, Jerry Chamberlain

Daniel Amos’ origins began with Terry Taylor (born May 24, 1950), who was performing with various rock combos in San Jose, CA in the mid-60s. Terry became a Christian in 1971 and joined a Jesus Music trio called Good Shepherd. A year later, he was writing and playing songs with a group called Jubal’s Last Band (the direct ancestor to Daniel Amos). Terry and the boys then moved down to Costa Mesa to be part of the thriving Jesus Movement scene at Chuck Smith’s Calvary Chapel and spent their time performing for Bible study groups and at coffee shops throughout Southern California. In mid 1975, Jubal's Last Band auditioned for Maranatha! Music in hopes of signing a recording and performance contract. Another band at the meeting, led by Darrell Mansfield, had a similar name – Jubal. The two bands decided to change their names to avoid confusion. Mansfield renamed his band Gentle Faith, and Jubal's Last Band decided to take two Old Testament prophet names and put them together. Thus, Daniel Amos was officially formed in 1974 with Terry Scott Taylor on guitars and vocals, Marty Dieckmeyer on bass guitar,Steve Baxter on guitars and Jerry Chamberlain on lead guitars.

The band released their first full length, eponymous album (Daniel Amos) in 1976 which was produced by Al Perkins and engineered by Jonathan David Brown. It boasted a colorful, attention-grabbing cover illustration of the band by Dale G. Waters.

From the very beginning, humor was a hallmark of Daniel Amos’ music. Abidin’ used humor to put down the sins of gossip and anger; meanwhile, Skeptics’ Song presented the band as dinner club entertainers – Dan Amos & the Maranatha Mood Makers – who used humor to deliver a very sobering message to people were content to ignore God and the Bible.

Now, all is well, 'cause there ain't no hell below ya
God would have a lot of nerve to reserve that hot spot for ya
No, you won't bring the temperature down one degree
Simply because you don't believe
Oh my! You'll fry as we wave good-bye to you

Yeah, God's a laugh a minute with His funny book
But, friend, I'd take a second look
All that you're readin’ there is gonna come true
Even, Clyde, in spite of you

Said Alex MacDougall (who played percussion on the album and would later become a band member): “They were funny guys, which was not a trait of most Jesus movement, 'last days'-type bands." 

Terry Taylor has called the album "embarrassing". He says that Skeptics' Song is "one of the most embarrassing. It has a certain lack of grace." Perhaps he's forgetting that the song ends by saying...

If you're facin' God's salvation with an open heart
Then Jesus, He's gonna do His part
Oh my! You'll fly as we rise in the sky with you!

Relax, Terry. Nothing to be embarrassed about. 

Alex MacDougall also said, "DA was a very good acoustic/vocal group at that time--the best that I can remember." In fact, from beginning to end, Daniel Amos is a well-polished recording with excellent arrangements -- unsurpassed for a mid-'70s gospel group. The group's professionalism was apparent even at this early stage. One reviewer put it this way: “While a number of early Jesus Music bands were trying to emulate the country rock sounds of The Eagles, none did it as masterfully as Daniel Amos.” All in all, this self-titled, debut album is an interesting look at the embryonic stages of one of the most creative bands in Christian music.

In addition to the humor, there was another element that set this album apart from most of the Jesus Music releases of the early to mid-70s: a lot of the content on the record was actually quite confrontational. The album’s first track – Jesus is Jehovah to Me -- takes on Jehovah’s Witnesses in no uncertain terms: 

Now we both have said that the Lord's comin' back
And you've more than once stated that fact
Now it seems rather odd, if you're prophets of God
Your dates have been so far off the track

Now the Watchtower can only deceive
But from Jesus you can receive
God's Spirit comes in, and you're born again
Singin' Jesus is Jehovah to me

Jesus is Jehovah to me
He's Lord and He's King of Kings
He's more than a man, He's the great I AM
Jesus is Jehovah to me

If you're really "Awake", You'll make no mistake
Jesus is Jehovah to me

It’s probably safe to say that no other album has ever begun with such an open rebuke! And Love in a Yielded Heart addresses three popular rock artists by name…and not in a complimentary way.

Well, Bob Dylan he can't free you
And John Lennon can't see what's inside of you
And Alice Cooper can just freak you
He can't show you the way or lead you

The Spirit in a yielded heart
Is the only thing that can lead you
To love, sweet love

One reviewer wrote, “If you like your Jesus served straight up with a dash of sweet slide guitar, this is for you.” 

Stunt Records released a two-disc 30th anniversary deluxe edition of Daniel Amos in June 2006. It included an expanded booklet of never-before-seen photos, additional liner notes, and an entire extra disc of bonus material including early demos and live recordings from the pre-DA years.

A very long career and many musical reincarnations lay ahead for this band. They would work their way through rock and new wave before finding their niche as so-called founding fathers of the “alternative rock” scene in Christian music. Grasping the entirety of their work is no small undertaking. In addition to their major label releases, there have been live albums, special releases, compilations, Terry Taylor solo projects, Swirling Eddies albums, and even a tribute CD recorded by other artists. Their music has often been impossible to categorize and difficult to market. They have an intensely loyal following and have survived largely without commercial success.

If I ever end up on a commuter train with the band again, I may ask them if they have any plans to retire before Jesus returns. 

I wouldn’t bet on it.