#97 DALLAS HOLM & PRAISE...LIVE by Dallas Holm & Praise (1977)

Dallas Holm & Praise...Live
Greentree Records (R-3441)

It was held at the old Municipal Auditorium on Victory Drive in Columbus, Georgia.

My Dad had taken us to a David Wilkerson Crusade. I honestly don’t recall many details (if any) from that night. But I do remember that there was a guy with long hair and sideburns playing a guitar. His name was Dallas Holm. 

Fast forward 15 years or more to another classic concert venue – the old Memorial Auditorium in Greenville, South Carolina (derisively referred to as the Big Brown Box). I was there attending a Dallas Holm concert. Again, I don’t remember any musical details from that evening…but I’ll never forget the altar call. Dallas Holm is one of those artists just old-fashioned enough to believe that it’s important to give people an opportunity to respond to the Gospel message that they’ve heard during such a concert (sarcasm intended). Before giving the opportunity for life-changing prayer and ministry, Holm asked that all of the house lights be turned on and that everyone’s eyes remain open. His reasoning was that surrendering your life to Jesus was nothing to be ashamed of, but rather something to celebrate! “And if you can’t do it here, in front of an arena full of brothers and sisters in Christ, you’ll not last too long out in the world” (or words to that effect). People did respond. And it was a very memorable and effective way to close a concert.

Musically, Dallas Holm was always a bit of an “everyman.” Despite winning Dove Awards for Vocalist of the Year, he was really a quite average singer. He’s never been known as an incredible guitarist, an endorsement deal with McPherson Guitars notwithstanding. And, despite a Songwriter of the Year Dove Award in the 70s, he isn’t typically regarded as an extraordinary songsmith (such as, for example, Bob Bennett or Randy Stonehill). But when you add up the sum of his talents, you come away with a healthy respect for an exceptional artist who has ministered in a powerful way to entire generations of people and has earned the respect of his peers.

Dallas Holm was born on November 5, 1948, in St. Paul Park, Minnesota. St. Paul Park was about a mile or so from the Mississippi River, and Holm has called it "probably as nice a place as anywhere in the country." Holm grew up hunting, fishing, canoeing and ice skating. One of his uncles used to climb into a Jeep and pull Dallas and his brother on snow skis...across a frozen lake. Dallas says he got his love of the outdoors from his mother's side of the family and his love of music from his father's side. 

Growing up in Minnesota

After striking out on on the trombone, young Dallas followed in his Dad's footsteps by learning to play the guitar. His early musical influences were Elvis Presley and The Byrds. At the age of sixteen, he was pursuing a music career in local rock bands. After being raised in a decidedly Christian home, Dallas was admittedly straddling the fence where his personal morals and commitment to Jesus was concerned. He remembers, “One night the pastor of our church sat down and talked with me about my life, my goals, and Jesus. On October 17, 1965, I committed my life and my music to the Lord. My life was radically and eternally transformed. My music became the means whereby I could express the dynamics of that transformation and share the reality of Christ with others. I’ve never looked back.”

After graduating from North Central Bible College (an Assemblies of God school that is now known as North Central University), Dallas was hired as a youth pastor by the Rosen Heights Assembly of God Church in Fort Worth, Texas. The Rosen Heights church was pastored by a famous Gospel songwriter by the name of Ira Stanphill. As the Lord would have it, Dallas Holm was in the right place at the right time to gain some valuable songwriting advice that would serve him well. 

"Keep your songs simple," Stanphill told Dallas. "Don't write complicated things that people can't understand. Be plain. That's the way Jesus did it. There's no better model." 

After that stint in Fort Worth, Dallas got a phone call from the aforementioned evangelist David Wilkerson. The popular evangelist saw something in Holm that impressed him - the way Dallas could keep the attention of young people as he played and sang his songs. The invitation was extended and accepted. Dallas Holm became the primary soloist for the David Wilkerson Crusades in 1970. Based first in New York City, then in Southern California, and finally, back in Texas, Holm traveled and ministered with Wilkerson for ten years.

During the Wilkerson era. That's David Wilkerson on the far right.
Dallas Holm is kneeling.

During the early years of his association with Wilkerson, Holm recorded solo albums on the Zondervan label. But he noticed that The Imperials and a few other more contemporary-sounding groups were recording for Impact Records, an imprint of the Benson Company. After a while, Holm summoned up the courage to call the Impact offices and ask for an audience with the head man himself, Bob MacKenzie. Long story short, MacKenzie welcomed Dallas to Impact Records and thus began a long and fruitful relationship between Holm and Benson. Now The Imperials were his label-mates...and they even recorded a song penned by Dallas - Jesus Got A Hold Of My Life.  

At the urging of Wilkerson, Holm formed a group in 1976. He called it Dallas Holm and Praise, and they toured together for eleven years. Holm's first choice for the group was Phil Johnson. "I had come to love Phil like a brother," Holm wrote in his autobiography, titled This Is My Story. "We think alike, we work alike - kinda easy-going and laid back. Above all, I had complete confidence in his Christian commitment. And as a bonus, he liked to fish as much as I did!"

But Johnson was a much-sought-after producer at the time and did not relish the thought of going on the road full-time. He turned his friend Dallas down. But he suggested that Holm consider his brother and sister-in-law, Tim and LaDonna Johnson (LaDonna was also a sister to secular music's Gatlin Brothers). With Tim and LaDonna on board, bassist Randy Adams and drummer Rick Norris rounded out the group. Adams was later replaced by bassist Rick Crawford. They became the first Contemporary Christian band to receive an RIAA certified Gold Album for Dallas Holm and Praise...LIVE.  

Dallas Holm and Praise...LIVE really was a live album. Holm told CCM Magazine: "We didn't know anything; we did everything wrong you could possibly do. First of all, we decided to record it live, and nobody was buying live albums! We spent a whopping $4,500 producing the whole thing, using semi-professional equipment with these cheesy eight-track channel boards set up in a camping trailer. We recorded it at Lindale High School in a 300-seat auditorium. It was truly live with no fixes. We just blew through it and sang our songs; the whole thing took 45 minutes."

Holm's record company optimistically shipped out 100,000 copies to Christian retail outlets only to find few were interested and there was an alarming amount of returns. However, once Christian radio discovered one particular song and began spinning it nationwide, suddenly the retailers were demanding that the records be returned to them. That song is now an Easter classic: Rise Again. It was the album’s centerpiece and would go on to be one of the biggest Christian radio hits in history.

Holm recalled in CCM Magazine that he wrote this song about Christ's resurrection during a time when he was struggling for ideas. "Finally out of frustration I began to pray, 'Well, Lord, if you were transported to this time and this place, what would You say?' And as hokey as it may sound, I got this mental image of Jesus with the beard and the rope and the whole thing just standing on stage with a guitar. I didn't hear any voices from heaven, no thunderclaps or lightning flashes, but I began to write, and it was literally like taking dictation. In 10 minutes tops, the music and words came out and it was done."

Go ahead, drive the nails in my hands  laugh at me where you stand
Go ahead and say it isn't Me / the day will come when you will see

'Cause I'll rise again / Ain't no power on earth can tie Me down
Yes, I'll rise again / Death can't keep Me in the ground

Go ahead, mock My name / My love for you is still the same
Go ahead and bury Me / But very soon I will be free

Go ahead, and say I'm dead and gone / But you will see that you were wrong
Go ahead, try to hide the Son / But all will see that I'm the One

'Cause I'll come again / Ain't no pow'r on earth can keep me back
Yes I'll come again / Come to take My people back


Rise Again won the 1977 Dove Award for Song of the Year and is an Easter staple to this day in churches around the globe. "I'd never written a song like that before," said Holm. "They just don't come that fast. I have a drawer full of uncompleted ones to attest to that fact. I realized that I didn't write the song. The Lord wrote it. I just delivered the message."  

There were other notable songs on LIVE: He Knew Me Then, He Means All to Me, Hey! I’m a Believer, the altar call classic Come Unto Jesus and even a cover of Love Song’s Front Seat Back Seat. But Rise Again will always be the song that sets this record apart.

Dallas Holm & Praise - Live rose to the top of airplay and sales charts. Rise Again was released as a single and stayed at the top of every Gospel chart in the industry, month after month after month. The song has been covered by too many artists to mention here. 

Holm’s appeal is broad. He is regarded as a Jesus Music pioneer, but he is also listed as a significant influence by mainstream CCM artists like Steven Curtis Chapman and Twila Paris. Heck, he can even be seen on several Bill Gaither Homecoming videos. Dallas has earned his influence after more than 40 years of writing, singing and ministering in some 4,000 concerts in every state in the USA as well as many countries abroad. His 38 recordings have garnered gold records, multiple Dove Awards, Grammy nominations, number one songs, and countless accolades, including a 2007 induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. 

By Dallas Holm

Let my light shine in the night time
Let it shine all day through,
Let it shine - shine for Jesus,
May it shine, shine on you.

I was walking along in the darkness,
I didn't know which way to go,
Then the Lord, He turned the light on,
Changed my life, saved my soul.

So my light shine in the night time
Let it shine all day through,
Let it shine - shine for Jesus,
May it shine, shine on you.

Now I live for just one purpose,
Let the Lord shine through me,
'Cause if His love can shine on others,
Then His Spirit will set 'em free.

Just let my light shine in the night time
Let it shine all day through,
Let it shine - shine for Jesus,
May it shine, shine on you.

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By Dallas Holm

Come unto Jesus, give Him your heart today;
Come unto Jesus, let Him have His way!

Oh, I know there are things in your life
You think He can't forgive;
But He'll forgive and forget, my friend,
And show you how to live.

Come unto Jesus, give Him your heart today;
Come unto Jesus, let Him have His way!

Don't you put it off my friend;
You can't afford to wait;
Today's the day for you,
Soon it could be too late!

Come unto Jesus, give Him your heart today;
Come unto Jesus, let Him have His way!

Come unto Jesus, give Him your heart today;
Come unto Jesus, let Him have His way!

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Dallas says, "One of the great blessings of being around this long is that now I hear nightly of how God has used this ministry to change lives through the years. People come up and share how they were saved in a concert many years ago. I receive letters from parents telling me their kids came to know Christ at a concert and I also receive letters from kids who say their parents received Christ at a concert. We know of many in ministry both here and abroad who say that it was at a Dallas Holm concert where they felt the call to ministry. These testimonies and many more are the great highlight and reward of our ministry."

Dallas married his wife, Linda, in 1969. Unlike so many other Christian music artists, the Holms remain married today. Dallas, never one to soft-peddle or beat around the bush, has this to say regarding marriage and family: "If I reached the whole world but lost my own family, I'd consider myself a failure. If I'm not the husband and father I need to be in my own home, I have no right to proclaim truths of the Kingdom to others."

The Holms make their home in Texas today. Dallas says, "Like the bumper sticker I see on many a Texas vehicle, I wasn't born here but I got here as fast as I could.” Dallas’ passion for the outdoors -- hunting, fishing and camping -- leads him to laugh that maybe he was born a few hundred years too late, saying that his fantasy life would be as a frontiersman. [Which isn’t really too far off the mark, when you think about it. After all, he did break boundaries and traversed new ‘frontiers’ in the 70s by becoming the first non-Southern Gospel artist to win Dove Awards.]

Dallas Holm has always shared Steve Camp’s gift for honesty and blunt assessment. When asked in 2008 what he sees as the greatest need in the Church today, he said, “If there’s a terrific need in the body of Christ in America today, it’s a need to return to true, pure, passionate, intimate relationship with Jesus. We’re real good at having church. We know how to initiate the programs, build the buildings, and hire the staff, but we don’t preach the Word anymore. Religion has degenerated into this motivational psychology-warm-fuzzy-feel-good, and we do a terrible disservice to the body of Christ because life’s tough. Jesus said, ‘In this world, you will have tribulation.’ ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous,’ the Bible says. Many! And we’re telling people, ‘You all ought to be rich and you all ought to feel good.’ We need to get back to real grassroots Christianity. I've had struggles, heartaches, and disappointments just like everyone else. My wife Linda has fought an ongoing 24-year battle surviving cancer. But Christ remains preeminent in all things. No matter what has happened, what I'm going through now or what I may endure tomorrow, nothing can separate me from the love of Christ."

Dallas Holm today

Like Randy Stonehill and Phil Keaggy, Dallas Holm is another early Jesus Music artist who has never stopped touring or recording. In a 2008 interview, Holm was asked to reflect back on the Christian music of the 1970s. He said, “There’s a tremendous emotional and spiritual attachment to the music of that time, of that era. Music back then was not just entertainment; it wasn’t because of a record deal. There was no reason to do it except, as Paul said, we were compelled – we were constrained by the love of Christ – to share the gospel of Jesus.”

As for how he would like to be remembered? "When I stand before the Lord, it won't be for how many records I've sold or how many people saw me in concert," says Dallas. "What we do for Him is never as important as who we are in Him. That's all He's measuring."

Fun Facts: 

• Dallas Holm is a member of the Christian Motorcyclists Association (CMA), the second-largest motorcycling group in the U.S. with over 50,000 members. "My older brother introduced me to bikes when I was about 14, and I've loved them ever since. CMA has a huge prison ministry where we take our bikes into the prisons and talk to the inmates about them. It opens up the door to talk about Christ to someone who probably wouldn't have listened to you otherwise."

• Dallas Holm personally prayed with Eddie DeGarmo to receive Christ as Saviour and Lord. You can read all the details in DeGarmo's 2018 book, Rebel For God.

• Dallas Holm eventually got to be in a group with his friend Phil Johnson. They recorded two albums together in the 1980s, along with Tim Sheppard, as part of the trio Holm Sheppard & Johnson.