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| GROWING PAINS by Jamie Owens (1975) Light Records - LSX 7027 |
With Mom and Dad penning popular musicals for Jesus freaks such as Come Together, If My People and The Witness, folks like Barry McGuire, the Talbot Brothers, and the 2nd Chapter of Acts were always over at the house, either working on new music or just hangin’ out. God was doing something very special through the talents of Jimmy and Carol Owens. And daughter Jamie had a front row seat.
"My house was full of people like Andrae Crouch – my dad produced the first album by the Disciples – and we had Larry Norman and Randy Stonehill around,” Jamie said in a 1999 interview with crosswalk.com. “The first album that I ever sang on was one of my parents’ albums. I sang a duet with Randy Stonehill. For quite a long time we had the 2nd Chapter of Acts living in our home! And Barry McGuire and his wife lived in our home. So I grew up smack dab in the middle of that stuff. I was very much influenced by that.”
So, while Jamie Owens grew up with some pretty famous friends, she was somewhat lacking in the “testimony” department. She didn’t have sordid tales of drinking, drugs, and orgies to share. “I received Jesus when I was four years old,” Jamie stated in a 1977 interview with Keystone magazine. “Of course, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to make new decisions whether I’m going to live for the Lord or for myself. I finally realized how silly it was going any other way, or testing anything else out because all I had to do was look around. Everybody else tested out other things for me! What happened was that the Lord started to show me the inside of me – my attitude and that kind of thing. Just because I didn’t go out and do the obvious sins didn’t make me any less a sinner than anybody else.”
While it’s true that Jamie had a built-in Jesus Music pedigree, it was also true that she had a talent for writing and a beautiful voice. She was signed to a recording deal at the tender age of seventeen. Her debut album, Laughter in Your Soul is said to have been the best-selling CCM album of 1975 in
Which brings us to our featured album – Jamie’s sophomore release, 1975’s Growing Pains. With producer Al Perkins and engineer Jonathan David Brown at the helm, Growing Pains once again boasted a ‘who’s who’ supporting cast. Michael Omartian, John Michael Talbot, Leland Sklar, David Hungate, Terry Talbot, David Diggs, and a newly converted Keith Green all lent their considerable talents to this record. The music displayed richer orchestration; her voice was sweet, yet strong; and the songwriting demonstrated a depth of perspective not often found in a teenaged artist. There was a sense that Jamie Owens was a maturing artist in her own right who had some important things to say. The record’s very first track, Hard Times, was a case in point:
Is that tear falling from your eye ‘cause the wind is stingin’?
Don’t you know a seed could never grow if there were never showers
And though the rain might bring a little pain, just look at all the flowers
Now don’t you fret now, child, don’t you worry
The rain’s to help you grow, so don’t try to hurry the storm alongThe hard times make you strong
Hard Times, written by Jamie, became a favorite of many and remains an encouragement to this day, with its message of perseverance in the face of hardship. Perkins’ peddle steel gives the song a country feel that works well with Jamie’s voice.
The Father’s Song is a gentle ballad, written from the perspective of the Lord Himself. It also works as a song from an earthly father to his child:
If you could see deep inside of Me
You would cry and reply with an open heartIf you could reach to the depths of Me
You’d find your pain and the stain of each tear you’ve cried
If only once you would look at Me
Through the eyes of a child who has lost his wayYou would know you could come to Me
To be fed and remain safely home to stay
How many times I have longed just to hold you
And protect you from the pain the world can giveBut you run every time I get near you
Can’t you see, I wanna teach you how to live?
Clocking in at just two minutes, it’s the shortest song on the album.
Singin’ Hallelujah was a precursor to the praise and worship music that would eventually engulf Christendom. Set to a country-rock vibe, Jamie leads a “choir” of background vocalists in singing praises to the Lord. It’s another short one, seeming to end a little too soon. Jamie co-wrote Singin’ Hallelujah with Matthew Ward.
New Jerusalem closes Side One, and is a very interesting track, transitioning through three distinct musical ‘movements’ while dropping some serious biblical knowledge on the listener. It’s like a 4-minute Bible study on the place that we occupy in Father God’s heart. Jamie co-wrote New Jerusalem with Terry Talbot, which was further proof that this girl just was not your average American teenager in 1975! New Jerusalem paints a beautiful picture of the bride of Christ, waiting and watching; ready to meet her Bridegroom, knowing that He will come for her in spite of the strife and chaos that surrounds her on a daily basis.
You’ll notice when listening to Growing Pains that Annie Herring was most likely an influence on Jamie’s singing. There are also a few tunes on this album that would’ve felt right at home on a Keith Green record. In fact, one song did subsequently find its way onto an album by Mr. Green…
Opening Side Two is a song that has been described as “majestic,” an “iconic Easter composition,” and a “true classic.” Keith Green’s 1979 recording of The Victor is the version that brought this wonderful song to the attention of the church-at-large. But we heard it first right here on Growing Pains:
Swallowed into earth’s dark womb
Death has triumphed, that’s what they say But try to hold Him in the tomb
The Son of Life rose on the third day
Look, the gates of hell they’re falling
Crumbling from the inside out
He’s bursting through the walls with laughter
Listen to the angels shout
His plan of battle fooled them all
They led Him off to prison to die But as He entered hades hall
He broke those hellish chains with a cry
Listen to the demons screaming
See Him bruise the serpent’s head
The prisoners of hell the Savior’s redeeming
All the power of death is dead
It is finished, He has done it
Life conquered death Jesus Christ has won it
Fly Away With Me is another song that comes from the heart of God Himself, imploring the listener to reject the bonds of sin and sadness, and experience the kind of freedom that only comes through total dependence on the Lord. It’s really all about second chances:
Lift your weary head, My child, and fly away with me
To a place of which you’ve dreamed before but never thought you’d seeWhere the past is all forgiven and innocence is free
Lift your head, My child, and fly away with me
I know that you don’t understand how life begins again
But trust Me now, don’t be afraid; I’ve paid for all your sinThe life that I poured out for you has restored your purity
Lift your head, My child, and fly away with me
All the time you’ve wasted on yourself has tied you down
But My love has cut those ropes to set you freeThe bitter tears you’ve tasted will be diamonds in your crown
So rejoice, My child, and fly away with me
Musically, Fly Away With Me was another pleasant MOR ballad, fitting in quite nicely with the rest of the album. If you’ve got a hankerin’ for some rock and roll, Growing Pains is not going to satisfy that urge. Jamie seems to have known where she was comfortable, and she stayed within that arena, musically.
In the age of social media and digital misinformation, people who don’t even know each other are comfortable (due to distance and anonymity) saying rude, coarse, and even obscene things to one another. The lovely sentiment expressed in My Prayer for You stands in stark contrast:
Well, I hope that all the good things that you’ve been praying for
Will be yours as you walk with the LordAnd I pray that He will help you just to trust Him more and more
As you learn to know the power of His Word
God bless you
Jesus loves youMay His peace and joy go with you all the way
God bless you
Jesus loves you
May His fellowship grow sweeter every day
Imagine what a pleasant place our world would be if we all took that approach and practiced that attitude toward each other.
With the song Many Times, the comparisons to Annie, Nelly and Matthew are unavoidable. That’s a 2nd Chapter chorus if I’ve ever heard one!
I’ve said before that I’m a sucker for classic-hymns-done-right, and Growing Pains ends with just such a song -- Jamie’s stripped-down treatment of My Jesus, I Love Thee. Reverential, beautiful, timeless.
Growing Pains was an album that spanned the generational divide, a record that was enjoyed and appreciated by everybody in the house. She appealed to her peer group because she was one of them. Boys wanted to date her and girls wanted to be her. It didn’t hurt that some of her best friends were folks like Randy Stonehill and the 2nd Chapter of Acts. But she also appealed to moms and dads. She was unthreatening. She was the girl-next-door who never rebelled. And you could actually understand the words to her songs!
Jamie Owens became Jamie Owens-Collins when she married producer/music executive/filmmaker Dan Collins, disappointing Christian young men all over America
She spent years ministering with the Maranatha Praise Band and providing music for city-wide crusades with Evangelists Franklin Graham and Greg Laurie.
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| Dan & Jamie Owens-Collins, then and now |
Jamie Owens-Collins has spent a lifetime sharing the Gospel through music and leading audiences in worship with original compositions of great depth such as You Have Broken the Chains and The Battle Belongs to the Lord. The power and effect of her music has endured.
My guess is that she’s made Mom and Dad quite proud. It would appear that the lack of a good “testimony” didn’t hurt her after all.
Good write up. I had a youth musical version songbook of that.
ReplyDeleteA couple of thoughts. First, one reason Many Times sounded like a 2nd Chapter song might be due to Annie writing it.
Second, I got introduced to this via cassette, and on that version, "The Father's Song" was, I believe, the first song on side two and "My Prayer For You" was the third song on side one. (One of the two cassettes I remember where the album version swapped a couple of songs.)
Thanks, Jeff (or is it Becky?). That's interesting about the song order. That happens sometimes when albums are re-released on CD. The CD track order on Randy Stonehill's "The Sky is Falling," for example, is completely different from the original LP. Tough to get used to when you remember it being a certain way.
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ReplyDeleteSo, who was the original author of the song The Victor? Did Jamie Owens write it or Keith Green? It seems credit is given to both at different sources.
ReplyDeleteJamie wrote The Victor.
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