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| AWAITING YOUR REPLY by Resurrection Band (1978) Star Song | SSR 0011 |
-Rich Jacobson
"I got saved hearing this record in '78. Perfect cure for this one-time Kissaholic."
-Ricky Stokes
"I remember being instructed by the Dean of my college to only play this album after 11pm on our college radio station."
-Frank Parker
"I saw an ad in a magazine for Awaiting Your Reply and mailed off for it based on the cover alone. It blew me away."
-David Haddock
"I was shocked when I first heard Awaiting Your Reply on vinyl in 1979 until I unlearned some false theology...that rock and roll isn't of the devil!"
-Dale Joseph Trujillo
"I was assigned by my high school to work a gospel concert in our little theater. I was the sound and lights guy for the school. Well, these hippies showed up with electric guitars and long hair. One song in and my heart was pierced. I stood at the light panel until the final song, and when Glenn Kaiser walked off stage and saw me crying, he asked what was wrong. Needless to say, that night changed my life."
-Jim McNicholas
This one was a game changer.
A band called Agape had recorded some hard rock in the early 70s. The early Petra albums had some hard-edged rock here and there. And Austin Roberts' rock opera Eight Days included some pretty heavy rock in 1976. But Awaiting Your Reply by Resurrection Band felt different. Here was an entire album of authentic, hard rock music by an authentic, hard rock band. It was so revolutionary at the time that many Christians mistakenly labeled it as heavy metal.
Released in 1978, the album was recorded for only $8,000 of borrowed money over a period of two weeks in marathon, all-night recording sessions wrapping up on an Easter Sunday. Glenn Kaiser, the band's frontman and lead vocalist, told the story to Tony Cummings of crossrhythms.com in 2010: "We ended up producing ourselves," Kaiser said. "It was in the morning church announcements that we gave a notice that we needed prayer because we thought it was time for Resurrection Band to record a professional album. Well, a couple who had come to church for some years with us there [Tim and Candy Lampman], one of their grandparents had passed away and left them a large sum of money. They said, 'How much do you need?' I said,' I don't even know.' So we found out that we could do this album in two weeks by doing the overnight sessions, the cheap time, and by recording and producing it ourselves we could save a lot of money. We could do it for about $8,000. Well, they said, 'That's no problem. If you want to pay us back someday, fine. We don't care.' They literally signed a check for $8,000 and we didn't spend a dime over that and made Awaiting Your Reply."
Due to the album's sound and the flashy cover art, no established Christian record label in the United States would agree to distribute the album.
Enter Star Song.
Wayne Donowho and Darrell Harris left Word Records to start Star Song in 1976. "In the '70s, we were noticing the shift in the pop culture," recalls Harris. "All the 14- and 15-year olds were hanging out in game rooms listening to Cat Scratch Fever and such. There were no Christian bands we knew of speaking that musical language. One day we dropped by the United Saints Records Store in Pasadena Texas. We asked Jimmy Womack if he knew of any such. He asked us if we'd ever heard of Resurrection Band and JPUSA. We had not."
"I got ahold of everybody I knew," said Glenn Kaiser, "and I knew most everybody by then throughout the US, Canada, and UK, and every Christian label turned us down. Several secular labels said, 'Great stuff, could you change the lyrics?' The Christian labels said, 'It's too intense, too loud, from the music to the lyrics, it's too shocking for church folk and Christian bookshops.'"
Darrell Harris said, "Jimmy Womack gave us a copy of Cornerstone magazine that included an ad about the band. I called and had a chat with Glenn Kaiser. He told me they had a finished master - but that we probably would not like it. They had already been turned down by all the majors. I asked him to please let us give it a listen."
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| Darrel A. Harris |
Kaiser concurs: "Yeah, this little custom label in Texas at the time called Star Song said, 'We don't have any money; we were actually going to call you to do a swap. We have a studio and we were going to offer Rez a full recording in our studio if you will give us a full page in Cornerstone magazine to promote our label because we would like to be better known throughout the country.' I said, 'Too late. We've already finished the mastering of the first album, are you interested in me sending it to you? If not, then it's cool, if God wants us to press this thing up and sell it at concerts, that's up to God.' They said, 'Well, we don't have a dime, but we want to be open to the Lord, so send it.' I'm not going to get into all of what they said later but essentially, he said the staff came together and started crying and said they'd been praying for a band like this to show up for about a year and a half. So they signed us."
Darrell Harris remembers: "When the master copy arrived we listened to Awaiting Your Reply at our recently built Rivendell Recorders. I wept like a little girl. It was the answer to my prayer. It communicated the Gospel of Jesus in the language that was speaking to the younger part of our pop culture. So we got to distribute their first two albums. And I am so grateful."
Fans of Rez Band know that the group eventually created their own record label - Grrr Records - in 1988. But in an interview with Scott Weldon of classicchristianrockzine.com, Glenn Kaiser revealed that there had been talk of doing their own thing from the very beginning. "Yeah, we talked before we even released Awaiting Your Reply in '78 about doing our own record label," Kaiser confirmed. "But, I mean, first of all, you had to have capital. You had to have enough money to be able to have warehousing, and, you know, you had to put together a staff that would be educated and understanding of how the record business would be run from manufacturing to shipping, publicity, etc. There's so much involved there, financially and also from the perspective of just understanding how to go about it all, that we were actually very thankful that Star Song said, 'Go for it,' you know, 'we'll sign you.'"
"I really could not believe that the other companies had passed," said Harris. "The fervency of Resurrection Band's message and presentation were simply irresistible!"
So the fledgling, independent label known as Star Song Records took a gamble and signed the controversial Resurrection Band to a recording deal, making them labelmates with groups like Petra, Chalice, and Arkangel. Seeming to prove the old axiom that "all publicity is good publicity," the release of Awaiting Your Reply helped put Star Song on the map. It would later become one of the largest independent labels in contemporary Christian music.
Resurrection Band had previously existed under the name Charity and already had a couple of inferior custom projects under their belts. But Awaiting Your Reply was the official first step in a lengthy journey that in some ways continues to this day. They recorded 17 albums, hosted the world's preeminent Christian rock music festival for 18 years, became the conscience of Christian rock music (at least from the center-left side of the aisle), and, most importantly, saw multiplied thousands of people surrender their lives to Jesus as Saviour and Lord.
In my post on Resurrection Band's sophomore release, Rainbow's End, I related the story of how my brothers and I were given a copy of Awaiting Your Reply while on the road in full-time ministry with our parents. At that time, we traveled the country, living in a customized bus 365 days a year. It was fun and the bus was nice, but quarters were tight. When we first dropped the needle on the debut album by Resurrection Band we quickly realized that this was a record we could only enjoy through headphones...because Mom and Dad were never going to understand this. It was just a different sound, a different attitude...a whole new level of intensity.
The record began with a very memorable introduction - a spoken-word novelty track that many people can still quote from memory. A radio is clicked on just in time to hear the announcer say...
"...and the hits just keep on coming! This is Jolly Jonah Jamison, your DJ, kickin' off the jams all day, all night on WBCR! That was The Archies with 'Sugar, Sugar.' Just makes you wanna cry, don't it? Our thousand-dollar winner will be announced two hours from now, so hang in there as we play some music by...Resurrection Band?! How'd this get in the stacks? Oh well, here's hopin'..."
With that, the song Waves came crashing through our Koss headphones like a tsunami slamming into a 5-star resort on some Malaysian beach. From the first few notes, it was clear that this band would be making waves, all right.
A few things were evident from the outset.
First, this was heavy duty rock and roll. Not the kind we'd come to expect from Children of the Day or Mustard Seed Faith but, rather, something akin to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Jefferson Airplane. Blogger James Case described it as "raw and gritty with soulful vocals and a passion that saturates the songs." Case said that Awaiting Your Reply was nothing less than "a blues rock classic." "This was no watered-down imitation of the real thing," wrote author Mark Allan Powell, "this was the real thing and, Christian or not, no serious rock fan could doubt it." Powell also argued that Awaiting Your Reply created a shift in the Jesus Music genre, "leaving memories of Maranatha Music far behind." Powell said it was "the Christian music equivalent of John Belushi smashing Stephen Bishop's guitar in Animal House" and made Love Song sound like The Archies in comparison.
Secondly, this was a hard rock outfit that was fronted by a husband/wife team, which was very unusual in Jesus Rock. "Vocalist/guitarist Glenn Kaiser will raise the hair on your neck and arms with his guitar playing and bluesy voice," James Case penned, "while wife Wendi Kaiser will conjure up images of former Jefferson Airplane vocalist Grace Slick." Glenn Kaiser was asked in a 2015 interview what it was like to share lead vocals with his better half and he gave an honest and revealing answer: "The band mostly had us pitch songs near the top of my range, so the truth is we couldn’t have done it -- I sure could not have -- without Wendi sharing lead vocals! Plus the importance of a woman front-person rocking and saying what she did during shows was of immense importance. Not to mention how much of a bummer had I had to tour without her all those years." Listeners became acquainted with Wendi's voice right up front as she shared lead vocals on Waves and also played a starring role on the album's second track.
Lastly, here was a band that would never soft-peddle the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Waves made that clear from the get-go.
When will you begin to receive the love of God?
Jesus wants to touch you, enfold you with His love
Look into your life and tell me what you see
Don’t you realize what He offers is for free?
I know that there’s a Heaven and soon I’ll be there
No lying, no crying, no dying, no fear
If you wanna join us, you can come along
With His blood He bought you and to Him you’ll belong
Come along
We see wave after wave of sailors every day
Drowning in the surf of their sorrow
We’re reachin’ out to you, pointing to the way
He’ll give you a better tomorrow
And to those of our friends who know the King is your King
Keep shinin’ till we meet again
Waves also features a gritty, hair-on-fire harmonica solo by Tom Cameron that was unlike anything ever heard on a Christian album up to that point.
The album's title track describes a pretty heavy spiritual trip and again showcases the Truth of the Gospel. Wendi Kaiser sings about having received a letter from God Himself, signed in blood and mailed into her heart. The letter ends with the words, "I love you. Awaiting Your Reply."
It's a slow, deliberate rock track with a heavy dose of analog synthesizers. Resurrection Band never approached the kind of keyboard artistry of groups like DeGarmo & Key and Petra, but they picked their spots very effectively. On this album, guitarist Stu Heiss is also credited with playing Moog Mark II, ARP Odyssey, Omni, and Avatar synthesizers.
Musically, this song was in an altogether different rent district, but it was thematically related to songs like Shotgun Angel by Daniel Amos and Barry McGuire's Cosmic Cowboy in that it reads almost like a weird, surreal, out-of-body experience.
I was lying in my bed
Trying to arrange my head
When a letter came in from Him
Saying I was dead
So I called Him up
Asked for Him by name
He passed me the ticket
And I boarded the plane
We pulled out onto the airport runway
We began to climb as the whole world exploded
I'd just asked Him for His lifeline
The blood, the blood of Jesus is His lifeline
The song concludes with an invitation for the listener to read God's letter to him or her, which is obviously the Word of God...
So sit down and read His letter
His love is clearly defined
When you're done with His words
You won't forget what you've heard
And in His love He'll haunt you day and night
"Awaiting your reply"
Blogger David Lowman called Awaiting Your Reply "an altar call set to music," while Mark Allan Powell referred to it as "a masterpiece."
"He loves you, what is your response? is the message," Glenn Kaiser said, "and it's the same message He gives today."
Speaking of altar calls, Glenn Kaiser's own conversion story was pretty amazing.
Glenn grew up in rural Wisconsin. His father had once been a very successful manager of a large trucking company but after a health setback and being cheated by a business partner, he found himself leading a destitute family, moving them from house to house. "In the winter, I oftentimes went to bed with all my clothes on, two pair of socks, long underwear and jeans, and two or even three quilts," Kaiser remembered in an interview with the Cstone Music website. The youngest of three children, Glenn says he was basically left to raise himself as his parents did what they could to provide for the family while his older siblings spent all their time with friends.
When Glenn was six years old, two "gray-haired old ladies" came by the house and convinced Kaiser's parents to allow them to pick him up and take him to their church for something known as vacation Bible school. So for six Saturdays that summer, Glenn ate paste and played at recess...but also heard stories about Jesus. And he memorized John 3:16. He was also given a pocket New Testament and an attendance pin, which his mother tucked away in a junk drawer.
About a year later, Glenn's mother went to Milwaukee to find work. That's not all she found. His mother's adultery led to the breakup of his parents' marriage. Glenn says he was absolutely miserable during those days. "I think I got along better with my dog than with my mother or father," Kaiser said in a 2009 TV taping with the show Everlasting Love. "I didn't understand what was going on. I could feel that the family was unraveling but I couldn't judge our family on the basis of other families. We didn't connect with anybody. Nobody was ever home. I felt empty, angry, miserable, betrayed. I didn't understand what love meant. I didn't understand commitment. It was very confusing."
Glenn started playing guitar around age twelve and threw himself into his music since his family had already disintegrated. His first band was appropriately called The Lost Souls. As a teen, Kaiser played with several bands, usually of the blues-rock variety, sometimes with a little folk music thrown in for good measure. He also became ensnared with sexual addictions as a result of the influence of neighbors. "It's just a mess," he says, "when you're trying to find love and what you're finding is sex, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with love." And with the music came drugs. So the old sex, drugs and rock and roll cliche wasn't just a cliche for Kaiser. "There were chunks of time in those years - 15, 16, 17 - that I have no idea what happened. People told me about things that I did, people in bands, girlfriends, whatever..." Kaiser says that he overdosed and even contemplated suicide as a teenager.
Remember the gray-haired ladies and their VBS? So did Glenn.
"One night, after I had a horrible trip, I came down and I said to my mom, 'Do you still have that old New Testament and Psalms?' She went, 'What?' She'd been living in adultery with a guy for years, over at his place several nights a week. I said, 'If you've got it, would you give it to me, please?' She gets up, pulls the thing out and gives it to me. I go upstairs and I do one of those things where you just open the Bible to wherever. And I was either reading Matthew 24, Mark 13 or Luke 21. All three of those chapters talk about all the signs right before Jesus returns in that generation. I read the whole chapter. I don't know which one of those three it was, but it was one of those. And I read it and I went, whoa. I shut the book, threw it in a drawer and forgot about it.
A few weeks later, Glenn opened a newspaper and noticed that every story on the front page of the paper reminded of him of what he'd read in that pocket New Testament. After discovering that a close relative, his godfather, had passed away, the words of the Bible verse he had learned at age 6 at that vacation Bible school came back to him. "That Scripture flashed through my mind and I just broke down," Kaiser said. "I broke down on the spot and ended up on the floor. I started just crying my eyes out, going, 'Why would You want me? Why would You love me? I've ignored You. I've lived a completely stupid, selfish life. I've wrecked all these people. I've wrecked myself. I've caused so much misery to my parents. I'm the reason a whole stack of people in my school are trashed on dope right now. Why would You love me?' And there was no loud voice, no angels walking in the room, no vision of Jesus talking to me in an audible voice, just a very still, small voice in my mind and in my heart: 'Because I do. Give Me your life.' Some things were instant, automatic. Boom. Delivered. Never again was this or that a temptation. But smoking dope and idolatry through music was so much of a security blanket for me at that point. It took me about nine months to really, absolutely let go. But that night, January 3rd, 1971, I broke down and said, 'That's it. But You're getting ripped off. This is a one-sided deal. You give me eternal life and You get me?' This was the worst, one-sided, rip-off deal I ever heard of! But I got it. I really got it. He wants my life. He doesn't want a prayer. He wants my life. All of it."
Knowing the backstory of Glenn's salvation makes the words of the song Broken Promises even more powerful:
Broken promises
We lost the joy that we once knew
Where do we go from here
From something old to something new
Past dreams done gone from me, yeah
I'm losing daylight, losing view
Son of God, where are You now
Do You feel my need
I'm lost within this forest
Barricaded by the trees
Will You hear my cry for help
Would You forgive me
I'm so far away
I've run so far away
Broken promises
Broken by me and not by You
Jesus, break me
Lord, snap my stubborn heart in two
Lonely hours
So many wasted talents that I've sown
But now I'm ready to follow You, Jesus
My dear Lord, I'm coming home
Lord, I want You to change me
Rearrange me
Lord, I want You to mold me
I just want You to hold me
Sweet Savior, just love me
Your thoughts are so high above me
And I confess that I need You
I really know that I need You
Yeah...
I need You, yeah...
Lord, help me to follow You
Jesus, I'm gonna follow You
I give my whole life to You
Jesus, I'm gonna follow You
My dear Lord, I'm coming home
For many of us, Broken Promises was the first time we heard Glenn Kaiser sing with that voice so filled with emotion that it made our hearts ache. Blogger David Lowman said Broken Promises was "one of Glenn Kaiser’s finest vocal performances. So heartfelt and authentic you did not only believe him, you felt him." Like many Resurrection Band songs to come, Broken Promises featured Stu Heiss with what one reviewer called some "heavy acid guitar wah-wah." Unlike most Rez songs, this one also featured not only synthesizers but acoustic piano as well. Clocking in at just under 7 minutes, this epic track was an undeniable highlight of the album and remains a favorite of many Rez listeners today.
Rounding out side one of Awaiting Your Reply was Golden Road, a song that chronicled the emptiness of fame and evinced a mature perspective that was unusual for a debut album.
They told me about a golden road paved with dreams and fame
I thought I'd try to walk it
Get down and play the game
The treasures of the world kept comin'
All my dreams came true
But I didn't realize the price I'd paid
For the changes I'd gone through
Changes I'd gone through
Clinging to the shape of a fantasy
Rolling down the slope of desire
Most of the time spent pulling it out of the fire
I turned away from God and His love
And I worshipped myself
The idols that I'd built
All crumbled on my shelf
They all crumbled on my shelf
But all along I realized
That if I had to
If I had to choose
Between love an' my own sweet lies
Love was bound to lose, yeah, love was bound to lose
They told me about a broken road paved with death and shame
I thought I'd try to find it
Get away from playing the game
I finally realized the price He paid for changes I've gone through
I finally realized the price He paid for changes I've gone through
Changes I've gone through
The song began with a dulcimer, giving the intro a bit of a hippie vibe. Then Kaiser's gritty vocals and impassioned performance took over. The Scream Heard 'Round the World (the Christian world, anyway) came in at about the 3:02 mark of Golden Road. It was a golden moment if you will, and quite cathartic.
After Glenn Kaiser found Jesus, he also found JPUSA - an acronym for Jesus People USA and popularly pronounced "Japoosa." Kaiser quit his old band, gave away all of his musical gear, and moved into JPUSA in 1971 with little more than a pillow and sleeping bag. JPUSA was a fairly small Christian group known in Chicago for their outreach programs to the elderly, homeless, and addicts. While the group comprised a local church and held weekly services, it also functioned as somewhat of a commune, with members living on-site and having all things common (Acts 2:44-45). JPUSA was labeled by some a 'cult' or 'extremist sect' with a soft spot for socialism. But the organization would eventually be regarded in a positive light for their outreach to the poor and for lending their support to Cornerstone magazine, the Cornerstone Festival and, of course, Resurrection Band.
First playing under the name Charity in 1972, Resurrection Band became an entity about a year later when Jesus People Milwaukee split into four groups with one of them located in the inner city of Chicago. The band quickly became a primary focus of the ministry of JPUSA. Like other Jesus Rock pioneers of the era, they played anywhere and everywhere, from prisons to parks to street corners. They even developed a special "folk set" that they would break out for church concerts and nursing homes. In the liner notes for Awaiting Your Reply it says, "We bless the Lord for peanut butter, school buses, and church basements without which this band would never have survived."
Resurrection Band proved you did not have to be based in Southern California to be part of the Jesus Movement. "We ended up traveling around the country in a school bus with about 28 people," Glenn Kaiser recalled in a 2009 interview with WJTL radio. "The Jesus bus was red and had four-foot letters on the side, white with black outline. We'd pull up at the beach and pull out all this gear, set all this musical gear up, Rez would play and somebody would preach, talk to people, baptize them right in the water, the ocean or the lake or whatever. And we did this for about a year and a half. Ended up coming back up to the Chicago area - the last place we wanted to be. But it is my deep conviction that God actually wanted us to take root in Chicago. We wanted to have a little farm out in the country somewhere. We weren't interested in the inner city. But we started sharing the Gospel on the street and people started praying to receive the Lord. It became obvious that's where we needed to be."
Listening to Glenn Kaiser describe the ministry of JPUSA, one gets the feeling that it's a lot less like the stereotype of a "hippie commune" and much more about a modern-day expression of the way the early Church served one another and met people's needs as expressed in the book of Acts.
"Wendi and I have always lived in one room," Glenn said in a 2006 interview with Lane Walker. "Take for example your average bedroom, that's it, that's where we live, we don't have a house, we don't have an apartment, we have a bedroom! It is a 10-story hotel that we live out of. We live full-time in community there, we share our food, our finances, our honorariums from our concerts and money that comes in from record sales all goes into a common fund and helps to pay the bills and finances the ministry, it doesn't come to me personally. We are constantly reaching out to the outer community, such as the hundred seniors that we take care of, who live within the top three floors of our building. We also have a 380-bed homeless shelter three blocks away. In our apartments, we have 18 families, mostly single moms with kids who came through our shelter programs and God has really worked through their lives. We work with inner-city kids through both our Boys Club and Girls Club. The bottom line is there is a lot of ministry to broken and messed up people. We don't live in a pretty or nice area, we live about four blocks from a very wealthy area, but our area is called uptown and it's poor. There are a couple of rival gangs that have no problem fighting it out for turf (I guess we are the biggest gang so we do get a little bit of respect from those guys). The politics in Chicago as you know is infamous, and it's the truth, we're on the radar because the city sends us people to help. The city has run out of resources and so we are in a very unique situation."
Kaiser continued: "Whereas a lot of people wanted to be independent of the 'traditional church,' we always wanted to have more commitment. We wanted to have more relationship. We really believe in the body of Christ and we really believe in accountability, it's not just a word, it's saved my neck. I'm on a pastoral team of nine, and all of us really and truly do love one another, pray with each other and confess our sins and minister to one another. We've really tried to live that example out in the whole of community and we have that relationship with the Evangelical Covenant denomination."
Sounds amazing...but communal living must obviously have some challenges, right?
"When you're living close together day in and day out, not just seeing each other simply one hour a week, the iron is going to sharpen the iron," Kaiser said. "There's going to be some friction, some sparks, there's going to be some shaking, some unsettling moments and you can't just run and go home because you are home! Our 'live-in' membership within our community is huge (about 325 adults and 200 children) and we are constantly fellowshiping, working together, praying together or asking forgiveness and help from one another. When it comes to community, and I want to be clear about this, I don't think God has called everyone to live like Jesus People USA, in the inner-city like we do in Chicago. God has not called everyone to do the exact same stuff in the exact same way, i.e. methodology, in the body of Christ. But God has called all of us to be more interactive than independent and there is an awful lot of folks who just don't get along with other people and aren't willing to pay the price. The truth is if we can't forgive each other and love each other as Christians in the local church, if we find ourselves dissatisfied and always angry and jumping from church to church, a bit like a flea from dog to dog, you know, wherever you go, there you are! And if I keep feeling disenfranchised, maybe the problem is with me! So if you can't love your brother in Christ, whom you might truly disagree with, if you won't forgive the person who has truly and legitimately hurt you, you're going to have a hard time walking with unbelievers, who act like...unbelievers!"
JPUSA has not been without controversy. A book was published in 1994 that leveled charges of abusive behavior and questionable policies. Later, a series of articles published by the Chicago Tribune caused trouble for the group as well. Then in 2015, Buzzfeed (always consider the source) published a lengthy account from a former parishioner who alleged widespread sexual abuse at JPUSA. (It's interesting that since JPUSA has always had a leftward tilt and Buzzfeed is a far-left news & culture site, this could be interpreted as the left attacking its own. At the end of the day, a far left outfit like Buzzfeed will cast labels aside and seize on any opportunity to attack Christianity.) A lawsuit was filed and a documentary produced, but the case was dismissed for "want of prosecution." In each case, JPUSA launched a PR counterattack and fought back. Kaiser continues to support and defend Jesus People USA.
By the way, I have seen the documentary titled No Place to Call Home. It has low production values and takes a very long time to get into the meat of the accusations against JPUSA. But I have to say that it's very troubling. It's hard to believe that so many people would all be lying. On the other hand, professional troublemaker David Di Sabatino is listed in the credits as a "content advisor." That in itself is problematic. Glenn Kaiser says it's not true.
I'll go this far: At the very least, watching that documentary has cured me of ever wanting to live in a commune. I don't know what to believe about the allegations. At this point, it's in God's hands and I suppose it'll be up to Him to reveal the truth.
In 2018, JPUSA planted a new fellowship in their neighborhood called Uptown Church Chicago. The group's Facebook post regarding this new church plant said, "We are excited to be part of this new adventure, helping others find hope in Jesus and deepen their faith in Him. In the meantime, we continue to live, to work, and to worship together, seeking to honor God in all we do."
At the time of the recording of Awaiting Your Reply, Resurrection Band consisted of Glenn Kaiser (lead vocals, rhythm and lead guitars, dulcimer); Wendi Kaiser (lead vocals); Stu Heiss (lead guitar, keyboards); Jim Denton (bass guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals); and John Herrin (drums); Additional musicians included Roger Heiss (percussion); Tom Cameron (harmonica); and Kenny Soderblom (flute and saxophone).
Awaiting Your Reply was recorded at Hedden West in Schaumburg, Illinois (same place that Phil Keaggy recorded The Master and the Musician). The entire band was credited with producing and mixing the album, while Mal Davis and Stu Heiss were listed as engineers. Mastering was by Ken Perry at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. A lot of complaints have been registered regarding poor production. The sonic quality of the bass and drums often come in for criticism, and it's been said that the overall sound of the album is somewhat muddy or muffled. Yeah, maybe...although I never noticed any of that back in the late 70s. Hey, try making a full-length LP for eight grand (with 1970s technology) and see how good you can get it to sound.
JPUSA Graphics handled the art direction and design, which was quite eye-catching. It was also deemed controversial to some "mom & pop bookstore" owners. Janet Cameron took care of the cover art, while Dick Randall, Bob Cox and Lyda Price were also involved on the inside art and layout. From the album's liner notes: "We believe Janet Cameron deserves a big thanks from all of us as well as everyone who enjoys and appreciates her fine artwork in Cornerstone [magazine]. She puts in hundreds of hours of hard work each month."
Photography was the work of Chuck Cairo. The gatefold album jacket opens to reveal the lyrics printed over colorful graphics with additional band photos. Memorable, meaningful and eye-grabbing album cover art is something for which Resurrection Band would become known. The album's back cover features a photo of the band in the city, outdoors, at night. If you look closely, you can see "Saturday Night Fever" being advertised in the distance on a movie theatre marquee, reminding us of the era.
"The original gatefold cover is an artistic masterpiece well worth seeking out," writes Jesus Rock historian Ken Scott.
Side two begins with a hard-rocking testimony song called Lightshine...complete with a "Whoa-oa!" from Glenn Kaiser that made the hair on the back of my neck stand at attention back in 1978. Those metal-edged guitar chords, Glenn's beautifully coarse vocal, and lyrics like "Tell me why did you come, and why were we born where the dogs eat dog and the pigs get all the corn?" made Lightshine an instant classic. Jesus Rock historian Ken Scott calls it a "flawless example of heavy, 70s-style, guitar-based, classic rock."
Glenn Kaiser's vocal and guitarist Stu Heiss are the stars of the show on Lightshine. Wendi joins her husband Glenn for a rare harmony vocal on the chorus. In the Rainbow's End post, I talked about Glenn Kaiser's voice. But I should briefly mention again that he possesses one of the all-time great singing voices in rock and roll history. And that is not hyperbole.
Next up was the strangest moment on the record. First of all, the Biblical account of Ananias and Saphira always freaked me out as a kid. I mean, it was pretty scary stuff, right? And then this song comes along, with Jim Denton singing a rare lead vocal in sort of a creepy way.
I wonder if you noticed
'Cause we sure enough are running out of time
No doubt in my mind
I can hear Him counting down
Ananias
They'll carry you away
Oh, Sapphira
She went that same day
And secrets in your heart will sure enough tear you apart
Ananias and Saphira, performed in a delta-blues style and featuring an acoustic slide guitar, is said to have been musically influenced by Led Zeppelin. It was definitely a memorable departure from the rest of the album.
Fifty-five seconds of madness kick off the next track, The Death of the Dying. It begins with what one reviewer described as "a cacophony of drums, bass, distorted guitars and weird vocal effects that gradually build in intensity until the song abruptly stops dead in its tracks." According to the "special thanks" section of liner notes, it also included snoring by Tom Cameron. If I ever played this one on my radio show back in the day, I probably cued it up to :56.
A plodding, heavy rock song, The Death of the Dying contained lyrics quite different from what was popular in Christian bookstores and on the radio in 1978:
Maniacs dangle on the lunatic fringe
Oh, on the edge of a razor and like a door without a hinge
"The devil", they cackle, "could be ours in a cinch,"
Quicksand lies sound warning, yeah, yeah
But they won't budge an inch
Like Pilate, they fear the death of the Saint
Yet they fancy the diamonds, the palace, the paint
The coward within them clings only to that
Of lace and white satin, "No blood on my hand."
And in the finale, clutched tightly by pain
Their glass houses shattered, weeds bent in the rain
With a "Why?" in the mind and a curse on the tongue
Death bellowing hungrily, shadows on sun
They pass into all that they had ever sown
Forsaking the answer, abdicating the throne
If only they'd followed when Christ called and walked on
Oh, if only they'd followed when Christ called and walked on
They'd have silenced the madness in the narrow road home
They'd have silenced the madness in the narrow road home
Glenn Kaiser has said that The Death of the Dying was basically a creative way of illustrating Jesus question in Mark 8:36: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Nice, gritty guitar work on this one, but the band sounds a little sloppy and the vocal performance (Glenn and Wendi singing in unison) leaves a bit to be desired. Safe to say it's not my favorite track on the album.
Irish Garden is quite a piece of work, traveling through several distinct musical stages. The dulcimer begins with an intro that spans the first thirty seconds or so, followed by a Celtic-inspired musical piece featuring Kenny Soderblom's flute over acoustic guitar. At the 1:11 mark, the sweet stuff gives way to harder-edged rock and roll, with Glenn belting out these lyrics about the conflict in Northern Ireland that was raging at the time (also known as "The Trouble")...
Sitting in Irish garden, you melancholy bride
Oh, your children are dying - blood on the roadside
Your people are helpless, and no one consoles you
As bullets keep flying, filling you with holes
Why, oh, why did you run and hide?
It's a cultural shock to the soul
You sit in the flames of the fire you set
The nation is out of control
Sitting in an Irish garden, you broken bride to be,
Rise up through your sorrow, Jesus makes you free
Here the tempo slows as Kaiser sings earnestly with only an acoustic guitar for accompaniment...
Olden days gone by, it was no so then
Time to play, sing and dance in his holy land
Why did I hide from you, with the serpent at my heel?
I'm sorry for the way I must have made you feel
The intensity returns as Stu Heiss unloads with a rough-and-tumble analog synthesizer solo...then Glenn returns to wrap up the song with a plaintive cry over sparse instrumentation...
Humble us to seek you, Father
Heal our land so lost in sin
Draw us from the bitter water to the garden once again
This would mark the first time that Resurrection Band stuck their toe in political waters just a bit. It would not be the last.
This band has always been a bit of a dichotomy. On one hand, they always preached an uncompromised Gospel, presenting Jesus as the only way to eternal life (which some on the religious left would say is 'intolerant' or 'exclusionary' or even 'unkind'). They also stood firm against the holocaust of abortion, to the point of even being arrested during clinic protests in the 80s. But they have leaned left in other ways, causing Christian conservatives (like me) to scratch our heads from time to time.
In their music, the leftward tilt was most often expressed as a zeal against war, racism, and poverty. I mean, who's in favor of war, racism or poverty? Certainly no one I know. And the message was seldom divisive and heavy-handed. People of good faith could disagree on the details, could quibble around the edges and find fault with some of the conclusions drawn in some Rez songs, but it was never a deal-breaker. What united us was always so much greater than what threatened to divide us.
But the rise of the internet and social media has been problematic. The internet is a blessing and a curse. So many current and former Jesus Music/CCM artists feel compelled to overshare on social media, alienating thousands of former supporters in the process. For the most part, Glenn Kaiser chooses his words carefully and avoids throwing political bombs that he knows would only serve to create controversy. That's smart. But he has said enough in magazine interviews, Facebook posts and blog posts to leave a guy like me feeling disheartened by some of his positions. I'll just leave it at that (we can debate details in the comments below if you'd like). That said, Kaiser does not come off in his online presence as an unhinged, left-wing kook, like a number of former CCM musicians do. That is to his credit. When you read his blog posts and Facebook comments, you can almost hear him wanting to be more blunt, more specific...but he usually manages to control that impulse.
Again, what unites us is infinitely more important than political disagreements. At the end of the day, Kaiser's heart for God and passion to bring others to Jesus is what matters. Consider this quote from his book The Responsibility of the Christian Musician: "Jesus Christ is my life; music-making is simply one of the things I do to obey him. It is one act of worship among several."
Awaiting Your Reply wraps up with a laid back second-coming anthem that has a jazz and blues feel. It's called The Return, and it features Stu Heiss's guitar, Kenny Soderblom's saxophone, and even strings and a Fender Rhodes. Glenn Kaiser has a scratch in his throat that makes it sound like he's been gargling with gasoline (and that's a good thing) as he sings these hopeful lines...
I know it won't be long
Until the Saviour comes
Oh, and if you're weary, weary
Keep on praying
Sometimes we do get down
With no one else around
But in those quiet times
He whispers, "You are mine and I love you"
Sometimes we know we're wrong
And we feel so far from home
But if you'll listen
You'll hear His gentle voice saying, "You belong"
The cares of life they sting
But when we see the King
Oh, they'll melt away just like the snows in spring
No more tears, no more crying
"Behold, I come quickly
And every eye shall see
Oh, every tongue will swear to me
I am the Saviour and I love you."
Blogger David Lowman said The Return was "such a great melody and the perfect way to end the album."
And thus concludes a record that would forever alter the possibilities of what Christian music could be.
Again quoting Lowman: "This little band out of a Chicago commune had crafted a damn great album filled with great songs, powerful social messages, and unforgettable rock and roll."
In 2001, Awaiting Your Reply was listed at No. 91 in the book, CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music. Which is ridiculously low, but at least it was included on a list that was culled from every CCM album ever recorded up to that point.
"Resurrection Band is a world-class, innovative rock band that has had a transforming effect on their genre," wrote historian Mark Allan Powell in his Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music.
Resurrection Band eventually shortened the moniker to Rez Band and then to REZ. They went wide open, 100+ miles per hour through the 80s and most of the 90s, releasing a string of albums and music videos and touring non-stop. The band's primary message and musical language remained remarkably consistent, although they did tip their cap to new musical iterations such as new wave and synth-pop as those trends came and went. But a REZ concert always ended with Glenn Kaiser not only telling the audience about Jesus but also signing up new members into the family of God (if I may say it that way).
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| A more recent photo of Glenn Kaiser and Rob Cassels |
As a quick personal aside, the biggest thrill for me at my first radio gig was being given the opportunity to "emcee" a Rez Band concert in my hometown of Greenville, SC in December of 1985. The Rob Cassels Band opened the show and the concert had to be moved at the last minute from Spartanburg to Greenville, causing confusion and depressing the turnout. The promoter probably lost his shirt that night...but I was happier than a pig in a mud puddle just to be hosting Resurrection Band. After all, they didn't travel to the deep south all that often.
It should be noted that the marriage of Glenn and Wendi Kaiser stands as a rare success story among Christian rock artists. If my math is right, they've been married 47 years as I type these words. "Wendi is my best friend, and she's the most beautiful person I have ever known," Glenn Kaiser has been quoted as saying.
Glenn was asked in a 2015 interview with Gabe Jones what he's most proud of when it comes to the REZ years. Kaiser didn't hesitate: "Many came to saving faith and I think much of our art stands on its own merit in both lyrics that dealt with real-world issues as well as music worth listening to, with both teeth and heart. I'm very grateful to God for the band and those many years!" As are we, Glenn. As are we.
In the words of Jolly Jonah Jamison..."Well, I guess that's all folks!"
Fun Facts:
• In the liner notes for Awaiting Your Reply, the band thanks Gospel Rock pioneer Randy Matthews for advice and encouragement. They also write, "We thank the Lord for Keith Green and his burden for discipleship and the hours we wasted at night listening to his jokes."
• Radio host Jerry Bryant is also thanked in the album's liner notes "for being such a good example to us all." And Bob Sperlazzo and John Vassal are singled out "for bringing contemporary Christian music to Chicago."
• Since 1907, WBCR (mentioned in the album's spoken-word intro by Jolly Jonah Jamison, has been Southern Wisconsin's & Northern Illinois's premiere station for independent programming (according to the station website). "We'd love to have you sign up for a show with us or send us your music," they say. "Programming is open to students, faculty, staff and community members."