#19 BREAKIN' THE ICE by Sweet Comfort Band (1978)

BREAKIN' THE ICE by Sweet Comfort Band (1978)
Light Records LS-5751

They call it a "sophomore jinx." Sometimes it's referred to as the "sophomore slump" or "sophomore curse." This phenomenon can refer to athletes, students, films and television shows, etc. But when applied to music, the sophomore jinx is often invoked when a band's second album noticeably under-performs their first. It's when the sophomore release fails to live up to the high standards set by a band's debut album. 

Let's just say that the Sweet Comfort Band had no problem whatsoever with any such slump, jinx or curse.

The group's initial offering, 1977's Sweet Comfort, was a fine album. It even appears earlier on this list. But Breakin' the Ice did not just match the debut record, it exceeded it in every way. A lot of copies of Breakin' the Ice were probably sold on the strength of the iconic, gate-fold album cover alone. But once the listener took the album home, got inside that cellophane wrapper, and dropped the needle on that wax disc...well, he or she was in for a real treat. 

All these years later, when Sweet Comfort Band aficionados discuss SCB albums, many will point to Hearts of Fire or Cutting Edge as the band's all-time best. Those who prefer their music with a little less polish and a little more muscle will often point to Perfect Timing. But when asked which is their favorite, SCB fans will often smile and answer, "Breakin' the Ice." It occupies a soft, warm spot in the hearts of the group's fans. But it's not loved just for sentimental reasons; it's a darn good record.

The super-talented, hyper-gregarious Mr. Bryan Duncan agreed to be interviewed for this post (God bless him). I asked how the band ended up leaving Maranatha for Light Records. "Well, since we started at Calvary Chapel, playing there first, Maranatha Music was kind of the only thing in our line of vision," he said. "But they didn't really like the Sweet Comfort Band. It was our style - they didn't like jazz-rock-fusion-funk." 

Yeah, most of the early music on Maranatha was country-tinged, folk-rock. And by the late 70s, the label was turning a corner to focus almost exclusively on what was then called "praise" music. SCB got caught in the squeeze.    

Bryan Duncan didn't really mind having to switch labels. "We borrowed our own money to do the first album and then they would put it on their label," he recalls. "But we would find out that they didn't believe in marketing anyone because that would be exalting someone, and we have to stay humble in the name of Jesus."

"They also didn't see any reason to pay royalties on sales," Duncan said, somewhat sarcastically. "Of course, it was all ministry!" 

He continued: "In our last meeting with Chuck Fromm, the head of Maranatha Music, he said, 'If you leave this company, your chances of doing anything else are slim and none.' And so we left and we almost named the band Slim and None. That phrase by itself would make us stick it out in the face of all kinds of adversity."

Chuck Fromm

Sweet Comfort Band's guitarist/vocalist Randy Thomas wrote a hilarious and endlessly entertaining page-turner of an autobiography called Songstory (2021, Vide Press) in which he confirms Bryan's account. 

"I have no idea how much the Sweet Comfort album sold. No one did. There was a disconnect between band and label. We asked to leave the label. After all, the label had invested how much? Oh, that's right: zero dollars. A meeting was set with Chuck Fromm and Jimmy Kempner. They said, 'If you leave us, you won't last two weeks. Your chances are slim and none.' From then on, every time the band's van broke down by the side of the road, every time a promoter stiffed us, every time we wanted to quit, we recited 'Slim and None' to each other. It kept us going for another decade." -Randy Thomas, Songstory 

Ralph Carmichael

Light Records was a West Coast Jesus Music record company known as the label home for Andrae Crouch & the Disciples and the Archers, among others. It was owned by the legendary Ralph Carmichael, who is described by Randy Thomas as looking very much like a real-life Geppetto (white hair, big glasses, whiskbroom mustache). Thomas recalls Carmichael writing the band members' names down on a napkin every time he met with them. "Light was recording a band called Messenger that sounded a lot like us," said Bryan Duncan. "Very similar chord structure with jazz overtones. So we signed a contract with Light, understanding that they would put up the money for the album. Well, there's a step ahead!"

"Light Records did something we had never seen before: they promoted the record," wrote Randy Thomas in his book.  

Before delving any further into Breakin' the Ice, let's back up a bit. How did this unlikely foursome become a unit in the first place?

Apparently, the Thomson brothers - Rick and Kevin - were born in Cincinnati and grew up in a tiny town called Hamersville, Ohio. Reportedly, once it became clear that Rick could successfully alternate clapping his hands and tapping his foot, his school band teacher said, "You're our drummer." Rick played drums from that time on. According to an article at Christian Music Archive, the Thomson boys bounced back and forth a few times between Ohio and California. It was on the Left Coast that they were exposed to many different genres of music, including rock and jazz, and formed two different jazz-rock bands, playing dances and various functions around Southern California. Rick and Kevin (who played bass) started attending church during the Jesus Movement of the early 70s and surrendered their lives to Jesus.

Bryan Duncan

Meanwhile, a long-haired, wisecracking Pentecostal preacher's kid from North Carolina found himself in hot water with the powers-that-were at his denomination's Bible college down in Florida. You might say he was dishonorably discharged. Feeling like he had failed and disappointed his parents, Bryan Duncan set out for California, having heard about the Jesus Movement from a friend. Once he got to Cali, he met up with Rick and Kevin. 

The Thomson brothers saw Bryan perform at The Mother Ship (Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa) and invited him to jam with them. That same day they decided to form a group. Rick came up with the name, and Sweet Comfort performed as a trio for the next three years. 

Randy Thomas

Randy Thomas grew up a couple of blocks from Route 66 in Rialto, California. He was dragged to church as a kid but his father later admitted it was only out of obligation and stopped going. As a child, Randy says he thought Sunday services were punishment for running free six days a week. But he became a Christian in 1972 after a light-bulb moment that involved observing nature (and figuring there must be a God), and the witness of a friend who was also a band-mate. Randy's dad was a high school band director and Randy had two older siblings who were into the pop and rock records of the day, so there was always music in the air. 

Sonrise

Psalm 150

Randy would wind up in two early Jesus Music bands - Sonrise and Psalm 150. [Members of these two groups would go on to play in Allies, Night Ranger, Damn Yankees and Andrae Crouch & the Disciples.] Thomas also tried his hand at "worship leading," even though that term was not yet in vogue. He would lead songs at Calvary Chapel Riverside where the pastor was a 23-year old Greg Laurie. In his book Songstory, Randy talks about how powerful the music was during the Jesus Movement days. "I'm not sure if the music was so incredible, or if it was the prayer-soaked Holy Spirit atmosphere, or both," he wrote. "The concerts were enthralling."

Greg Laurie

Next came a series of events that Randy Thomas blames on God. 
1. People kept telling the guys in Sweet Comfort, "You guys are great, but you need a guitar player"
2. Greg Laurie suggested to Randy that he audition to play on a Saturday night at Calvary Chapel Riverside
3. Kevin Thomson was the "gatekeeper" of the Saturday night concerts at Riverside
4. Kevin invited Randy to jam with him and Rick in Kevin's garage
5. With no introduction, Bryan Duncan shows up, starts singing and playing
6. Randy Thomas' guitar fills the holes in the trio's sound
7. Soon they were playing Disneyland and other large venues

"It was as if a missing puzzle piece had snapped into place," said Randy Thomas. "God was doing something!"

After a rehearsal in Riverside
(with an unidentified guy in overalls and flipflops)

Thomas described their initial musical output as "an odd blend of Canned Heat boogie meets Elton John pop," adding that Bryan Duncan was short, but sang like he was ten feet tall.

To read all about the 1977 debut album, click HERE. Now let's get back to SCB signing with Ralph Carmichael's Light Records.

"We signed a three-year deal with two options for one record each," remembers Bryan Duncan, "but Light was shady, too. We learned something in the fine print about cross-collateralization, which meant they could put anything on our record budget. And they would, including choirs for other projects and dinners out on the town. We would also sign away our publishing rights. I remember asking specifically, 'What does publishing mean?' and the guy said, 'It just has to do with filling out the license for the copyright.' Turned out that publishing was 50% of all the money that comes in on record sales." 

"We would also later find out that the addendum to the contract, where we had added some specifics, was never signed by both parties," Duncan said. "We were too busy playing concerts to be paying attention to paperwork! We also didn't have a manager then. The Sweet Comfort Band records have all been sold off to a couple of different companies, all of which went out of business, and I still can't find the masters to those projects."

Wow. Who knew the music business could be so depressing? Let's talk about the music! 

Seawind

Tommy Coomes and a very young Jonathan David Brown had done a nice job producing the group's debut record, but the guys wanted to step things up on the next album. "We'd come across a band that was on a secular label," Duncan recalls. "It was light years ahead of every Christian thing we'd ever heard, and it turned out that some of them were Christians. The group was called Seawind and they had a full horn section and were doing the kind of music that we really liked. So after seeing them live, we approached Bob Wilson, the drummer for the band and also the leader, and asked him about producing a record with us. He agreed, and he would bring the horn section with him."

Bob Wilson

Randy Thomas recalls recording at Martinsound in Alhambra, with Wilson as producer and Jack Joseph Puig as engineer. He says the group had sort of learned the basics of recording the first time around, and were a little "more professional" on the sessions for Breakin' the Ice.  

So what about Bob Wilson? Turns out he gets mixed reviews from Bryan and Randy. 

Bob & Pauline Wilson
A record they made together in 1981. The pair would later divorce.

"I don't have great memories of working with Bob as a producer," admits Bryan Duncan. "Number one, he didn't like my voice. He was used to a female singer - his wife - and he would alternate lead vocals between myself and Randy and Rick. The first review of Breakin' the Ice I remember reading said, 'This is a great band but they lack a lead singer.' Well, we usually sang our own songs, meaning, whoever wrote the song sang it. But the bounce-back-and-forth vocals that were brought in by Bob on the second album made it unsure of who was actually the lead singer. I didn't really argue about spreading the vocals around because I liked Sly and the Family Stone and they did that pretty often. You've got to remember that the studio is not the real world, and you're recording bits and pieces the whole time that you're recording. You don't really have an overview of how the whole thing sounds, and I never felt like I was being neglected."

For my money, both Randy Thomas and Rick Thomson were/are fine singers and the presence of their vocals added some variety and a richness to the overall product. But let's face it...when you look up the term Lead Singer in the dictionary, you should see Bryan Duncan's picture. The fact that he wasn't featured on every song is actually pretty wild. Randy Thomas, again, a very fine singer in his own right, would be the vocal frontman for most bands. But he just happened to be blessed (cursed?) to be in two different bands with two of the greatest lead singers that God ever made, not just in Christian music, but in pop music period. Bryan Duncan and Bob Carlisle possessed an other-worldly level of talent where lead vocals were concerned.

Jack Joseph Puig

Thomas says that with Jack Joseph Puig flying the ship and Bob Wilson at the helm, Breakin' the Ice had a fun vibe. He says he was at Wilson's elbow for the whole project, and found out that he loved the studio world. 

Seawind horns

Bryan Duncan told me that on this record, he felt like everyone else was driving the bus and he was just along for the ride. "I don't even remember the horn section days in the studio," he said. "Breakin' the Ice was the first time I recognized the competition for whose songs were going to be on the record, and I would remain passively aggressive. My primary interest has always been in the performance of the songs themselves in a live situation."

Bob Wilson

The title track is a funky little number, and the album's only song not written by the band members. Wilson wrote it himself. In the book Songstory, Randy Thomas describes an audition process by which Wilson determined who would sing lead on the track. After Rick, Bryan and Randy all gave it a shot...Randy got the nod. But he was somewhat disappointed to learn that Wilson was going to use his 'audition' vocal on the album, rather than record it again. "The only good thing about that vocal," Randy says, "is that I could always sing it better live than on the record!" 

Bryan Duncan told me that he would end up singing lead now and then on songs that the other guys wrote on future albums. "Valerie was one of them," he said. "It was written by Randy Thomas and I sang lead on it. Rick and Randy also wrote a song called They Just Go On, and I took the lead vocal on the hook on that one. I would eventually become more of the main vocalist on the songs that did well on the radio."

Randy and Rick...writing in the back yard?

Rick and Randy seemed to co-write a lot of songs in the SCB catalog. Randy Thomas says that drummer Rick Thomson was a good "song starter" while he [Randy] was a good "song finisher." It worked out. The two teamed up on four of the nine songs on this record. "Two Thomas-Thomson tracks, Good Feelin' and Got to Believe, have a heavier jazz influence and are stellar songs - examples of the best that Christian music has ever had to offer," gushed historian Mark Allan Powell in his Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music.

Searchin' for Love was a Bryan Duncan-Randy Thomas collab. It had a hard rock beat, by far the most intense song on the album. "I wasn't crazy about Searchin' for Love," Duncan revealed. "I didn't really trust my own voice to sound like a real, serious rocker. I had a clean sound. But we were playing a lot of outdoor events and we discovered the driving rock and roll kind of sound went over well with big audiences. Don't get me wrong, I love Kansas and Toto, and once I heard that Boston record, I decided I could scream right along with the best of them. We would eventually write another song called Contender, where I felt a lot better about being a rock singer."

Critics liked the song more than Duncan did. Derek Walker penned these words for the Phantom Tollbooth: "Even with no horns, [Searchin' for Love] is one track that sums up how well everyone just clicks together, organically and intuitively, whether it's the machine-gun licks of the guitar, the supportive organ, or some drum breaks that add a real kick. Duncan squeezes every bit of feeling out of this one, bending his notes all over."

We've got more songs to discuss, but can we just take a moment to admire that album cover? I asked Bryan for the inside scoop on how it came about.

"When it comes to album covers," he said, "we knew two people in the local area. One was Rick Griffin, who did the iconic logo of Sweet Comfort. And there was another key player that was doing a lot of artwork for Christian product. His name was Kernie Erickson. I don't know exactly how we got in touch with him, I think Kevin probably lined him up. But we were big fans of Chicago's album covers because they didn't put the band on it, and we felt like an album cover with the band on the front, dressed in a certain way and with certain hairstyles, would look dated eventually." 

Duncan continued: "The one time we went away from Kernie Erickson was with Hold On Tight!, and it was the worst album cover we had ever seen because we left it in someone else's hands. Hold On Tight! would be a $250 cover on a $50,000 project. After that, we made ourselves responsible for our own album cover graphics." Randy's take on that Hold On Tight! cover was that it "looked like Rocky and Bullwinkle were now running the art department."

"I don't think I was completely crazy about the Breakin' the Ice cover," Duncan said, "but after the Hold On Tight! fiasco, Hearts of Fire, Cutting Edge and Perfect Timing were right down the alley for me. We had developed a visual brand for the style of music that we did. And it was designed to look timeless."

So what did critics think about the album?

"...one of the most legitimate white R&B albums ever released."
-Bruce Brown, CCM

"I Love You With My Life is a definitive Christian ballad...I Need Your Love Again is quintessential Duncan, defining the sound that would come to be known as blue-eyed soul."
-Mark Allan Powell, Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music

"Borrowing directly from the funk/soul sounds of the late 70s without falling into the trap of disco, Sweet Comfort Band created an album for the ages with sharp production, killer grooves, monster vocals and some of the most stirring ballads for the day...At the time CCM was really lagging behind in the production quality world (based more on minuscule budgets than musicianship) and the band really created a new standard here...Good Feelin' really shows Duncan's range and Thomas' guitar prowess. But I would be remiss to discount the strength of the ballads on this album. I Need Your Love Again is a beautiful call to the Lord for His graciousness toward a fallen soul. But it's the album's closer, I Love You With My Life, that remains a true classic..."
-David Lowman, Legacy podcast, CCM's 500 Best Albums

"Breakin' the Ice deserves any praise lavished on it...this collection has a complete set of goodies and no duds. Maybe it is the musical tension between funk, soul and rock that makes each track so strong, or maybe they are just great, tautly-constructed melodies played by consummate musicians. Every track wraps an arm around you and invites you in to share the experience..."
-Derek Walker, the Phantom Tollbooth

Well, then. 

Of course, the critics mentioned the elephant in the room that we have yet to discuss - I Love You With My Life. And we will get to that, trust me. But first, I wanted to know which songs on Breakin' the Ice were Bryan Duncan's personal favorites.

"Got to Believe was the mainstay of the whole record," he replied. "We played that a lot, usually opened the show with it. But years later, I would listen to Randy's guitar solo on Good Feelin' and realize that he was a way better guitar player than I even imagined when I was in the band with him! So those are my two favorite songs on the record, Got to Believe and Good Feelin'. Of course, since then I've also come to love I Love You With My Life just as much.

If there's a "time capsule song" on this record, it would have to be I Love You With My Life. Huge hit, greatly loved by Christian music audiences the world over...but for Sweet Comfort Band, the song was kind of an afterthought. It was the hit that almost didn't happen. 

"The interesting thing is that we toured Breakin' the Ice for almost a year and a half and we never played I Love You With My Life on that tour," Duncan revealed. "It was a ballad, and we were not a ballad band! And I Love You With My Life was the last song on Side Two of a vinyl LP. WCIE in Lakeland, Florida, would start playing the song after we had played at a local church there. It was completely grassroots. It started getting airplay on other stations, and ended up becoming a national #1 single." 

Duncan jokingly added, "I remember thinking, how does that song go again?"

Bryan didn't really care for Bob Wilson's musical vision for the song. Wilson decided to "bounce it," rhythmically. Duncan says he didn't like it from the get-go, but eventually got used to it."

Needless to say, I was curious as to how the song was written. "Well, I was not a great piano player," Bryan claimed. "But I wrote I Love You With My Life after Randy Thomas showed me how to play a 7 chord. Most of my ballads were in the key of C major. So one day, that's how I started. I played a C major chord, first inversion, and then I went straight to a 7 chord. I remember singing, I would like to say...and then I was stuck. I had no idea what I wanted to say! But then, on tour, sitting in the front seat on the road to somewhere, I was reading the story where Jesus said, 'I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am you can be.' And I specifically remember feeling really suspicious about that. It sounded to me like, 'I love you...but I'm leaving!' Wait, what?! And I'm supposed to trust that You're coming back? So that was the next line of the song: I would like to say, just before I leave you..." 

"It would create an instant tension," Duncan said. "From there, it was just a matter of reading all that Jesus said in the Bible about what He was doing and what He felt. I didn't even think the song was very good when I finished it because it was just a tag at the end - 'I love you with My life'... It did not follow the formula we had learned in songwriting. But without realizing it, I had said what Jesus would say to all of us, in a way that was personal. Like it was a note on the refrigerator."

"If ever there was a song where there was divine inspiration and intervention from God Himself, that would be the song," said Bryan. "I still play it to this day. It's been recorded twice since the first recording and it's been a #1 single in three different decades. It flies in the face of all our formulas and cleverness in writing songs. That song is the one song that I still sing to this day, almost every week. And it's not even from my perspective; it is directly from the words of Jesus."

I would like to say
Just before I leave you
I'll be back someday
And with Me I will take you
So do not be afraid
Only watch and pray
And wait for my return

I've done what I must do
My work here is completed
It's all been done for you
Believe what I have stated
And I will give you peace
Through all your tribulations
Until I come again

Please know that I love you
And I'll stay by your side
If only now in spirit
I'll still be your guide
You will not suffer long
I have suffered for you
I love you with My life

I'll prepare a place
Where we can live together
I'll meet you face to face
To share our new forever
Don't let your heart grow cold
And I will not allow
What's more than you can bear

I love you with My life
Love you with My life...
Love you with My life...

"It turns out that we never tire of being reminded that we are loved by God," Duncan said, "and hearing it from His own voice."

Mike Stone

Randy Thomas was the only band member present at the mix. Mike Stone engineered. Thomas said he never saw Stone before or since. "We mixed Breakin' in two evenings," Thomas recalls. "I had seen a record through, from the first song written to the last song mixed." Thomas likened the experience to "taking producer lessons."  

Thomas says that while the first album sold primarily on the West Coast, Breakin' the Ice took the Sweet Comfort Band nationwide. Bryan Duncan says Breakin' was not his favorite album (because he felt he didn't have as much a hand in it as he did with other records), but he does acknowledge that the record launched the band nationally and solidified the name Sweet Comfort Band "in the national mindset as quality music." 

"What that mostly meant was longer trips out on the road," said Bryan. "Because California to Florida is a long way. We would break down in Texas more times than I could count!"

Yes, the tour stories are legendary and quite funny. Randy Thomas recounts a good number of them in his book Songstory. Did I mention you simply have to purchase that book? [There have been links sprinkled throughout this post and there will be another one below.] 

Four more studio albums would follow. Hold On Tight! was considered a low point for the group, but Hearts of Fire and Cutting Edge would firmly establish Sweet Comfort Band as one of the greatest rock bands in the history of Christian music. And then the guys decided the band had run its course. Well, actually, the band had pretty much ended during the recording of 1984's Perfect Timing. It's just that very few people knew it at the time. There was a brief farewell tour and a couple of compilation albums. 

Rick Thomson and wife Alice

Rick Thomson went on to play drums with Benny Hester for a while. Then he built a studio and recorded albums for others. One of the projects that Rick co-produced was a hit-laden compilation titled Voices, featuring talents such as John Elefante, Tommy Funderburk, Matthew Ward and Howard McCrary. Oh - and it also featured old friends Bryan Duncan, Bob Carlisle and Benny Hester. In addition, Rick Thomson became a General Contractor and ran a construction company.

Bryan Duncan

Bryan Duncan enjoyed a successful solo career, and that's an understatement. He won a Grammy and four Dove awards for his participation in compilations or tribute albums. But he recorded eighteen solo albums, selling more than a million records, and had numerous radio hits and #1 songs. Today, he hosts a podcast called Nutshell Sermons. He describes this as devotions in his own antagonistic style, in little 2-minute rants. Go to nutshellsermons.com and subscribe!  

Randy Thomas started a successful Christian rock band known as Allies. Allies had a run of 9 years and 2 #1 singles on Christian radio. After Allies, Randy played for a while with Shania Twain. Back during the Allies years, Thomas had formed a songwriting partnership with Bob Carlisle, one that yielded numerous secular hits for country artists. And, oh yeah...he and Bob co-wrote a song called Butterfly Kisses that got some attention (and won Randy a Grammy). 

Randy Thomas and wife Lori

Randy eventually moved to Florida where he became a Presbyterian worship leader and also does all different types of gigs with his wife Lori.

Kevin Thomson had always been SCB's Evangelist-in-Residence. Randy Thomas has said that telling people about Jesus in everyday language was what Kevin did best. He would always give SCB audiences an opportunity to surrender their lives to Jesus; it was about more than just rock and roll. "At nearly every concert, we saw dozens of converts," Randy Thomas said.

While it was clear from their post-SCB careers that Duncan and Thomas were much more musically ambitious and driven, it was also apparent that the Thomson brothers had been a key part of the success of the Sweet Comfort Band. This much was made clear in the liner notes to The Light Years, an SCB best-of released in 1995. "To this day," wrote Bryan Duncan, "even though I want to write and I want to sing, I still have a short attention span. Kevin and Rick Thomson were the go-getters who said, 'Let's go find someplace to play.' They were the people who would go grab the attention of authority figures and say that we had something for them. I can't underestimate that kind of value...if it were not for Kevin and Rick, the business wouldn't have gotten done and Sweet Comfort Band just wouldn't have happened." Randy Thomas also praised the determination of the brothers Thomson. 

2015 reunion concert at The Upper Room

There was a reunion show at the iconic Cornerstone Festival in 2001. I'm still kicking myself for not dropping everything and heading back to that dusty cornfield one more time. But I didn't. Reportedly, a good time was had by all.

The guys decided to record again after many years apart. But Kevin Thomson had come down with an illness that had him confined to a wheelchair. He would go Home to be with the Lord before The Waiting is Over was finished and released. So fittingly, his sons Eli and Josh stepped up. Eli played bass and Josh was a guitarist on The Waiting Is Over. Recorded at Rick's Shelter Sound Studios, the album concluded with In the Light of Heaven, a tribute to Kevin Thomson, written by Randy Thomas. Thomas says The Waiting is Over is actually his favorite SCB album..."because seasoned songwriters really have something to say."

Kevin Thomson and wife Robin

"During Kevin's years as a quadriplegic, he stayed strong," said his brother Rick, "always encouraging others and never letting the enemy rob him of the joy he knew was coming. There were times he would call me to encourage me when he knew I was having difficulties. But none of my difficulties came close to what he was experiencing. Kevin would often talk about the old days when the harvest was ripe. Looking back, it was an experience I will never forget. I am still very blessed to hear so many stories of people coming to Christ at one of the Sweet Comfort Band concerts."

Forty-five years have passed since Bob Wilson introduced his Seawind horn section to four fresh-faced, idealistic, 2nd-wave Jesus Music troubadours known as the Sweet Comfort Band. The results were magical. I've probably listened to Breakin' the Ice all the way through about five or six times in preparation for writing this blog post. That record still puts a smile on my face.

"Music is a universal language. What is its origin? The biblical view is this: A loving Creator has bestowed talents upon His creatures to glorify their maker. We are made in His image and called to be little creators. Creative people, if they are honest, marvel at how lyrics and melodies come to them. I think that's God's grace at work. He loves to see us imitating Him."
-Randy Thomas, Songstory

 

That reminds me of a song.

We are the children of the Mighty
We are the apple of His eye
We are the image of the Maker
We are the song of the Most High

Can you hear it?

Fun fact: My brothers and I had a band in the late 70s/early 80s and traveled nationally with our family's evangelistic ministry. We were a SCB cover band of sorts, performing, at various times, Childish Things, When I Was Alone, I Love You With My Life, The Road, and Good Feelin'. We were working on our own version of The Lord is Calling when our Pentecostal preacher father heard that phrase "There'll be hell to pay..." in the lyrics and nixed it, fearing how Assembly of God congregations might react. True story.

Get Randy's book Songstory HERE.