#66 HEAVEN AIN'T ALL THERE IS by the Pat Terry Group (1979)

HEAVEN AIN'T ALL THERE IS - Pat Terry Group
Chrism - R-7817

In late 2003 I caught wind of a very special event being planned for early the following year. Rumor had it that the Pat Terry Group was going to reunite for a benefit concert at a church on the north side of Atlanta. Proceeds from the ticket sales would benefit a friend of theirs who was experiencing health challenges. Turned out the rumors were true. I explained to my wife – who came to the Lord in her late twenties and didn’t know Pat Terry from Pat Sajak – that we simply had to be there. 

We made the three-hour drive to Marietta, Georgia, checked into our hotel room, and found the church. At the appointed time Pat Terry, Randy Bugg, and Sonny Lallerstedt strolled onto the stage and took their seats on three stools (just as they had so often in the 1970s). They had remained out of the public eye for most of the preceding decade or two, and I don’t know that I would’ve recognized them had I bumped into them on the street. But when they picked up their instruments and began to play…oh, my.  

Pat was asked about that concert in a 2008 interview. “To be honest with you, we were better than we were in the ‘70s,” he answered. “Less hair, but better players and a better sound system.” For the next two hours, I was reminded of what had made the Pat Terry Group so meaningful and influential to me as a Pentecostal preacher’s kid growing up in south Alabama. At one point I looked at my wife and said, “I just can’t stop smiling.” 

L-R: Randy Bugg, Bob Farrell, Pat Terry,
Radio DJ Paul Logsdon, and Sonny Lallerstedt

Pat Terry played in rock and roll bands throughout high school. After surrendering his life to Jesus, Pat met Sonny Lallerstedt and Randy Bugg, who had previously been traveling with a group called Dove. The trio really hit it off and became like brothers, playing together at Pat’s concerts. The decision to form a band was made, and since Pat had already developed somewhat of a following in the southeastern U.S., they decided to call the band The Pat Terry Group. Pat has said that the entity really was a band, not just a solo artist with two sidemen. They were signed to Myrrh Records and spent the next several years delighting lovers of Jesus Music with now-classic songs like I Can’t Wait, That’s the Way, When the Lord Comes Back, Meet Me Here, Home Where I Belong, What Good’s It Gonna Do Ya, and so many more. Smyrna, Georgia became the unofficial home office of the Jesus Movement in the Deep South. Pat Terry has described this period as an exciting time and remembers feeling very “mission-oriented” concerning his music in those early days. By the time they released Heaven Ain’t All There Is in 1979, the Pat Terry Group’s place as an influential, well-loved Jesus Music band had long been secured.

I recently had a chance to catch up with Pat and asked him to share some of his thoughts on the band’s 1979 release on Chrism Records.

“Through the years a lot of friends and PTG fans have told me their favorite album is Songs of The South, and I have lots of great memories about making that album,” recalls Pat. “For me, I probably couldn’t choose a favorite, but Heaven Ain’t All There Is would be right up there.  It was a special record for us, as it was the first one we produced on our own, and in a studio that we put together ourselves.  Eventually, Twelve Oaks Studios eclipsed its modest beginnings and became a really well-equipped room that Sonny Lallerstedt and Randy Bugg owned and ran for many years after our group disbanded. It still exists today under Randy’s ownership. But at the time of this album, it was a very small room (Sonny’s garage actually), with some basic analog gear and the blessing of Jesse Peterson, the president of our record label, Chrism, which was a division of Tempo Records.” 

Side One kicks off with a country rock track called I Wanna Put My Armor On, encouraging believers to get off the sidelines and get into the game, so to speak.  

I wanna put my armor on

I wanna stand in battle and sing my Savior’s song

Seems like I’ve been sitting on my circumstance too long 

This song features some gritty lead guitar work and was later covered by the Gaither Vocal Band. 

The title track is up next, and it’s an indication that there’s something a little different stirring within the group.

“Some of my favorite PTG songs are on this album, including the title cut, Heaven Ain’t All There Is,” says Pat Terry. “Today I cringe a little over some of my songs from that early Jesus Music era because I hear both my inexperience as a writer and my naiveté as a young believer. I think ‘Heaven’ though, still holds up. It certainly reveals where my heart was at the time and was a precursor to some of the ideas I wrote about when I did my three solo albums with Mark Heard producing a few years later.” 

Andrae Crouch’s 1973 song If Heaven Never Was Promised To Me spoke of how living a Christian life was worthwhile even without the promise of eternal life in Heaven. Pat’s song takes a similar stance, but with a nuanced difference. In this song, Pat is saying that while we can be confident of Heaven as a result of our faith in Christ, we also need to be paying attention to all that’s going on here on earth. The old saying, “You’re so heavenly minded, you’re no earthly good” also comes to mind. 

Three-part vocal harmony and a funky electric piano accentuate lyrics like these: 

Yesterday I found myself a-thinkin’

‘Bout the way that heaven’s gonna be

Though it’s hard to think of much that’s grander

I know that God has so much more for me 

Heaven ain’t all there is

Faith is a ship on a rolling sea

Takin’ us places we’ve never been before

The sooner we leave the shore

The bigger the blessing we receive

The closer we get to unlocking the Kingdom’s doors 

The song’s second verse echoes the sentiment expressed in I Wanna Put My Armor On, challenging Christians who are content to sleepwalk through this life while dreaming of the next: 

I’ve often said that I just can’t understand it

How a man’s content to warm the pew

And though I wait in sweet anticipation

Doesn’t mean that there ain’t a lot to do 

The tempo slows quite a bit on Day By Day Lullabye. It’s a gentle, acoustic ballad that is reminiscent of earlier PTG offerings. 

Sonny Lallerstedt takes the lead vocal on Walk It On Your Own. This one features a good, old-fashioned, analog synthesizer solo and exhorts the listener to remain steadfast in his faith even if he has to go it alone. 

If you are honest with yourself

You can’t leave well enough alone

You’ll have to find a path of Truth

You’ll have to walk it on your own

If you are hungry for the right

You’ll have to disregard the wrong

You’ll have to choose your path

And walk it on your own 

Side One ends with a quiet ballad called Alone At Last. Lyrically, this is another song that begins to move away from the tone of Pat’s early Jesus Music songs by acknowledging the writer’s faults and fears. Lines like “I close my eyes and feel Your warmth in a world as cold as ice,” “It’s a hard thing to walk between the waters You have parted,” and “Forgive me all the times I haven’t known You” foreshadow Pat’s later solo material. But there’s also a sweet tenderness to Alone At Last; it really is a heartfelt prayer set to music. And it almost has a hymn-like quality in places. It’s a nice way to close out the album’s first side. 

Side Two begins with one of the record’s standout tracks. Music, lyrics, and vocals…this one is just a real treat from start to finish.

“I especially like Sonny’s guitar playing on Written in the Book of Life,” says Pat Terry. “I can hear the influence of the Atlanta Rhythm Section in that cut.  Living in the Atlanta area, we were all aware of the sounds that band was coming up with across town.”

The only thing wrong with Written in the Book of Life was the song’s length (it clocked in at just 2:24). 

The PTG ventured into the blues with a novelty song called Feet. This one applauds those people who have an evangelistic zeal. I’m guessing that it was inspired by Isaiah 52:7. Turns out it’s not one of Pat Terry’s favorites in hindsight (although it does contain some very enjoyable, bluesy guitar riffs). 

Next up is a rhythmic acoustic number called I Belong to You. It’s another prayer of sorts, with lyrics directed to the Lord, celebrating His goodness and faithfulness. 

Pat Terry tunes his guitar as Paul Clark looks on

The next track has been a personal favorite of mine for many years. It’s an acoustic ballad that has that trademark Pat Terry Group sound. But the lyrics are what makes this track really special: 

I have always wondered why You do the things You do

It’s more than I have done

And less than what’s to come

I have held this wonder since the days when I was young

The reason why You do the things You do 

I have always loved the way You showed Yourself to me

A loved one’s last goodbye

A sleeping baby’s sigh

It’s almost like you’ve given such a casual reply

To tell me why You do the things You do 

This, again, was a different animal than a lot of the early Jesus Music. The music coming out of the Jesus Movement in the early 70s was basically, “I found Jesus, I’m so happy, all my problems are gone, and He’s coming back.” So for Pat to begin a song with the statement “I have always wondered why You do the things You do”…well, let’s just say we were heading into deeper waters together. 

I have pondered long the reason for my song

And why You chose to give me eyes to see

Excuse my frail demands and help me understand

That love is all the reason that You need 

I’m waiting for the day I’ll see the world Your way

And love is all the reason I will need 

Wow. It’s just a beautiful, powerful song. Pat Terry has said that he often closes his solo concerts with that song to this very day. 

Heaven Ain’t All There Is wraps up with another ballad titled Enduring Love. Pat says that this song was his one and only attempt at writing something hymn-like.

“A few years earlier, we had visited Baylor University and they had a display there of original manuscripts of some well-known hymns that had made a real impression on me,” Pat recalls. “It was moving to me that in some way the musicians of my generation were becoming another link in the chain of what church music had always been, and at the same time, we were doing something new. I grew up in a Baptist church and appreciated my upbringing. Indeed I’d found my faith there, but I’d never felt particularly ‘churchy,’ and part of the reason our group existed was that the language of the church didn’t always connect with us as young people. We wanted to create something of our own.  Today’s young musicians might not realize what an uphill battle that was. In those days drums or guitars in church were controversial. Even moving a pulpit so you’d have room to set up on a church platform could spark a confrontation with church leadership. We walked an uncomfortable line between being members of the body of Christ and rebels that threatened the conventions of the church. I didn’t like feeling like an outsider in a body that Christ said He loved and wanted to contribute in a more meaningful way to worship as it was expressed in that era. Enduring Love allowed me that opportunity. I was privileged to hear it arranged as an octavo and done in churches around the country, and it remains a special song for me. I play it today sitting at my piano, in more private moments.” 

Heaven Ain’t All There Is was recorded in Marietta, Georgia and was mixed by Sonny Lallerstedt and Bill Vermillion in Orlando, Florida at Bee Jay Studios. 

“If my memory serves me correctly, Bee Jay was the studio where the Full Sail University had its beginnings and lots of future recordists got their start there,” Pat remembers. “We also cut string tracks at Bee Jay, as that was the one thing we couldn’t do at the Twelve Oaks garage.” 

Pat Terry played guitars and some keyboards on the album; Sonny contributed guitars and drums, while Randy Bugg played bass. The group had a little extra help from keyboardist Tony Shannon and percussionist Jim Hunter. Pat contributed most of the vocals, while Sonny and Stan Ruffin helped out with background harmonies. Strings were arranged and conducted by George Atwell. 

The Pat Terry Group would release one more album together – Final Vinyl – in 1980. Meanwhile, Pat became increasingly uncomfortable with certain aspects of the growing Contemporary Christian Music industry. He felt as though his personal faith had become a commodity that was being marketed, bought and sold. He has said that looking back, commercial concerns negatively colored not only the music itself but the churches that embraced it. Pat also felt somewhat “hemmed in” by the boundaries or confines of what CCM had become. He wanted to write and sing about a wider range of material. So the group disbanded, and Pat recorded three solo albums of more rock-oriented material with the late Mark Heard producing.

After that, he was done with the CCM machine. He’s enjoyed a successful career as a country songwriter for many years, commuting from North Georgia to Nashville. Pat Terry still travels, playing churches and other traditional music venues, as well as playing “house concerts.” These concerts usually contain a variety of songs ranging from very early PTG stuff to material from his most recent solo album, Laugh for a Million Years.  

Sonny Lallerstedt, Pat Terry and Randy Bugg today

  

The Pat Terry Group in a 2010 reunion show

When asked for his assessment of Heaven Ain’t All There Is, Pat Terry gives it more than a passing grade. “All in all, I still like this album,” he said. “In these tracks, I hear me turning a corner in my faith and my music.  I’m thankful to God for the gift of these songs, and don’t blame Him for the ones that might seem a little naive or, yes I admit it, a bit dorky.  I take full responsibility for those. Just don’t ask me to sing Feet anymore!”