#25 SON OF DUST by Randy Matthews (1973)

SON OF DUST by Randy Matthews (1973)
Myrrh - MST 6515

Anyone who wants to can!
Whoa, any woman, any man! Yes you can! I said...
Anyone who wants to can! (Alright!)
You got to take yo' place in th' holy band!

Remember when you first heard those words...sung with a joyous, almost wild abandon by a gravelly-throated troubadour? Remember how it made you feel?

After a slowed-down intro with a group of folks cheering and hand-clapping in the background, Christian artist Randy Matthews comes blasting through the speakers at the :23 mark of Holy Band, sounding very much unlike most Christian artists sounded in 1973. This was real...raw...raucous. This guy had an authentic rock and roll voice...there wasn't a pipe organ within 50 miles of him...and he was genuinely excited about what he was singing. 

What a way to kick off Son of Dust.

The Jordanaires
Randy's Dad, Monty Matthews, is pictured on the far right.

Given his background and upbringing, it was almost pre-ordained that Randy Matthews would combine sharing the Gospel with a love of music, as many in his family already had. There were no fewer than five ordained ministers in his family, and music was swirling around every which way. Randy's father was one of those ministers and was a member of famous gospel groups like the Matthews Brothers Quartet, the Foggy River Boys, and the Jordanaires (the same Jordanaires who went on to back Elvis Presley before The Imperials). Randy had been a Christian from an early age and even sang in a southern gospel quartet as a high school student. That's a far cry from the conversion stories that were taking place out on the West Coast, what with drug-addled hippies coming to Jesus and being baptized in the Pacific Ocean. Here was this Matthews kid in the Midwest - Missouri! - singing in gospel groups with names like The Revelations and The Zionaires. After high school he attended Ozark Bible College in Joplin, Missouri, but did not graduate. Instead, he got involved with a couple of friends in what was a radical idea at the time: singing folk music with Christian lyrics. This led to the founding of a Christian coffee house in Cincinnati (Jesus House), which regularly drew crowds of 250-300 people. And all the while, Matthews had little to no knowledge of what God was doing by His Spirit out in Southern California. He wasn't really aware at the time that he was helping pioneer a new genre of music - Jesus Music.

Jerry Bryant (L), and Randy Matthews

Back in late 2016/early 2017, legendary Jesus Music radio host Jerry Bryant flew down to Randy's home in Sarasota, Florida to interview the somewhat reclusive Jesus Music pioneer. "Well, I never heard any Jesus Music," Matthews told Bryant. "My roots were deep in southern gospel and black spirituals. I became a Christian at a very young age, when I was six years old, and by the time I got to high school I was singing and writing guitar. And it just seemed natural for me to write about what was closest to me, and so I started singing and writing rock songs about Jesus, and that would've been about '68, something like that."

Matthews says he had no knowledge of Larry Norman, Love Song, or the 2nd Chapter of Acts until much later. Instead, Matthews was influenced by another musician from east of the Mississippi River who had also grown up steeped in southern gospel, and who also had a connection to Elvis Presley. His name was Mylon LeFevre.

Mylon LeFevre

"My first 'Jesus Music' record was by Mylon LeFevre," Matthews said. "And I listened to that and I went, Oh my Lord, there's somebody out there already doing what I'm wanting to do. And so it was encouraging to me, the newness of the thing and the daringness of it; of course, all those classics like Gospel Ship was on that record and that was a very favorite song of mine."

Mylon, 1970s

As an aside during his interview with Jerry Bryant, Matthews told a great story about Mr. LeFevre. "I knew Mylon a long time before he became a Christian again," Randy said, "before he rededicated his life to the Lord. Mylon would come over to my house and hang out with me back in Nashville and we'd visit and spend time together. Mylon would call me up every once in a while and say, 'Randy, guess what?' And I'd say, 'What?' And he'd say, 'I just gave my life to the Lord.' And then I'd see him, like, two weeks later and he'd be back to the old Mylon. Well, this went on for about three years, and then finally one time he called my up and he said, 'Randy, guess what?' And I said, 'You just gave your life to the Lord.' And he said, 'I sure did! And this time it's gonna stick.' Well, I played with him two weeks later after that. And you talk about seeing a different man. When he walked off the bus, he was a new man. And I knew from that point on that Mylon had changed. And that's when everything took off for Mylon." 

Great story, but let's get back to the early 70s. Here's Randy Matthews, following in his father's footsteps - sort of - by using music to tell people about Jesus in a way that's new and fresh. He was receiving pushback from religious gatekeepers of the day...but he was also seeing the Lord moving in the lives of the people he was singing to. "Well, I knew the potential of it because I'd seen the effects of what was happening," Matthews said on Jerry Bryant's Full Circle show. “So, despite all the flak we were receiving for it, I knew the potential of it and that kept me encouraged. And I was just a boy anyway, so I didn't have anything to lose so I just decided one day this is what the Lord wants me to do and I'm gonna go do it full time and we hit the road. And as I started traveling, I started meeting other artists and that was very much encouraging, too, because I thought I was the only guy doing it.”

Arthur Blessitt

When Matthews made Cincinnati his home base, he met a man named Arthur Blessitt. Blessitt taught him a lot about street ministry and evangelism. "Until I got out there among the reality of the world, and dealing with the world, I didn't know what the reality of Christianity was," said Matthews, candidly. "I knew that I loved Jesus and I knew that He was the way and my life was centered around that. But past that, I was just a boy. I was only 20 years old. But I just kept playing." 

By 1971 Randy Matthews had come to the attention of Word Records. And the rest is history.

"I got picked up by Word Records, which at that time was the largest gospel record label in the country, but they had not done any contemporary gospel," Randy said in his interview with Jerry Bryant. "So I was the first contemporary act to record for Word." 

Randy's debut album on Word Records was 1971's Wish We'd All Been Ready, where he is described in the liner notes as "a new breed of young singers and songwriters." The back cover says, "Randy has joined gospel to a rock beat" to form "a new sound." The truth is that the album was actually quite tame. But it probably raised a few eyebrows in '71. 

The late Billy Ray Hearn

"I was very lucky," Matthews said. "Billy Ray Hearn was an excellent, excellent man, an excellent producer and just a great Christian guy. Billy caught the vision for what I was doing and produced my first album. The material we recorded on the first album was songs that I had written when I was 15 and 16 years old; they didn't want me to record my current stuff because it was too radical."  

Larry Norman

Given the album's title track, Jerry Bryant wanted to know how Matthews ended up recording the famous song by the man who would later be dubbed the Father of Christian Rock. "Well, long before I knew Larry, or even knew of Larry, Billy Ray Hearn played me that song," Matthews explained. "And I said, 'Boy, I've got to record that song. That speaks to our times.' It was right down the middle of what I was doing. I hope I did it justice. Larry had done such an excellent job on it, of course being the writer of the song, he would, you know? But I was happy to record it. I was a little embarrassed that I recorded his tune. I didn't know it was his tune at the time. But he didn't mind." 

What happened next altered the Christian rock soundscape for many years into the future. 

When it was time for a second album, Matthews had let his hair grow out a bit, and his music was now considered "too extreme" by the suits at Word in Waco, Texas. So the story is told that Matthews himself suggested to the folks at Word that they create a subsidiary label that could release some of this new Jesus Music that was being made, without upsetting the company's traditional audience. 

And that's how Myrrh Records came to be. 

"They started Myrrh Records for me because they thought my music was a little too radical for the Word label," said Randy. Myrrh became a vitally important organ for dispensing and popularizing Gospel rock and roll in the early 70s and beyond. It eventually grew into a behemoth that was home to everything from pop and rock to black gospel and adult contemporary. Myrrh was a label home at various times for Amy Grant, Billy Preston, Petra, Michael & Stormie Omartian, the Mighty Clouds of Joy, Steve Taylor, The Choir, Phil Keaggy, Randy Stonehill, and so many more. But first, Myrrh gave early Jesus Music a home by releasing records by Barry McGuire, Honeytree, the Pat Terry Group, Malcolm & Alwyn, and the 2nd Chapter of Acts. And it came into existence due to the forward-thinking Randy Matthews. 

Barry McGuire (L) with Randy Matthews

All I Am Is What You See, Matthews' sophomore album, is described by author Barry Alphonso of Billboard as “a grittier-sounding album, toning down the production and allowing the electric guitars more prominence.”

The stage was set for Son of Dust.

Brian Quincy Newcomb

Today Brian Quincy Newcomb is a United Church of Christ pastor. He's also known these days for being a proponent of liberal social and political causes and "progressive" Christianity. But for many years he was a leading writer, publisher, editor, critic, etc., in the Christian rock arena.  

Newcomb was a teenage pastor's kid in Western New York state back in the early 70s. He loved music and was a big Beatles fan. He had also given his heart to Jesus, but felt like he just didn't fit in at church. 

Enter Randy Matthews.

Newcomb caught wind of a Matthews gig at a coffeehouse in Wellsville, New York on a winter night. "To say that that night changed everything for me would be an understatement," Newcomb wrote.

BQN (as he is sometimes known) has said that he was hungry for a glimpse of Christian expression that felt relevant and "had the potential to rock." Randy Matthews strode on stage with long hair, a beard and a guitar, and immediately made a positive impression on Brian. And Matthews had the voice and the songs to back up the look. Newcomb bought a copy of Son of Dust at that coffeehouse and took it home with him. "Randy Matthews was the first time I'd heard an artist mingle the gospel message of God's love in Jesus in music that felt relevant, meaningful and hip," he wrote. 

Let's drop the needle on Son of Dust.

It's always a good sign when your album begins with a bonafide classic. Author Mark Allan Powell calls Holy Band a signature tune for Matthews. "Holy Band is a roaring concert opener," Powell writes in his Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, "that uses the metaphor of being in a band as a descriptive image for becoming part of the people of God." 

BQN said that Matthews was in his "best soulful rock voice" on this track, which had "great rock and roll energy." There's such an unbridled joy that is conveyed when he sings Anyone who wants to can | Take your place in the holy band. "This song...combined two very important concepts," Newcomb wrote. "The anyone was an affirmation of the John 3:16 promise that whosoever believed would be welcomed, and the radical idea that a band - presumably a rock and roll band - could please God, could be holy."

Newcomb continues: "This is something my young heart wanted to believe, that there was room for a hippie wannabe/Jesus freak in God's community of Christ's love."

I'm writing this post in Spring of 2021. As I listened to Holy Band again for the first time in a long time, I couldn't help thinking about the long, hot BLM/ANTIFA summer of 2020 as Randy sang these words:

It's time we stopped it
I mean, what have we gained by our conflicts in the street
I hear the music
Whoa, don't it sound so sweet
Grab your sister and brother
Come on, laugh with each other

Lloyd Green gets bonus points for creative use of peddle steel in a rowdy rock song.

One other note on this tune - when I was a teenager, I had the idea of forming a Christian rock group when I got older and naming it Holy Band. I drew up a logo and everything. Sadly, it never happened. That idea died in my imagination right there in my 7th grade social studies class in Phenix City, Alabama. Still think it would've been a excellent name for a band.

Son of Dust actually begins with a trio of amazing songs. Next up was The Bad Has Made It Better, a song that reminds us that Randy Matthews was not a typical Jesus makes me happy, He'll make you happy, too type songwriter (as were so many of the California hippie musicians who had dramatic conversions and were still in a full-blown honeymoon period with the Lord). Matthews, while still a young man, had a darker and more mature perspective after a few years on the road, being rejected by church folk and singing wherever he could draw a crowd.

I been east
I been west
Lay my head on a curb with my feet in the street for to rest
One meal a day
Don't keep the pain away
I mean the hurt that you hurt deep inside from the food you ain't ate but once a day

I been north
You know that I been south
And the sun on my face made the burn on my lips dry my mouth
I been alone
I mean on my own
So I talk to the wind for the wind has a voice of its own

Ooo, well the bad has made it better
Because of You, well, I kept it all together
Through it all, well, I walked with my head held up high
In Your love
I did it in Your love

Great song in which Randy resists the temptation to glorify "life on the road" and instead offers thanks to the Lord for being his motivation and for helping him to keep it all together despite hardship. 

This song is dressed up here with a little more instrumentation and production than was necessary. I think it might be better experienced on the 1975 double-live album Now Do You Understand?. The stark, stripped down presentation on the live album just seems to match up better with the lyrics here. But the version here is still a highlight of Son of Dust.

In the three hole is It Ain't Easy, another great track that refuses to oversimplify the Christian faith or get overly schmaltzy about our walk with God. Remember when people praised artists like Mark Heard and Steve Taylor for their honesty? Son, Randy Matthews was honest way before honest was cool.

While some of the new converts in Orange County were writing that Jesus would simply take away all your problems, Randy Matthews was writing stuff like this:

I want to go to Heaven but I'm scared to die
I've been living here all my life
Some say I'm right, some say I'm wrong
But four long years I've sung Your song

Livin' ain't easy in a narrow way
You ask so much of me each day
I hope I'm not complainin' or askin' much
But stay close to me, the way is rough

One day I'm up, the next I'm down
It's good to know You're around
To hear my laughter, share the pain
In the sunshine, in the rain

And oh...oh...oh, it's not easy
Whoa...no...whoa, it's not easy

This song served as my introduction to Son of Dust when it was included on the highly influential Love Peace Joy Myrrh compilation album in '74. Sandwiched right in between Honeytree's I Don't Have to Worry and Love Song's Think About What Jesus Said was Randy Matthews saying, Hold up, y'all...it's not easy.

It Ain't Easy makes a big impact during just 2 and a half minutes. The production, thankfully, is scaled back here, relying heavily on acoustic guitar and some special drum parts.

Randy does his best Mick Jagger on Mighty Fine, a song that could totally have been a Rolling Stones tune if they had, well, you know, known Jesus. 

A romantic love song titled Brown Eyed Woman closes out side one of Son of Dust. There's some fancy banjo pickin' by Robert Thompson to add interest to this track. Now, just because it's a love song, don't think Randy's gonna wuss out on us. No, this is a strong rock track that holds its own. Not the most impressive lyric on the record, but a very interesting chord progression and song structure.

Now, if you were a Randy Matthews fan in 1973 and owned his first two albums, I think one glance at the Son of Dust cover art was probably enough to let you know that this was a real rock and roll record. Randy shows up on the cover of this bad boy looking for all the world like an authentic rocker. Art direction was supplied and photos taken by Bill Grine (Janny's husband). 

Son of Dust was produced by Billy Ray Hearn and arranged by Bergen White. It was recorded at Woodland Studios in Nashville. The engineers were Tommy Semmes, Rick Horton and Rex Collier. David McKinley and John Brandon were credited as "recordists."

Randy Matthews, Reggie Young, John Cristopher, Billy Sanford and Charlie McCoy played the guitars; Bobby Wood and David Briggs played keyboards; Tommy Cogbill and John Williams played bass;  Kenneth Buttrey and Jerry Carrigan were the drummers; percussion was supplied by Jerry Carrigan and Farrell Morris; the aforementioned Robert Thompson was on banjo, while Bill Puett blew the saxophone and Lloyd Green played the steel guitar. The Moog synthesizer was listed separately from keyboards in the credits and was played by Rick Powell. Of course, Randy Matthews sang on the record and he was backed by Rick Powell, Billy Ray Hearn (!) and Bergen White. 

Side two of Son of Dust kicks off with Here I Am, a funky, soulful number that has Randy saying Here I am | I'm not much | But I'm the best I got... 

Next up was a song called On the Road. Now, this song is more about "the road" in a general, figurative sense, that we are all traveling on our way Home. But Matthews did seem to reference "life on the road" quite a bit in his songs and during his live concerts. Maybe that was because performing and traveling had basically been a way of life for his family for a long time. Of course, due to his chosen style of music and his appearance, Randy probably had a tougher go of it than his Dad.

"I could walk into a church that was open enough to book me to do a show," said Randy, "and the preacher would meet me at the door and say, 'I'm sorry, we changed our mind and we're not going to do this.' Just from my appearance. From my hair and all. Not giving me a chance to sing or anything. It was just a new form of presenting the good, old story, you know? But it takes a while, especially for us Christians, to accept and embrace something like that, anything new that comes along that might threaten our belief status and all."

Matthews tried to keep it all in perspective. As he told Jerry Bryant, "We all are wounded by the things that come along, as Christians, but what we have to remember is that Christians are just like us - they're just forgiven. They're gonna make mistakes and they're gonna let us down. And we're gonna let other people down."

For my money, On the Road was the only misstep on Son of Dust. Randy wrote it, but stylistically it just didn't seem to be in his wheelhouse...and his vocal seems a little uninspired. This song should've been pitched to Dave Boyer instead.

Son of Dust began with a strong trio of songs and it ends with an equally strong trio of tunes.

Up next was a fun little tune (2:23!) about the events described by Jesus in Matthew 24 and by Paul in I Thessalonians 4. Matthews calls it Evacuation Day.

When the ship comes in
Gonna be a celebration
From the smallest town
To the largest nation
Gonna leave that day
Said we made a reservation
Ain't no turnin' back
There ain't no cancellation
No, sir

I'm gonna fly, fly, fly
Get on that ship and fly
With a ticket marked 'one way'
Evacuation day

If Holy Band was one of two signature songs for the early chapter of Matthews' career, Didn't He was certainly the other. It's an absolute classic on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus that people still feel that they need to hear every Easter, if not more often. 

"Didn't He was written on the road," Randy told Jerry Bryant, "back when I was traveling in a little Triumph TR3. We traveled all over the country in that thing. If it was snowing or raining or whatever, we traveled with the top down because we couldn't fit the guitars in any other way! So it was written driving to California, and I was just thinking about the intensity of what Christ had gone through for us and I wanted to make that as vivid as possible just through a song. And the Lord really took that song and used it in an amazing way. He still uses it today. I can't play anymore because of my hands - I've got arthritis in my hands - but I hear all the time about different people using the song, and that's a real blessing to me."

According to CCM historian Mark Allan Powell, Matthews previewed Didn't He at the iconic Explo '72 festival in Dallas, Texas, the summer before Son of Dust was released. Said Powell: "...It became one of the defining moments of the festival, a moment that would later be broadcast on national TV and then captured on a widely distributed soundtrack album of music from the festival." 

Today, David Lee is a mortgage lender based in Oklahoma. But roughly five decades ago, he was in that sea of faces at Explo '72. "There was total silence," David remembers, "and then all of a sudden Randy hits his guitar as if the hammer was hitting the nail in Jesus' hand. I was about fifteen rows back on the field. I seriously cried hearing that. It's on the Explo '72 album and it sounds good...but sitting there live, with eighty thousand people...hearing that sudden noise was absolutely riveting." 

Didn't He is one of five songs on Son of Dust that I just think are more effective on the live album Now Do You Understand? due to the intimacy and immediacy of a live concert by Matthews. Now, this certainly would not be true of most artists and especially bands, but Randy Matthews was born to stand on a stage all by himself and hold that audience in the palm of his hand. So, in my humble opinion, Holy Band, The Bad Has Made It Better, Evacuation Day, Didn't He and Pharaoh's Hand are all better experienced on the double-live recording (which, something tells me, will be coming up a little later in our countdown). That is not to say this version of Didn't He is not great, emotionally powerful and awe-inspiring (because it is all of those things). 

This is the first version most people heard and I'm sure they were impacted greatly by it. But I think the feedback-type sound effects at the beginning of the song are nowhere near as effective as Randy just doing his thing with the heel of his hand. But either way...this is the song Randy Matthews was put on this earth to write and record:

And the hammer fell
On the wooden nail
Through His flesh, into the tree
And they laughed at Him
As He cried for them
There He hung
The faultless One

Now, didn't He live, oh, didn't He?
And didn't He give, now, didn't He?
Didn't He die for you and me?

Spilled His precious blood
Sacrifice of love
We didn't take His life from Him
He gave it willingly
Complete the prophecy
What's black is white
What's wrong is right

Bugler, blow your horn
Now the curtain's torn
And the battle's done
I know the victory's come
Drummer, you drum your drum
He broke death's chains
The Lamb is slain

Now didn't He live, now, didn't He?
And didn't He give, now, didn't He?
But didn't He die for you and me?

Now, doesn't He live, my brother, doesn't He?
And doesn't He give, sweet sister, doesn't He?
But didn't He die for you and me?

But didn't He die
For you
And for me?

Matthews turned in an anointed vocal performance on this song. Didn't He was later resurrected for a new generation when it was covered by Geoff Moore & the Distance. Matthews also performed and recorded a new version of this classic song for the First Love gathering of classic Jesus Music artists in the late 1990s.

Matthews ends Son of Dust by reminding us that he was a great songwriter who did not flinch when it came time to take on subjects that some might deem dark or negative. Randy Matthews wrote songs that celebrated Jesus, yes...he wrote songs that looked forward to Heaven, yes...but he also held up a mirror to life around him as it was lived out by real people on the ground. Sometimes it wasn't pretty, but it was almost always powerful.  

Oh, smell the filth here
Oh, hear the cries
A baby's dying
It's got flies in its eyes
Oh, hear the gunfire
Oh, see him run
Killing men for a loaf of bread
With a stolen gun

With no beginning
There is no end
Without a center, friend
No circle ascends
Oh, we're decaying
From deep inside
We lost the roots of the family tree
And there's no place to hide

Some of you live in fantasies
Others live in dreams
Some of you live in lies
You say, I see no disease
But what is happening
Has long been foretold
Close the door
Lock the latch
Let the story unfold

Been too long underneath this Pharaoh's hand
Been too long underneath this Pharaoh's hand
And it's time we made our stand

"I figured if you're not true to yourself, you're not going to be true to anybody else, you're not really going to have a true communication with them," Matthews said in that Full Circle radio interview. "I didn't go into this to become a 'star' or anything like that. Because if you wanted to become a star, singing rock and roll for Jesus was not the way to do it. So my desire was for people to see that if I could be a Christian, and if I could have a relationship with Jesus, they could, too. And so I tried to always be transparent in my music and on stage and in my life."

Brian Quincy Newcomb calls Son of Dust one of Matthews' "strongest collections of songs, recorded at the height of the Jesus Movement," adding that Randy Matthews was always flirting with the radical idea that God intended for us to experience this life fully and well, that we know love and joy as well as challenge and hardship." 

Billboard's Barry Alfonso wrote, "Son of Dust...was probably his most interesting work, full of energy and bite. Matthews dressed up his tunes with acoustic piano, banjo and peddle steel. Son of Dust was an archetypal Jesus Music album, capturing the unkempt zeal of a hippie street revival."  

"Son of Dust is the album that would ensure Matthews a place in the Jesus Music Hall of Fame (if such a thing were to exist)," wrote Mark Allan Powell. "He seems to have gone into the studio armed with the best songs of his career and somehow to have overcome all the industry restrictions that would have prevented him from playing them the way they were meant to be played. The sound is still folk rock, but it's down-and-dirty, blues-inflected folk rock. Matthews sings in a gruff and gritty voice that Jesus Music says makes the first two albums 'sound like easy listening' by comparison. There is not a bad cut on the album."

So the next decade or so was very interesting for Randy. In 1974, there was the infamous unplugging episode (you can real all about that HERE). In '75 his record company actually released two of his albums back-to-back - Now Do You Understand? and Eyes to the Sky. Then he put a little trio together with a couple of Jesus Music veterans, Mike Johnson and Danny Taylor. They made an album that was actually quite good (you can read all about it HERE). And after that, Randy admittedly "fell out of fellowship" for a while. It was during this period that he recorded a second live album in Australia...but he really kind of disappeared for a hot minute (as the kids would say). He resurfaced with his batteries charged and released two really fine rock albums in '80 and '81 (Randy Matthews and Plugged In)...but then fell off the radar again. He came back six years later with Streets of Mercy, and then said goodbye to the fickle CCM scene (a scene that owed its very existence, partly, to his presence on the planet) with what he says is his personal favorite of all his albums. 1990's The Edge of Flight is a sonically excellent album that was produced by Billy Smiley of White Heart. 

Randy Matthews on tour with White Heart in Greenville, SC

In fact, Matthews was given the opening slot on a national White Heart tour to help promote that album. I caught that tour in Greenville, SC and was proud and happy to see Mr. Matthews up there on the big stage again. And then he took the logical next career step...and became a pirate.

What?!

"I'd been out of the loop for so long," Randy said. "I just felt like I didn't have anything more to say, out on the road doing Christian shows, I didn't have anything more to write, my time had come and gone. And so, we've all got to make a living. And I thought wouldn't it be a great thing if a family came down to Florida where I'm living down here, and they thought they met a real pirate - someone who could entertain them and develop real relationships with these families that come down - and so, that's what I do. I dress as a pirate and I tell pirate stories and sing pirate songs and I've been doing it for twenty years now at two of the most successful resorts down here in Florida. And it's very, very rewarding. I've always loved children, little children. And so it's a family show that I do, and I've got all these little kids whose eyes are big as saucers, you know, coming to the show. So it's very rewarding. It's not like what I was doing, but the Lord's got me doing something else now. I've got a strong family and good friends, so things couldn't be much better."

Working under the stage name Red Beard, Matthews released an album of pirate songs and tall tales entitled Red Beard, Pirate King. 

In 2015, F-O-R (friend-of-Randy) Bim Ingersoll spearheaded the project of re-releasing and re-mastering Son of Dust on compact disc for the first time ever. This marked the first time that any of Matthews' 70s output was available on CD. Jerry Bryant asked Randy about his response to that event. "Well, I was totally blown away," he said. "I couldn't believe that anybody would remember it. We put the CD out and we got great response back to it. And you know, listening to it, it still holds up today." 

"It's really wonderful what happened back then," Matthews said. "And when I went on Facebook, I started getting all these messages from people, telling me how much I'd touched them over the years and how much my music had meant, and it's just been a really good experience for me. It's been very, very encouraging. Because I didn't think anybody would remember at all. I mean, that's forty years ago that I started doing this! That's a long time."

Oh, we remember, Randy. In fact, we'll never forget. 

#26 LIVE by The Imperials (1973)

IMPERIALS LIVE by the Imperials (1973)
Impact • R-3215

"In many ways, the Imperials were my true introduction to what became known as Contemporary Christian Music, and the first album I had by the Imperials was their 1973 live collection. I was a teenager just beginning to work out my own Christian faith, and I listened to it over and over, impressed with their harmony arrangements, the individual voices, and the songs themselves. I was especially moved by Jesus Made Me Higher and Sherman Andrus' deep sincerity as he talked about the importance of a love relationship with Jesus as the gateway to spiritual growth. I know that this album helped lay the foundation upon which I began to build my own work as a Christian songwriter. The album will always remain an important touchstone in my spiritual and musical life."
-Dwight Liles

Dwight Liles went on to have roughly one thousand of his songs recorded by a virtual "who's who" list of Christian artists over a 30-year span. 

That's the kind of reach, the kind of influence that Imperials Live had.

indiana

I had a chance recently to speak separately with Terry Blackwood and with Sherman Andrus of the Imperials and Andrus, Blackwood & Company.  Both of them graciously agreed to be interviewed for this blog post and I asked how it was decided that the Imperials would release a double live album in 1973. "We had a good working relationship with the Benson company," Terry Blackwood replied, "but we didn't really make the decision on when records were recorded or released. I guess [producer] Bob MacKenzie was probably the one who said it was time to do a live album. And since we had so many songs available, he just decided we should do a double album." 

Bob MacKenzie

Terry said that MacKenzie was very "high energy" and influential when it came to things like song selection. "But Bob was more of a motivator for us than a great producer," Blackwood stated, candidly. Sherman Andrus said that MacKenzie, who was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in the year 2000, had a lot of clout within the Benson company and was the main producer for a while for the Imperials, Tim Sheppard, and the other contemporary artists on the Impact label. "He had very strong opinions, musically and otherwise," Andrus said. "He was a very hard working guy. Unfortunately, he died rather young. I don't know the nature of his illness, but he worked so hard I wouldn't be surprised if it was stress-related." MacKenzie was also responsible for Sherman Andrus becoming an Imperial (more about that a little later). Bob MacKenzie passed away in October of 2000. He was only 62 years old.

The Tivoli Theatre in its prime

This album was released the same year that Andrae Crouch & the Disciples recorded a live album at the famed Carnegie Hall in New York City. I asked Terry what caused the Imperials to settle on the Tivoli Theatre in the mid-sized city of Richmond, Indiana. "We had been working with a promoter in Indiana quite a bit," he answered. "His name was Jan Clark. And he took us all over Indiana - well, all around the area where he lived. In fact, Indiana was one of the states where we were most popular. We sang at colleges and auditoriums all over Indiana." 

The historic Tivoli Theatre, originally opened in 1928, was damaged by fire in the mid-80s and later fell into near-total disrepair. For a while, a jewelry store (Hoppe Jewelers) operated from the front of the building. It also became a movie theater ("Sidewalk Cinema"). From what I've been able to dig up online, it is now permanently closed but the building is still there. 

Terry continued: "Indiana is probably the state where we were most in demand. I'm not sure why, exactly. They just really liked what we did."  

So...it would be a 2-record set recorded live at the Tivoli Theatre in the Hoosier state. But let's back it up a bit and learn more about what led up to this moment. 

beginnings

Jake Hess was born in 1927 to poor sharecroppers in Alabama. He had eleven brothers and sisters. At age 16, Hess started singing with gospel quartets. By the time the early 60s rolled around, Jake Hess was a legendary singer of southern gospel music, having sung with The Statesmen from 1948 to 1963.
 

Jake Hess

At that point, Hess had the idea to hand pick those that he considered to be the best singers at each position in order to create something of a "super group." Normally, a new group would be formed by auditioning young or "unattached" singers. But Hess approached successful, well-known singers who were already established in other groups and offered them the chance to be a part of this new endeavor. Those who initially said yes were: tenor singer Sherrill Nielsen from the Speer Family; baritone Gary McSpadden who was with the Oak Ridge Boys at the time; and a smooth bass singer from L.A. named Armond Morales, along with pianist Henry Slaughter, both coming over from the Weatherford Quartet. 

This new group would be called Jake Hess and the Imperials.

Jake Hess' new venture would differ from other groups in a couple of important ways. First, there was a morals clause that members of the Imperials were required to sign. This was important because, unbeknownst to many devotees of southern gospel music, many of the members of the most popular groups...well...let's just say they didn't exactly walk the straight and narrow when not on stage. Alcoholism and womanizing was rampant. Hess had no patience with all of that. Later on, Hess decided to use electric guitars and drums on stage, which raised eyebrows and caused some grumbling back in the 60s. 

Jake Hess and the Imperials hit the ground running, recording multiple albums per year in the early days of their existence. In 1966, Nielsen left the group and was replaced by a young singer with a crystal clear tenor voice from Lansing, Michigan by the name of Jim Murray. After that, Slaughter left the group and was replaced by an Italian New Yorker named Joe Moscheo. Next to go would be McSpadden (the only man who could ever say that he sang with the Statesmen, Oak Ridge Boys, Imperials, and Bill Gaither Trio, four huge franchise names in gospel music). McSpadden was replaced by Roger Wiles. But a huge blow came when doctors told Jake Hess that his health was such that he needed to come off the road, effectively forcing him into an early retirement. 

In the liner notes of the 1967 New Dimensions album, Imperials founder Jake Hess wrote these words:

"...most of my professional dreams were about organizing the Imperials. Now, if you ever had to turn a dream loose about the time it seemed to be the brightest, you know something of what I felt when the doctor said I couldn't travel with the boys anymore...I'm proud to have been associated with the Imperials. The next time you see them on stage you can say to yourself, old Hess may be at home in his living room, but there's his dream, in a new dimension, bigger than ever - Jim, Terry, Roger, Armond and Joe."

Hess' considerable shoes were capably filled by the son of a first-generation gospel singer from the deep south. His name was Terry Blackwood.  

At this point, the Imperials began to experiment - ever so slightly - with music that was just beyond the boundaries of southern gospel. 1968's New Dimensions included the youth group favorite He's Everything to Me and a show tune/pop song titled The Impossible Dream. Imperials...Now, also released in '68, had a campfire/folk vibe and contained a cover of the secular hit A Thing Called Love. In 1969, they put out a groovy rendition of The Rascals' People Got To Be Free and a handful of youth-oriented Ralph Carmichael songs on their Love is the Thing! release. Little by little, the Imperials were becoming more "hip" and less "square." 

With Duke Ellington, Mike Douglas and Jimmy Dean

Their talent and impressive vocal blend began to open doors for them. It was during this time that the Imperials started doing live appearances and TV work with the likes of mainstream entertainers Mike Douglas, Jimmy Dean and Carol Channing. It's probably worth noting that they also became the backup vocal group for the King of Rock and Roll - Elvis Aron Presley. 

vegas

I wrote at length in a recent post about Elvis Presley's Christian upbringing and undying love for gospel music. To revisit those details, click HERE. The Imperials served as backing vocalists for Presley off and on (mostly on) from 1966 thru 1972. They backed him on the Grammy-winning He Touched Me album, which featured Elvis singing several Imperials songs, as arranged by the group; they backed him on the motion picture release Elvis: That's the Way It Is; and they backed him live on stage in Las Vegas after the Jordanaires decided to stay in Nashville and focus on being studio singers. 

The Imperials with Elvis in the motion picture That's the Way It Is

So the Jordanaires, the Imperials, and J.D. Sumner & the Stamps all served as backing vocalists for Presley's Vegas gigs and live tours. He was the biggest pop music star in the world at that time, and yet it seems he was determined to have gospel singers on stage with him. I asked Terry Blackwood, who grew up in the same neck of the woods and whose name is synonymous with gospel music, to shed some light on the connection.

A replica of the church Elvis attended as a child stands today in Tupelo, MS

"Well, Elvis was born in Tupelo," Blackwood said, "and I was born in Mississippi as well. He lived in a little shotgun house and had nothing, no money. They were just poor people, as were the Blackwood Brothers. My people were sharecroppers down in Choctaw County, Mississippi. But there was a lot of Gospel influence in Elvis' life, even as a kid. He attended the Assembly of God church there." Terry said that when the Blackwoods relocated to Memphis, they began attending First Assembly of God on McLemore Avenue. By this time, Presley had been "discovered" and had moved to Memphis as well. "Whenever Elvis heard that the Blackwood Brothers were going to be at First Assembly," Terry recalls, "he would leave Graceland and go over to McLemore and listen to the Blackwood Brothers sing. And that's where I first met Elvis. So he'd been a gospel music fan all his life."

We've all heard by now of the all-night singing sessions in Presley's penthouse hotel suite in Vegas. But did that really happen? I asked Terry Blackwood. "Oh, yes," he maintained. "When we were in Vegas, we would finish the second show and he would invite us up to the penthouse and we would sing gospel music around the piano. We wouldn't sing his rock and roll hits, we would sing his favorite gospel songs." 

Blackwood told of one particular night when this impromptu singing session in Presley's suite seemed to really strike a chord in the heart of one of the invited guests: "There was one particular night that we were up there and Mama Cass of the Mamas & the Papas came upstairs, and she was standing around the piano with us. Joe [Moscheo] was at the piano and we were standing around, singing. Somebody suggested Amazing Grace. So we started singing Amazing Grace and I looked over at Mama Cass and she was crying. We finished all four verses of Amazing Grace, and after we finished, there was just a hush over the room. And she said, 'That's the first time I've sang that song since I was a little girl.'"

"I really believe that the Holy Spirit was always pulling on Elvis' heart, I really do," said Blackwood. "Every time we would go to that penthouse and we would sing gospel music, he would get tears in his eyes. I really do think that Elvis had a good heart. But he was just overwhelmed with success. I don't think he sought it; I think he just wanted to make a record for his mother and from there it just exploded. It was just more than he could handle. If Elvis could've made it as a gospel singer, I believe he would have. But by that time, the people demanded the songs that he had made famous." 

I mentioned how unusual it was for a major secular star to include Christian music in his concerts. "He couldn't do a whole show of nothing but gospel, but he would always include songs like How Great Thou Art," Terry said. "We would do songs like that on stage with him, and especially up in the penthouse, we'd do them. There were also a lot of black gospel groups that Elvis liked - the Harmonizing Four and all of those west coast black gospel groups. That's the kind of stuff we would listen to when we were in the penthouse."

During the Elvis years, Roger Wiles left the group and was replaced for a very brief time by Larry Gatlin. But Gatlin quickly got an opportunity to go to Nashville and focus on a country career. So he was replaced by Greg Gordon. The Imperials were looking and sounding less and less like your daddy's southern gospel group and more like some kind of gospel-pop crossover band. In 1970, it is true that the group released a single-disc live album, recorded in St. Louis, that was in many ways a throwback to their southern gospel roots. But then came Time to Get It Together. 

The iconic "One Way" graphic on the front cover...the modern illustration of a hipper-looking group on the back cover...and especially the songs - secular covers of the likes of Simon & Garfunkel and The Beatles, as well as Jesus Rock written by Larry Norman and Michael Omartian...it all combined to signal that the Imperials were doing a new thing.

"I think we had gotten into kind of a rut with the typical four-part southern gospel harmonies," Terry Blackwood admitted. "We wanted to stretch ourselves and try something new. I would say that there was an attempt to change the music, yes, to make us different from the rest of the southern gospel crowd.  

Little did they know just how different. They weren't aware of it quite yet, but they were getting ready to break the color barrier.

bridges

"I loved Andrae," said Sherman Andrus. He was talking, of course, about Andrae Crouch, songwriter, singer, musician and bridge builder. Andrus continued: "I give Andrae most of the credit for my being able to do what I did. I came from Louisiana, that's where I was born. And I went out to California when I was about 18 years old, and I didn't know anybody. And Andrae heard me sing in a choir. And he said if he ever got a male group, he wanted to talk to me. At that time, he had a mixed groups of girls and guys called The COGICS (the Church of God in Christ Singers). So he just heard me in a church, singing in the choir, and he introduced himself to me. You know, everybody was real friendly back then." 

Well, that might've been more than just a friendly personality on Andrae's part. I think it might've been a divinely-inspired appointment.

"Well, I was in the National Guard," Sherman said, "and I went away on active duty. But when I came back from the Guard, Andrae had already contacted my sister and said he had put a male group together and he wanted me to sing. And when I joined, he made me the lead singer of the group." Sherman's trademark humility was on display when he added, "He obviously heard something that nobody else heard!"

Sherman joined Andrae, Bili Thedford, Perry Morgan and Ruben Fernandez to form Andrae Crouch & the Disciples, a pivotal, contemporary group that would form a bridge between black gospel and Jesus music. "The guys were great," Andrus said, "but Andrae's tutelage was the thing that really helped me. See, he was contemporary. He was trying to have a contemporary group, and I had just come from the South where I was trying to sing like all the old black quartets, with all of this growling and carrying on, and he and his sister Sandra both would always tell me, 'No, no, no, don't sing like that. Use your pretty voice!' I mean, I was singing like what I heard growing up! But Andrae told me to sing the pretty stuff and said he would sing the hard stuff. And so that's how I evolved into that group."

Sherman told me the hardest thing he ever did was to leave Andrae Crouch & the Disciples. "Because there was no problem," he explained. "It's just that God has a way of troubling the water. You don't know why you feel the way you feel, you just know that He has something else for you. I just knew it was best for me to get out of the group."

Sherman said that in the end, he felt that his departure ended up being good for both Andrae and himself. "My dream was to make a living for my family and to minister for my entire life through music," he said. "And I knew I couldn't do that with Andrae. But when I went with the Imperials, that introduced me to a whole different sector of the country." 

So Sherman Andrus ended up as the only human alive to have been a member of two of the most dynamic, storied franchises in Christian music history. And in so doing, he helped the Imperials break the color barrier in southern gospel music. "Sherman was the first black man, to my knowledge, to ever be in a southern gospel quartet," his friend and former musical mate Terry Blackwood stated. Perhaps remembering briefly what the world was like in the early 70s, Blackwood said, "We took a chance." 

"Adding Sherman to the group was Bob MacKenzie's idea," said Blackwood. "Sherman had been with Andrae and was working as a soloist, and MacKenzie said, 'I know a guy who would probably fit right into the group.' So when Greg Gordon left, Joe called Sherman and asked if he would be interested."

Andrus admits to having been quite nervous about the audition.

"When I joined the group, they were the greatest voices you'll ever hear in any kind of group," Sherman said. "They actually sent for me to come and audition. And because I hadn't been singing much, I didn't think I had done a good job. But they wanted me. And my wife Winnie asked me, 'Well, what do you think?' And I told her I felt like I was singing for my life! Now, don't get this wrong, and I don't mean this in a braggadocios way, but on the West Coast with Andrae, I was the lead singer and everything revolved around me. And I didn't have to learn parts or anything, I was it! But these guys? Everybody could sing!"

"I think at that time, Sherman was anxious to do it," said Terry Blackwood. "Obviously, he had never been in a white group before. It was a big change for him and a big change for us."

And it would mark the second time that Sherman Andrus had been a part of a group of bridge builders. Andrae's group found great success building bridges between the black church and the Jesus people, which was no small task. But the Imperials had an equally tough task at hand: building bridges between southern gospel culture (which permeated much of the traditional church world at that time) and this vast audience of believers out there who were ready for a cultural expression with which they could identify. And to be a visible demonstration of the unity that could be achieved where race relations were concerned. Win-win.  

As I write this post in 2021, there's been a lot of talk in recent days about racists, race in America, systemic racism, etc. Millennials and Gen Z can be forgiven, perhaps, because they are simply believing what they've been told in public schools and higher ed, or what they hear from their media and pop culture sources. But people my age have short memories all of a sudden. I remember when there was clear, identifiable racism being practiced and expressed as part of daily life. Having been born in 1962, I was alive and walking around on the planet when segregation was still a thing...when separate rest rooms and water fountains were still a thing. I grew up in Alabama, where my favorite college football team (Roll Tide!) did not have a single black player until 1971. We have traveled such an incredible distance. And I think the story today should not be 'How many racists are left?' but rather, 'Look how far we've come!' 

But yes, things were still tenuous in the early 70s, and Terry Blackwood was right when he said the Imperials took a chance by adding Andrus to the lineup. I asked Terry how the Imperials' audience responded to Sherman. "Our audiences loved him," he answered. "They responded very positively to him. In fact, I never heard one word of negative feedback. At least not to us. Some of the southern gospel people may have had a problem with it, but they wouldn't tell us that. I imagine it was just something that was said in the back rooms, I don't know. But having Sherman in the group never hurt us at all, especially not with the people. As someone has said, singers don't buy tickets, people do. So when you're needing to sell tickets for concerts, you want the congregation, the people, to buy the tickets. And I think we had great success with Sherman. 

tcb

 

Andrus told me that one thing most people probably would not have guessed is that he was actually more conservative than the other guys in the group. He joined the Imperials during the tail end of the Elvis years, and singing in Vegas sort of ate away at his conscience at first. "I grew up with the idea that if you sang anything but gospel music, you were gonna bust hell wide open," Andrus told me, with a smile in his voice. "So in Las Vegas, I was the most uncomfortable guy on stage! I did what I was supposed to do, but it frightened me because of my upbringing. So that was part of what the guys learned about me as we went along. But I was very conservative."

Andrus was able to take part in the whole Elvis experience during his early days with the Imperials. There are literally thousands of stories out there about Presley's legendary generosity. Here's one more from Sherman Andrus:

"Elvis made me feel so special. I didn't think he would be as outgoing with me as he was. But he was just like a big country boy. And he welcomed me the minute the guys brought me to his suite. He said, 'Now you're one of us. You're a member of the Memphis Mafia.' And I joked around with him, and I said, 'Yeah, but all the guys that you say are part of the Memphis Mafia, you give these TCB chains to. And I don't have one.' And he said, 'I'm gonna get you one.' A few nights later we were all at the Desert Inn backing up Jimmy Dean. Elvis waited until the curtains were almost opened, and he put these jewelry boxes in each of our hands. So when the curtain opened, there we stood with jewelry boxes in our hands. So we did our little segment and went back to the green room, and when we checked our boxes, everybody had a bracelet. Except for me. I had a bracelet and a TCB necklace. The guy was very thoughtful."

Sherman agrees with Terry that there was more to Elvis than Jailhouse Rock and Blue Suede Shoes. Something much deeper. In fact, strange as it might sound, Andrus told me he believes Presley was actually anointed by God to do what he did. "I talked to him about that," Andrus revealed. "I said, 'I have never seen anybody loved the way you are.' People just loved him. I told him, 'It's not a natural thing. That's a God-given thing. That's not something a man could give to you. They love you because God's hand is on you.' And he agreed with me."

"He was quite a guy," Sherman recalls. 

This man from conservative Louisiana, who felt entirely uncomfortable about even singing in Las Vegas hotels told me, "I thank God that we were able to sing with him. It was one of the great thrills of my life, getting to hang with Elvis and just to see how God blessed him."

Well, all good things usually come to an end, and the time did come when the Imperials just could no longer afford to be at Colonel Tom Parker's beck and call any longer. 

Colonel Tom Parker with Elvis

"When you worked with Elvis, you kind of just had to put the rest of your contacts on hold until he called," explained Terry Blackwood. "If he called, great. But if he didn't, you just sat there by the phone waiting for a call. Actually, it wasn't Elvis that would call you, it was Tom Diskin, Colonel Tom Parker's assistant. In fact, I never spoke a word to the Colonel. Never. Joe was actually the spokesman for the group; he's the one who kind of got us into the Elvis arena. Joe's the one who talked for the group, but I don't think he ever talked to the Colonel either! He talked to Tom Diskin, his assistant, because the Colonel wouldn't talk to us! Joe would ask the Colonel a question, and then the Colonel would lean over to Tom and say, 'Tell him I said such-and-such.'" Blackwood chuckled as he said, "I don't think he was necessarily trying to be mean, but he made it seem like, 'You know what, you guys aren't really necessary. We could find anybody to do this.' "

"He didn't realize that he had probably the best male group he could get," Terry Blackwood stated. 

The Imperials ceased working with Elvis Presley due to scheduling conflicts. Within a year, they would stop backing Jimmy Dean as well.

'lost our marbles'

"The very first album I did with the Imperials had a brown cover and was just called Imperials," Andrus recalls. "And it would be perfect for today. But back then, people really thought that we had messed up!" Sherman said the group wanted his first outing to be something special, because there were rumors and stories going around within the industry about how Sherman being with the Imperials just might "mess everything up." "So we put out this album in 1972," he said, "with songs written by Kris Kristofferson, Stevie Wonder, Ray Stevens, Richard Carpenter and Carole King. I think we only had one or two songs that were outright gospel. But the album's production was incredible. The guy who wrote out all of the arrangements was a man named Bergen White." 

"But when that album came out, people thought we had lost our marbles," Sherman said. "I loved the production on it, and it would be great for now. But it wasn't received so well back then. That record didn't do anything."

"So then here comes the live album," said Andrus.
 

side 1

Let's drop the needle on Imperials Live. 

After the briefest of introductions and a rambunctious drum fill, the Imperials tear into Time to Get It Together. They had previously recorded this song as the title track of their 1971 album, but here it has more energy. In fact, counting the various medleys, this 2-album set contains 20 different songs, and fourteen of them were repeats from earlier LPs. But the versions contained here on Live were more intense, more dynamic, and had more of a rock and roll swagger than the studio versions.

This song, written by Smokey Roberds and also recorded by Leslie Uggams and Leonard Nimoy (!), never won any awards for being deep...but it does contain phrases and sentiments that were right in line with what was happening with young people of the era. 

There's a whole lot of people been tryin' to get it together

Like you and me, that's all we need to be free

Just a little more time to get it together

In fact, a stronger appeal to "the youth" was a river that ran thru this project from one end to the other. Side One alone would include three spiritually-aware pop covers, as well as Imperials versions of songs by the holy trinity of Jesus Movement artists - Larry Norman, Love Song and Andrae Crouch. There was clearly a shift taking place here in an attempt to broaden the Imperials' audience. 

I asked Sherman Andrus if that was by design - a strategy on the part of the group - or did it just happen organically? "I think it was a strategy," Sherman replied. "We were trying to be different from everybody else." Of course, when he says different from everybody else, he's referring to the other groups in southern gospel. So to be different from them would necessitate becoming more like the Jesus Music bands that were gaining a foothold in California and other pockets around the country at that time. "Everything was always iffy with the Imperials," Andrus said. "We didn't dress like everybody else, and some of the guys had long hair, and all of these things were no-no's back then! We started to play a lot of colleges, especially after I got in the group. It made us more college-friendly. Colleges and universities were a market that, up to that time, had been untouched. But we had the right look. And we even had a band called Solid Rock! It was a fun time for the most part. There were some difficulties, but for the most part it was just fun."

A Thing Called Love was technically a secular song, but it put forth a Christian message. It was recorded by Elvis, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, Jimmy Dean, and Jerry Reed (the song's writer). And I know I'm biased...but the only one of those mainstream heavyweights that even approached the Imperials' version was Elvis. And that's because they were backing him up and he was using their arrangement. The vocal blend is impressive, with Armond Morales' melodic bass supplying the bottom end. Highly recognizable is the familiar sound of Joe Moscheo's electric piano. That's a Wurlitzer, not a Rhodes. I've owned three Wurlitzers in my lifetime and used to play them all over the place, so I'd know that sound anywhere.

As many songs have done before and since, A Thing Called Love does its best to describe true, lasting love. And does a pretty good job of it...

Can't see it with your eyes, hold it in your hand
Like the wind that covers our land
Strong enough to rule the heart of any man
This thing called love
It can lift you up, it can put you down
Take your world and turn it all around
Ever since time, nothing's ever been found stronger than love

Cue up the Jesus Music heavy hitters. Next, the Imperials would cover songs by Larry Norman and Andrae Crouch. Terry Blackwood was featured over a driving beat on Norman's youth group anthem, Sweet Sweet Song of Salvation. I asked Terry if the songs they chose to record caused young people from the Jesus Movement to give the Imperials a listen. "Of course, yes," he answered, enthusiastically. And then he told a story about what I can only assume was the famed Explo '72. 

Apparently, the Imperials were not on the bill to sing at Explo '72. But they were there.

Andrae Crouch and Larry Norman

"The first Jesus festival that I can remember was in Dallas, Texas," said Blackwood. "At the time we were working with Jimmy Dean at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas. We would sing in this really fine hotel, and then when that gig was up, we rode the bus over to the Jesus festival, right there in Dallas. That's where Larry Norman sat on the stage, barefoot, and Andrae Crouch sang. Most all the Jesus people were there for that festival. And later, we ended up doing just about every one of the festivals. There was Jesus Northwest, there was Fishnet in Virginia, we did all of those. And I think that working with people like Larry Norman allowed us to see that there was a huge world out there besides southern gospel. And being at those festivals showed us that we could branch out a little, musically, ourselves. And so we did."

Sherman Andrus gets his first turn in the spotlight on this album - in a big way - on I've Got Confidence. It's a song that the Imperials recorded on Love is the Thing! before they ever met Sherman...and a song that Sherman sang and recorded before he ever met the Imperials. "Yeah, even though Andrae wrote I've Got Confidence, I was the first person to ever record it," Sherman noted. "That was the title song of a solo album that I did back in '67 or '68. It was on the Benson label, Impact Records, same as the Imperials, and Bob MacKenzie was the producer. Bob came out to California and he signed me up to do that because Andrae's group was on Light Records that was owned by Ralph Carmichael. And Benson couldn't get the group, so they just signed me."

Andrus turns in a very memorable, electrifying performance of this well-known song (complete with wah-wah guitar effects), which uses the story of Job from the Bible to offer encouragement to those who are experiencing doubt...troubles...worry...despair. "I've Got Confidence turned out to be a big song for the Imperials," said Sherman, "and to have it sung by the first guy who ever recorded it, that just kind of gave it an instant boost. And Elvis wanted to meet me because he recorded the song as well. He was the third artist to record it."   

After Confidence, we finally hear the spoken word coming from Joe Moscheo. Joe begins by saying some very nice things about Sherman...but then regrettably repeats a few cringe-worthy prepared jokes/remarks that haven't aged well. There's a video making the rounds on YouTube of Jimmy Dean doing the same thing while introducing the group on his television show. I'm sure it was something Sherman just had to put up with a lot back in the day. Then again, it really was a different time...I was watching some old reruns of Sanford & Son and The Jeffersons with my kids a few years ago, and we were all shocked to hear the 'n-word' being used by the black characters on those network TV shows, like it was nothing. Needless to say, we're all a lot more sensitive to such things today.

Side One wraps with an interesting, six-minute medley that was, again, quite timely in 1973. Joe's Wurlitzer (with the tremolo set just right), Sherman's soft falsetto, and the group's rich harmonies are featured on the ballad Think About What Jesus Said, a song originally recorded by Love Song, a group sometimes referred to as the Beatles of the Jesus Movement (although that's not fair to Love Song if you ask me). That song blends seamlessly into Day by Day from the musical Godspell, which gives Jim Murray a chance to shine a little toward the end. The Imperials not only turn in a better rendition than the original Godspell cast, but what other gospel group would even have the idea to include such a song in their live shows? In fact, this medley, covering both Love Song and Godspell, only strengthen the case that the Imperials are doing some serious outreach here to a younger audience.

side 2

Time for a little audience participation bit on Side Two. It's a 6-minute medley of He's Got the Whole World in His Hands, the popular mainstream hit Put Your Hand in the Hand, and the chorus to the Three Dog Night classic Joy to the World. Moscheo plays the role of the wisecracking emcee and gets some great laughs as well as some impressive results from the crowd. 

Joe Moscheo had been involved in southern gospel music for a very long time, having been a member of groups like the Harmoneers and the Prophets before joining the Imperials. Moscheo did not seem to be a great piano player in the tradition of, say, an Andrae Crouch or Keith Green or Michael Omartian. And he definitely wasn't a great singer. But he had a lot of personality. There had long been a role in southern gospel music for the smiling, entertaining pianist who introduced the group, did the audience participation stuff, and just generally served as the emcee (or MC) for the evening. In that way, Joe was kind of a throwback, I guess. "Joe was the lighthearted guy who warmed the audience up to us," said Terry Blackwood. "Everybody loved Joe. He used to say things like I'm going to amaze you right now with this song. And you're going to look over to your neighbor and say, my, my, is there no end to this boy's talent? Of course, everybody knew Joe was joking because he couldn't sing at all. But he was a great emcee."  

From Three Dog Night to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I hate to repeat myself...but what other southern gospel group could begin to get away with this?! The guys deliver a very smooth rendition of Teach Your Children by CSNY. I was curious about how the Imperials' audiences responded to all of the secular cover tunes that they worked into their shows. "Well, at that point we could do no wrong," Terry Blackwood candidly stated. "Everything we did, people loved. I think they accepted it because they knew that our lives were consistent. And this material that we did was different, it was unlike anything they had ever heard. And so they just loved everything we sang. If we'd had moral issues or things like that, it would've been tougher. But I think our reputations were such that the people understood that hey, these guys are trying to do something a little different. Let's encourage them." 

Up next was an introspective ballad that featured Terry and some great harmony parts from the rest of the group. Titled You Should Have Come Sooner, it offers Jesus' love to those who may be at the end of their rope...

Where do you go when you've come to the end of the road
Who really cares when your song is sung
When you've seen all you wanted to see
And become what you wanted to be
And you still don't really know where you belong

Where do you fly when your dreams have kissed you goodbye
When your friends have gone and here you are alone
When there's no place for you to hide
No one to take your side
And you feel like the only one out on your own

You go to the place where Life begins
To a Love that never ends
To the One whose arms are open wide
Run on inside
You should have come sooner

Wrapping up Side Two was Old Gospel Ship - where rock and roll and the church hymnal collide. This was quite a treat for my young ears back in 1973, what with all of the fuzzy electric guitar solos, Terry Blackwood delivering a solid lead vocal, and Jim Murray soaring above it all. 

One thing that made Gospel Ship work so well was the Imperials' band. This was a 3-piece group that Joe Moscheo actually put together; they took on Solid Rock as their moniker, and they looked the part! I've got to believe that these long-haired guys - and the high profile they received with so many photos on the double gatefold album cover - also helped build that impression that the Imperials were turning a corner and leaving southern gospel in the rear view mirror.

I asked Terry Blackwood if he knew where Solid Rock is today. "Yeah, the drummer, Mike Padgett, went on to work at Dollywood in the corporate part of the company," Blackwood said. "I had a picture made with him at least ten years after he left the Imperials. Unfortunately it was not long after that that he died of a heart attack." 

Terry continued: "I think the bass player, Steve Ford, lives in a small town up north of Nashville, the last I heard. He came to see me when I did a solo concert a while back. And we affectionately called Steve 'Sally' for some reason. I don't know why that stuck. But he had this long, curly hair, and he was tall and gawky. He would always laugh at Joe's jokes. He was kind of our comic relief."

"And Keith Gregory was the guitar player," Blackwood recalled. "I think he still lives in Nashville and works at a guitar shop. I think he sells guitars at a place called Guitar City. But I would say that those guys really added a lot to the energy that we needed. Of course, the kids loved them because they had long hair and they weren't like us at all! But we got along great with those guys, had a great relationship with them. I saw Keith Gregory at a meat-and-three in Nashville twenty years after he had left the group and he looked the same. Exactly the same. He still had the long hair, just a few more lines on his face. But I knew right away it was Keith. He was always a great guy, always fun to talk to, had a great attitude. I don't think I ever saw Keith with a frown. He was always a happy guy."

Sherman Andrus confirmed that the Imperials' idea for Gospel Ship came from Mylon LeFevre's rocked-up version on his 1970 album We Believe (I suspected as much). But like Sherman said, the Imperials were a lot more active in Christian circles than Mylon was in the 70s, so their version ended up being heard by countless more people. "It was very well-received and often requested in our concerts," Sherman said. 

Old Gospel Ship would be a staple of Imperials concerts for decades to come.

credits

We've already established that Imperials Live was produced by Bob MacKenzie. The live recording was accomplished through an outfit call Celebration, with Fred Cameron as engineer and Lee Hazen as the remix engineer. All songs were sung by Jim, Terry, Sherman, Armond and Joe; no other vocalists appeared on the album. The music was played by Joe Moscheo and the Solid Rock band. Farrell Morris added some additional percussion and John Darnall added some additional guitar. 

One really cool feature of this album was that big ole gatefold album cover with 48 photos on it. FORTY-EIGHT photographs taken by Bill Grine (Janny's husband). The art direction was credited to Bob McConnell.

side 3

Disc two, side three of Imperials Live opens with a throwback to an earlier era. At first listen, On The Other Side seems like a stereotypical southern gospel song about Heaven and the afterlife. Heck, if I had $5 for every time I heard a gospel quartet sing about Heaven, I'd have a lot of money! But this is actually another secular cover. On the Other Side was originally made popular by an Australian folk group called The Seekers. Like I said, it seems to be about Heaven, and you could take it that way, I suppose...but there are a few clues in the lyrics that it's actually a Sixties folk song. 

River, river, soon I'm gonna be over on the other side
Water, water, I just gotta be over on the other side
It won't be long now, 'cause I'm movin' on
In the mornin' you're gonna find me gone
Movin' over on the other side
Movin' over on the other side
Come on and follow me, you'll be satisfied

No more lonesome city misery over on the other side
That's why everybody ought to be over on the other side
Now don't you tell me to get at work at nine
I'm gonna do things in my own sweet time

Movin' over on the other side
Movin' over on the other side
Come on and follow me, you'll be satisfied

On the other side (the sun will shine)

On the other side (everything is fine)
On the other side (we'll learn to be content)
I know (where the grass is green)
We're gonna step ashore (and the air is clean)
There we'll weep no more
Leave your troubles far behind on the other side

The Seekers did a fine job with On the Other Side. But I'm gonna say it again: the Imperials did it better.

Next up is yet another mainstream cover tune. The Imperials take on Invocation by The Carpenters...and it is a thing of beauty. The arrangement, the majestic harmony and exquisite blend...completely a capella, and without being drenched in reverb. Of course, today you would hear a track like this and think to yourself, "I wonder how much of that had to be fixed in the studio?" Turns out the answer is none. 

"Back then, I don't think we knew that you could go into the studio and fix your vocals," Terry Blackwood admitted. "So I think that everything on here is actually what went down on tape. Of course, they mixed it in the studio, but we didn't do any adjustments to the vocals. That's unheard of nowadays." Yes. Yes, it is.

Next, we come to one of the highlights of this album. On their Time to Get It Together release, Greg Gordon was featured on a very memorable song called Jesus Made Me Higher, a song that used the vernacular of the day to describe an authentic relationship with Christ. The songwriter had a name you might recognize: Michael Omartian. You might remember that Michael Omartian and the Imperials would cross paths again about a decade later...and the results would be spectacular. But I digress.

So Omartian was young, and was already a respected session player for secular bands, but Jesus (and a girl named Stormie) had gotten a hold of his heart and he was actually involved on the periphery of the Jesus Movement. So this becomes one more alliance between the Imperials and the Jesus people. With Gordon gone, Sherman Andrus took the lead on the song now, and made it his own. Sherman took it to another level.

On Live, Joe Moscheo says that Jesus Made Me Higher was the song that had the greatest influence over the Imperials' audiences at that time. He then hands it off to Sherman to talk about the meaning of the song in greater detail. Andrus talks about seeing the difference Jesus made in the lives of drug addicts and alcoholics at Teen Challenge in Los Angeles, explaining that when you're really following Jesus, He will take you from one plateau to another...He just keeps taking you higher and higher. 

"The beautiful thing about it is you don't have to come down from this joy. Even in the midst of turmoil, you can have peace within because you've really given your heart to Christ and you know He's gonna help you over those rough spots." Sherman does an excellent job of planting seeds for the invitation which would come later in the evening.

The song itself is simply powerful. And anointed. After it's over, Sherman again exhorts the audience and they go into a reprise. I still get a little teary-eyed sometimes when I listen to this song, even today.

I noticed that Sherman seemed to do most of the testifying on the album, most of the verbal ministry coming forth from the stage. I asked if that was by design.

"Well, the guys never did that before," he said. "And that was a point of contention when I joined the group. After a few months with the group, they asked me what I would do to change their program to make it better. And I said, 'What you should do is give testimonies. You know, share with people and let them know why you do what you do.' And I did have some resistance from the guys. I was talking to Joe and Armond, and they were the ones in charge at that time, and they said, 'Well, we tried that before but it doesn't work.' And I said, 'It's not supposed to work. It's just supposed to be a statement of fact: this is why we do what we do.' And they acquiesced, grudgingly, you know, but it became kind of a turning point for the group when people realized that we were not just good singers, but we really had a reason for doing what we do. So it was not something that was planned, it was just something that happened because they did not feel comfortable doing that. And later on, Armond said that was a turning point for the group. And it also really accelerated our popularity, when we started to commit to ministering between the songs. Joe never felt comfortable behind the piano giving the invitation, so I would take it for the invitation."

Sherman added: "And you know that part of Jesus Made Me Higher, where I'm ministering to the people? One night, Elvis made us sit in a circle, hold hands and listen to that for about an hour. All of us. Over and over again. That's how much that ministered to him." 

Of course, Andrus acknowledged that he had a great teacher. 

"Andrae Crouch was great at ministry," he said. "And I learned a lot from him. Of course, I grew up in a similar circumstance, and I learned a lot from my Mom and from my sister and older sister. And then when I got with Andrae, he did the ministry time for the group. You know, we all gave our testimonies, but he was the one who gave the invitation. So it became very easy for me to fit into that slot."

After such a powerful track, side three concludes with a canned studio song, for some reason. It's called One Solitary Life and honestly sounds like a throwback to the years when Roger Wiles was with the group. It has kind of an Up With People vibe and it features Armond with a lengthy recitation of the well-known poem of the same title. Bass singers used to get tapped for recitations quite a bit in southern gospel music, so that's another thing that led me to think that this was just a time-filler from some previous era. I was pretty sure it was added later due to the fact that it fades out at the end instead of ending for applause as you would typically do on a live record. 

I asked Terry Blackwood about it, and he said, "You are right, that song was done in the studio after everything else had been recorded. That was a studio cut." But Terry said that Sherman was actually on that song, so that blew my theory about it being from the 60s. It's a song with a fine message on the life of Christ and His central role throughout history, and Armond does a nice job on it. But it's not exactly the high-water mark on the album for me. 

Speaking of Armond (the only original Imperial still in the group in 1973), I can't help but notice as I go back and study this album all over again, that there were very few of those unique Armond Morales bass lines that stood out in later years and separated the Imperials from so many other CCM groups. I'm talking about those familiar lines that he had on songs like Sail On, Free the Fire, Someday, Heed the Call, He Made My Life Come Together, Trumpet of Jesus, and lots of others. His presence was definitely felt on this album, as that smooth velvety bass voice that thickened up the harmony and was a big part of the Imperials' trademark vocal blend. Those special solo bass lines weren't there yet...but they soon would be. See Jesus Got A Hold Of My Life from Follow The Man With The Music, the very next year, to hear what I'm talking about.

side 4

Another of the album's highlights opens side four: Oh Happy Day. Having been a huge hit for the Edwin Hawkins Singers, the Imperials give it a shot with Joe (barely) singing lead over a driving rock beat. After a false ending, the drums kick back in and Joe says, "C'mon Sherman, show me how to do it!" And from that point on, the Tivoli Theatre must've been completely up for grabs. "I did a lot of what I would typically do in the black church on Oh Happy Day," Sherman said. "That one added another dimension. And it would always bring the house down." I'll say.

From there, the guys head into a song that is not attributed on the album label to any songwriter. It sounds sort of like an old spiritual with updated lyrics to reflect the times. Sherman took the lead and sang...

Jesus

Jesus, won't You come back to earth
Jesus
Jesus, come back to earth

Save us from the marijuana

Save us from the things we say

Save us from the people thinking that the world is OK

Save us, save us, hallelujah

From the fighting nations
From the segregation
And the love of death

The destruction of love

The destruction of happiness

The destruction of freedom

The destruction of the world

Save us, save us, good God Almighty, hallelujah

Save us from the devil

Save us from satan

Save us from hell

Save us, save us, Jesus

About halfway thru this 8 and a half minute track, Sherman again exhorts the audience to truly know Jesus - not with just a head knowledge, but a heart knowledge. 

During our conversation, I told Sherman that there seemed to be an anointing of the Holy Spirit on him to minister and witness the way he did with the Imperials and subsequently with Andrus, Blackwood & Company. I asked him if he thought that was true, and he told me of how he had always felt like he was not worthy...and yet, ministers would always find him and confirm, repeatedly, that God had a work for him to do. "You know how we think we have to be perfect? I strove to be perfect," he said. "And every time, even with Andrus, Blackwood & Company, whenever we were on stage or ministering with people who were ministers of the spoken word, they would seek me out. I would try to hide from them on stage! Because I felt that my life did not add up to what it should be, and I didn't want them to notice me. But they would always call me out from among the group and lay hands on me, and I'd be knocked out! There I was, laid out in front of the world! And that happened to me so many times. And I even feel that way now in a lot of ways, and I don't mean that to try to sound uppity or anything, and I never felt like I deserved that, but God had His hand on my life. There was this one evangelist by the name of Vicki Jamison, and we did a couple of things with her. And I would try so hard to disappear, just Please don't let her look at me, you know, and then there I'd be, laid out on the stage. David Wilkerson, same thing. And they would all say the same thing, that 'God has His hand on your life.' And I always felt unworthy. But I guess that's a good place to be." 

We head into the home stretch with a high-energy Imperials classic called God Speaking to You. This one has some really cool harmony parts and breakout lines by the various singers. It was written by Sonny Salsbury, brother of Ron Salsbury (of J.C. Power Outlet and Pantano/Salsbury fame).

Joe then sets up the invitation song, a traditional chorus called I Have Decided to Follow Jesus. He talks about all of the decisions that we make every day, large and small, and how following Jesus is the most important decision any of us will ever make. Now, remember...this was a group used to the bright lights of Vegas. They could've gone out with a show-stopper. They could've saved the most impressive song for the end, could've gone out with one of those big endings, causing the crowd to chant "We want more." 

They didn't do that.

Instead, at the end of I Have Decided, Joe asked Sherman to simply pray...to pray a heartfelt prayer.

"...Lord, we thank You for all that You've done here tonight. We thank You for the presence of Your Holy Spirit. We're not trying to take any of the glory or any of the honor away from You, Lord. We came here to praise and lift up Your name...and we pray, Lord, that everyone that's here tonight...just let them come closer to You, Lord...and let this night stand out in their lives as a night that they have really, indeed, decided to follow You..."

impact

"This album is probably still the best seller that the Imperials made," said Terry Blackwood. "I can't explain it, I mean, how old is it? It'll soon be fifty years old!"

"It really was a transformational album for the Imperials," Sherman added. "With this album, we shared testimonies. And we gave an invitation. And this album was our biggest seller while I was in the group. Of course, when the Imperials went to Word Records, Word did something that the Benson company did not do - Word actually promoted them! For all the years I was with the group, we averaged 200 dates a year. You were gone all the time. But we just never had the promotion. So we sold records out of the bus."

"But this album was a turning point for the group," Sherman said. 

I asked Terry Blackwood if he thought this live album sort of set the Imperials up for the success that they enjoyed in the next several years. "I think it did," he agreed. "After the double live album, we came back with Follow the Man with the Music, which was probably, in my opinion, the best record I did with the group. It got nominated for a Grammy. I was beginning to do all of the vocal arrangements for the group. And then after that we did the No Shortage album, and I arranged all of those songs. And that album won a Grammy. Yeah, I think the live album put us in a new direction and we decided we wanted to change our style a little bit."

It's 10 p.m. on a Thursday night as I write this...and I would have to stay up all night long - and maybe several nights - to tell you about every accolade that came the Imperials' way over the next three decades following the release of this album. Awards, albums, airplay, magazine covers and articles, television, concerts and festival appearances, hall of fame inductions, the list goes on. It has truly been a storied, iconic franchise. 

There was one problem.

"The only thing is that we didn't have consistency with the group," said Andrus. "The members changed too often. And this is just my personal opinion. But I talked with Armond when we were all together again in Hawaii one time, and as far back as the lineup with Russ Taff, if they could've just kept the group together they could've seen the same level of success as the Oak Ridge Boys. The Oak Ridge Boys were not as creative, their music was not up to ours in the sense that - and don't get me wrong, they were good singers, but they were performers. They were real performers and they did not care about some of the things that the Imperials cared about. But we just never could stay together. There were too many changes in the group. But the music was always excellent." 

influence

I've saved my personal story for last. You see, I grew up in a pastor's home in the deep South, immersed in southern gospel music. A lot of the groups came to our church - Jerry & the Singing Goffs...the Sego Brothers & Naomi...the Palmetto State Quartet...even the Klaudt Indian Family! My brothers and I would get screwdrivers from out in the garage, put a record on the record player, then stand in a line and sing into the screwdrivers as if they were microphones, pretending we were a gospel quartet. We had it bad. But we really didn't know that anything else existed.

And then one day I was spending the night at a friend's house in Eufaula, Alabama. This friend's parents were very musical and maybe just a little more hip than my parents. They had a copy of Imperials Live from 1973. Someone put it on the stereo...and as it began to play, I vividly remember turning to look at the record player and asking, "What is that?" It just had a certain sound. And then I saw the album cover. And I knew that this was my music and these were my people. (OK, I'm being a little overly dramatic here, but just go with it.) Yes, in some ways it seemed akin to southern gospel, but this album was more like southern gospel's really cool cousin. These guys had long hair. They wore cool clothes. They sang songs by Love Song and Larry Norman and Andrae Crouch. They did mainstream covers. They called their band Solid Rock, for crying out loud...and they had real electric guitars. Add to that the talent, vocal blend and cool factor of Murray, Blackwood, Andrus, Morales and Moscheo. This live set was something special. 

So I went back home and begged my parents to take me to the local Woolworth's store in Phenix City, Alabama. And there it was! I didn't have enough money to buy it right then and there, but my Mom helped me put it on lay-a-way - I think she was just trying to teach me something about how money worked...or maybe something about patience. After 2 or 3 weeks, I had it paid in full. I took it home...and basically didn't come out of my room for 2 or 3 months. I devoured that album. Didn't just listen to it, I studied it from one end to the other. I memorized it. I absorbed it. I imagined what it would have been like to be at the Tivoli that night. The Imperials became my childhood heroes. I even took an Imperials songbook with me to school when I was in the 8th grade. It's impossible to overstate the importance of this album in my own musical and spiritual development. And it was a thrill to be able to tell Terry and Sherman this story and thank them personally for their faithfulness and for the positive influence they've had in my life. And I'm just one of probably hundreds of thousands with a similar testimony. 

So, yes, the Imperials were Bridge Builders. I know, because I traveled across that bridge that they built. Because of their impact on my life, I would soon discover albums by artists with names like Norman and Crouch and Stonehill...and groups like Love Song and the 2nd Chapter of Acts and the Pat Terry Group. And then my knowledge of and interest in this stuff that we call Contemporary Christian Music exploded in the late 70s and beyond. My brothers and I formed a band (or 2 or 3) and I played and sang the music myself in 35 states and Canada. Then I became a radio host and producer with a Christian music show of my own every weekend for 15 years, where I was able to share "Jesus Music" with a secular, classic rock audience...what a mission field! Now I write a blog to remember and to celebrate what God did through this wonderful music and these awesome albums. This blog began as a hobby and a labor of love. It's still a labor of love...but it has, as of today, over 336,000 page views from countries all around the world. 

And it all started with Imperials Live in 1973.

God knew.  

Remember Dwight Liles, the songwriter that I quoted at the very beginning of this post - the one who talked about being greatly influenced by this album? "One of the most beautiful moments of my career," Dwight said, "was when I finally had one of my songs recorded by the Imperials in the early 90s. It became a charting single for them! It was a song called We're All Looking from their Stir It Up album." Dwight said that one of the things that pleased him the most was that it sounded more like that classic 70s Imperials style than most of the songs they were doing at that time. 

"So it was really a 'coming full circle' event for me," he said.