Christian Contemporary Music

I don’t listen to much Christian music. Most modern worship sounds like Joshua Tree-era U2 to me. I prefer faith-based acts to not limit themselves to the Christian market, like Sufjan Stevens, Over The Rhine, or Amy Grant.

The best place to find talented Christian musicians is classical music – highly regarded composers like JS Bach, Olivier Messiaen, Handel, and Haydn were devout believers.

This page will never be particularly big, but I plan to add Keith Green and Larry Norman at some point. This page is largely a time capsule of my late teens and early twenties, circa the year 2000, when I made more of a conscious effort to listen to Christian music.

Form

New Zealand worship band Form were significant for my generation; making church worship music that sounded less like Michael W. Smith and more like Pearl Jam was an exciting innovation. But twenty years later, they're largely disappeared from the inter-webs - only one of their albums is on Spotify, and I had to photograph their...

Jars of Clay

Jars of Clay were formed when keyboardist Charlie Lowell met vocalist Dan Haseltine at Greenville College, Illinois; Lowell initially noticed Haseltine's Toad The Wet Sprocket t-shirt. The four-piece band was completed with guitarists Stephen Mason and Matt Odmark - unusually, the group don't have a permanent rhythm section. The members started writing songs for their...

Rich Mullins Album Reviews

Richard Wayne Mullins was one of the most beloved figures in Christian Contemporary Music. He grew up in Indiana, the son of a tree farmer. Growing up he was influenced by Quaker values of peace and social justice, which permeated through his songwriting. He was influenced by The Beatles, Stephen Stills, Cat Stevens, and Genesis....

Michael Omartian Album Reviews

Michael Omartian has a vast resume as a producer and studio musician. He played accordion on Billy Joel's 'Piano Man' and keyboards on Steely Dan's 1970s albums. He arranged and played keys on 'We Are The World', won producer of the year for Christopher Cross, and produced number-one hits in three different decades. When you...

The 2nd Chapter of Acts

The Ward siblings formed a band almost by accident - Nelly and Matthew Ward lost their parents while they were minors, and moved in with their sister Annie in 1970. Annie Herring was married to record producer Buck Herring, who bought her a piano. Annie began composing songs, and after school Nelly and Matthew would...

Christian Contemporary Music – Miscellany

Album reviews of CCM artists who don’t qualify for their own page. Earthsuit | Tim Hughes | Solace Earthsuit Kaleidoscope Superior 2000, 7/10Judging solely from their debut album, it's hard to tell whether New Orleans' Earthsuit are someone's cunning plan to provide a Christian alternative to the secular flavour of the month (circa the turn...