him on to wanting to become a Christian artist . He ’ s like , “ I want to do music like this . It sounds really cool . I want to sing about my faith ”. And so , I mean , it just had such a wide sweeping impact . But Chuck just felt like he needed to make that record so the kids out on the of the road could actually sell a record and have some gas money for their van , you know ?
[ WM ] That ’ s exactly right !
[ Brent ] So , yeah , the research was deep . We looked into it , we looked into what you were just talking about where you had this explosion of these bands , these house church bands , like coming up in the house and then going out and wanting to play , but then oftentimes getting shut down by other churches … like no electronics . So , you know , they would think this band was coming , like a folk band or something , and then everybody comes in with their amplifiers and their guitars . And the churches were like , “ No , no , no , no , no . You can ’ t do this !” Yeah .
Maranatha Music - The Everlastin ’ Living Jesus Music Concert ( 1971 )
There was a lot of stories like that about The Rez Band getting shut down or even Love Song getting shut down . Not being allowed to play or getting shut down after one song or something . So , I really got into it and looked at a lot of artists . And it was amazing to see basically a new version of music being born .
With you guys there in 1969 , and these new types of bands . You know , I got with a historian and he said it was really fascinating because Rez Band ( Resurrection Band ) came out that Chicago blues thing . Yeah . So the music reflected the Chicago scene , and then , DeGarmo and Key , they came out of Memphis . And then the bubbly , fizzy , folky thing that was happening in Southern California influenced Love Song . You have these different pockets of music arising , but it wasn ’ t a monolith . There was a lot of different influences . I think it was probably the most robust , fascinating time of CCM ( contemporary Christian music ) because everybody was doing their own thing , and there was no … there were no guardrails .
There was really no formula to buck because there wasn ’ t a formula . So , you just had this beautiful organic music happening from all these different versions . I really enjoyed listening to a lot of it . Just amazing people from all different walks of life , all different backgrounds singing about their faith . Larry Norman , to me being at the top of that . He marched to the beat of his own drum , and I really appreciated him . I was actually exposed to his music by a chemistry