Comments

1. On April 3, 2021 at 10:58 pm, 21stCenturyCassandra said:

   He is risen indeed!

2. On April 4, 2021 at 7:55 am, DBM said:

   He is risen indeed!

3. On April 4, 2021 at 12:58 pm, JoeFour said:

   Thanks for posting this, Captain Smith! I am generally not a fan of contemporary Christian music but I listened to both versions and found each to be outstanding! Easter blessings to all!

4. On April 4, 2021 at 3:05 pm, robert william orians said:

   Seen them back in the early days of the great hippy revival in the 70’s . Matthew still has an awesome voice . You can only get intricate harmonies like theirs from family .

5. On April 4, 2021 at 3:50 pm, Arman said:

   Woke up this morning and that song was playing inside my head. Thank you for sharing Captain. It’s sad so many good songs and their performers from that era have dropped off the earth it seems. We dont even sing their songs in worship anymore. Keith Green, Pam Mark Hall and 2nd Chapter come to mind. Good times for sure.

6. On April 4, 2021 at 6:47 pm, blake said:

   He is risen!

   Amen!

7. On April 4, 2021 at 8:41 pm, Fred said:

   He is risen indeed. Amen.

8. On April 4, 2021 at 11:06 pm, Herschel Smith said:

   @JoeFour,

   2nd Chapter of Acts is a different sort of group. They aren’t your typical today-style contemporary Christian music group.

   They came originally from the “Jesus Movement.” It’s real for them. They had death of both parents force the three children to live together in the home of Annie, who was married at the time, and they have quite a testimony. They began to sing together and what you hear is only what a family can give you vocally.

   Annie was untrained at composition, admittedly, and thus her compositions and orchestrations were unique. She played piano, which added to her ability to compose.

   Their compositions included a lot of different things for that time, including frequent and copious use of irregular meter. In the words of one analyst, they did prog rock before there was British prog rock (here, think Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Yes).

   Finally, the listener knows when the words are real. For them, they were real. Jesus was the glue that held them together.

   Nelly’s voice is so close to Annie’s that a lot of analysts find difficulty distinguishing their two voices in trying to assess the music. Only Nelly knows what line she sang.

   Matthew’s voice was the ornamental, roaming line you often hear.

   There shall not be another like this group. And yes, their compositions were unlike anything you hear today from contemporary Christian musicians, perhaps save somebody like Michael W. Smith.

   Finally, the lack of anyone who played guitar led to voice-dominated music, sweeping melody, exquisite harmony, and roaming, free-form lines of vocals, with guitar added when necessary by someone else. But mostly dominated by piano as an underlay.

9. On April 5, 2021 at 10:21 am, JoeFour said:

   Many thanks, Captain Smith! I knew absolutely nothing about this wonderful group!

10. On April 7, 2021 at 7:42 am, Inquiring Minds said:

    These songs gave me chills and thrilled my soul.
    My wife and I were both saved early in life (High School and College) and grew on this music (Phil Keaggy, Keith Green, Don Fransico, Larry Norman, Rich Mullins). Then we got involved in a group that was counter-culture. So counter-culture that they rejected “Contemporary Christian” music as “Establishment.” They would rather search for spiritual meaning in U2 songs that embrace the joy of young people expressing the true joy they had found in Jesus.
    Anyway, we suffered through eight years without any Jesus music, and when we finally left that group and searched for another church home we discovered just how parched we were.
    We sat in the back of our new church for the first time, and wept as we listened to a beautiful rendition of Wayne Watson’s “Home Free” It was like finding a spring of cool water in the desert.

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