Music from my past

10/08/2011 DATELINE: London, Ontario-  Friday night I went to see an old friend, oh, he's not a personal friend, he's a man who influenced my life via the vinyl records of my past, but because of him (in part) I made a choice to believe in Jesus Christ, because of him I went to the Country of Haiti when I was 21 years old,

 

because of him I value artistry and songmanship (is that a word?)

His name is RANDY STONEHILL, I first heard Randy when I was 9 years old, I purchased his record "Welcome to paradise" and the songs blew me away, "king of hearts" was my favorite...listen to these lyrics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDJOZEN3HUo&feature=related 

Randy had a unique comedic approach to faith, he didn't slam it down your throat and he basically said to be a Christian "the least of these" must come first, you can't "brag" about being a follower of Jesus if you don't reach out to the hungry and downtrodden, Loving those in need begins the journey...another lesson Randy taught me was that sincereity and transparency are crucial elements to integrity and representing your Faith. sadly I placed folks like Randy on a pedastal back then and as I began to work in Christian radio I witnessed my musical heroes failing, falling or freaking out and not one of them today is on my manmade pedastal, but I must tell you that Randy Stonehills recent visit to London, Ontario did my soul a world of good, you see, Randy played to about 40 people! a far cry from opening for Petra in 1985 at Pine knob to about 9,000 of us...yet he was gracious, he performed many songs from his huge catalogue from all four decades, he even did an encore of one of his first recordings from back in 1971 (called "I Love you")  he hung around after the concert to discuss anythinig and everything from his career to his wonderful wife, he just treated all of us with respect and humility. WOW! was that refreshing. it gave me hope for this Christian music industry again, perhaps they could learn some things from pioneers like Randy Stonehill. never forget why you do this, never forget Who you do this for and most importantly, never forget how blessed you are to still be doing it. Godspeed Uncle Rand. the new album "Spirit walk" is spectacular and your voice is still in fine form. now let the world tour begin again :)

Randy's "Wild frontier" cover AARP edition

http://www.randystonehill.com/ 

MY TOP TEN STONEHILL SONGS

1. Thankful
2. Light of the world
3. King of hearts
4. Hymn
5. Keep me Runnin
6. Life is tough, God is good
7. Celebrate this heartbeat
8. Christmas at Denny's
9. When I look to the Mountains
10. That's why we don't love God

LARRY NORMAN VISITS ANOTHER LAND

I'm still mourning the loss of the founder of Christian Rock LARRY NORMAN. I have several memories of Larry Norman I'd like to share:

1.8th grade -(1980) Larry Norman Visits the Redford Theatre. after the concert Larry is walking from backstage out to the merchandise table to sell product and meet & greet fans. I'm walking behind him and I say "Mr. Norman, how can I get my friends to listen to Christian music" he reacts with a little anger "you can't! if the music is good they'll listen. if it's not good they won't" he also said that if you put the needle down on the first cut and the song is bad throw the whole record away. If I'd taken that advice my record collection would be severely smaller that it is today.

2. in 1985 at GREEFEST in Canada my cousin Tom carries Larry's guitar for him across this large park for his press conference. Larry tells my cousin "If anything happens to this guitar it may end his ministry" so Tom took it very seriously.

3. in the mid 90's we went "thru the windsor tunnel" to see Larry in concert across the border. of course Larry made lite of the fact folks were going thru tunnels to see him sing. it was hilarious. it was also this night that Larry was asking folks to yell out requests and when we screamed "watch what your doing" from the "Something new under the sun" LP he tripped over his amp and nearly fell. it was priceless.

4. in 2001 we went to Toledo, ohio where Larry performed from 7pm to 12:30am, we were all exhausted when the concert was thru. he did some piano, guitar & sermonizing. I'll never forget it.

The void left behind now that Larry is gone looms very large. He will never be duplicated and his impact will continue for decades to come. I miss him. last year I celebrated my 40th birthday and I received in the mail this signed photo. I will treasure it forever. goodbye Larry Norman, thank you for your creativity & influence.