Christian rock didn’t develop on its own. An army of Jesus-following musicians pioneered a sound and lyrics that would initially shock but eventually revolutionize Christian music.
You may be familiar with the most visible groundbreakers of Christian rock—musicians like Randy Stonehill and Larry Norman. However, many lesser-known artists made significant contributions on the frontlines. The evolution of Christian rock contains fascinating stories and quality soundtracks to revisit or discover anew.
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Some important trailblazers achieved particular milestones, but no single musician can be credited with creating the Contemporary Christian Music that emerged from the Jesus Movement of the 1960s-70s.
Many of the Jesus people or Jesus freaks came out of the hippie movement, and while they didn’t keep all the attributes of hippie communal living, they did embrace community. This extended to collaborating with music and other art forms. Christian rock was created by the joint efforts of teams of musicians.
Randy Stonehill describes collaborating with Larry Norman, Keith Green, Phil Keaggy, Mark Heard, and others. In fact, Christians could play “six degrees of Keith Green” because of how many early Christian rock musicians he was connected to. John Michael Talbot teamed with his brother, Terry, a prolific singer/songwriter in his own right, and Michael Card for various projects.
Musicians build on one another’s work and inspire each other. Some in Christian rock reached greater commercial heights than others. Still, all leaned on one another—especially since they made music the established church didn’t always understand, appreciate, or welcome.
Here are seven artists or bands whose Christian rock or contemporary Christian music stories deserve to be told.
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San Diego native, singer, songwriter, and recognized pioneer of Jesus music tells a side of the Jesus movement story we rarely hear. So much focus is given to the revival on the home front; we forget there were young men and women engaged overseas. Clark’s is a veteran’s story. While others protested the war, Clark witnessed it.
Clark recounts his conversion story in the documentary First Love: A Historic Gathering. Clark served a tour of military duty at a listening post in northern Thailand on the border of Laos and Cambodia. What he saw between 1969 and 1971 was horrific enough to send him to a psychiatric ward with severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Clark was so distressed at what humans could do to one another; he gave up on reality.
CCM Classic reports on Terry’s memory of encountering Jesus in this condition: “Jesus said ‘Terry, I know how you feel—I’ve seen everything human beings have ever done—but I want you to understand the difference in our response to that. You’ve decided not to be a human being and I’ve decided to become one.’” Terry says that after he met Jesus, the notation on his medical chart changed from “no hope” to “recovering satisfactorily.”
He returned to America to make Jesus music, first recording with Children of Faith in 1972. Then he worked with his brother, Duane, providing vocals and keyboard for Liberation Suite in 1975-76. He eventually became a solo artist with Maranatha! Music. To experience his sound, listen to Live Worship With Terry Clark & The Maranatha! Singers or We’ve Come to Worship.
Maranatha Singers - Psalm 5 from bobmarshall on GodTube.
You can learn more about Terry Clark’s music on Amazon Music, his Facebook page, and his ministry website, Catalyst People.
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Bob Ayala was born with a genetic defect that eventually left him legally blind, but this didn’t stop him from making great music. He found Jesus through the Jesus movement while living in Los Angeles. He began playing in coffeehouses and eventually toured (along with his wife, Pam) with both Keith Green and Andraé Crouch. Bob’s folk rock album with Myrrh Records, Joy by Surprise, was inspired by the writings of C.S. Lewis, as was his next album, Wood Between the Worlds.
Ayalaha had several songs that struck particular chords with listeners. One song, “To the Ancient of Days,” was a popular radio request with plenty of airtime. “Do You Know Him” embodies the focus of these early artists on the wonder of creation and their desire that everyone should know Jesus.
You can learn more about Bob Ayala’s work on Amazon Music and the Christian Music Archive.
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Petra means “rock” in Greek, and this band was at the center of Christian rock for over three decades. Like Bob Ayala, Petra started playing in Christian coffee shops in 1972 (favoring The Adam’s Apple in Ft. Wayne, Indiana) before signing with Myrrh Records in 1974. With over seven million records sold, the only question for fans is, which Petra songs are in your top 10?
These early Christian rock bands struggled for acceptance. Michael Ciani wrote in 2004, “As one of the movement’s trailblazers, Petra bore the brunt of the controversy, enduring picketers, protesters and public denunciations by prominent Christian leaders.” In fact, Petra won a Grammy before they won a Dove award, illustrating the rocky road they traveled for Jesus music.
The band members include John Schlitt, Greg Bailey, Cristian Borneo, and John Lawry, but Bob Hartman is credited with founding the group in 1972. Bob’s testimony demonstrates the ripple effect of the Jesus Movement. Bob was profoundly affected by the shooting at Kent State University that took the lives of four students. He shares in his testimony that this led him to search for God. The Time Magazine cover dedicated to the Jesus Revolution aroused his curiosity about Jesus. When a friend returned from California “born-again,” Bob asked him to explain the gospel. Not long after, alone in his living room, Hartman prayed to receive Christ. Petra’s ministry lasted over 30 years.
You can learn more about Petra on the band’s website and Amazon Music.
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Women were finding their voice in the 70s, some using those voices to create Jesus music. Nancy Honeytree was born Nancy Henigbaum, a name that means “honey tree” in German. Raised in a musical family, her mother taught her to play guitar. As a senior in high school, Nancy became a Christian and turned her songwriting skills to Christian folk rock. Honeytree went from being her hippie name to being her recording name. Jesus transformed her from (in her words) a drug user to “the First Lady of the Jesus Movement.”
Her folk-rock style was also popular at The Adam’s Apple, though her sound resembled Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell more than rock. Nancy would go on to perform with Phil Keaggy and record solo albums with both Myrrh and Sparrow records. Her twentieth-anniversary album was titled Honeytree Pioneer.
You can learn more about Nancy Honeytree on her website, including where her music can be found on various platforms.
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You may not know her name, but you’ve sung her Scripture-based song, “Seek Ye First.” According to her bio, Lafferty was raised in a Baptist home in Alamogordo, New Mexico, but it was a Christian friend in 1970 who helped her understand walking day-by-day with Jesus.
Lafferty became active in Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California—the church where Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee birthed the Jesus Movement. Lafferty recorded four albums with Maranatha! Music and, while touring Europe, became involved with Youth with a Mission (YWAM). Eventually, she founded Musicians For Missions International (MFMI) in 1981.
Karen wrote the story of her music, ministry, and missteps in Seek Ye First: The Karen Lafferty Story. The 1960s-70s brought about the sexual revolution, and Karen shares transparently how sexual abuse and sexuality confusion intersected with her relationship with Jesus and music ministry. It’s a story of God’s faithfulness.
Maranatha Singers: Seek Ye First The Kingdom Of God and more from graceandglory3 on GodTube.
You can learn more about Karen Lafferty’s work on her website.
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Randy Stonehill writes about Annie Herring on his website, noting she “has the voice of an angel and heart after God’s own.”
Annie had come to know Jesus in the late 1960s and was a self-taught singer and songwriter. According to their website, when Annie Herring’s parents died in 1970, she and her husband, record engineer Buck, took in her siblings, Nelly and Matthew. The siblings played together to worship at home but eventually began playing in coffee houses. They formed the 2nd Chapter of Acts.
With support from Pat Boone and Barry McGuire, the band began recording, initially with Myrrh Records. Their first three albums were With Footnotes (1974), In the Volume of the Book (1975), and To the Bride (1975) with Barry McGuire and A Band Called David. Michael Been, later known for his rock band The Call, contributed to the first two albums. The Mansion Builder was released in 1978 with Sparrow. Then, like Bob Ayala, they released a C.S. Lewis-inspired concept album titled The Roar of Love with Sparrow Records.
Annie began solo work with Sparrow Records in 1976, and the band toured with Phil Keaggy in 1977. The group wound down in 1988, but Annie continues to release music “about Jesus and for Jesus” as a solo artist.
You can learn more about Annie Herring on her website and the 2nd Chapter of Acts website.
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Randy Matthews came from a family of ministers and a Christian home. Interested in the changes in Christian music, he founded the Jesus House coffeehouse in Cincinnati. According to promotional material for the First Love documentary, “His first album, I Wish We’d All Been Ready, was the first nontraditional gospel record to be issued on any gospel label. Dubbed as the ‘head Jesus freak,’ he had the outward appearance of a hippie, but knew the language of the conservative church.”
Matthews signed with Word Records In 1971 for that first album. When he was ready to release his second album, All I Am is What You See, the sound differed so much that Matthews convinced Word to create a new label to not rock the boat with the traditional audience. This was the birth of Myrrh Records.
According to the Greatest 70’s Albums, “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.” Son of Dust is probably Matthews’ most known album. It opens with “Holy Band” and includes the classic “Didn’t He.”
Sadly, Matthew’s spiritual pedigree was no protection during the Jesus ’74 festival. His First Love bio states, “The concert organizers pulled the plug in the middle of the third song of his band’s electric set, having decided it was ‘demon music.’ Randy would not recover, and his career would never be the same.”
His story, however, lives on to inspire. Matthew reminds us that there’s a place for all of us in God’s “holy band.”
You can learn more about Randy Matthew on Amazon Music and the Christian Music Archive.
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The collaborative nature of the development of Christian rock is easy to see and probably responsible for both the rapid growth of the industry and the resilience of many artists. By this, we learn the beauty and power of God working through the family of believers.
Another lesson is that from hippies to soldiers to choir boys, when people encountered Jesus, their lives changed, and they wanted others to know Him, too. When the country was divided, these men and women came together in Jesus. And they brought their music with them.
Much of the shocking, radical, and cutting-edge sound at the time likely now sounds tame to modern ears. Hearing the stories of early rejection, pastors preaching against certain musical styles, and bands being unplugged mid-concert may seem odd. Still, the stories testify to these musicians’ dedication—to the music and the ministry. There was no Christian music business then. No celebrity machine. Just coffeehouses, lovers of guitars, drums, tambourines, and brand-new believers.
The ultimate lesson these artists teach is the lesson God repeatedly demonstrates. That lesson is that with just a handful of imperfect followers willing to love Jesus with their lives, God can impact the world for His glory and our good.
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