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7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 An overdue homage to a rich musical history Apr 21, 2009
By Todd Jenkins
Jerry Wilson has finally documented the fascinating history of Christian rock's development in the suburbs of Southern California. Through a series of interviews with groundbreaking performers -- including Mike Stand (Altar Boys), Joe Taylor (Undercover), Derri Daugherty (The Choir), Nancyjo Mann (Barnabas) and the godfather of them all, Terry Scott Taylor (Daniel Amos) -- Wilson unveils the passion, conflict, triumphs, tragedies and faith that underscored one of the most important but underappreciated developments in American music.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Just Alright With Me Feb 17, 2010
By Gord Wilson
"alivingdog.com"
This is a book of twenty six interviews with artists from some of my favorite bands. Here are the bands and how many members are interviewed: Undercover (5); Altar Boys (2); The Choir (2); Crumbacher (4); 4.4.1 (2); Barnabas (3); 77s (1); Daniel Amos (1); Veil of Ashes (1). Also these artists: Steve taylor; Kemper Crabb; Caesar Kalinowski; and Marie McGilvray. If you've ever heard any of those names, you probably just clicked "Add to Shopping Cart". Bookending the book are a brief but cogent introduction by Beth Jahnsen, and Jerry Wilson's brief afterward.
Along the way, the artists talk about their labels (bad deals and all), their music (which album when and why); and their lives (in a surprisingly open way). Many wish they had never signed with a religious label or got stamped as a "Christian band". What's that? Mike Stand from Altar Boys comes right out and calls "Forever Mercy" a whimpy album, as against the raw, pulsating punk of Gut Level Music, their best album. Everyone loves Undercover's "Branded" and rightly so, but I'm finally vindicated in thinking what a great album "Boys and Girls Renounce the World" is, which tops my "Best Albums You've Never Heard" list. Mike Stand even says there's some more GLM era tunage waiting to see the light of day. Just do it, Mike. That's the message here. If Jerry can kick out this book POD (print on demand) through BookSurge, you can put those songs out as MP3s on Amazon.
There's a bit of an apologetic tone in this book, as if everyone missed the bar: If this isn't on MTV, what good does it do? And by the way, the road wrecked my marriage. Did I mention we were ripped off? You can't even get these CDs, so who cares? It's about time they got to vent. I merely note that Jerry has thrown down the gauntlet for about a million of us to stand up and say, "It's not like that. There's another side to this." I duly note that for all the clashes they may have had with certain churches or denominations, musically they were the real deal. All the bands they name as favorites or inspirations are the same as anyone on VH1 "Where Are They Now?", or MTV Cutting Edge: Beatles, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, while those interviewed were also inspirations to today's new artists, like Switchfoot, Jars of Clay, and Chevelle.
Jerry had to make some choices in a book like this, like when Sean Doty of Veil of Ashes says the F word a few times. Jerry chose to just print it as is. Needless to say, not all these artists are in the same place they were when their music was termed "third wave" or wore some other tag. Kemper Crabb, who writes a bi-monthly column in HM magazine, comments on that, as he does in the mag. You might be surprised where their journeys have taken them. You might discover a lead to some great music. But then, finally venting might be the thaw of a decades-long deep freeze. As Jerry says, "It's time to live again."
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 From the trenches to the sunlight Oct 22, 2011
By Brian K. Miller
"Greyhawk"
God's Not Dead (And Neither Are We) is one of those books that deserves a far wider readership than it will ever attain. There are important lessons on these pages for young musicians, lessons learned the hard way and told directly by the people who learned them. To his great credit, Jerry Wilson stays very much in the background and lets the musicians speak for themselves, telling their stories in their own way, with their own words. At times the prose rises almost to the level of poetry, at other times it is dark, gritty, and as in your face as a heavy metal power chord riff a dozen bars long. Some of these stories are heartbreaking, some of them are encouraging, all of them carry a profound lesson in faith that far too many modern Christians have been spared. Faith is not faith if it has not been challenged and the faith of every artist in these pages has been hit hard, with most of the attacks coming not from the audiences, but from the people the artists trusted to guide their careers and get them their royalty checks on time.
I don't like the music produced by most of the artists Jerry Wilson interviews. I don't like it at all. That does not matter one bit. These stories are not apologetic essays in defense of a genre. These stories are battlefield tales of passionate individuals who sought to bring their message to a fallen world only to have their path blocked not by Satanic minions, but by their own Christian allies. These are real stories of real people with a real desire to be heard above the racket of modern life. Their victories are rich, powerful, and memorable. Their defeats hard lessons in the perils of life on the cutting edge.
Christians of all stripes, non-Christian muscians looking for inside stories of their industry, curious adolescents wondering what it takes to be a rock star, and historians trying to capture the essence of the cultural warfare that swept America in the seventies and eighties, can all benefit from reading this book. There are important life lessons here for anyone willing to learn them.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A Must Have For Any Christian Musician, Any Youth Pastor, Any Fan Of The Era (Like Myself) Jul 30, 2011
By Indiana Jeff Reynolds
"Preacher Jeff"
Is Christian rock an oxymoron? Those that agree with that will find ammo in this book (though they'll also have to weed out examples that point the other direction). Those who don't (like myself) will get a look at what it's like to be a Christian musician at the cutting edge by seeing various different angles (namely 27 artist interviews).
One strength of this book is Jerry Wilson doesn't seem to have a judgmental bone in his body and his approach encourages the reader to accept these often wounded warriors as our brothers and sisters in Christ. Some of these people do things wisely frowned on by the fundamentalist/evangelical community such as cussing (Wilson lets the artists speak for themselves and three interviews have normally unprintable words in Christian books -- only the last one using more than one such instance), drinking, and divorce/remarriage and in some cases those behaviors are defended. But the heartbeat is that these are fellow fallen people just like we are and that we should use the nearby stones to rebuild what has fallen, not to cast at others.
There are things that you can wonder why he did the way he did, such as having no interviews for one band pointed to as an alternative Christian pioneer (Lifesavors) while having five for Crumbacher or including three Barnabas interviews when that band is technically hard rock/metal as opposed to alternative rock as most of the performers are. But that is like armchair quarterbacks questioning the way the coach accomplished a victory. I may have done it different, but that does not mean it's better.
I would urge any Christian wanting to get into a music ministry to read this book, especially if evangelism is a motivator. I think pastors and especially youth pastors should read this book so they can have an artists view on the issue as opposed to only the critics. (And some interviews show a real heart of ministry, especially Mike Stand, Jeff Crandall, and Bill Walden.)
Of course, anyone who cut their spiritual teeth on these musicians (I've been at half a dozen Undercover and Steve Taylor concerts, three Altar Boys, and a Crumbacher), one can see the behind the scenes view of what happened (I moved away from California shortly before the demise of Broken Records and KYMS moving from promoting these artists).
Not bad, but is a bit biased Dec 13, 2011
By Tim Hamm
"hammster1"
Jerry does a decent job of covering bands that were featured at the "Broken Records" reunion concert in 2005, as well as covering other bands that had some influence and interaction with the mid 80s Christian alternative scene. There are plenty of stories here that many of us may have heard as "gossip", but are now validated. I read the book hoping to gain more info about what was happening with the early 80s Christian alternative music, as that was when the bands were truly just starting. Having been at Cornerstone Festival 1984, I already heard of groups like Undercover, Drifters, Daniel Amos, 77s, and Steve Taylor. Trouble is, Jerry approaches the groups from his own perspective, presenting them as not really getting going until years after (not much about early years of Steve Taylor or 77s). Certainly there must be more to tell about these few years around 1983-1984.
I very much enjoyed reading the interviews with members of Barnabas, as they were hard to find information on, back in the day.
There are some minor errors (mostly grammar), and some of the writing style is a bit too "fluffy". The basic reporting is great, and the interviews are very conversational. It is the areas where Jerry offers his own commentary or opinions where momentum is lost. In general, Jerry reveals his "fan" appreciation of many of the bands, and occasionally crosses the line into "gushing" territory. Considering this was a very small, mostly underground genre, some band descriptions come across a bit inflated from reality. A bit of editing probably could have cut a few pages and improved the overall flow of the book.
Another issue is that he completely overlooks other key artists in the scene, maybe because they were not part of the reunion concert. No interviews with Charlie Peacock, Steve Scott, or any mention of the band Vector. Groups like Edin Adahl and Elim Hall are not mentioned. Granted, you can't cover everyone, and some may not be interested in doing interviews, but this book seems to be more biased on a certain segment of the small genre that was 80s Christian alternative. The scene was broader than presented in the book.
However, for anyone interested in a bit of history of the Christian music alternative underground from the mid 80s to 90s, this is a must read. Plenty of good info, just not the "whole story".
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