Here's part 3 of 3 70s Christian Rock:The Jesus Movement Era.

I'm gonna start with one of the most important bands of the Jesus Movement Era.
The year was 1972, and 4 young college students named Bob Hartman, Greg Hough, John Degroff, and Bill Glover, formed the band:


Petra from left to right:Bob Hartman, Bill Glover, John Degroff and Greg Hough

Though the guys shared their idea of Christian Rock with the church they went to, almost the entire church (mainly adults) were not too thrilled with the idea, but they prooved popular with a younger audience, anyway enough of that, let's get on with the first 3 Petra albums starting with:

Petra (1st album)
This is a good album, it came out two years after they formed, instead of being Arena Rock/AOR, it has a Country sound to it, with some hard rock guitar riffs, there are some good tracks on this LP like "Walking in the Light", and "Gonna Fly Away", there's even an experimental country song called "Lucas McGraw", which was what they used to break the ice, overall, I highly recommend this album.

Come and Join Us
This is Petra's second album, it came out three years after their first LP was released, this album still goes with the Country Rock, although they go for a more Rock 'n' Roll sound, this album was a compromise because Bob Hartman wanted to call the album "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You" but their label wouldn't let them, and "Killing my old man" was cut off of the album as well, speaking of "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You" if you have heard the version Petra did in 1984, You're in for a real surprise, this is also a great album, aside from their first one, and this was the last one with the original Petra, and the first to have Greg X Volz.

Washes Whiter Than
In 1978 Greg Hough, John Degroff, and bill Glover left, and with that, it was just Bob Hartman, and Greg Volz, and Rob Frazier.
A year later Petra released "Washes Whiter Than" their third album, which is less rocky and more pop oriented, it's an okay one, the reason for sounding pop was because Bob and Greg were tired of doing albums too controversial for airplay, for once in their lives they had their first radio hit "Why Should the Father Bother", this album has some good stuff, like "Morning Star" which is a decent rocker, and "Yahweh Love", this album was reissued on a one disc CD, along with Never Say Die(their return to Rock),however two tracks are taken off that one: "Magic Words", and "Couldn't Find Love Without You", overall I think this is an okay album.

I will also mention an artist who is an important part of the Jesus Movement Era, and that is

Larry Norman

This (in my opinion) is the guy that started Christian Rock, he may not have been the guy that started it, but he was certainly one of the first few to get noticed play C.R., anyway, if you recall my top 10 article, you'll know Larry lives where I live, if you've read my profile, you'll know that's Salem, Oregon, now on to one of his albums:

In Another Land
This is one of my favorite albums, it came out in 1976, and has some mellow stuff, and stuff that rocks, like "The Rock That Doesn't Roll", or "Shot Down", it even has a remix of "Why Don't You Look Into Jesus", if you haven't heard this one, I reccomend you listen to it.

Anyway, on to other bands/artists.

Glass Harp-It Makes me Glad
Now here's a power trio that didn't last long, but these guys were good, Glass Harp featured lead singer Phil Keaggy, this is their last album, the only song I've heard off of it is "Do Lord", so there's not much else to say about this album.

Gentle Faith
This was a side project featuring blues artist Darrell Mansfield, if you haven't heard him, you should, Darrell can wale on the harmonica, all I know is that after the release of this album, you didn't hear from Gentle Faith after that, so there's not much else to say about this album.

Keith Green-No Compromise
In 1978 Keith Green released his second album No Compromise, which featured my favorite Keith Green song "How Can They Live Without Jesus", I haven't heard much of this album, so there's not much else to say about it.

Phil Keaggy-What a Day
In 1969 Phil Keaggy was the lead singer of a power trio called Glass Harp, but it wasn't until 1973 when he went solo and released his first album "What a Day, there's not much to say because I've never heard Phil's solo stuff, so why am I talk about Phil Keaggy, if I haven't heard his solo stuff, well, I'm just giving you guys what you want.

well that's all I'll give you, although there were other Christian Rock bands/artists through out the 70's like Degarmo and Key, Love Song, Mylon Lefevre, Barry McGuire, and Daniel Amos, this of course concludes my 3 part Christian Rock Article, up next Christian Video Games.