Isn’t anyone still singing good old-time gospel music?
Or has it been sullied by association with ethnomusicologist nerds? :dubious:
There is a ton of great rock out there with Christian themes, but almost none of it comes from the ‘Christian Rock’ genre. Here are some good tunes:
Don Henley: The Unclouded Day
Jeff Beck/Rod Stewart:: People Get Ready
Elvis: His entire Gospel Album
Alison Krause: Down to the River to Pray
Taj Mahal and Sam Moore: John the Revelator
Have you given modern Gospel a listen? Kirk Franklin, Martha Muzzini (I think that’s how she spells it), Nicole C Mullin, The Soul Seekers. . . good stuff.
Maybe it’s just me but I always thought that **Kansas **had a somewhat Christian slant to their music. In fact, IIRC, Kerry Livgren, who wrote much of their material, became a minister after the band broke up back in the mid-late 80s.
Sarah McLachlan did an absolutely beautiful rendition of Prayer of St. Francis.
I thought about mentioning them, but they don’t really qualify as modern.
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned the Staple Singers. Their R&B-influenced gospel music made the Top 40 back in the early–mid 70s…
Genesis is my favorite rock band. I like listening to the sacred music of Bach and Handel, among others. I like the spiritual strength in liturgical church music. I think my major complaint about most modern Christian music is that it seems very “whiny.” I just don’t like the, “I’d be nothing without you…” type of music I tend to hear on Christian radio. I’d much rather hear, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” So, what I’m looking for is good music with a strong message.
One of the most acclaimed records of the past few years, Christian or no, is Seven Swans by a man named Sufjan Stevens. There’s no preaching, no witnessing - just a man delving into and trying to understand his Christian upbringing. It’s really beautiful, especially “To Be Alone With You” and the title track.
You can read a review of the album on Pitchfork, who generally are pretty reliable in separating the wheat from the chaff. Stevens definitely isn’t DC Talk or Jars of Clay, though, so if that’s what you’re looking for be forewarned.
Just noticed your last post, dalej42. I should add that Stevens sings about Abraham, Solomon, and the Book of Revelations on separate instances - so you might pleasantly find the album more weighty than other mainstream Christian records.
I used to be really into MxPx as a pop/punk band. Their album “Life In General” is still in rotation in my iPod.
Lots of people still dig Glass Harp (aka that band with Phil Keaggy in it.) They started out as just another Power Trio but quickly turned to wanting to make alot of music about Jesus and now Phil is one of the biggest Christian musicians around. I’m not a big fan, though. I can attest that they DO rock but are too much of a jam band for me. I have a short attention span (see MxPx).
In the singer songwriter ara I love Chris Rice and Nicole Nordeman. Really thoughtful stuff. Much of it has a positive spiritual message with being specificly Christian.
Check it out.
Chris Rice. The Power Of The Moment and Life Means so much.
Nicole Nordeman, Seasons, and Holy.
If you want to hear some really powerful music by a Christian, I can’t recommend strongly enough Testimony and One by Neal Morse. Morse is the former lead singer of the progressive rock groups Spocks Beard and Transatlantic. He converted to born-again Christian a few years ago and both albums mentioned are nothing short of brilliant. They are both strongly in a prog-rock vein, so if that’s not your cup of tea, well…
I can definitely say, though, that Michael W. Smith…They Ain’t!!!
Chris W
I actually like that big Michael W Smith song, “Place in This World”. I wouldn’t reccomend it to any of my friends though.
Someone mentioned Switchfoot, and I agree. Also, Nickel Creek. They do bluegrass.
I like some songs by Jennifer Knapp, she’s country.
My mom listens to this band called Casting Crowns. I kind of like it. Their name reminds me of Counting Crows, and they also sound kind of similar.
It’s not my type of music, but a lot of people like Dream Theater and the members are christian.
Jimi Hendrix claimed Purple Haze wasn’t based on LSD, but on a vision of Jesus.
Here’s a good one: Five Iron Frenzy. They were actually my first introduction to Liberal thinking! I don’t know where they stand politically, but just look at some of these:
All That is Good- I haven’t quite deciphered the lyrics to it, but I get the message of “Use your mind” from it.
Get Your Riot Gear- Protests police brutality. I think it refers to a particular incident in Denver, although I don’t remember it.
Fahrenheit- You guys will like this one. It’s an anti-homophobia song. It really opened my eyes about how homophobia is bad when I was young.
Four-Fifty-One- Sort of against the christian culture.
Giants- This one is kind of anti-capitalism.
The Day We Killed- This one protests America’s treatment of Indians.
I’m disappointed that nobody else hear seems to be a fan of Burlap to Cashmere.
Er, that song is pretty critical of Christians, or at least a certain breed of Christians:
lyrics here
U2 doesn’t bill themselves as a Christian band, but some of their songs definitely have some symbolism, like I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.
Wow, Five Iron Frenzy sings against police and greedy capitalism and weak church-based Christianity?! :eek: So, what do they have to say about Islam? 
Damn, can’t believe I forgot Five Iron Frenzy. They were about as liberal Christian as you can really get- the first distinctly “Christian” band I can think of whose members were open socialists and outspoken social progressives. In addition to the more political songs that Talon Karrde linked to earlier, they’re infamous for writing really silly tongue-in-cheek lyrics about whatever random subjects happened to come to mind, including Canada, Star Trek, Denver (versus California), the fictitious death of their trumpet player (based on a rumor that originated on their message board), and Godzilla.
Michael Card, John Michael Talbott, Iona, Maire Brennan (of Clannad)
Non-believer checking in.
Larry Norman’s early 70s folk stuff was actually quite god (& now highly collectable). “666” is an awesome tune.
Try and find any recordings you can of Rev. Louis Overstreet at his Phoenix church in the early 60s; Howlin’ Wolf meets Chuck Berry!
Quite a bit of “Sacred Steel” is very good music. Any blues/roots/country Christian recordings, white and black, from the 20s and 30s are usually winners. The Golden Gate Quartet was an awesome vocal group from the 50s.
I’m not quite sure how it was possible for Christian modern rock to adopt all of the sucky aspects of secular modern rock and, against all odds, somehow make it worse, but this has happened.
HA! 
Typo - I meant “quite good!” Honestly! Geez that’s funny…