Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started

The Answer is Jesus Christ Coffeehouse Rehearsal

Recorded 29 August 1975

These are unreleased recordings as opposed to a polished production. But some explanation is necessary.

The Answer is Jesus Christ was started by M.B. Flippen (that’s right, “Flip” Flippen, the motivational speaker) as a Christian counselling centre in College Station, Texas, in 1972. At the same time it was a coffeehouse outreach to the students of adjacent Texas A&M University. The centrepiece of this was the Saturday night coffeehouses, which usually started around 2000. This not only attracted those seeking the truth; it attracted a good number of talented musicians who made up the group that played for the coffeehouses. The Answer also featured artists from Maranatha such as Karen Lafferty.

To my knowledge, there are no extant recordings of an actual coffeehouse session. This recording is an “open mike” recording of a rehearsal. The recording used a less than optimal cassette deck and the Answer’s acoustics (it was an old bank) made matters worse. The songs themselves are edited in an attempt to replicate an “actual” performance. The one exception is Dr. James Stocks’ “Isaiah 40:31,” the only “Answer original” composition in the group. This moving rendition of a favourite passage of Scripture includes some explanation of the repeats and the chording in the hope that others will take on performing it.

The Answer Coffeehouse group, like many in the era, were torn between the style set down by the Keyhole down in Houston (the region’s premier coffeehouse ministry in the estimation of many) and a more “rock-like” style. The group sticks to the former, as did many coffeehouses. Nevertheless, as was frequently the case in the era, it was evangelistic and made an eternal impact on many of its listeners.

The Artists:

  • Tom Kayser — Piano
  • Vickry Kayser — Vocals
  • Pat Ballard — Mandolin, Acoustic Guitar, Bass
  • J. Michael Seerey — Twelve String Guitar
  • Mark Halliwell — Vocals

The Songs:

  1. Jesus Is The One Who Saves
  2. The World Needs Jesus
  3. Isaiah 40:31
  4. Oh Jerusalem (the original title was “Glory to God”)
  5. God and Man at Table Are Sat Down
  6. We’ve Got a Long Way To Go

Advertisement

9 Replies to “The Answer is Jesus Christ Coffeehouse Rehearsal”

  1. My daughter Alys found this webpage. I didn’t know any recordings still existed of our old coffeehouse group! Thanks to whomever posted it. Anyone who wishes to can write me at john.kayser@yahoo.com. Yes, John is my first name that I rarely use since I go my Tom. I currently live in Colorado.

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: