World Library FR-1953-SM (1970) This pre-Novus Ordo Missae work (an important consideration if you're planning on using it liturgically) displays something that you don't see very often in this type of music: some classical training amongst the writers and performers. Leo Nestor is the Justine Bayard Ward Professor of Music at the Catholic University of …
Cloud: Free to Fly (Holy Trinity Brompton)
Free To Fly (Dovetail DOVE 16) 1975 Their first album is a lovely group of songs, most of which are drawn from the Scriptures. The cover suggests the album's content: soaring and ethereal. But it's also well executed, with superb musicianship. Free to Fly is one of the best treasures from 1970's British Jesus Music. …
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New Song: A City Set Upon a Hill Cannot Be Hid
New Song A City Set Upon a Hill Cannot Be Hid (New Song NS-0001) 1976 Back when I first encountered the "Jesus Music" of the 1970's, I always wondered: what if they ditched the guitars and tambourines of the "Fisherfolk" and did something orchestrally? Evidently someone else had the same idea. The result of that …
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The Keyhole/The Way In (Church of the Redeemer)
It's hard to think of a group that defines 1970's Christian folk/coffee-house music as much as this one, which morphed into The Fisherfolk. The group had its start in 1969 as the resident singing group of The Way In, a Christian coffee-house in the Allen Landing area of Houston, Texas. The Way In was, in …
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School Sisters of Notre Dame: Choose Life
School Sisters of Notre DameChoose Life (Mark MC 4 329) 1976? If you're looking for an album that epitomises the guitar strumming, non-percussional style of music that dominated Catholic Masses during the 1970's, it's hard to beat this album. On top of that, the School Sisters (from Mankato, MN) perform in the cavernous, reverberant acoustics …
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Sister Juliana Garza: Mixed Expressions and Communion Muse
Today a great deal of Roman Catholic "folk" music used in parishes tends towards the bland and trite. Much of the blame for this can be laid at OCP's feet, and that fact has been an impetus towards the restoration of more "traditional" music in Masses, an impetus that has come from the Holy See …
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Cloud: The Resting Place
Cloud The Resting Place (Dove 62, 1978) Cloud was the large (>10) British folk group whose main claim to fame was its ethereal praise and worship music. The Resting Place continues in that tradition, up to Cloud's excellent tradition of musicianship and composition as well. Cloud was connected with the famous Anglican church Holy Trinity …
Challenges Infinity, and is Soon Gone: The Death of Tony Clarke
Back in November, I posted a brief narrative piece from the Moody Blues' album Days of Future Passed, along with some thoughts on the album's New Age underpinnings and its influence on me and on my novel The Ten Weeks. A snatch of that narrative piece is a good way to note the sad passing …
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Choose Life
Since this is the day we're supposed to think about these things, I'm going to feature an album from The Ancient Star-Song that's a favourite of mine: Choose Life, from the School Sisters of Notre Dame (in Mankato, MN.) Since the album dates from 1976, I would think that, when they recorded the title track …
Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed, and a Reflection on the New Age Idea
This is the last in the series of music videos from music alluded to in the novel The Ten Weeks. But it's not a video: it's a more prosaic "photo and sound clip" combo from a scene in the book combined with a brief excerpt from the Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed. This album …
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Positive Infinity 