Late sixties and early seventies America saw the blossoming of the "Jesus movement." In this social trend, hippies who had embraced the "free love" and "everyone is good at heart" philosophies chucked these ideas in the wake of Altamount, Kent State, and other catastrophes that brought the Decade of Love to a bitter end, and threatened to impart crushing pessimism. In lieu of becoming cynics, the one-time activists sustained their hope by becoming born-again Christians. Meanwhile, a number of gifted Christian musicians virtually invented CCM (\Contemporary Christian Music) and found a broad audience from those in the Jesus movement, who had gone through such a dramatic spiritual and political transformation. Among the early CCM performers were Andrae Crouch, Keith Green, and Randy Stonehill. The home release First Love: A Historic Gathering of Jesus Music Pioneers waxes nostalgic, traveling back to this era for a stunning combination of rare archival performance footage by - and exclusive interviews with - the founding fathers of CCM. Appearing in performances on this release are: Love Song, Barry McGuire, Randy Stonehill, Andrae Crouch, Terry Clark, Honeytree, Melody Green - in a tribute to her husband Keith - and many others. Those interviewed include the luminaries Pastor Chuck Smith, Pat Boone, guitarist Phil Keaggy, music producer Michael Omartian, to name only a select few.
by Nathan Southern
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