God's Not Dead (and Neither Are We) is a book I've been looking forward to for quite some time for a lot of reasons. As an "armchair historian," I'm interested in this musical era. As a writer, I'm interested in its journalistic quality. As a friend to many of the book's subjects, I'm interested in its honesty. And as someone who lived through this period and has some similar stories, I'm interested in its veracity; at least, as
I remember those times...
The mid-1980s to the turn of the century, which is this book's primary concern, were a time of explosive growth in Christian pop music. As much as "First Gen" artists such as
Larry Norman and
Love Song blazed a trail for younger musicians to follow, the "Second Gen" artists in Wilson's book, such as
Undercover,
Daniel Amos and
Altar Boys, endured much rebuke and criticism of their attempts to create relevant and spiritually challenging music. But a few pages in, it's easy enough to detect author Jerry Wilson's knowledge of and affection for his subjects and their music. If I've a criticism at all, there's a few
too many digressions and rabbit trails interjected by Wilson; the book could have been better edited and structured. But I admire Wilson's tenacity and courage in getting this book published. Frankly, given the dearth of historical writing about contemporary Christian music,
any book is a welcome addition to the canon! For whatever my two cents may be worth, I give Jerry's effort an unreserved endorsement. Pick up
God's Not Dead (And Neither Are We)
from Amazon.com.
The mid-1980s to the turn of the century, which is this book's primary concern, were a time of explosive growth in Christian pop music. As much as "First Gen" artists such as Larry Norman and Love Song blazed a trail for younger musicians to follow, the "Second Gen" artists in Wilson's book, such as Undercover, Daniel Amos and Altar Boys, endured much rebuke and criticism of their attempts to create relevant and spiritually challenging music. But a few pages in, it's easy enough to detect author Jerry Wilson's knowledge of and affection for his subjects and their music. If I've a criticism at all, there's a few too many digressions and rabbit trails interjected by Wilson; the book could have been better edited and structured. But I admire Wilson's tenacity and courage in getting this book published. Frankly, given the dearth of historical writing about contemporary Christian music, any book is a welcome addition to the canon! For whatever my two cents may be worth, I give Jerry's effort an unreserved endorsement. Pick up God's Not Dead (And Neither Are We)
1 comments:
Digess? Me? You should read my NASCAR blog if you want to see what digression looks like...
Seriously, thanks for the kind words.
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